Nikoli (ニコリ,
nikori)
Co., Ltd. is a
Japaneseis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
publisher that specializes in
gamesA game is a structured activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas...
and, especially,
logic puzzleA logic puzzle is a puzzle deriving from the mathematics field of deduction.-History:This branch was produced by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who is better known under his pseudonym Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
s.
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
Sudokuis a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes contains the digits from 1 to 9 only one time each. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid...
.
The name "Nikoli" comes from the racehorse who won the Irish 2,000 Guineas in 1980; the president of Nikoli,
Maki Kaji' is the president of Nikoli Co., Ltd., a Japanese puzzle manufacturer.He was significant in promoting the development and marketing of the game of Sudoku...
, is fond of horse-racing and betting.
Nikoli (ニコリ,
nikori)
Co., Ltd. is a
Japaneseis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
publisher that specializes in
gamesA game is a structured activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas...
and, especially,
logic puzzleA logic puzzle is a puzzle deriving from the mathematics field of deduction.-History:This branch was produced by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who is better known under his pseudonym Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
s.
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
Sudokuis a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes contains the digits from 1 to 9 only one time each. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid...
.
The name "Nikoli" comes from the racehorse who won the Irish 2,000 Guineas in 1980; the president of Nikoli,
Maki Kaji' is the president of Nikoli Co., Ltd., a Japanese puzzle manufacturer.He was significant in promoting the development and marketing of the game of Sudoku...
, is fond of horse-racing and betting.
Nikoli's claim to fame is its vast library of "culture independent" puzzles. An example of a
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
/
cultureCulture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
-dependent genre of puzzle would be the
crosswordA crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of black and white squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages which are written left-to-right, the answer...
, which relies on a specific language and
alphabetAn alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols or graphemes each of which roughly represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or...
. For this reason Nikoli's puzzles are often purely logical, and often numerical.
Nikoli's
Sudokuis a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes contains the digits from 1 to 9 only one time each. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid...
, the most popular logic problem in Japan, was popularized in the
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
-speaking world in 2005, although it should be noted it was an American puzzle, since
Dell MagazinesDell Magazines was a company founded by George T. Delacorte Jr. in 1921 as part of his Dell Publishing Co. Dell is today known for its many puzzle magazines, as well as fiction magazines such as Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Asimov's Science Fiction, and...
had created it and distributed it for years.
The magazine has invented several new genres of puzzles, and introduced several new games to Japan.
Nikoli puzzles
These are just some of the most popular Nikoli puzzles, along with their
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
names; terms in parentheses are published English titles for the same puzzles.
- Crossword
A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of black and white squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages which are written left-to-right, the answer...
クロスワードパズル
- Fillomino
Fillomino is a type of logic puzzle published by Nikoli. Other published titles for the puzzle include Allied Occupation. As of 2005, three books consisting entirely of Fillomino puzzles have been published by Nikoli.-Rules:...
フィルオミノ (Allied Occupation)
- Hashiwokakero
Hashiwokakero is a type of logic puzzle published by Nikoli. It has also been published in English under the name Bridges or Chopsticks. It has also appeared in The Times under the name Hashi...
橋をかけろ (Bridges)
- Heyawake
Heyawake is a binary-determination logic puzzle published by Nikoli. As of 2005, five books consisting entirely of Heyawake puzzles have been published by Nikoli...
へやわけ
- Hitori
Hitori is a type of logic puzzle published by Nikoli.-Rules:Hitori is played with a grid of squares or cells, and each cell contains a number...
ひとりにしてくれ
- Light Up
Light Up , also called Akari, is a binary-determination logic puzzle published by Nikoli. As of 2006, two books consisting entirely of Light Up puzzles have been published by Nikoli.-Rules:...
美術館
- Kakuro
Kakuro or Kakkuro is a kind of logic puzzle that is often referred to as a mathematical transliteration of the crossword. Kakuro puzzles are regular features in most, if not all, math-and-logic puzzle publications in the United States...
カックロ (Cross Sums)
- Masyu
Masyu is a type of logic puzzle designed and published by Nikoli. The purpose of its creation was to present a puzzle that uses no numbers or letters and yet retains depth and aesthetics.-Rules:...
ましゅ
- Number Link
Number Link is a logic puzzle published by Nikoli. , three books consisting entirely of Number Link puzzles have been published by Nikoli.-Rules:...
ナンバーリンク
- Nurikabe
Nurikabe is a binary determination puzzle named for an invisible wall in Japanese folklore that blocks roads and delays foot travel...
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
is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes contains the digits from 1 to 9 only one time each. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid...
数独 (Number Place, Nine Numbers)
- Kuromasu 黒マスはどこだ
- Yajilin
Yajilin is a type of logic puzzle published by Nikoli. It has been published in English under the name Arrow Ring, such as in the 2005 U.S. qualifier for the World Puzzle Championship.-Rules:Yajilin is played on a rectangular grid of squares...
ヤジリン (Arrow Ring)
For a more complete list, see the
List of Nikoli puzzle types.
External links