Impressed that this developer focuses on pure Sudoku, without ads. His privacy policy is also superb — no data collected. That should be federal law. However, before I could even get started, I encountered two major obstacles! They may not matter to you, so give the app a chance. What were the issues? 1️⃣ An on-screen timer with, apparently, no option to turn it off. That’d a distraction, pure and simple. I play for the intellectual challenge, not as a race. Others must, too. 2️⃣ Several squares that were colored, with no borders. Why? Again, apparently, no option to turn off the coloring and simply see a board. That was also distracting. No doubt, there's a reason for this, but give users the option to skip it! OK, so I figured out it's a focus device. But most of us don't need that! We know how Sudoku works. RECOMMENDATION 3️⃣ A suggestion. My favorite Sudoku game — :) Sudoku (Enjoy Sudoku) is no longer available — but got the design 💯% correct. Two numeric keypads, one to enter the number and the other to pencil in a possibility, was a brilliant design. 4️⃣ In any event, please do not let my review, and my idiosyncrasies, deter you from trying this app. Any developer willing to give to the community, eschew ads, and NOT collect data needs to be given a chance. 5️⃣ Tried it again, but couldn’t figure out how to pencil in possibilities. Then, all of a sudden, the app booted me out of the game, saying I had run out of chances. Whoa, was that off-putting! 6️⃣ Finally, apologies as this review ended up with sentences run together. The App Store review system is broken and dysfunctional. On my iPad and iPhones, I always put in paragraph breaks in my reviews, and they show up on my device, but the App Store consistently removes them and mashes everything together into one MASSIVE paragraph. That’s ridiculous! It's hard to write a coherent, legible review and hard on the readers to process reviews that a mass (mess) of text — and glean the points. This has been going on for years, Fix it, Apple!
Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed review — and for recognizing our ad-free, privacy-focused approach. That truly means a lot.Based on feedback like yours, we’ve made several improvements:• You can now turn off the timer from Game Settings if you prefer a distraction-free experience.• We’ve added a clean black & white theme for a more traditional board look without colored highlights.• We’ve also introduced Number-First Mode, which allows faster multi-cell entry and smoother pencil marking.Regarding chances and pencil marks — the game does support note entry, and we’re continuously improving clarity so these features are easier to discover.We truly appreciate players who take the time to share constructive feedback. If the recent updates address your concerns, we’d be honored to earn that 5th star from you ⭐Thank you again for supporting independent, privacy-respecting apps.