Pictooi

Genre: Picross Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Pictooi, released on the Nintendo Switch in 2021, is a Picross Puzzle game. It includes 180 “Classic” Puzzles, as well as 120 “Diorama” Puzzles – normal Picross Puzzles based on prior games by developer Atooi with an image that fills in as you solve puzzles depicting its various elements). This game also features an in-game calendar to track your puzzle progress, as well as an avatar to share facts with you about the completed puzzles, something that feels somewhat reminiscent of the Brain Age series.

The presentation here is clean and looks nice, but doesn’t offer players any sort of display options or variations, and this gameplay will always be backed by one song, a light synthesized theme that works well enough, but isn’t especially noteworthy or memorable.

Beyond this, the controls are good, but the game feels somewhat lacking in options. You can turn on or off an “assist” mode that will notify you if you make a mistake, and once per puzzle, you can have the game assist you by revealing a line. However, there’s no interactive tutorial for new players, just a few pages of instructions. There’s no multiplayer co-op mode, no alternate puzzle types, and no touchscreen controls.

While it may not all seem terribly important, it bears mention that most of these features can be found in the numerous Picross S titles on Nintendo Switch, which are all at or below this game’s $10 price point. Furthermore, this game will take up a whopping 1.1GB of space on your Nintendo Switch’s internal memory or MicroSD card, over three times the amount of space that the average Picross S game requires.

In the end, Pictooi is not a bad Picross game, but it is on a platform with numerous better ones, games with more display and audio features, more variety in puzzle types, more content, more features, a better tutorial… all for the same price, and without being as much of a resource hog as this game is. As a result, I can’t recommend this game when so many better options exist.

tl;dr – Pictooi is a Picross Puzzle game with 180 “Classic” Puzzles, as well as 120 “Diorama” Puzzles featuring images of other games by developer Atooi. While this is a competent Picross game, it is lacking in numerous areas when compared to other Picross games on the Nintendo Switch, like the Picross S series, with less content, fewer options and features, and a much greater demand for file space. As such, I can’t recommend this game – you have far too many better options on Nintendo Switch.

Grade: C+

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