Picross DS for the Nintendo DS
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October 24, 2007:
I absolutely love Picross. This title is by no means the first of the series. There is Mario Picross (1995) for the original Gameboy, Super Picross (1995) for the Super Famicom, and a series of 8 puzzle packs for the Super Famicom (1999), all by a company called Jupiter.
This title completely blew all its predecessors out of the water. Not only do you have more puzzles than any single other title, they added a "free mode" (where you aren't told if you make a mistake), head-to-head play through the Nintendo WiFi network or locally with friends, downloadable puzzle packs, and more.
Also is the addition of "Daily Picross," in which you try to play 5 short puzzles as quickly as possible and it tracks your progress in a variety of different mode. The DS stylus makes finishing small picross puzzles quickly very easy.
Unfortunately the Stylus doesn't play very well with the large puzzles. Since the squares on the screen are so small, it forces you to zoom in to use the stylus, which means you can't see the whole board. You can switch to the classic way of filling in blocks, which I prefer for the larger puzzles.
The online play is incredibly addicting and fun. Your rank is based on how many consecutive games you can win in a row. Some people can play over 1000 games and still be a beginner. I've played just over 100 and I've gotten to 'Advanced' status, which requires 20 wins in a row. The only downside to playing online is, like all online games, cheating. It's very obvious to find out who is cheating, because they have an incredible record ('champion' status) and when they start to play, they go 5-6 seconds without making a single move, then zip through the whole thing incredibly fast. This is obviously so they can look up the puzzle answer. I've run into champions before that don't display this pattern of behavior. These are the true champions. I almost beat one, once :)
Overall, totally worth the $19.99 retail. It will provide me many many hours of fun.
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