The objective of Picopict is to move coloured blocks from the bottom of the touch screen under falling blocks of corresponding colors. If a shape is made using the added block, the blocks add to an image on the top screen. For example, if players form a red block sequence, the image will gain as many red blocks as has been cleared, assuming that the any blocks of that colour remain to be added. If blocks fall as a result of clearing blocks that were attached to it, they are added to the blocks at the bottom and can be used, though a special variety of block exists that cannot be picked up, forcing players to either clear them before they land or wait for the right blocks to fall on them. As players clear more blocks, they will eventually form an image. These images are of 8-bit renditions of characters from NES games, such as Mario, Link, and Bowser.
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More digital games I've owned forever! Pictobits is a game that I ported over from my DSi that I actually got for free. It was one of a few games my DSi's previous own had bought, but I guess the people at Gamestop didn't wipe the DSi correctly, so I could just redownload what they'd bought off of the eShop. Score! It's the only one of Nintendo's old Art Style series of puzzle games (of which AJ is a huge fan) that I own, and I thought it was about time that I see it through to the end. Many years ago I finished 11 of the 30 stages, and this time I finished the rest (as well as replayed all the old ones). All in all, it took me about 2 or 3 hours to play through the whole game.
The concept of Pictobits is that you're matching colored sets of descending blocks on the bottom screen that then form 8-bit pictures that appear in the upper screen. Block are picked up and put down again by tapping them with the stylus, and oddly enough you put them down in the order you picked them up, like you're stacking them in a tower (e.g. pick up red, blue, then white, the first one you'll be putting down is white). You can match blocks in horizontal and vertical lines of four or longer, or of rectangles of 2x2 or higher. The thing is, that you can only match blocks with the ones descending from the top of the screen, and those sets of blocks will freeze in place (turning into normal blocks you can pick up) once they come in contact with anything. This means that you can get filled up with clutter REALLY quick if you aren't fast on your feet, especially in the last 20 or so levels.
You have some emergency buttons though. You can tap the POW feature to wipe away the bottom two rows of blocks as well as send all floating blocks rocketing to their lowest possible position (at the cost of one unit of your maximum amount of held bits), but you can also get those carry positions back by spending 5 coins (which are earned when a match is made). It's a really addicting little game, if a tad frustrating in the hardest levels.
The levels themselves are based off of old NES games. The big recognizable ones are Marios 1 and 3 as well as Zelda 1, but there are also some less common ones like Wrecking Crew, Excitebike, and Ice Climbers. There's even a pair of levels dedicated to Nintendo's own NES "Baseball". The bits create the picture on the top image in tune to the music, which is composed of slight remixes of classic themes from the game whose picture you're building. The music ranges from good to pretty damn good, and the credits music especially is fantastic.
The game isn't entirely perfect though. I say the last 20 levels are hard, because there are 15 normal stages, and then each has a "dark world" version, which is really just a whole new level based on that game as well. To unlock them, you need to spend your saved up coins on the menu screen (you also unlock tracks in the jukebox this way on the title screen). The coins feel really unnecessary in this regard. Unlocking these stages requires a not super painful but still present amount of grinding stages over and over for coins because of how expensive the later ones are, and it feels really unnecessary. There's already a feature on every level where if you complete it fast enough with a high enough score you get a star-rank near your high score. Why not have those unlock the dark world stages? Very puzzling bit of design there that, while certainly not deal breaking, brings a tinge of annoyance to an otherwise really fluid, fun experience.
The other complaints I have are mechanical. If you have any difficulty differentiating colors quickly, this game will likely irritate you immensely. There are some levels where the colors you're dealing with are VERY similar in color (like a dull white and a light grey), and I cannot tell you the amount of times I had to restart a harder stage because I'd mixed up two very close colors.
The other annoying thing is that you pick up and place blocks on a grid, but that grid is invisible, so if you're trying to set up a big chain for the incoming blocks, you may well mis-tap the screen and end up putting down something in the wrong place or nothing at all because of a slight miscalculation. This irritation goes the same with picking up blocks. There was many a time where I put down a block only to realize it was the wrong color because I'd mistakenly picked up two before when I meant to pick up one. The controls are generally fine, and they certainly don't make the game unenjoyable, but they will very likely irritate you a handful of times if you wanna see the end of the dark world levels. I don't think they could really be any better with the control mechanism being the way it is. It's more of a necessary evil of how this game's concept demands its execution to be done, and it's about as good as it could possibly be outside of providing an in-game grid for reference (which would've been really nice, if I'm honest).
