Nikoli

Nikoli is also a village on the island of Lefkada

Nikoli (ニコリ, nikori) Co., Ltd. is a Japanese publisher that specializes in games and, especially, logic puzzles. Nikoli is also the nickname of a quarterly magazine (whose full name is Puzzle Communication Nikoli) issued by the company. Nikoli became prominent worldwide with the popularity of Sudoku.

The name "Nikoli" comes from the racehorse who won the Irish 2,000 Guineas in 1980; the president of Nikoli, Maki Kaji, is fond of horse-racing and betting.^{[citation needed]}

Nikoli's claim to fame is its vast library of "culture independent" puzzles. An example of a language/culture-dependent genre of puzzle would be the crossword, which relies on a specific language and alphabet. For this reason Nikoli's puzzles are often purely logical, and often numerical.

Nikoli's Sudoku, the most popular logic problem in Japan, ^[1] was popularized in the English-speaking world in 2005, although it should be noted it was an American puzzle, since Dell Magazines had created it and distributed it for years. ^[2]

The magazine has invented several new genres of puzzles, and introduced several new games to Japan.

Nikoli puzzles

A Sudoku puzzle (image hyperlinked to solution)

These are just some of the most popular Nikoli puzzles, along with their Japanese names; terms in parentheses are published English titles for the same puzzles.

• Crossword クロスワードパズル
• Fillomino フィルオミノ (Allied Occupation)
• Hashiwokakero 橋をかけろ (Bridges)
• Heyawake へやわけ
• Hitori ひとりにしてくれ
• Light Up 美術館
• Kakuro カックロ (Cross Sums)
• Masyu ましゅ
• Number Link ナンバーリンク
• Nurikabe ぬりかべ (Cell Structure)
• Ripple Effect 波及効果
• Shikaku 四角に切れ (Divide by Squares)
• Slitherlink スリザーリンク (Fences)
• Sudoku 数独 (Number Place, Nine Numbers)
• Kuromasu 黒マスはどこだ
• Yajilin ヤジリン (Arrow Ring)

For a more complete list, see the List of Nikoli puzzle types.

External links

• Official website in English
• Official website in Japanese

References