KEN KEN Electronic Handheld Game

How To Advance To A Bigger Grid
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
If I had read the reviews of the game before purchasing it I might not have but I didn’t and I did so I was stuck to on how to get to a bigger grid too. I called the customer support number on the package and got this hint. It worked and I’m now extremely happy with the product (I do use my DS Lite stylus). I figure that if I want to drop back down to a small grid I can always use the reset button. Hope this helps someone:

Hint to move to a bigger grid size:

1. While you are in a game touch “DONE”

2. “LEAVE PUZZLE” will appear on the screen

3. Touch “Y”

4. The game shows a new puzzle.

a. If this is a puzzle you want to try then start playing.

b. If you want a different puzzle, then you must repeat steps 1,2 and 3.

If you follow the steps outlined you will get to larger puzzles. You may have to exit out 20-30 times but eventually you will hit a larger puzzle.

Better than nothing…
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I’m addicted to KenKen and there aren’t nearly as many sources of puzzles as there are for Sudoku, so when I’m desparate, even this lame electronic puzzle is worth having around. Electronic Sudoku is lame too, by the way. Nobody’s figured out a way to make the little pencil marks on a teeny tiny screen, so I can’t really complain that the pencil marks on this game are not all that helpful.

The biggest complaint I have is with the levels. You have to quit a game in the middle at the current level to be allowed the choice of a new level. And so far, I HAVE NOT FIGURED OUT A WAY TO GET OFF OF 4X4 PUZZLES. I’d really like to do 6X6. Does anybody know how to make it go to 6X6?

Really, this electronic game is a weak interpretation of what you get with pencil and paper. But, still, it’s better than nothing. $20 is a lot of money for what you get, but when you’re craving KenKen, it’s a pretty cheap price to pay to avoid the withdrawal symptoms.

Ok, but not the quality I expected
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
First, I must tell you that I am addicted to Kenken puzzles… on paper. I also greatly enjoy Sudoku and own two different handheld electronic versions of that game. So, when an electronic version of Kenken hit the market, I was ready for it. Drooling, in fact.

My Kenken arrived today. After opening it and feeding it the requisite triple-As, I started in on the play time. First thing I noticed was that there was no light. I searched around the outside of the toy for a light switch (like on my Sudoku), but couldn’t find one. So, I had to go to the instructions. They were in English (yay!) and I found that by using the stylus and poking in just the right spot on the screen, I could turn on the light. So far, so good. The stylus is much more flexible than my other handheld electronic puzzles- one might even call it ‘cheap’… The light must be cheap, too- it goes out every 30 seconds and you have to re-touch the one tiny little spot on the screen to re-light. Only be careful! If you touch too far to the left, you reset the whole game you have been working on and the timer keeps on ticking. Very frustrating. No- make that ANNOYING AS ALL-GET-OUT!!!

The game started on level 1 which is a 3 x 3 puzzle. Too easy. So, I tried to find a way to change levels- hoping to get a 6 x 6 puzzle. The instructions said that I would have a choice of levels each time the game was turned on. Nope. I found level 10 quite by accident. Still too easy on a 4 x 4 grid. I have no idea how to get to the 6 x 6…

After each puzzle, you hit the “done” button. Then, the game tells you if you won or lost. If you won, it tells you how many points you got but you never know if the points are based on how fast you played or how few mistakes you had to correct or if you smiled at it or what. Then, up in the right hand corner or the screen, it displays your score. But- once you play one game, the score stays and doesn’t keep adding for each subsequent game. Seems pointless to just have 980 sitting up there and not knowing what it really means. If the machine would just say “YES!” when I finish a puzzle correctly, that would be all I need to keep going…

Wondering what would happen if I didn’t win, I did a puzzle wrong and the screen proclaimed “you lose” and then flashed on the parts that were wrong and then very quickly reset the puzzle.

The unit itself feels flimsy- the screen is not very sensitive and I have to tap hard to enter numbers. It’s not easy to tap hard with the cheapo stylus. Also, the way in which the numbers are entered is completely backward from my Sudoku game, so I had to really focus on what I was doing.

I guess what I am saying is that I was really disappointed with the product. I still ADORE Kenken, and will continue to do the paper puzzles, but I am not hooked on this handheld. The puzzles are not challenging enough and the product is more expensive than the user friendly, sturdy, mega-screen Sudoku I am used to.

Fun but I like paper better
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Haven’t had a whole lot of time to use this but it seems to be “ok”. I still prefer to do KenKen on paper but, as I was traveling overseas, I thought this would at least give me a chance to play. However, I was so busy I never really had a chance to use it. I’m sure it’s fine, esp for airplanes, etc.