6/7 - Thomas Snyder does the Nikoli.com puzzles
Sudoku - 9x9 Hard by T. Karino - 4:37 (after restart)
Yajilin - 10x10 Easy by aiko - 0:38
Nurikabe - 18x10 Medium by Ryohei Nakai - 1:05
Slitherlink - 24x14 Hard by Casty - 3:18
Botsu Bako: Akari - 18x10 Extra by nyoroppyi - 2:25
So solving the sudoku while watching the NBA finals wasn't the smartest choice. After scrubbing and restarting (pretending to blank my mind to not see things sooner), I got through in the time I would have had the first time if not for a digit transposition near the end I could not undo. The puzzle has a nice diamond pattern and is most noteworthy for having a rather tight solving path. None of the steps are too hard, but there is a very low density of steps on a puzzle designed like this so the challenge is in spotting them by backing up a few steps after making progress and seeing what else became true. A naked single in the top row was the "slow" step the first time.
The Yajilin was another in a run of unimpressive 10x10 Easy Yajilin. Its like the designers of these just want to make a valid puzzle and don't want to try for symmetry or any other solving/visual theme.
The Nurikabe flowed smoothly enough but was certainly an Easy/Medium.
The Slitherlink felt like standard moves throughout the grid and was ok but not exceptional.
I'd like to talk about the Botsu Bako. First of all, I tend to look forward to this series as it showcases unusual things and oftentimes has my favorite puzzles on the site (like the 4-only Hashi puzzle, or the 10x10 Shikaku that beautifully flows from unfixed choices - in both cases I tend to dislike the "normal" Hashi and Shikaku for not really changing things up). However this means that some months I'm set up to be profoundly disappointed. A day when the Botsu Bako Masyu was much less interesting than a Juno Masyu released very close comes to mind. The January Nurikabe certainly also falls into this class. Its a pretty lame and trivial puzzle. But having a big number in a small grid is "crazy". I think my version of this general kind of theme was better. If it doesn't wow, I get very disappointed.
So this month there is an Akari, which follows a hard puzzle from the website last week that was 2-only and absolutely brilliant with some hard steps. This one for me was easier, from solving time, but hardly a profound new discovery. Basically, where a cell cannot be lit but must be seen by a light-bulb from a 1 (or a partial 2), the other sites for that 1/2 cannot be light-bulbs. It's used a few times, but is not so abstract a step that you wouldn't think of it. Hence the insult to read "The editors of nikoli.com thought a more obvious hint is needed for this problem." I'm always asking myself why a puzzle is a Botsu Bako; the answer here seems to be that Akari aren't supposed to be too hard, or too interesting. I'd think labeling it as Hard (or Extra in Nikoli's current system) should be enough. Is this really an Extra and T.Karino's Akari from last week a Hard?
Yajilin - 10x10 Easy by aiko - 0:38
Nurikabe - 18x10 Medium by Ryohei Nakai - 1:05
Slitherlink - 24x14 Hard by Casty - 3:18
Botsu Bako: Akari - 18x10 Extra by nyoroppyi - 2:25
So solving the sudoku while watching the NBA finals wasn't the smartest choice. After scrubbing and restarting (pretending to blank my mind to not see things sooner), I got through in the time I would have had the first time if not for a digit transposition near the end I could not undo. The puzzle has a nice diamond pattern and is most noteworthy for having a rather tight solving path. None of the steps are too hard, but there is a very low density of steps on a puzzle designed like this so the challenge is in spotting them by backing up a few steps after making progress and seeing what else became true. A naked single in the top row was the "slow" step the first time.
The Yajilin was another in a run of unimpressive 10x10 Easy Yajilin. Its like the designers of these just want to make a valid puzzle and don't want to try for symmetry or any other solving/visual theme.
The Nurikabe flowed smoothly enough but was certainly an Easy/Medium.
The Slitherlink felt like standard moves throughout the grid and was ok but not exceptional.
I'd like to talk about the Botsu Bako. First of all, I tend to look forward to this series as it showcases unusual things and oftentimes has my favorite puzzles on the site (like the 4-only Hashi puzzle, or the 10x10 Shikaku that beautifully flows from unfixed choices - in both cases I tend to dislike the "normal" Hashi and Shikaku for not really changing things up). However this means that some months I'm set up to be profoundly disappointed. A day when the Botsu Bako Masyu was much less interesting than a Juno Masyu released very close comes to mind. The January Nurikabe certainly also falls into this class. Its a pretty lame and trivial puzzle. But having a big number in a small grid is "crazy". I think my version of this general kind of theme was better. If it doesn't wow, I get very disappointed.
So this month there is an Akari, which follows a hard puzzle from the website last week that was 2-only and absolutely brilliant with some hard steps. This one for me was easier, from solving time, but hardly a profound new discovery. Basically, where a cell cannot be lit but must be seen by a light-bulb from a 1 (or a partial 2), the other sites for that 1/2 cannot be light-bulbs. It's used a few times, but is not so abstract a step that you wouldn't think of it. Hence the insult to read "The editors of nikoli.com thought a more obvious hint is needed for this problem." I'm always asking myself why a puzzle is a Botsu Bako; the answer here seems to be that Akari aren't supposed to be too hard, or too interesting. I'd think labeling it as Hard (or Extra in Nikoli's current system) should be enough. Is this really an Extra and T.Karino's Akari from last week a Hard?