Zendoku brings a fresh, manic take on the typically tranquil Sudoku.

Zendoku comes in on the wave of Sudoku’s massive popularity, making for another casual puzzle entry on Nintendo’s popular handheld. There have been several Sudoku titles alone on the DS, not to mention the countless other “casual” or non-games that are crowding (and just as often flying off) store shelves. Fortunately, Zendoku plays with the Sodoku mechanics enough to warrant a second look, serving up gameplay that is at once innovative and familiar.

The game begins with the choice to play traditional sudoku, or Zendoku proper. For the uninitiated (those who haven’t been exposed to a newspaper or bookstore in the last three years), basic sudoku is a puzzle based within a grid of 9 9x9 squares. The player must fill each row and 9x9 square with the numbers 1-9, never repeating a digit within a square or row. The “classic” game offered in Zendoku is a passable, bare bones working of the addictive game, with varying degrees of difficulty and a tutorial mode for beginners. It’s actually an excellent way of getting acquainted with the basic game mechanics before moving on to the craziness found in the other half of the game.

The real meat of the game is found in Zendoku mode. Players can train in the “dojo”, learn “attacks” and participate in the robust story mode. In the adventure mode, players pick an anime-style character and take him/her through a series of “battles” – Zendoku puzzles with increasingly formidable opponents – and increasingly difficult layouts.

The battles are basically a more manic and colorful version of the original game, with several levels of WarioWare style attacks thrown in to the mix. The numbers have been swapped with vaguely Asian symbols (pagodas, panda bears, Yin-Yang’s, sumo wrestlers, etc), and completing rows or boxes unleashes an attack that drains the opponent’s life bar. Attacks on the player come in the form of crazy minigames. Modeled after the micro games found in Wario's own DS titles, they involve tasks like rapidly turning cranks or blowing out candles. Combat continues until the player is defeated by attacks or completes the puzzle, progressing to the next challenger.