Numbrella

Entertainment evolved in several forms over the years, with the computer having a major impact on how this plays out. However, even the computer includes games once only possible on pen and paper, such as Sudoku. In this regard, Numbrella comes as a last resort for those games which seem impossible.

On the bright side of things, Numbrella saves you the entire effort required to go through a setup process to make it work. Not only can you run it as soon as download is done, but it’s possible to store it on a thumb drive to carry it around. What’s more, the computer you use it on remains intact, because registry entries are not modified in the process.

The window consists of a full 9 x 9 Sudoku grid, and necessary controls to define and put the process in motion. Editing is a walk in the park. However, it can take some time, because all values are blank by default, so you always need to fill in the cells you know to be able to go forth. On the other hand, there’s the possibility to save patterns to file and load them later on.

Sadly, the application doesn’t let you reduce the game grid, but this doesn’t mean you can’t solve easier forms. All you need to do in this regard is to fill in known values and hope for the automated task to find the missing ones. The more values you provide, the higher chances of success.

Saving is only done under the application’s own format, and it would have been useful to also generate a picture. The only downside to the entire operation is the disturbingly high CPU usage, and there’s a chance program processes don’t close and keep the CPU pretty busy for no reason.

All things considered, we can state that Numbrella is a straightforward application with the sole purpose of solving any kind of Sudoku levels. It can be used on the go, with little accommodation time required, but you do need to keep an eye on CPU usage.