digibutter.nerr

[Francis]

Picross DS is a puzzle game for DS published by Nintendo. A sequel to Mario's Picross for the original Game Boy released back in 1995. I had never played the original, but I decided to pick this game up due to the good reviews (83), low price ($19.95 US), and I enjoyed the adaption at http://wiipicross.com.

The game is basically a cross between Minesweeper and Sudoku. You must mark the correct tiles on the board. The numbers on the rows and columns tell you how many marks there should be. So by the process of elimination (or error) you eventually make all mark all the correct spots. The puzzle always makes kind of image and when you finish you get to watch it come to life. The game keeps track of your time, and any wrong moves results in penalty time added.



There are a few other modes.
Daily Picross gives you 5 puzzles to do a day, and it tracks your performance over time (like a brain-training game).
Picross Challenge connects to WiFi to challenge a friend or a random player. Whoever completes two puzzles first wins. (My guess is that this will eventually be cheat-able because of the finite number of puzzles). I think when you play friends, you can draw over their puzzle to mess with them.
My Picross lets you play downloaded puzzles (not available yet). It also lets you create your own puzzles to play share with friends. Here is a puzzle I created


Picross DS is a great pick-up-and-play game. The core game is addicting and satisfying. On my recent vacation my whole family constantly played it. The puzzles can be challenging but not too hard, and you can always save your progress and come back later if you are stuck. The downsides to this game is that sometimes you accidentally mark the wrong tile (especially in a bumpy car ride) and the controls to switch between mark, zoom, and scroll can be kinda clunky. Here is my breakdown of the various areas:

Gameplay/Controls: Very addicting and rewarding puzzles. The grids can be hard to work with on the larger puzzles since you have to zoom in and scroll around. If you are not careful you can tap the wrong spot which penalizes you. There is the option to play with the dpad and buttons too which is more accurate but slower. Creating your own puzzle is easy and it will even create a puzzle automatically from your drawing.
Presentation: Very simple and clean interface (almost too simple). Each level of puzzles has it's own theme (like fruit or plants) and when you tap the grid it looks like you are peeling an apple or cutting grass. A few gripes I have is that you have to disconnect and reconnect from WiFi to change from challenge mode to puzzle sharing mode. Also, you can only have one saved puzzle-progress and it only records the highest score without a name.
Sound: It consists of mostly elevator music and simple sound effects. You will probably tire of the music and turn it off which is ok because no sound is required to play.
Lasting Appeal: There are about 300 puzzles so it should last you a while unless you go on a marathon run to complete them all in a few sittings. And even then you can always try to beat your times. The WiFi features should keep the game fresh for a long time too.

I rate this game a chocolate iced donut.
Try before you buy at http://wiipicross.com

[Lord Bob]

I got kinda bored after like the first sentence.

[Sam]

1st comment!

i might get this game.. im not sure though, not a fan of puzzlish games.

EDIT: DAM YOU BOB!

[Super Hario]

[Francis]

[Super Maiq the Liar]

You people sure love that emoticon.

[Super ShadowArticuno]

[Popple]

I tired this at a download station today and I've been thinking about getting it.

[roboiago]

I'm really looking forward to getting this game.

Chocolate iced donut? That just sealed the deal XD

[vg]

I might get this, but I already have at least five books on the same game. I still need to get through those first.

[Gengar]

20 bucks? that rocks. i love picross