Picross: Almost as addicting as Tetris. Seriously.
DoubleUp
85% score
Picross DS is certainly one of the better puzzle games ever created. When I read the description of the game on the back of the box before I had played it, I was confused as to how the game worked. However, after seeing the extremely helpful tutorial, it all made sense to me. Besides each row is a number or numbers, which indicates how many squares you must fill in for that row. If there is more than one number, that means there is a space between the squares in that row. I know that it all sounds confusing, but the in-game tutorial does a good job of explaining it.
There are several modes in the game, but two main ones are Normal mode Picross and Free mode Picross. Normal mode makes you try to solve the puzzle in the fastest amount of time, and time is added on when you make a mistake (you have a max of 60 minutes to complete the puzzle). In Free mode, your goal is again to complete the puzzle in the fastest amount of time, but this time you are not told when you make a mistake, making Free mode tougher than Normal mode. Besides those two modes, you can also do Daily Picross, where you complete various challenges once per day, compete against others on Wi-Fi, and create your own puzzles. I must say that for a puzzle game, Picross DS has a lot to offer.
Okay enough explanations, its time for me to tell you the good and bad of Picross DS. First of all, Picross DS is extremely addictive, almost as addictive as Tetris (but not quite). I find myself playing "one more puzzle" many times. Also, there is a great abundance of puzzles to be played in both Normal and Free mode, which keep you (and me) going for a long while. I think that the music is wonderful, but I wish they had more than one track so you could choose a song like in Tetris. Oh well, I still like the one song anyway. It's very soothing and fits perfectly into the game.
Now for the controls: personally I like using both the stylus and the control pad & buttons, but I usually use the latter because sometimes I play in the car, and whenever the car hits a bump I mess up when using the stylus. :( I can't really tell you about the Wi-Fi battles, seeing as I have never done one before, but I'm sure they're fun. I also enjoy making my own puzzles, but I'm sure someone much more creative than me would have even more fun with it.
Okay, now for the bad news: for one, the penalties for your mistakes are way too harsh. The first mistake adds 2 mins, the second adds 4 mins, the third adds 8 mins, the fourth adds 16 mins, and so on. That can be a problem, seeing as you only have 60 minutes to finish the puzzle. So, if you make four mistakes, you get a total of 30 minutes added on. Ouch. Besides that, Picross DS actually doesn't have a high replay value, or at least in my view. Even though there are many puzzles, playing a puzzle over again just isn't as fun because you already know what picture the puzzle creates. Also, there are three little minigames found in Normal mode, which are actually a little pathetic.
Bottom Line:
Before I wrote this review, I noticed one other review for Picross DS that gave it a 0.25. I knew right then that the author had obviously never played the game and was just trying to mess up the average reader score. That really and truly pisses me off, because Picross DS is a fun and addictive game overall, and does not deserve such treatment as that.
