Picross DS is very much a puzzle game, despite its attempt to lure you in to its grids with a slow, comforting pace of gameplay. It can instill those emotions of tension as the clock ticks away or those almost-insurmountable mental hurdles we stumble upon so frequently in the genre arise, however. So, in a lot of ways,
Picross DS is a genre-breaking title, taking things here and there, patching them together into a brand new game. A fun game.
From the very second you boot the game up, it's apparent that the title has no feeling one way or the other for you. It cares not if you solve its puzzles with its aid or without. It's a comforting thought, as we normally envision the puzzles brought on from similar games as being the life of the title, slowly chipping it away with every block we cause to vanish or what have you, as it constantly attempts to thwart us and
survive. Not so with
Picross DS, for it knows its life blood runs much deeper than most puzzle games.
Your average 9X9 10X10 puzzle.
And, in all honesty, it does. There is plenty for the anxious gamer to do here. There is the Daily Picross Challenge, which charges the player with remembering to turn the game on every day to engage in its splendor, much like another Touch Generations title by the name of
Brain Age. There are also the Easy and Normal Modes of play, in which several different puzzle challenges are neatly organized for the player.
Test your might!
In Easy mode, the game will even correct your mistakes for you, offering up a small penalty for your error in judgment. This is also the case in Normal mode, which offers the same gameplay, but on a more grand scale. Where puzzles are usually only 5X5 in Easy mode, in normal mode they can get as high as 15X15. There is also Free mode, which is the most difficult section of the game. Here, the game will not inform you of your mistakes and correct them, instead sitting in the corner chuckling quietly to itself as you attempt to solve its puzzles.
Then there's the My Picross section, which allows you to create your own puzzles and upload them to WFC, allowing your friends to download and play them. You can also download puzzles straight from Nintendo, but at the time of this review, none were available.
Look, my first match online!
The other big Wi-Fi feature is head-to-head play. Here, you and your opponent try to solve puzzles at the same time. Obviously, the quicker player walks away with the win, but what's nice about this feature of the game are the stats. Not only can you see exactly where your opponent is in terms of winning thanks to a nice progress bar, but you may also get a full read-out on their play history, including a winning streak, total matches played and total bouts won.
In the end,
Picross DS does what most Touch Generations titles do: offers an experience that anyone, anywhere can appreciate. It has incredible depth through its sheer number of puzzles, along with an excuse to turn it on every day in Daily Picross mode. Add in the Wi-Fi support, and you have a recipe for success that has been tried and true on several of the best games on the DS.
DS Fanboy score: 9/10
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-30-2007 @ 5:50PM
ConstyXIV said...
I fully agree, with one point:
US blue boxart == FTL
EU yellow boxart and white-on-black DS logo on game card FTW.
The inverted DS logo make it so much easier to find in my myriad of other games.
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7-30-2007 @ 5:51PM
David Hinkle said...
Dave,
Charge your DS.
Sincerely,
Dave
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7-30-2007 @ 7:14PM
Crazylink said...
I still don't understand how the game is played.
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7-30-2007 @ 8:31PM
pittmanken said...
It's really quite simple once you start working at it.
The numbers on the left will state how many coloured squares will be in that row, the ones on top state how many will be in that column.
So for this, you just have to fill it out.
__1___1____1____1___2_
5 |___|___|____|____|___|
1 |___|___|____|____|___|
To solve this puzzle, you have to add fill all this in. On the far right is a colum for 2, and there are only 2 Squares, so those would be filled in.
As there is only one block to be filled in for that bottom row and it was done so at the end, your done down there.
On the top row, just fill in the five and you will be done.
To try some puzzles online;
http://www.thetimmys.com/flash/picross/
Picross DS has a great training mode all it's own though, and it's much more clear then what I just said.
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7-30-2007 @ 8:45PM
mike said...
The main question I have is are there puzzles bigger than 15x15?
Usually in books of these games, there are HUGE puzzles, like 50x70, etc. I know that totally wouldn't fit on a DS screen... but 15x15's aren't too difficult (they don't take days to do, hehe).
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7-30-2007 @ 9:20PM
Bill McCai said...
i LOVE this game.
the daily mode also keeps you suckered in.
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7-30-2007 @ 9:20PM
ConstyXIV said...
@5 mike:
I haven't seen anything bigger than 15x15 in the main game, but the puzzle editor lets you do up to 20x20 (in fact, it comes with one). I just wish a) you could do huge puzzles, and b) you could enter in puzzles by the coordinates (from a book) so you could play it on the DS without knowing the answer already.
