It's called Soduko in the UK, and soduku in Japan. What is it? A new fun, entertaining and highly addictive puzzle game that is the mathematical equivalent of crosswords. In Japan, Soduko aka Soduku popularity is immense, second only to Kakuro among Nikoli 's famed logic-puzzle offerings. The Soduko craze came to this side of the world when The Guardian in Britain began printing the puzzle under the name Soduko in September 2005; since then many other British papers have followed suit and now also print daily puzzles, and the craze is growing.
The first Soduko puzzles where called Soduko and were published in 1966 by Dell Magazines ( they introduced Soduku puzzles to the world a decade later). Since then Soduko aka Soduku have been a regular feature in a math & Logic publications in the US. Soduko also appears in Kappa's Game magazine.
Soduko/Soduku made it to Japan only in 1980, where it was imported by Maki Kaji, president of Nikoli puzzles, who named them Kasan Kurosu - a combination of the Japanese word for "addition" and the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "Soduko."
6 years after it release Nikoli renamed Kasan Kurosu as Soduko, and released the first Soduko/Soduku booklet. Since then 22 Soduku/Soduko booklets followed and static's show that over one million Soduko booklets have been sold. Soduko Puzzles appear in 100 Japanese magazines and newspapers today, and the Soduko craze is in second place, right after Soduko. According to Nikoli, Soduku/Soduko was the top ranking puzzle till 1992 and only then was Soduko over taken by Soduku.
As with Soduko, the market craze started only after the puzzle was exported back to the West from Japan.
The Soduko craze started, when the Guardian and The Daily Mail, in response to the Soduko craze, introduced daily Soduko puzzles as Soduko in the UK.
Just like Soduku, Soduko puzzles are spreading. Soduku puzzles can now be found in all main stream book and magazines publishing houses. Soduko books are starting to be wide spread too, as more Soduku titles are being released. Publishers are assuming that with the Soduko craze still going strong, there is going to be more then enough interest in Sudoku or Soduko.
Sodukolive was the first site to offer thousands of free online Soduku puzzles. Sodukolive's puzzles can be found in many books and magazines since it's puzzles are unique and the Soduko algorithm we built provide only one unique solution to each Soduko puzzle that can be reached logically.