I enjoy puzzle games, to a certain extent. Well, I enjoy puzzle games that I understand and that I can figure out, at least on a rudimentary level. I do not like sliding block puzzles, which I have mentioned in the past. The puzzle mechanics of picross (aka Nonogram) I can get behind as it reminds of Sudoku but with a picture at the end. Granted it's a pixelated picture, but it's still there.
Pokémon Picross is a "free to start" game developed by Jupiter and published by The Pokémon Company, and for a free to play game with the hint of microtransactions galore, Pokémon Picross is a great game with a surprising amount of content. From what I can tell, the only microtransaction in the game is buying gems called Picrites which allow you to refill your energy, unlock new areas with new puzzles, unlock new and tougher puzzles, or use a Pokémon whose currently resting and depending on the specific Pokémon, the resting timer can run anywhere from one hour up to 29. You are able to acquire Picrites by completing requirements for each puzzle, such as completing the puzzle under a set time, using only a certain type of Pokémon, or using a particular skill; more on Pokémon and their skills later. You can also earn 7+ Picrites by completing a timed daily puzzle that are small and a lot of fun even though you do not create pictures so much as filling in where the puzzle tells you to; it's like a mental warm up.
Pokémon Picross consists of 300 individual puzzles which you access by completing a puzzle which leads you along a predetermined path through zones/areas that have a number of puzzles. Accessing these puzzles uses a certain amount of your energy (typically ~40 for a 10x10 puzzle and ~130 for a 20x15 puzzle), of which you start out with 200 and is slowly refilled by a timer, which refills at one energy per minute.
The point of adding Pokémon into the mix is an interesting one. Once you complete a puzzle, you are able to capture that Pokémon and use them [you can use up to five after unlocking (using Picrites) additional slots] in subsequent puzzles. Their abilities vary from fixing squares that you mislabeled, revealing an area for you, slowing down the timer by 10% (or more if you have additional "Slow Time" Pokémon in play), to letting you know which lines/columns could be figured out without additional blocks being filled in. There are others of course, but no sense in listing them all hereOr, you don't have to use any of the Pokémon and solve the puzzles using your own skills, all of which are possible, but I admit that the 20x15 puzzles are pretty intimidating.
My one criticism of the game is with the larger 20x15 and 15x15 puzzles. With puzzles of this size, the grid gets to be pretty small which makes filling in blocks occasionally difficult. Sadly there is no way to zoom in on an area. There have been a number of times where I tried to fill in a specific box only to remove my mark as I was a few pixels to the left and unmarked the box to the left. Or by accidentally filling in a box I knew that wasn't supposed to contain a filled in mark, which becomes frustrating when you have a Pokémon slotted who has the ability to fix a limited number of mistakes and one of those passes is eliminated because the boxes are small in size on the screen.
Basically, Pokémon Picross is a fun if you're looking for a puzzle game that you can pick up a couple of times a day to play for 10 - 30 minutes. The fact that it's a free game that doesn't inundate you with asking you to buy an upgrade or purchase additional Picrites only makes the game more attractive. So if you have any iteration of the 3DS (3DSXL, New 3DS, 2DS), I would highly recommend getting Pokémon Picross, even if you're not familiar with the Pokémon universe, I would recommend at least trying the game. However, if you're the kind of person who needs/wants to do all of the puzzles as fast as possible and be able to access every area without waiting or paying for microtransactions, then this probably isn't the game for you.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
P.S. I think that a Super Smash Bros. Picross game would be pretty fun too, and not because I like the Super Smash Bros. franchise, but because it's a great conglomeration of famous and classic Nintendo characters. Even more so if they use the original 14x14 or 14x28 NES sprites from their respective games. Or maybe unlock picross puzzles using amiibos? That would be a perfect use of that technology!
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