Sudoku

Sudoku puzzles have become a craze in mainstream (non puzzle-loving) America. Slate ran a story about it, and the Chronicle is running a puzzle every day next to the big crossword in Datebook.

I'm surprised by the genre's sudden ascendance, but I'm glad to see people excited by it. Unlike crossword puzzles and their kin, sudoku, or Number Place, puzzles can be solved with logic alone. Most Americans don't get exposure to such puzzles, though any of you who play The Minish Cap will notice some clever Lunar Lockout-esque puzzles in the Water Temple.

The best sudoku puzzles share something with Miyamoto's video games. You do a bunch of things quickly until you get stuck. One crucial breakthrough allows you to sail through another few steps until you get stuck again. Ideally, you're just about to give up for a time when you make your breakthrough, and you get a sudden burst of energy. If you're doing a difficult sudoko, this means you stay awake for another half-hour. If you're playing a Miyamoto game, it means you stay awake until the next morning.

Even the hardest of these puzzles can be solved given a reasonable effort. Though these puzzles appear in the World Puzzle Champsionship, those versions are hard primarily because competitors have such tiny slots of time to complete them (which they still do, in a breathtaking flurry of pencil movements). Though it doesn't take long to develop the strategies you need, you can get a head start on the process by reading the Wikipedia page about these puzzles. I recommend playing with some: You may find yourself as hooked as everyone else. They're a nice intro to the modern world of logic puzzles.