very smart reinterpretation of traditional picross in 3D that fits perfectly on the DS. those familiar with picross will find this game easy to understand at the beginning but with its own set of idioms to be learned compared to when playing in 2D. unlike the classic jupiter picross games, this one limits you to five mistakes before failing rather than mistakes adding on time to the timer. I also felt like the timers here were much more generous, though it takes some quick thinking to finish quick enough to gain a star in this game's form of a ranking system. by accumulating stars via finishing without mistakes or by finishing quickly, a silver and gold bonus puzzle for each rank is unlocked, which ends up being about 60 extra puzzles in all (I didn't do most of these). there's also a variety of special challenges in between ranks, including ones where you start with a short timer and have to extend it by breaking blocks quickly as well as larger objects made up of many small puzzles. there's a real kinetic feel to chipping away at blocks in this game that you don't quite get when it's in 2D.
my major criticism is that the difficulty scaling sort of peters out around the middle of Normal. there aren't too many new ideas to keep track of beyond that point other than the occasional cheap moments where you're forced to guess which blocks need to be removed (though this game follows symmetry a lot more frequently than the 2D puzzles). you can tell they had to work to wring challenge at all out of the concept as each puzzle has number hints specifically removed from certain columns and rows, unlike in regular picross where each row and column has a number hint without exceptions. it makes this game feel a little more scriptd in how each puzzle is solved, which isn't necessarily bad but definitely contributes to the aforementioned issue.
regardless, definitely a good choice to pop onto an SD card and play while something else is on in the background. the DS is hand-built for these kinds of interesting puzzle concepts.
my major criticism is that the difficulty scaling sort of peters out around the middle of Normal. there aren't too many new ideas to keep track of beyond that point other than the occasional cheap moments where you're forced to guess which blocks need to be removed (though this game follows symmetry a lot more frequently than the 2D puzzles). you can tell they had to work to wring challenge at all out of the concept as each puzzle has number hints specifically removed from certain columns and rows, unlike in regular picross where each row and column has a number hint without exceptions. it makes this game feel a little more scriptd in how each puzzle is solved, which isn't necessarily bad but definitely contributes to the aforementioned issue.
regardless, definitely a good choice to pop onto an SD card and play while something else is on in the background. the DS is hand-built for these kinds of interesting puzzle concepts.