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GoNintendo 'End of Day' thought - Reader Review - Picross e

by rawmeatcowboy
16 July 2013
GN Version 4.0


Man, the sunny weather and beach activities sure make you tired! I'm running on fumes here. Time to head to bed and recharge. See you in a few, short hours!

Time for another reader review, this one with a bit more traditional approach. We had a hardware accessory review last week, but now we have a review of Picross e from TheDreamingHawk. Is this title a worthy purchase for Picross fans? Have a read and see for yourself!

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Picross E is a eshop title that is the first in a trilogy of picross games. Being a fan of mario picross and hearing a TON of people demand jupiter to release the game in the states, I was curious and wanted to try it out when it arrived. Sadly to say, it's not nearly as good as Mario's picross. I'll explain why in a bit.

First off, the controls. They work OK, though the button controls work a lot better. Using the stylus on the bigger puzzles tends to cause misplacement a lot more than needed.

And for the music... Well, it's a picross game, so obviously I'm not expecting a amazing OST of the likes of YS and Pokemon mystery dungeon, but there's only really one track in the game during the puzzles (There are a few more for menus).. And that track is really, REALLY repetitive and gets on your nerves fast. It's a shame compared to mario picross and that game letting you choose what track you want to use.

But the main meat of the game is the gameplay and puzzles. There are a few modes: Easy (Which has very small puzzles) Normal (Which has a few bigger ones) Free mode (Which has puzzles that DON'T give you notification if you make an error,) and EXTRA: Same as the free mode but with bigger puzzles. Easy mode works and plays well, and normal mode does too, but I have to state a big flaw with the whole game: when looking on the touch screen Where you do the puzzles, you can't tell a idea on what shape you actually are doing until the very end... This takes away the magic of the game for me. For example, if I work on the sandwich puzzle for a while, even right before I put in the last piece, I can barely tell what on earth I am even trying to create until I complete it. In Mario's picross if you got an idea you could just go ahead and finish it right away, which made it more fun.

But onto the free and extra modes, which has my BIGGEST problem. It does not tell you your errors. Therefore, you could try all day trying to solve a puzzle, and not know WHAT you are doing that's wrong. It only completes the puzzle when you actually somehow do it right. But with the earlier problem of not being able to identify the puzzle until the very end, it's almost a boring chore just to complete it. It's just not as fun.

So in total, picross E is sadly not a good picross game compared to the already amazing mario picross already out. Luckily Picross E2 seems to fix my problems with the game, so I'll give that one a try in a little while when it arrives in NA. In total, I give Picross E a 4 out of 10

PROS:
-Good control
-Fun easy and normal mode

CONS:
-Bad music
-Stylus control a little bad on giant puzzles
-Inability to tell what you are making on the touch screen
- Extra and free mode is way too unforgiving