This was part of the most recent addition of games to the Switch Online SNES game service, and I was pretty excited to see it. While it was quite weird that the Western SNES service got it and the Japanese SFC service did not, I love me some Picross, and I've had a lot of fun with Mario's Picross on the GameBoy, so this has been something I've wanted to try for a long time. 300 puzzles over the course of a few weeks later, I finished this one XD. It's difficult to really give much of an estimate for this one, but I'd guess this took me at least 25+ hours to 100% complete if not more.

Super Mario's Picross is, for the most part, just what it appears to be. It's a Picross game that has Super Mario-themed presentation, but not really puzzles for the most part. There's a few more Mario-themed puzzles in the few dozen puzzles you unlock after you beat the first 260 or so (the ones you need to beat to see the credits), but other than that, it's mostly just mundane objects, places, things, etc. That's not really a strike against the game, but it was just something in the presentation I was surprised by.

The game has two kinds of puzzles to complete: Mario puzzles and Wario puzzles. You unlock the Wario puzzles as soon as you complete the first dozen (or rather, the first "level") of the Mario puzzles. Mario's puzzles have a 30 minute time limit and you get time taken away from your remaining total every time you make a mistake. Wario's puzzles have no time limit, but also have no hint feature. While Wario's have no hint feature, they DO have a kind of trial-and-error mode you can toggle on, which lets you experiment with a new type of marker and you can choose to either erase or commit those choices when you're finished with that guessing mode. It's a neat feature, but I mostly just used save-states and rewinds to do the same thing XP

The biggest issues with the game largely come down to its age and the lack of quality of life features it has. Moving up from being a GameBoy game, this game has more detailed graphics, of course, but that isn't always in the game's favor. I frequently found myself simply not seeing what was or wasn't an X'd spot because they can blend in with one another when you're on the bigger Picross boards. Beyond that, this game also doesn't mark off the numbers on the edge of the board for you. You need to do that yourself. That lacking QoL feature is probably the #1 reason I'd have trouble recommending this game, because it's a big adjustment from more modern Picross experiences (of which there is no shortage of free editions of), as marking them off yourself is time consuming and keeping track of them in your head is annoying.

The game's presentation is fine, but a little underwhelming. Mario and Wario will talk to you after you beat a world, and Wario's dialogue especially can be quite funny, but there isn't that much unique dialogue. It's mostly just "you beat a world, now try the next one" unless it's the last puzzles in the game. There're only about a dozen music tracks in the game, and they're usually fine but nothing special. Wario's 3rd song is also very weirdly sleepy, and given that it takes place during levels 8-10 (out of 11 base ones), you're gonna be hearing it a lot (unless you change to one of the previous tracks or just turn the music off and put something on yourself). I took to calling it the "Picross Lullaby" XD. It's also worth mentioning, in closing, that this is a pretty lousy first Picross game if you don't speak Japanese, as since there ARE tutorials, they're all in Japanese XP.

Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. This is a fine Picross game, but I don't think there's anything that massively special about it other than it being free on the Switch Online service. The Mario/Wario theming is fun at times, but you need to be able to read Japanese to really get much out of it, and the lack of quality of life features make it a chore to play at times compared to more recent Picross games (both free and not-free). If you want Picross to play this can certainly scratch that itch, but there is such a great amount of easier to enjoy Picross out there that I don't think most people will be missing much by skipping this one.

it's just hilarious to me that this game was played on a tv console back when it was released, when this would be a mobile game if released new today. it's as if i'd turn on my ps4 to play merge mansion

what i like about this compared to most modern picross games is that the game doesn't directly tell you if you have all the squares marked right, you gotta keep an eye out yourself that you actually got all the 2s in the 2 2 2 2 2 row, etc. because like, some picross games make it inherently easier for you by automatically marking the numbers you already got and/or by automatically X'ing out the blank ones in the row if you have technically completed it. i like the extra challenge of having to check my work lol

Something I am obligated to state at the beginning of any Picross game I ever review, is that I am very, very, VERY, bias. I love Picross puzzles to death and THIS GAME FROM 1995, does the puzzles, aesthetics, and difficulty progression better then a lot of the more recent games in its genre. The issue that I have with it however, is in the fact that it doesn't really feel as if this is "Mario's" Picross; instead being simply a very good "Anyone's" Picross. As in, I would have been happier if the puzzles where more related to the Mario IP, such as characters or items from Mario games showing up as solutions to the puzzles. Because as it is, this is really just a generic picross game, with the side note that YOU are playing as Mario, a fact that is easy to forget. Regardless however, this is still a very well made Picross game, and great for individuals like me looking for more puzzles to quell the addiction.

Let it be known I completed every single puzzle in this game. All 300 of them. 87 grueling hours.

This game was my personal demon. Each time I thought I had finished it for good, it came back with more puzzles and a swift, painful kick to my ribcage. I am fully convinced the final levels of this game were originally designed as some kind of MKUltra-like test of mental endurance and simply stuck into this game by accident.

But I did it. Kiss my ass, Mario's Super Picross. May you burn in hell where you belong.