Picross e Review

Game Info:

System: Nintendo 3DS (eShop)
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1
Release Date:  September 6, 2012 (EU), At Some Point, I Guess (US)
Developer: Jupiter
Publisher: Nintendo

There sure are a lot of Picross games out there. Whether they’re calling them Picross puzzles, Nonagrams, Pixel Puzzles or Griddlers, developers have been releasing these logic puzzles in video game form since they first became popular in the early 90s. Though the concept behind Picross certainly wasn’t invented by Nintendo, the company has published numerous compilations of the puzzles over the last two decades, usually handled by Japanese developer, Jupiter. With so many different versions of the game out there, surely all the different features introduced and refinements made should result in “The Definitive Picross Game.”

That game was Picross DS. Picross e, the latest of the Jupiter-developed, Nintendo-published puzzlers, feels like a massive step backwards.

There are enough similar games out there now that Picross e really needs to stand out from the rest.

At its core, Picross e still involves deducing which squares on a grid can and can’t be filled in based on the numbers on the edges of the puzzle, ideally resulting in a pretty picture. If you can wrap your head around how it works (I’m sure the game can do a better job of explaining it than I can), it’s the kind of game you can play for five minutes on a bus trip, or end up hooked on it for hours on end. Picross DS, the previous Nintendo-published entry in the series (if we classify Picross 3D as a spin-off), added a heap of new features like downloadable puzzles, the ability to create your own puzzles and a “Daily Picross” mode straight out of the Brain Training series. All of these neat additions are missing in Picross e, even though some of them could’ve been easily improved by the shift to the 3DS. Swapping puzzles through Streetpass or downloading them through Spotpass would add plenty of replay value, but then I suppose Nintendo would rather push sales of the inevitable Picross e2. The only really new addition in Picross e is an optional “navigation” feature that highlights all the rows and columns you can place a marker in. Although it can’t be used in every puzzle, it’s definitely a helpful tool for struggling players.

The game’s presentation is very clean (read: sterile)

Picross e has 180 puzzles across different difficulty levels and gameplay styles, which I’m fairly sure all are unique to this game. Disappointingly, the maximum puzzle size is only 15×15, which is tiny when compared to some of the puzzles that have appeared in previous games in the series. At least the small sizes mean that the whole puzzle can fit on the 3DS’s lower screen, so Picross DS’s annoying reliance on scrolling around the screen is completely absent. It does make it a bit more difficult to accurately fill in boxes using the stylus (my insistence on playing the game on public transport probably didn’t help), but you can use the D-pad to navigate the puzzle if you really need to.

The real problem with Picross e isn’t that it’s lacking features from other Picross games (it is a stripped down eShop release, after all) but that it’s devoid of any sort of charm. I know a game that consists of nothing but placing dots in boxes probably doesn’t need an interesting presentation, but considering it was published by the same company that managed to make even a tutorial for setting up the 3DS’s internet connection charming, is it really too much to ask? Sure, other Picross titles aren’t exactly known for their high production values, but at least things like Picross DS’s little animations that played when you cleared a level were slightly interesting. Even Picross e’s soundtrack is boring; every puzzle is accompanied by a constant loop of weather channel-esque music that crosses the line between soothing and grating incredibly quickly.

This is actually a screenshot from Picross e2, but if it wasn’t the green colour scheme you probably wouldn’t notice.

I’d hesitate to call Picross e a “bad game” —no matter how poorly they’re presented, Picross puzzles will always be enjoyable— but when compared to other games in the series, it’s definitely a letdown. It’s a disappointment not because it lacks puzzles or isn’t worth the cost, but because it doesn’t have any ambition. And (in my personal opinion) an ultra-bland, completely unambitious game is in some ways worse than a “bad” one. If you absolutely need a downloadable Picross game on the 3DS, I would put Picross e over Mario’s Picross purely because it actually has stylus controls, but there are plenty of other, more interesting puzzle games on the system that are worth your time. Yes, Picross e is cheap and the basic gameplay is still solid, but it’s also so bare-bones and devoid of charm that you might as well be playing it on a sheet of graph paper.

Final Score: 4/10