Now I love Picross in 2D, I don’t need to tell you that. In 3D it’s a bit different; you can’t take in the whole puzzle at a glance, and building off each new step is much more fiddly. The numbers you need to solve each logic puzzle are printed on the sides of each cube. You rotate it in 3D space and you have a progressive cross-section function, so it’s a matter of repeatedly checking each slice and cycling through both vertical planes. Did that make sense? It’s hard to explain.
It’s another Picross game. The distribution method for it is the main story, with it being made available with the launch of Nintendo’s new loyalty program and costing not money but points gained through engagement with Nintendo’s services and apps. But that’s big time news fodder, let’s talk about the game.
The presentation is like a traditional “e-series” Picross game as opposed to Pokemon Picross, but with fantasy-ish themed UI, and backgrounds and music ripped from Twilight Princess. The puzzles represent characters, items, or scenes from the game, and it’s quite nice to see Oocoo or Midna as a solution; it’s been so long since franchise themed Picross puzzles have been a thing.
Perhaps because it doesn’t cost any real money, this is a much smaller offering than any of the “e” games. It has only 3 pages of puzzles compared to, say, e6’s 10. This is much like Japan’s Club Nintendo Picross. Like e6 though (and indeed Pokemon Picross) the pixel images are recycled for normal and Mega modes, which is a bit of a letdown with so few images. There’s also 1 Micross image, and the scene it presents isn’t super impressive.
There’s been one minor change to the controls that had a significant impact on my ability to play and enjoy the game. In all previous Picross iterations, the stylus controls primarily involve you holding up or down on the D-pad (or X and B) to engage the fill or erase function respectively while the button is held. In this one, the buttons instead toggle the fill or erase mode when they’re pressed once. This makes it much harder to slip into a groove, as you have to constantly check or remind yourself what mode you’re in (null mode is also useful for pondering your next move or counting). Having the stylus state tied directly to the current action or inaction of my off hand made for a much smoother and more intuitive experience, and I’m very disappointed by this change. I hope it doesn’t continue to future instalments or can at least be changed as a setting.
But apart from the inexplicable change to the controls and “dearth of content” as they say, it’s easy to recommend this game. It’s not terribly hard to get the necessary points through My Nintendo, but WarioWare Touched may present better value all the same. However, the exclusive nature of this game and the quite well-done Twilight Princess theming make it a pleasing bonus for Nintendo loyalists. Plus it has Midna as a tutorial guide, which is fun and makes this totally canon to the Zelda series. Trust me.
Pokemon is great. Picross is great. How could this game be anything but great? Is what I thought to myself. The doubts set in when the free-to-play business model was revealed. An energy system? Crypto-currency via in-app purchase? Recharging timers? These aspects already grated and got in the way for the last two digital Pokemon releases, Shuffle and Rumble World, so I had to roll my eyes.
And indeed those things are annoying to the play experience. It very quickly becomes apparent that the amount of Picrites you get is nowhere near the amount you need to get very far. But I had to quell the outrage. To enjoy this Picross game with very competent theming, I changed perspective. You get a lot of puzzles and some tidy bonus mechanics. So if you see it as a Picross game that costs $39, it doesn’t seem so bad. (The cost is a little high compared to recent eShop Picrosses, it’s true.) It must be a psychological thing to get upset when something is presented as free but then restricted, compared to paying upfront and enjoying it without further hassle. I dunno, I’m not a brain doctor. But I do know microtransactions are sucking the joy out of the whole gaming landscape.
Melodrama aside, how’s the game? Pretty great! Pokemon are super cute especially in pixel form, and the mission system is good for replayability (I ignored them the first time I did any puzzle so I could conquer them without hints, then went back for them). There’s a ton of puzzles that unlock in a fun little world map, and they’re playable in normal and Mega Picross modes. The missions then give you tablets which unlock a Micross-like mosaic of Primal Groudon & Kyogre. So between all that and the party of Pokemon you build up with different hint skills, it’s a much more game-ified Picross experience.
And it’s just as addictive to me as any previous Picross game. Maybe the simplicity of those is more relaxing, without worrying about missions or who you have equipped in your party, but I wouldn’t mind at all seeing more Picross games like this with other themes than Pokemon. Bring back the themed puzzles of Japan’s Nintendo Power SNES games. And while you’re at it, localise the two Club Nintendo Picross games you goons!
I was pleased as punch to be presented with another portable Picross puzzle set. So ravenous was I for more relaxing and engrossing puzzles, that I raced through with no regard for reasonable restriction. Consequently, I quickly completed the collection.
Gah, can’t keep that up. At this point the refinement is very subtle. Picross e4 seems to have perfected the formula, bringing features from the three previous games. This one is basically just another e4, it doesn’t really change anything and is just more puzzles. And that’s perfectly fine with me. More please!
PS. A big wag of my finger to dumb old Nintendo, who have now released two Picross games that are exclusive to Japan, exclusive to Club Nintendo rewards, and are exclusively based on Nintendo characters. I want them so bad, and I just hate that they don’t care enough to make such a great idea actually available. Sigh.
