Sudoku and Akari are both grid-based logic puzzles you solve by pure deduction, so solvers naturally wonder how alike they really are. The short answer: Akari is distant to Sudoku. Below we lay out what the two share, where they part ways, and whether the skills you have built on Sudoku will carry over.
- Grid: Rectangular, black & white
- Closeness to Sudoku: Distant
- Also called: Light Up
What is Akari?
Place light bulbs so every white cell is lit, no bulb lights another, and numbered black cells have exactly that many bulbs beside them. Here are the rules in full:
- A bulb lights its whole row and column until a black cell blocks the beam.
- Every white cell must be lit, and no bulb may shine on another.
- A numbered black cell must have exactly that many bulbs orthogonally adjacent.
What an Akari looks like
Akari (Light Up) places bulbs so every white cell is lit, no bulb shines on another, and numbered black cells have that many bulbs beside them. Here is a small solved grid: bulbs (◉) light the pale cells, and the "1" black cell has exactly one bulb adjacent.
Bulbs (◉) light the pale cells; the "1" black cell has one bulb beside it.
Akari is a single-solution logic puzzle, and its numbered-cell counts force placements much as Sudoku clues do. But you place light bulbs, not digits, and illumination and blocking are spatial rules with no Sudoku analogue — a distant relative.
What Akari shares with Sudoku
- It is a pure-logic, single-solution puzzle with no guessing.
- The numbered-cell counts force placements much as Sudoku clues do.
How Akari differs from Sudoku
- You place light bulbs, not digits, and most cells stay empty.
- Illumination and blocking are spatial rules with no Sudoku analogue.
Do Sudoku skills transfer?
The counting logic around numbered cells — "only so many neighbours can take a bulb" — is the same elimination instinct Sudoku sharpens, even though nothing places a digit.
The verdict
Akari shares Sudoku's clue-driven deduction but resolves into a lit grid of bulbs rather than numbers.