Nikoli Co., Ltd. (
Japanese: 株式会社ニコリ,
Hepburn: Kabushiki-gaisha, Nikori) 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 in
Tokyo.[1]Nikoli was established in 1980,[1] and became prominent worldwide with the popularity of Sudoku.
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,[3] was popularized in the
English-speaking world in 2005, though that game has a history stretching back hundreds of years and across the globe.[4]
The magazine has invented several new genres of puzzles, and introduced several new games to
Japan.
Nikoli puzzles
Some of the popular Nikoli puzzles, along with their
Japanese names; terms in parentheses are published English titles for the same puzzles.