About three months ago I started playing nothing but Picross on my Switch, whether that's a sign of me losing interest in the system or me growing older is up for interpretation. Essentially my version of when my grandma played crossword puzzles for hours as she watched Monday Night Raw, except I'm playing Picross as I'm catching up with NXT. I could theoretically be playing Picross until the next ice age considering how much of it there is, but regardless...

Mario's Super Picross may as well be training from hell in preparation for the easy shit in the S Series. When I was a Picross rookie I used to think the stuff in Genesis/Master System edition were hard, but then Wario came along and slapped me in the face with shit that took me upwards of an hour to figure out, and now I'm the Picross Pope. You know what though? Good for him, Wario's a chill motherfucker with his lack of time limit and not breaking my fingers if I mark an incorrect space like that asshole Mario, who flat out expects me to have that shit on his desk by 5 o'clock sharp with a finger smashing mallet in his hands.

I'm not sure I quite like it as much as the first game on Game Boy, I don't think it's as cute, but I absolutely wouldn't be averse to playing that one again if it shows up on NSO, but alas Nintendo already wants to give us random shovelware titles on Game Boy, so who knows when the hell that will show up. Probably Christmas of next year if we're lucky, hopefully along with Picross 2 that I only knew existed like a few weeks ago.

Mario's Super Peakcross.

I'm not entirely sure what else to put here, but I will say that a few months ago I started trying to learn Japanese characters again and it was pretty cool when I could recognize them in here.

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

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.

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.

It's Picross with Mario in the title but barely in the game.

For the most part its a decent Picross game, you quite a lot of puzzles in it to do so it should keep you plenty busy if you're in love with Picross. The difficulty and size of the puzzle ranges from low to high and don't seem to go past 25x20 board sizes. I will mention that I typically don't care much for large boards, and do think this had a bit too many for my taste, so I stopped for now at 230 boards finished. It's worth noting there is also 2 types of boards, the first comes with time limits and allows you to spend some of it to activate a full and column, as well penalizes some time if you make a mistake. The other set does not come with a time limit, but it also does not inform you of mistakes so they take longer and are measurably harder.

A big thing though that disappoints a bit about the game is that despite being called Mario Picross, almost none of the boards are actually images related to the Mario series. This was a bit odd given what the game is titled and that it even features in the game as he congratulates you for solving puzzles. That said, some of the images feature animations when you solve them so they are still pretty neat.

Overall, if you like Picross, you'll surely like this game and it's free on Switch's SNES library if you have a Nintendo Online membership, but don't really expect it to do much with mario.