As far as the actual gameplay, it's pretty good. I mean who doesn't enjoy picross. And being able to capture pokemon and use their special abilities is a nice twist, if not the most obvious tweak you could make with this concept.

The real issue with this game lies in its progression. Progression is locked behind two things: energy and picrites. Energy just limits how many squares you can place in a given time period, but with enough upgrades it's a manageable roadblock.

The real issue with this game is the picrites, which are tbe main currency you use to progress in this game. It's very obvious this game was designed with microtransactions in mind, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, I've been playing this game as optimally as possible every day for almost a month, trying to conserve as many picrites as possible for progression. I've made it to World 6 out of 30. If I wanted to actually complete this game without the microtransactions (which is no longer possible since the 3DS e-shop closure) I've estimated it would take me another year of grinding for picrites every day. Ain't nobody got time for that.

So while it was certainly fun to play for a little while, and I may pick it back up every now and again, I'm certainly not willing to invest the time it would take to complete it, as much as I adore this game's concept. Granted, it was free to download, but I would much much rather pay £5 for a game with much more natural progression.

While the platforming, puzzles, and bosses don't offer much of a challenge for anyone over the age of 10, it was still an overall enjoyable experience helped by the additional goal of gathering as many collectibles as possible. The low difficulty may be part of the reason why it took me almost a year to finish this game, but for months I knew I could come to this game I'd I wanted to turn my brain off and just look at the cute Yoshi and pretty colours. If you're looking for a similar but better experience, I'd recommend any 2D Mario platformer in its stead, but if you're prepared for a laid-back experience without much depth, this is by no means one of the worse WiiU titles you could play