It’s a cold winter afternoon, you pick up a warm blanket, and fire up your computer. What are you going to do? Play a good puzzle game maybe?

Cozy Sudoku is a relaxing puzzle game. It was developed and published by CozyPuzzleGames. This game is their first release on Steam. There are thousand of puzzles to complete with five difficulties ranging from easy to extreme. The beginner Sudoku puzzles are simple enough to be accessible to anyone. I’ve played several extreme puzzles, which is the highest level in the game, and found them to be easier than expected. They still offer a considerable challenge, but might not be challenging enough for seasoned players.

The game features a ton of different elements you can toggle on or off at your leisure. It feels simple, and yet it has tons of features. You can take notes directly in each square to keep track of possible solutions. There’s also a feature that highlights clashing and duplicated numbers. Another feature involves your answers getting checked automatically as you write them, or you can turn that feature off and check an answer manually only when needed. If the number is wrong when you check it will turn red so that it’s easy to see at first glance which answers are wrong. I was quite surprised at how complete the game is. It has all of the features you could want in a Sudoku game.

There is a cat who sits at the side of the screen, and yes you can play with him. He will follow with his eyes when you hover your cursor around the cat. Unfortunately, I feel like the developer didn’t exploit this feature to its full potential. It would have been cuter if he tried to actually catch the cursor instead of just looking at it. It’s a novelty that does wear off at some point, but I still enjoyed playing with it occasionally while playing. The game has a cute aesthetic. It’s clean and sets the puzzles front and centre. The atmosphere is relaxing and cozy. There are four themes to choose from, all pastel tones. Each one has a main colour; there are pink, green, blue, and grey themes. The cat even changes its appearance in each theme.

The game features automatic saves, so you don’t need to worry when you close the game in the middle of a puzzle. You can pick up right where you left off. The soundtrack has a nice chill cozy vibe too. It has a lot of different tracks, enough that it doesn’t become too repetitive even for longer sessions. My favourite aspect about the music player is that it’s in-game. If you don’t like a song you can skip it without having to go to the settings. It makes it really easy to customize your experience while you are playing.

Cozy Sudoku is a simple game where the puzzles are the main attraction. The look is clean, and there are lot of quality of life features that make it pleasant to play. It’s a relaxing game, but still offers plenty of challenges. With five difficulty levels, there is plenty of challenge for everyone. If you like to play puzzles in a relaxing atmosphere, then Cozy Sudoku is the perfect game for you. You can play it in smaller or longer sessions. Plus it has cats!

Positives

• Well-crafted puzzles
• In-game music player
• Cozy atmosphere
• Cats!

Negatives

• Sudoku experts may not find the challenges hard enough
• The cat feature could be more fully fleshed out