6/5 - Thomas Snyder does the Nikoli.com puzzles
Kakuro - 19x11 Hard by cubic function - 3:09 - 1get!
Shikaku - 18x10 Easy by Casty - 0:45
Hitori - 8x8 Easy by Hitori - 0:16
Nurikabe - 36x20 Extra by MINE - 7:40
I tend to 1get kakuro's only to have my times blown out of the water when H.Jo and ziti come around. So far this time is sticking by 30 seconds over second which I'm sort of proud of. The puzzle's grid is somewhat divide into regions with the upper-left, exact center, and lower-right easier than the rest. Most solvers will probably have those three parts completely full before the rest and while the corners aren't unexpected, the center is a nice touch and how its ends interact with the corners in the imbetween space is well-done in parts. Its an above average puzzle for fun and challenge, but as already discussed here very few kakuro are long-lasting theme-wise and this one falls short.
The Shikaku seem to have started with a 3/6/9 theme and then turned into something else. At least all those digits appear much more often on the bottom than one would expect. It certainly is an easy solve.
The Hitori is easy and unremarkable. The bottom two rows are clued cleanly, but some part of me hates the orphan 2's that are possibly encountered as "something around here must be white so the puzzle is unique" as opposed to feeling close to the logic of the puzzle. I probably prefer shading these when the pairs of 2's are pinned without an easy deduction than as done here where the corner is set-up to shade two really fast and you might scan in both directions or might just move on. I missed one of the two "other" 2's by just moving on.
The Nurikabe was a good extra, but not a mind-blowing Extra, but Extras are what I crave as solving challenges. Having a 54 and 55 will push it to that range I'm sure. How to connect the distant islands into the 54 and 55 was very clear in the puzzle so the tracing back was not as much a challenge as it has been elsewhere. What I did like a lot though was that the solve really starts in the middle around the 13/9 and if you try to just focus on the border, you can guess spaces the 54/55 must take but otherwise cannot do too much. So being a high-end start is a bit noteworthy here, but I've certainly seen it before too.
Shikaku - 18x10 Easy by Casty - 0:45
Hitori - 8x8 Easy by Hitori - 0:16
Nurikabe - 36x20 Extra by MINE - 7:40
I tend to 1get kakuro's only to have my times blown out of the water when H.Jo and ziti come around. So far this time is sticking by 30 seconds over second which I'm sort of proud of. The puzzle's grid is somewhat divide into regions with the upper-left, exact center, and lower-right easier than the rest. Most solvers will probably have those three parts completely full before the rest and while the corners aren't unexpected, the center is a nice touch and how its ends interact with the corners in the imbetween space is well-done in parts. Its an above average puzzle for fun and challenge, but as already discussed here very few kakuro are long-lasting theme-wise and this one falls short.
The Shikaku seem to have started with a 3/6/9 theme and then turned into something else. At least all those digits appear much more often on the bottom than one would expect. It certainly is an easy solve.
The Hitori is easy and unremarkable. The bottom two rows are clued cleanly, but some part of me hates the orphan 2's that are possibly encountered as "something around here must be white so the puzzle is unique" as opposed to feeling close to the logic of the puzzle. I probably prefer shading these when the pairs of 2's are pinned without an easy deduction than as done here where the corner is set-up to shade two really fast and you might scan in both directions or might just move on. I missed one of the two "other" 2's by just moving on.
The Nurikabe was a good extra, but not a mind-blowing Extra, but Extras are what I crave as solving challenges. Having a 54 and 55 will push it to that range I'm sure. How to connect the distant islands into the 54 and 55 was very clear in the puzzle so the tracing back was not as much a challenge as it has been elsewhere. What I did like a lot though was that the solve really starts in the middle around the 13/9 and if you try to just focus on the border, you can guess spaces the 54/55 must take but otherwise cannot do too much. So being a high-end start is a bit noteworthy here, but I've certainly seen it before too.