It looks like the official "rumors" are wrong and Major Nelson has announced that Buku Sudoku (800 MS Points) and Warlords (400 MS Points) will be this week's arcade titles. For more information, feel free to read the entire media alert or our previous coverage of these titles. The sudoku title looks nice. I'll have to demo Warlords as it is a retro remake, which usually means shovelware. What will you be picking up this Wednesday?

Thanks Paya!

360Sync has gotten their hands on six new screenshots for the upcoming game Boku Sudoku. The game definately looks like Sudoku and has a clean interface. Anyone have any more ideas about what to say about sudoku? It's almost like looking at screenshots of a Mancala game. Here's to hoping the music will not be as annoying as some similiar games that aren't all that *cough* hard *cough*.

The achievement uncovering folks over at 360sync have struck again with the unveiling of the achievements for Wits & Wagers and Buku Sodoku. Both sport a painfully long achievement (answer 700 questions and play 200 games) and the rest are pretty much what you would expect from the game. If you were designing these achievements what would you change? What would you keep the same?

Perhaps the hardest working guy covering Xbox news, Godfree, was kind enough to shoot us a note about his coverage of the upcoming Buku Sudoku.  To start things off, they have the following trailer, showing off a few of the various game play elements:

On top of that, they will have an interview with Merscom, the developers of the game on their podcast next week. 

The only question I have is, are their any people out there who dislike Sudoku who would even think about picking up this title?

While we wait for all 300+ Reiner Knizia games to be translated from a board to a TV, we will be treated to at least one other title from Merscom: Buku Sudoku. Gamasutra is reporting that Merscom is publishing the game and is excited about the game's chances on XBLA. Expect a release in Q2 2008.

The company emphasized three key strengths of the XBLA platform as the pillars upon which the "best console Sudoku experience" has been built. HD graphics allow for highly readable grids and markings (kinda important in Sudoku), the Xbox 360 controller offers "a very fast entry method", and finally, Xbox Live's multiplayer system which can create "multiplayer experiences never before witnessed in a Sudoku game." Of course, I've never played Sudoku in any form of multiplayer. Should be interesting.

Another interesting tidbit: despite their love of the Xbox 360 controller, the game will also leverage the "Big Button" controller that comes with Scene It!.

Either way I'm sure Sudoku addicts will be excited. Need a demo to form an opinion? You can check out the PC demo (60 minute time-limited) and see for yourself how Merscom did Sudoku in the past. However, I've been informed that while the PC version was the original basis for the XBLA game, this new version offers much more than the PC version. Chief among the differences is the presence of multiplayer (competitive and coop).

Screens for your perusal below. Full press release after the break.

Note: This game was announced at E3 under the title "Boku Sudoku". That was just a working title but Buku Sudoku is now the official title.

[via Gamasutra]