Inspired by the recent release of Picross e5 to the 3DS eShop, I wanted to translate this Mario’s Picross-themed comic from the official German Nintendo Magazine, Club Nintendo. I say Picross-themed, but it just borrows the vague setting of the game without any reference to picrossing.
So Mario’s taking a turn as a pop archeologist: robbing tombs, desecrating important cultural sites, offending the locals. As someone in the comic points out, he fancies himself the Indiana Jones type but he’s really just in it for personal gain. It’s kinda reprehensible but I’m pleased to once again see Mario not as the good guy.
Anyway this comic happens to be the next on Opentrain’s speculative list, if their past releases are any indication. But they’re doing Spanish and French comics now so I felt able to take this. Besides, it’s actually the last regular non-reprint non-special non-N-gang Club Nintendo comic to come to the English language. Woohoo! That actually is quite a milestone, despite my qualifications. For more information, please see my helpful resource, the Club Nintendo comics database.
Of course, there’s still more to be done. A scant few special editions, a few comics to redo with better cleaning and translation, and N-gang if I ever get around to it, but having most of the run available for English readers is something to celebrate.
Oh and by the way, I realised my Dropbox links may not have been working in the past. This one’s actually in my public folder so should be downloadable, and I’ll update any older links for other comics. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you soon with more comics!
The time has come for another Picross review. The fourth Picross game on the eShop (fifth if you count that stupidly restricted-availability Club Nintendo one), what makes this one stand out? Oh and by the way, I found out the other day Japan is getting another, better Nintendo-themed Picross game that’s even more exclusive as you need Platinum status… whatever that means. Why won’t you let me give you money, you awful company?
Erm, anyway. What’s this one about? Well, it’s like the past ones, but seems like a culmination of them. A sort of best-of. Although now we have e5 coming too, but whatever. The point is, this one includes Micross puzzles from e2, Mega Picross from e3, and has extra reward puzzles if you have save data from the previous games on your 3DS. It could perhaps be a good introduction to the different things on offer in the series, and would then reward you for getting the past ones.
Of course, the trade-off is it only has two Micross, which are the best ones. The reward puzzles are Mega Picross, which will be bad news if you hated those. I found them refreshing, but I was glad there were lots of normal ones too. They’re also all lumped together instead of in Normal Mode and Free Mode categories, letting you choose at will whether to use Normal or Free rules for all puzzles. This instalment also features a page of bigger puzzles, 20x15.
Overall I’d say it’s the best one yet, especially if you’ve played the previous ones as it seems to have the most improvements, and synthesises modes from them. If you’re as hooked as me though, just get all of them! And wait anxiously for e5! Mmm, Picross.
Once I found out that Japan has an exclusive Picross game, I was unreasonably angry. I love Picross so much, especially instalments in the DS lineage. I also love Nintendo and Nintendo-related crossover games. Such an intersection of my interests will never be available to me, just because I’m not part of the superior Japanese race with their superior Club Nintendo program. That’s how I felt.
Fortunately for me, my sister-in-law who lives in Japan decided to buy a 3DS, got the game, and finished it before she visited us. So at least I could see all the puzzles they included. I’m quite impressed, although it’s mostly the standard EAD stuff, lots of Mario and Zelda. Some nice surprises though and some weird Nintendo history hardware stuff, like the love tester, and even their head office.
It’s a little shorter than the e-series of Picross games, but the Nintendo-y-ness makes up for it. My salty fanboy tears have dried up now that I’ve at least seen it. And since coverage is sparse, I hope you too can appreciate seeing all this game has to offer… people that aren’t us.
Oh, by the way, it’s called Club Nintendo Picross and it’s been available from the Japanese Club Nintendo rewards program since 2012 for 80 coins.
Uh. What can I say? It’s more Picross. That is a good thing.
Picross e was good, and now I’ve figured out how to activate the auto-greying numbers I enjoy the gameplay a lot more. The macro painting mode was really cool, the individual puzzles are very different in style to normal ones and building up the picture is rewarding.
It still has the drawbacks compared to Picross DS, such as non-animated solutions (although the pixel art does look very nice), and lack of Nintendo-themed puzzles, which was a highlight for me. It also again ran out of content quickly, because I played it so ravenously. But that’s the style they’re going for, short and cheap, and frequently released. It’s like episodic gaming!
I also wish there were more harder puzzles, because the hardest ones began to really test me and forced me to strengthen my MIGHTY PICROSS SKILLS. I really love all of Jupiter’s Picross stuff. It won’t happen, but I wish they ported their old Mario Picross games to stylus controls, I would be all over that. It’s very hard to go back to moving a square around when you have such direct control on the DS.
I’ve also bought e3 and e4, and they to some extent replace Micross (the painting thing) with Mega Picross, which uses numbers over multiple rows, giving you a new technique to learn. I still enjoy Micross better though, so for the number of such puzzles in this game I’m tentatively awarding Picross e2 “best Picross e installment”.
