Picross e3

Genre: Picross Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Picross e3, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2013, is a Picross Puzzle game that shares a lot in common with earlier games in the series. As such, I’m going to be copy-pasting most of this review from my review of the previous game. As with the prior game, this game has a simple, clean presentation. This presentation is backed by a relaxed, synthesized soundtrack that gets to be repetitive and annoying a bit too quickly, I’m sorry to say.

There’s no actual tutorial here for newcomers to Picross, just a how-to guide. Once you get into the game proper, you have 120 standard Picross puzzles split into different challenge levels, plus 30 “Mega Picross” puzzles with hints that span across two rows or columns. For $6, I think that’s a fairly decent price.

Players can use standard gamepad controls or touchscreen controls to fill in puzzles – the latter are good, though a little inhibited by the small size of the Nintendo 3DS screen. Those who played Pokemon Picross will find the control setup to be similar here. Unfortunately, the assistance options available to the player seem to be tied to the individual puzzles themselves, meaning that you can’t just have a uniform experience across the entire game if you prefer certain types of help or assistance.

However, that’s not the worst problem with Picross e3. Unfortunately, this game lacks a pretty standard feature of Picross puzzle games – the ability to temporarily mark a cel while you’re trying to test whether or not it’s filled. Cels in this game can only be blank, filled, or marked with an “X”.

Given the lacking features in Picross e3, and the multiple other, better Picross games on the Nintendo 3DS, I advise you to skip this one and go for one of those other options.

tl;dr – Picross e3 is a Picross Puzzle game that features a simple presentation, good controls, and has 120 standard Picross puzzles and 30 “Mega Picross” puzzles for $6. Unfortunately, your access to help options is limited, and there’s no way to temporarily mark cels. Given these limitations, and the abundance of other, better Picross games on the Nintendo 3DS, you’re better off getting a different Picross game instead of this.

Grade: C-

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