Since its inception, fan-made puzzle game PokeDoku only offered daily puzzles, meaning once you cleared one, you had to wait till the next day to keep playing. Now, though, you can spend all day every day solving PokeDoku puzzles thanks to the long-awaited introduction of Unlimited Mode.
Creator Doku_Games confirmed the addition of Unlimited Mode earlier today on the PokeDoku Twitter account. If you’ve never heard of PokeDoku until now, it’s exactly what it sounds like: Sudoku but with Pokémon instead of numbers. The goal is to fill out a 9×9 grid with Pokémon that fill two conditions. So, for example, a Baby Pokémon that is also an Electric type. You also can’t use the same Pokémon twice, and you only have nine moves, meaning a single mistake will cost you your winning streak.
While there are loads of other daily puzzle games online, like Wordle and its many clones, PokeDoku is the only to have truly sunk its claws into me. As a die-hard Pokémon fan, I’ve been diligently checking it out for months to flex my knowledge and fill out my PokéDex, though my inability to maintain a high winning streak has shown me I’m not as well versed as I thought I was. With over 1,000 Pokémon as of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, many have slipped through the cracks in my memory, and I’m always left frustrated when I find myself unable to name Pokémon for particularly rare combinations.
Unlimited Mode is not only a way to keep playing long after solving the daily challenge, but it also makes for good practice too. PokeDoku lets you customize the kind of puzzles you get, so you can remove certain conditions or limit yourself to specific kinds of Pokémon. You can even give yourself unlimited moves, though any correctly picked Pokémon won’t count towards your PokéDex. It can be a more casual or more hardcore experience depending on your preference, and maybe help you memorize certain combinations for the daily puzzles.
Either way, I can see myself having a few quick runs of PokeDoku in my spare time while I wait for the next daily puzzle. If you’re a Pokémon fan and somehow haven’t tried it out for yourself, you can play the game on its official website.
