in a series that contains some of the most charming games perhaps ever made, it was probably always destined that i would not find the first picross game for the ds particularly interesting. 3d and especially 3d round 2 have so much going for them and are some all time favourites for me. so i was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed myself here.

this is my first time encountering 2d picross puzzles, and they are just so much fun to suss out. easy to get into, and easy to get lost in. what it lacks in charm or a particularly memorable soundtrack, it more than makes up for in simplicity and plain ol fun.

Picross is great, but this one hasn't aged the greatest. And despite being released closer in time to the 3DS games, it is an old-school Picross at heart. Perhaps Jupiter wasn't quite sure of what to do with the Picross "formula", and/or maybe by Nintendo's request had to utilize various DS features that don't really make that much sense here otherwise (Rumble Pak functionality?). Thankfully, they've since figured out a solid set of modes and options with the 3DS and Switch games, but much of what they added to this one is very hit or miss, as cute as they may be.

The level editor, downloadable packs, online and local multiplayer, introduction of touch controls (with both toggle and hold!), unique level themes and animations for every individual puzzle, rock. The devs took care to really flesh out these features and additional bits of flavor to make the game as accessible as possible. Yet there's a lot of crust. Too much for one pizza. For example, the UI is pretty dated and has this very confused sense of design. Almost as if it was trying to be a pseudo-desktop app with its motifs. There's an X button that shows up with yes or no questions that serves zero purpose of its own. I appreciate being given the option between "Yes", "No", and "Fuck Off", but these weird "extra" things the game does are silly. The minigames are in the same boat, they suck and really hammer in that early-DS-must-use-touchscreen-technology-at-all-costs problem. Though I guess the sketch one is alright and holds some relevance to Picross.

Worse than those though, while the hint number auto check was added to this game (I think?), it only works when you close off all surrounding squares or solve a line of numbers completely. So it becomes rather easy to miss a spot and screw up elsewhere on larger puzzles, especially when a level's theme is visually noisy and especially when the zoom feature gives you insane tunnel vision. Unfortunately, the zoom tool is the only option you have for tackling the larger puzzles with touch controls as well. I honestly found this made touch controls unusable on the 20x20 and 25x20 Free puzzles because it really made making mistakes (and having to fix them) so much more common. And as for visually noisy themes, some of the levels have terrible color choices for the overlays/Try It Out mode, which doesn't help.

Also the music for the main game sucks, it's bootleg Pokémon crap that drives you insane after you've heard it loop twice. There are a few nice themes, notably in isolation and not on repeat, but there were three Now Production composers on this, so I'm not sure why the music is as shallow as it is. Picross games usually don't have that much music, so becoming grating is always a possibility, but I can easily listen to Yuka Tsujiyoko's work in the e and S games for hours and Toshiyuki Ueno's songs in the SNES and GB games are great too. There is a comparatively high amount of music outside of the main game as well, so it's somewhat baffling that limiting the player's choice of music to three songs was done where it arguably matters the most.

Overall, the sleekness of this game is nice, but Jupiter couldn't quite get it as sleek enough here like they have since. Normal and Free modes are simply not diverse enough and many of the additional adds don't serve to keep me playing much more than they have (I'm looking at you, Daily Picross). Perhaps this is part of the reason it's taken me almost a decade of playing this on and off to 100% it, but hey it's also the first Picross I've finished. So yay!

Shame that it's arguably one of the weakest in the series, because it definitely tries not to be. It's still great!

I do not like this Picross game. I mean, the puzzles are fine, and there is a good amount to due, but it all just feels very lackluster to me compared to other picross games. First the graphics, as while they do feel very touch generation like, which was this games target, even then they feel still bland and generic. The side modes also are not the best and feel as if they where just kind of added to make the game "more." Overall it is still picross, but there are much better looking and feeling games.