I kind of wish the Switch Online app told me how much time I spent on this game because man, it kept me entertained for ages! But ultimately I have to admit that there’s a point where even if the game is great my poor number hating brain goes “fuck all this counting, man, I don’t know what’s going on here. Please, let’s stop.” For me it happened around unlocking Wario Ultra and trying those puzzles.

I don’t really consider that a huge knock against the game’s quality though since there’s a whole lot of puzzles to get through before that point. There’s more content for the real picrossheads out there! I can be sated with what I have.

My one actual criticism is not enough actual Mario content. I feel like the old school Mario sprites would’ve made great Picross puzzles, but at the same time I think this game came out at that weird point in time when the NES Mario sprites were too new to be nostalgic and not new enough to be cool. There were some new hotness Wario Land enemies, at least, and the art that is included is very charming, especially when it comes with animations. I don’t know, maybe there’s more Mario content in Wario Ultra but like, I’m kinda done, honestly… which is kind of a shame, because it’s the perfect game to play for a bit when your Switch battery is <15%.