Depixtion

Genre: Picross Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Depixtion is a Picross Puzzle game that takes an interesting approach to the genre. Normally for Picross puzzles, how it works is that at the top and side of the field you have colored numbers indicating how many of that color appear in that line or column. Using these as clues, you must figure out which colors go where to fill them in. Doing so creates a picture. Depixtion takes this a step further by having each puzzle done in three color-coded layers, combining the colors like an old-fashioned color print to create the final picture.

It’s a clever approach that addresses a few issues these puzzle have right from the star – on the one hand, these puzzles tend to look fairly simple, or have some features slightly “off” to make them work as puzzles, but here the added complexity the additional layers adds gives the puzzle designers added leeway to create designs that look good and even a bit more complex than other Picross puzzles when you’re done, with a much wider palette of colors than other color Picross puzzles have, even though actually solving them isn’t more difficult than a normal Picross puzzle (just three times as time-consuming, as you’re essentially solving three puzzles for each picture).

The other element this brings is that while each layer doesn’t necessarily spoil the others and make it a snap, players who choose to can get a good sense for where things may be in their current layer by looking how it combines with the others in the final picture, and those who get stuck on one layer can switch over to a different one in hopes that will provide a better guide for the layer they were having difficulty with.

I do have a few issues with this game, though. Firstly, the music is a bit odd. It’s not bad, just a bit distracting, and it repeats way too often. It would have been nice to have a variety of music to select from while playing, though I could say that of most Picross games.

Secondly, the game offers two control schemes, and I don’t really like either of them. Nintendo Switch games tend to default to having “no”/”go back”/”undo” mapped to the B button, and as such it’s my preference to have Picross games map the “erase” and/or “clear” command to this button, but neither of the control schemes does so. Ideally, this game would allow players to assign their own preferred button placements, but sadly that’s not the case. The result is, this game just feels awkward to play, though perhaps it just takes getting used to. And don’t expect the touchscreen controls to improve on this – there aren’t any touchscreen controls.

In the end, while I have a few complaints about Depixtion, I appreciate that it’s bringing something new to the genre, and overall it’s an excellent Picross game that finds a way to bring us more complex, better-looking puzzles without detracting from the difficulty level. Fans of Picross puzzles should definitely give this game a look.

tl;dr – Depixtion is a Picross Puzzle game where players complete three puzzles for each picture, one for each primary color. This results in some nice looking pictures, as well as a few subtle gameplay benefits. It’s not perfect – the music gets repetitive and the controls feel a bit awkward, with no touchscreen support whatsoever. But overall, this is a solid Picross game.

Grade: B-

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