Filling-in and Crossing Boxes with Picross DS

Another month, another Nintendo DS puzzle game. This month it's Picross DS which I got for a rather cheap price from Play-Asia.com

So how does this game work? Basically it's a game of marking squares in a grid to reveal a picture. Numbers line the columns and rows of the grid to indicate which squares to mark (or cross off). The first bunch of grids are pretty simple to solve, but once I got to the 15 * 15 square grids, things got really challenging.

Besides solving Picross puzzles, there's the daily Picross challenges and the My Picross mode where you get to create your own Picross puzzles. This takes advantage of the Puzzle Exchange service where you can trade your creations with other friends. The Nintendo WFC service allows players to download classic Picross puzzles and play them (although I don't know the definition of "classic Picross").

The graphics are pretty much functional and the soundtrack might be a little repetitive but as a puzzle game, Picross DS has it up there with the other big game to be released this year, Planet Puzzle League.

Anyways, I'm having fun with Picross DS, it has replaced Planet Puzzle League and Warioware Twisted as the game of the moment. It might be an acquired taste for some and I recommend that potential buyers check out wiipicross.com, an online version of the game, before deciding on purchasing Picross DS.

Picross DS is available at Play-Asia.com. Click here for details.