It seems like most of my family love Picross. I certainly do. It’s more interesting than Sudoku because there’s more variety possible, while still being purely logic. Once you really get a handle on the rules and intricacies it becomes very satisfying to smash through a puzzle while you’re in the “Picross Zone”. The other great thing about it is you get a cool picture at the end, with either nice, awkward or heavily stylised pixelart. Depending on your game, this will also be colourised or even animate at the end.
Another big draw for me in Nintendo-licensed Picross games is the Nintendo-themed puzzles. Picross NP did that so much better than other ones I’ve played, as instead of the lazy and boring way of replicating 8-bit sprites on a puzzle grid, they featured new, original pixel art renditions of characters, even ones that were already pixel sprites.
I’ve played through the Normal mode of Picross DS, to get to the Extra section with the 8-bit sprites. Too much Mario. 3 rows of it to be precise! Leaving only one row for Samus, Link, Ice Climber, and Excitebike. Getting there was awesome fun, though. Having said that, often what you filled in was very hard to distinguish until they colourised it for you, meaning you wouldn’t know until the very end what it is you were making. From my experience, the older games in the series had puzzles that were simpler in shape so you could guess.
Let me get the angry part out of the way. The PAL regions’ version of Picross DS was abysmally under-supported compared to the US and Japan. I’m talking downloadable puzzle packs. We got 2 packs of 5, they got 100 and 60 packs, respectively. I felt so cheated.
So I emulated the highlights of what they got. First, recap. Mario’s Picross for Game Boy, 1995. All regions got the cart release and later 3DS VC release. Mario’s Super Picross for SNES, 1995. Japan only for cart, Wii VC release for Japan and PAL (untranslated, and they charged more for it. The cheek!) Picross 2 for Game Boy, 1996. Japan only for cart and 3DS VC. Picross NP for SNES, 1999. Japan only, released in 8 volumes via the Nintendo Power cartridge rewriting service. Picross DS for DS, 2007. All regions got it, PAL got shafted in the DLC department. DLC, for reference, included many puzzles from Mario’s Picross, Mario’s Super Picross, and all 8 volumes of Picross NP. Picross-e and Picross-e2 for 3DS eShop, 2011-2012. Japan and PAL.
So the USA has had less games released, but a much better version of DS. The reason for that (and less for PAL too) is poor sales of the first game outside Japan.
Ok, so what I decided was the touchscreen interface was best. If I had to use the inferior button interface, I would only bother with the puzzles that were really interesting to me, namely the Nintendo IP puzzles in NP. The other 3 have some too, but mainly sprites—NP, as I’ve said, had 12 puzzles in each of 8 volumes with redrawn Nintendo characters, animated after solution. Awesome~!
The properties were covered with one per volume: Pokemon, Yoshi’s Story, Kirby, Lylat Wars, Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, Wario Land 2, and Donkey Kong Country. For more information see here. (They erroneously claim the games were distributed via Satellaview, but their puzzle lists are accurate.) The last 3 volumes had slightly different presentation in the menus, and of course all had many more puzzles apart from “Character Mode” but that was the only mode I concerned myself with.
It was, as I predicted, totally cool. As you go on, you could try and guess who it would turn out to be based on the theme, and then at the end the whole thing was coloured and the characters started doing a little animation loop. Very cool. I tried to make a gif, but it was so hard and it didn’t work and it got blurry and distorted.
As I said, the button interface was inferior. Much easier to make mistakes and just less natural. There were other interface issues, or rather, the DS and 3DS versions have made many improvements over these older ones. Like automatically greying out the row numbers when you fill a row, you had to do that manually here. This version also counted down and failed you after half an hour, instead of counting up and just not registering a completion after an hour (they let you finish the puzzle but it didn’t count). So actually doing the puzzles was a worse experience and just made me wish I’d been able to do the same puzzles, but with the improved interface, rules, and controls of DS. Sigh. I got used to it though and was soon racing through them.
Of course, the interface of NP was not without its charms. Its different presentation was novel and colourful, compared to the rather flat DS one. The puzzles were presented on book pages, with a character-approproate background for the NIntendo puzzles (in vol 1-5), and the cursor was alternately a crayon or pencil. Of course, DS had a series of themed puzzle tiles (although the Mario brick one for Extra was unintuitive and hurt my eyes!), and its DLC packs (I assume) all used the Mario’s Picross-style archeological chipping at stone theme. So they each have their unique features.
For that reason, I’m glad I played the Nintendo puzzles in their original form. I still feel cheated but ha! I emulated your games for free! How do you like that, Nintendo! Ugh, I’m a bad person aren’t I?
Yeah so Picross is loads of fun! It’s relaxing to just follow these logic rules for puzzles. There’s plenty of versions of it on the iOS App Store, so go pick one up (there’s even free ones). I was introduced to the concept by “Shady Puzzles” for iPhone. Or get Picross-e, it’s quite good. In that case, if you’re unlucky enough to be American, well nuts to you! Now you know how we feel about Earthbound and countless other games! (Quick note about -e compared to DS: smoother interface, less puzzles, non-animated solutions.) It was so nice to see these cameos, it’s the same reason I like Tetris DS. Enhance the concept with IP dressing. Recipe for success. Ok thanks for reading guys!
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