Verdict: Highly Recommended. Pictobits is a game that isn't exactly as ingeniously addictive as Tetris, but it manages to make something interesting and engaging out of that tried and true "dropping blocks" puzzle formula with a fantastic presentation layered on top to boot. It's something you should absolutely give a look if you have $5 to drop on the 3DS eShop for a good score attack time killer ^w^
The concept of Pictobits is that you're matching colored sets of descending blocks on the bottom screen that then form 8-bit pictures that appear in the upper screen. Block are picked up and put down again by tapping them with the stylus, and oddly enough you put them down in the order you picked them up, like you're stacking them in a tower (e.g. pick up red, blue, then white, the first one you'll be putting down is white). You can match blocks in horizontal and vertical lines of four or longer, or of rectangles of 2x2 or higher. The thing is, that you can only match blocks with the ones descending from the top of the screen, and those sets of blocks will freeze in place (turning into normal blocks you can pick up) once they come in contact with anything. This means that you can get filled up with clutter REALLY quick if you aren't fast on your feet, especially in the last 20 or so levels.
You have some emergency buttons though. You can tap the POW feature to wipe away the bottom two rows of blocks as well as send all floating blocks rocketing to their lowest possible position (at the cost of one unit of your maximum amount of held bits), but you can also get those carry positions back by spending 5 coins (which are earned when a match is made). It's a really addicting little game, if a tad frustrating in the hardest levels.
The levels themselves are based off of old NES games. The big recognizable ones are Marios 1 and 3 as well as Zelda 1, but there are also some less common ones like Wrecking Crew, Excitebike, and Ice Climbers. There's even a pair of levels dedicated to Nintendo's own NES "Baseball". The bits create the picture on the top image in tune to the music, which is composed of slight remixes of classic themes from the game whose picture you're building. The music ranges from good to pretty damn good, and the credits music especially is fantastic.
The game isn't entirely perfect though. I say the last 20 levels are hard, because there are 15 normal stages, and then each has a "dark world" version, which is really just a whole new level based on that game as well. To unlock them, you need to spend your saved up coins on the menu screen (you also unlock tracks in the jukebox this way on the title screen). The coins feel really unnecessary in this regard. Unlocking these stages requires a not super painful but still present amount of grinding stages over and over for coins because of how expensive the later ones are, and it feels really unnecessary. There's already a feature on every level where if you complete it fast enough with a high enough score you get a star-rank near your high score. Why not have those unlock the dark world stages? Very puzzling bit of design there that, while certainly not deal breaking, brings a tinge of annoyance to an otherwise really fluid, fun experience.
The other complaints I have are mechanical. If you have any difficulty differentiating colors quickly, this game will likely irritate you immensely. There are some levels where the colors you're dealing with are VERY similar in color (like a dull white and a light grey), and I cannot tell you the amount of times I had to restart a harder stage because I'd mixed up two very close colors.
The other annoying thing is that you pick up and place blocks on a grid, but that grid is invisible, so if you're trying to set up a big chain for the incoming blocks, you may well mis-tap the screen and end up putting down something in the wrong place or nothing at all because of a slight miscalculation. This irritation goes the same with picking up blocks. There was many a time where I put down a block only to realize it was the wrong color because I'd mistakenly picked up two before when I meant to pick up one. The controls are generally fine, and they certainly don't make the game unenjoyable, but they will very likely irritate you a handful of times if you wanna see the end of the dark world levels. I don't think they could really be any better with the control mechanism being the way it is. It's more of a necessary evil of how this game's concept demands its execution to be done, and it's about as good as it could possibly be outside of providing an in-game grid for reference (which would've been really nice, if I'm honest).
Verdict: Highly Recommended. Pictobits is a game that isn't exactly as ingeniously addictive as Tetris, but it manages to make something interesting and engaging out of that tried and true "dropping blocks" puzzle formula with a fantastic presentation layered on top to boot. It's something you should absolutely give a look if you have $5 to drop on the 3DS eShop for a good score attack time killer ^w^
acceptable gamer drugs for 10 year olds
I think this game is ok. The music is really awesome, but the gameplay just isn't that fun. The graphics do have a certain charm to them, though.
Why is it most falling block games Nintendo makes tend out good?
Take THAT, Roger Ebert!