Hands-On Mobile™, the world's leading developer of connected games and applications, today announces the launch of Japanese Puzzles, the first time a compendium of three popular Japanese puzzle games has been brought together on mobile phones. Japanese Puzzles is the perfect follow-up to Sudoku Garden, which became one of Hands-On Mobile's top five selling titles in 2006. As well as Sudoku, Japanese Puzzles also offers Kakuro, and, for the first time on a mobile phone platform, Tenpenki.
Tenpenki makes the player use logic to create a picture in a grid as guided by numbers running across the top and down the side. These nonogram puzzles were first created in the late 1980s in Japan and by the mid-1990s puzzle magazines were routinely producing up to 100 nonograms per month. Kakuro is a challenging form of maths crossword and, in Japan, it is the second most popular form of puzzle behind Sudoku. Sudoku itself remains a modern puzzle phenomenon, with the majority of British newspapers offering a variety of Sudoku puzzles for readers to complete.
"Japanese Puzzles is a unique game that combines the familiarity of Sudoku with different and equally challenging games that will attract both new and avid puzzle fans," said Eric Hobson, President and General Manager EMEA, Hands-On Mobile. "The puzzle sector is a vast market, and one where demand still exceeds supply. We are looking forward to helping people everywhere combat boredom wherever they may be with the three addictive and re-playable puzzle games in Japanese Puzzles."
Japanese Puzzles will be one of the most feature rich puzzle titles to be offered on a mobile platform. To help players find puzzle solutions, the game allows up to nine number options to be 'pencilled in' making it easier to solve games. Players can also look up hints, and for complete beginners there is a tutorial mode. As players progress and improve they can look back at statistics and review how their performance has changed.
Japanese Puzzles will appeal to both casual and experienced gamers alike. To make things easier for those who are on the move, the game offers players the ability to save their progress so they can return to it later. Meanwhile for those wanting a more indepth experience, Japanese Puzzles has a 'Voyage' mode, which allows players to take on all three games and unlock more content. Players can access even more content by downloading new puzzles every day and also by competing for the fastest time against other puzzle fans from around the world.