If anyone else has some questions (besides completed puzzles :), I'll answer 'em for you (imported from Euroland in may)
@2 David Hinkle:
You've got a typo. Where it says "Your average 9x9 puzzle", you're showing a 10x10 puzzle
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7-30-2007 @ 9:29PM
ConstyXIV said...
@5 mike:
Looked on our old friend GameFAQS and it turns out they max out at 25x20.
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7-30-2007 @ 9:30PM
moominsean said...
i love the japanese version so much, i'm going to get the us version and start over from the beginning. finished all 11 regular levels and 4 of the hard 'no clues' levels...some of which are impossible (when there are only 2 in each row).
oh, and the puzzles go up to 20x25. solved all of my downloaded puzzles, but it's kind of confusing, becuase you are only allowed 10 sets, and there are more available, but you seem to only be able to delete one puzzle at a time from your ds. another reason to get the english version.
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7-30-2007 @ 10:15PM
greatslack said...
Can anyone attest to the challenge for experienced solvers?
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7-30-2007 @ 11:12PM
hvnlysoldr said...
http://www.wiipicross.com/
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7-30-2007 @ 11:24PM
SK said...
Love the game! I love the daily puzzle especially.
If someone wants to practice/learn the puzzle more, check out this site.
http://www.griddlers.net
It's free, there are instructions and easy puzzles called Kiddlers so you can learn the game. Oh, and if you want to see HUGE picross puzzles, try looking at the Multi-Griddlers!
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7-31-2007 @ 12:50AM
Adv2k1 said...
it still boggles the mind. i guess once you get it, you get it, and if you don't get it, its hard to understand why someone got it. Kind of like sudoku
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7-31-2007 @ 5:30AM
Bill McCai said...
the concept is really not hard to latch on to at all. The game has a good difficulty curve, so you'll learn the basics quickly and then get challenged a touch more at a time. The rules are pretty simple... It plays like a cross between minesweeper and sudoku.. but with a good daily mode and wifi to boot. And the animated rewards are simple yet give a small sense of achievement. It's nice.
P.S. I agree that the yellow cover is nicer :)
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7-31-2007 @ 9:26AM
ConstyXIV said...
@13 Adv2k1:
You can find a tutorial on NoE's site here:
http://tgcontent.nintendo-europe.com/enGB/games_DS_TGP/picross/how_to_play.php
P.S: The daily picross is NOT random, they have a set of puzzles laid out for each day, and they're the same for everyone.
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7-31-2007 @ 10:25AM
ConstyXIV said...
@16 JM:
15 puzzles in each level, 1l levels = 165
Free (no hints) mode, 11 levelsx15 puzzles = 165 more
Easy mode (15) = 15 more
4 sample Original puzzles and the 20 EU has gotten over Wi-Fi since launch brings the grand total to 369 puzzles.
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7-31-2007 @ 10:26AM
ConstyXIV said...
Oops, that 15 Wi-Fi puzzles, making it 364.
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8-01-2007 @ 10:49AM
mike said...
i picked it up last night and enjoy it. got my butt kicked repeatedly online, and I think i'm pretty decent at this... although i never really play for time.
my only complaint is the zooming for the big puzzles... although of course i realize it's a small screen and there's no other way to do it. i feel lost when i can't see the whole puzzle (i'm used to playing TylerK's picross online).
i'll be around for game night tomorrow, so hopefully we can play some picross!
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8-01-2007 @ 4:07PM
xenon said...
To mike and everyone else: there's no zooming when you play with pad and buttons instead of the stylus. You see the whole puzzle, as small as needed, no matter its size. Playing that way is quite functional and slick; you usually make less mistakes, as well. I've already read a review that underlines zooming as a relevant problem and doesn't mention the pad and buttons alternative. It's a pity for such an entertaining game.
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2-19-2008 @ 9:34AM
JM said...
That is actually an above average 9x9 puzzle in your picture there, since its actually 10x10.
And yes, the puzzles go up to 25x20. And there are TONS of them. There are ten levels of puzzles in both the intermediate and 'free' versions (free being advanced i guess? don't know what else you'd call it.) PLUS a bonus level in each version. The number of puzzles in each level is something like 21 or something like that. I can't remember exactly, but there were 3 rows of about 7 or 8 puzzles, which works out to be one metric ton of puzzles.
Of course, I finished the European version like 2 months ago, so your mileage may, but probably won't, vary for the USA version.
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