Kemono Friends Picross

Genre: Picross Puzzle

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Kemono Friends Picross is a family-friendly Picross game released on Nintendo Switch in 2018, coming from the folks at Jupiter, who have designed the majority of Picross games on the Nintendo Switch. This particular game features cutesy chibi anime characters with animal ears (i.e. “Kemono”-style). This game includes three different types of Picross-style puzzles – 150 traditional Picross puzzles, 150 “Mega Picross”-style puzzles where some of the numerical hints combine multiple rows or columns at once, and 110 unlockable “Clip”-style Picross puzzles where pictures are pieced together using multiple puzzles.

Where many Picross games are bland and feature a clean presentation, Kemono Friends Picross rings some color and brightness to the genre, and while its cutesy anime characters are mostly just there to add a garnish to the game, the puzzles themselves have a clean and colorful look that makes them easy to see. I’ll say that even though I could personally take or leave the anime characters, overall this game has one of the best visual presentations of any Picross game I’ve played.

This is all paired with a bubbly soundtrack that works well for the game’s theme, though I’ll admit that it does get a bit annoying before long, and I wish there were some ability to switch up the tunes while playing.

As for the gameplay itself, if you’ve played any of Jupiter’s other Picross games, you know what to expect here – Jupiter knows their Picross, and they do it well, providing players with a wealth of features and options one would expect to come with this sort of game. Well, of course for their one consistent blind spot – as always, they haven’t included any sort of touchscreen controls here, something that always seems like it would really tie together the gameplay, and whose absence feels like a major oversight to an otherwise fantastic game.

Having said that, there is one other area where Kemono Friends Picross excels – more than any other Picross game I can recall playing, this game does an exceptional job introducing new players to the basics of how to play Picross with its tutorials. If you’re a Puzzle game fan who’s new to Picross and looking for a place to start, this game may very well be your best entry point.

It still frustrates me to no end that Jupiter can’t be bothered to add touchscreen support to its Picross games, as this is the one glaring flaw I feel really keeps these games from greatness within the genre. However, even with that flaw, Kemono Friends Picross shines as one of the best games in its genre. It controls great, has a wonderful presentation, is clean and easy to read, has a good number of puzzles and plenty of game options, and is perhaps the most newbie-friendly Picross game I’ve yet encountered. For fans of Puzzle games and Picross games specifically, this is well worth a look.

tl;dr – Kemono Friends Picross is a Picross game with 150 traditional Picross puzzles, 150 Mega Picross puzzles, and 110 unlockable Clip Picross levels, with a clean and colorful presentation and plenty of game options. As with Jupiter’s other games in the genre, it lacks touchscreen controls, but on the other hand its tutorial is perhaps the best I’ve encountered at teaching new players how to play. If you’re a fan of the genre or looking to try your first Picross game, this game is well worth a look

Grade: B

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