6/6 - Thomas Snyder does the Nikoli.com puzzles
Akari - 24x14 Medium by aiko - 1:05
Masyu - 10x10 Medium by cubic function - 0:42
Slitherlink - 24x14 Hard by Yuichi Saito - 3:23 - 1get!
Shikaku - 24x14 Hard by -4 - 3:14
Heyawake - 10x10 Easy by Hammy - 0:24
Another Saturday, another "bonus" fifth puzzle - an Akari. With a large number in each of the four quadrants, you could get started most anywhere but would likely jump around if stymied. A lot of "light this or it will never be lit" was done right off the large numbers and I enjoyed how this was chained in the upper-left especially in two three-cell "corridors" where I'm not sure I've seen it before.
The Masyu have anti-symmetric 2x2 blocks, which might have been the starting placements in the puzzle, but not much else as theme. Two separate loops get assembled with a slightly hard joining in the bottom-left, but its really not all that bad and feels more like an Easy.
I did the Slitherlink in a rush as I had somewhere to be. As a result I 1got! it which is rare for me on drawing puzzles. Maybe I should schedule more 8:00 AM/PM things. It used a lot of chained 2/2/.../2/3 diagonals and had a diamond pattern featuring a lot of diagonals. The solve was hard in that you needed to keep track of many different almost loops that couldn't close in the middle stages. A pretty good puzzle.
The Shikaku has a lot of 3's, 4's, and 6's - a sort of pseudo-theme - where only the lower-left quadrant is absolutely clean. There are cheater clues in various spots in the other areas and starting with them is generally easiest here. An ok hard shikaku.
The Heyawake is a good "very easy" example puzzle; the forced 1's set up all the rest of the logic immediately so anyone wanting to see how you create and then steer 2x2 blocks, the left four columns show this. However, its also very easy to write a very easy like this and I personally don't like one cell 1 clues too often. So we'll call it a wash.
Masyu - 10x10 Medium by cubic function - 0:42
Slitherlink - 24x14 Hard by Yuichi Saito - 3:23 - 1get!
Shikaku - 24x14 Hard by -4 - 3:14
Heyawake - 10x10 Easy by Hammy - 0:24
Another Saturday, another "bonus" fifth puzzle - an Akari. With a large number in each of the four quadrants, you could get started most anywhere but would likely jump around if stymied. A lot of "light this or it will never be lit" was done right off the large numbers and I enjoyed how this was chained in the upper-left especially in two three-cell "corridors" where I'm not sure I've seen it before.
The Masyu have anti-symmetric 2x2 blocks, which might have been the starting placements in the puzzle, but not much else as theme. Two separate loops get assembled with a slightly hard joining in the bottom-left, but its really not all that bad and feels more like an Easy.
I did the Slitherlink in a rush as I had somewhere to be. As a result I 1got! it which is rare for me on drawing puzzles. Maybe I should schedule more 8:00 AM/PM things. It used a lot of chained 2/2/.../2/3 diagonals and had a diamond pattern featuring a lot of diagonals. The solve was hard in that you needed to keep track of many different almost loops that couldn't close in the middle stages. A pretty good puzzle.
The Shikaku has a lot of 3's, 4's, and 6's - a sort of pseudo-theme - where only the lower-left quadrant is absolutely clean. There are cheater clues in various spots in the other areas and starting with them is generally easiest here. An ok hard shikaku.
The Heyawake is a good "very easy" example puzzle; the forced 1's set up all the rest of the logic immediately so anyone wanting to see how you create and then steer 2x2 blocks, the left four columns show this. However, its also very easy to write a very easy like this and I personally don't like one cell 1 clues too often. So we'll call it a wash.