Roller Coaster Nurikabe by the_cogito (Patreon)

We've been delighted to share some very long solves of difficult puzzles with you over the last couple of months and we thought we'd continue the series tonight with Simon's solve of Roller Coaster Nurikabe by the_cogito!

This is a bonkers construction - hence the incredibly long video length.  Hats off to the_cogito for having the wit and sheer brain power to create this brutaliser of a sudoku :) !!

You can find more info (including an example puzzle) here:

https://logic-masters.de/Raetselportal/Raetsel/zeigen.php?id=000D39

Play the puzzle at the link below:

https://app.crackingthecryptic.com/sudoku/Pn42bF8Br2  

Rules:  Place the digits 1-9 once each in every row and column. Every cell is either water or land. All water cells must be orthogonally connected, and no 2x2 area may be entirely water. Groups of orthogonally connected land cells form islands, which do not touch orthogonally, but may touch diagonally. Digits may not repeat on an island. Circled land cells indicate the size of their island. Circled water cells indicate the number of cells seen in cardinal directions from that cell, including itself. Land cells obstruct vision. An island may or may not contain any circled cells. Draw a non-intersecting loop that travels orthogonally between the centres of some cells in the grid. Clues to the left of rows indicate the sum of digits on horizontal segments of the loop in that row, in the correct order. Clues above columns indicate the sum of digits on vertical segments of the loop in that column, in the correct order. A '?' may replace any value from 0-9, but no clue may have a leading zero. No straight segment of the loop may be entirely on water cells. Every island is visited by the loop exactly once.

Watch Simon's attempt:

https://youtu.be/9Ox1hShrL6s

Let us know if you'd like to see this on the main channel at some point!