Picross DS Review

Picross DS, oh Picross DS. How I love thee. Are you the type who enjoys puzzles like Sudoku and crosswords? No? OH WELL! You must give Picross DS a try!
~Gameplay~

As you already may know, Picross is the counter attack to Sudoku and other similar puzzles. It involves drawing in squares on a grid to make a picture. On each column and row of the grid, it tells you numbers of squares that go in that...column or row. Say it said “5”... you would fill in this:

¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

Correct? Now, what if the row or column said “2,2”? You couldn’t do this:

¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ? , or this: ¦ ? ¦ ¦ ¦ , just because 2 and 2 adds up to four. No.

If it told you “2,2”, you would still have to keep those squares in groups of 2. Not 4, or 3 and 1, not anything else! Just

¦ ¦ ? ¦ ¦

Now, you would have to that for each column and row. It may sound difficult, but in truth, it isn’t at all. Picross DS gives a...very lengthy tutorial. Plus, making that final image is very rewarding.

In the beginning of the game, everything is quite easy (well shouldn’t it be? :P), with only 10x10 grids, and corrections you when you place a block in the wrong spot. But, when you do screw up and place a block in the wrong spot, it will correct it as I said already, but it will add several minutes to your timer. And if that timer reaches 1 hour, you get nothing for completing that puzzle. Zilch.

Later on in the game, grids can go up to 20x20 blocks (trust me it is HARD), and you will unlock a Free Mode, which does NOT correct your mistakes. If your block is in the wrong spot, you won’t know. It is EVIL!

Picross DS offers some sweet nifty extras to do instead of the full out puzzles. Like with just about every puzzle made after Brain Age, there is a setting for Daily Training, that shows your speed and accuracy while making certain types of puzzles. You can even create your own puzzles, then send those to friends via Wifi connection.

Speaking of Wifi, Picross DS can actually compare to the wifi play of Tetris DS. After a large period of waiting, you are paired up with some random player to see who can race through the five or so puzzles the fastest. Trying to accomplish the puzzles faster than the other guy is always fun, but for me, they are always WAY quicker than me. I guess I am not the speedy type. :/

Picross DS is actually a reincarnation of a GBC title, Mario’s Picross, which unfortunately never sold well in America, which is a shame. Picross DS can actually let you download sets of puzzles from Mario’s Picross via Wifi. MORE PUZZLES! YAY!
~Graphics~

Picross DS could pull off being a fun game with only two colors. Seriously. That fact aside, Picross rose above the rest, and has very detailed animations, quite a few sets of block themes and appearences. And of course, lush backgrounds.
~Music~

This game is perfect with the volume off. The main puzzles have several options for music, such as Jazz, New Wave Bossa, Reggae, so on, but in my opinion, they all sound like elevator music with a higher BPM. The only music I really enjoy in Picross are the ones that play for the original Mario’s Picross puzzles.

As for sound effects, they sound great. The only one I think is a con is the one that sounds when you draw a block in the Garden themed puzzle. It makes a squish kinda sound, which can get really annoying.
~Controls~

Picross DS gives two methods of control. One for the touch screen, and one for the buttons and arrows (don’t worry southpaws, there are left hand options as always). I always use the touch screen control method, it works like a charm! The only annoying thing about it is that your stylus can slip and draw blocks and X’s in unwanted places, which can be quite frustrating in later levels where you can get 10 minute time penalties for one misplaced block. The button control method only really comes in handy for the very intricate puzzles, for the sole reason as because it won’t slip.

Choosing to place blocks and placing X’s, and choosing to zoom and move the board (for puzzles bigger than 10x10), is all done by tapping one of the four buttons in the top left corner of the screen, or by pressing one of the four face buttons (if you happen to be using the button scheme). The way of doing this isn’t perfect, but it still works fine enough to beat the puzzles without any major difficulty.
~Difficulty~

Some puzzles are as easy as hell, some make you want to...do something very very bad... The puzzles are quite varied for each level, which is a little strange. But the game has puzzles of every difficulty. So, it can basically appeal to people of any age, which is good. Um...yeah.
~Replay Value~

Picross DS has it’s on and off times. Sometimes you avoid it for a few months or so, sometimes you play it every day. The puzzles don’t have that much fun level to keep you playing for hours on end, but enough for a good 30 minutes or so. This game only really gets old when you finish every puzzle. But, that would take quite some time!
~Length~

Finally, PERFECTION! This game has dozens upon dozens of puzzles. And even when you are done with those, you can still get the original Mario’s Picross puzzles. This game is ENDLESS!
~Overall~

Gameplay: 9/10 Great, fun new kind of puzzle!

Graphics: 8/10 Didn’t need to be anything great, but they are!

Music: 5/10 Annoying.

Controls: 7/10 A bit bland.

Difficulty: 9/10 GWEAT!

Replay Value: 8/10 Not quite fun enough to be playing all the time.

Length: 10/10 Picross DS will have you playing it for a LLOONNGG time. Which is wonderful! Short games fail.

Overall: 8/10

Regardless if you are a die hard puzzle fan or not, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Picross DS. It does have it’s flaws, but everything else in the game makes up for it. Besides, it’s only 20 bucks.