The bargain price mixed with the addictiveness make Picross DS a must have puzzle game.
You may be wondering what exactly a Picross puzzle is. For those people I have an explanation of what it is. In each separate puzzle you start out with an empty grid. The grids vary in size ranging from 5X5, 10X10, 15X15, or even 20X20. Each grid has a certain amount of small empty squares. Above each row is a number. The number tells how many squares should be filled in for each row. For example, if a row has a number 2 above it somewhere in that row there will be two consecutive squares filled in.
However when you move on to larger grids you will encounter multiple sets of squares in rows. There are times where you may see a five then underneath that a two. When you see this it means there will be five consecutive squares then one or more blanks spaces and two consecutive squares. Sections like these are separated by small X marks that go right where you would normally fill in a square.
This is what makes Picross puzzles challenging. You often have to use logic or just educated guesses to progress in the puzzle. However guessing won't get you very far as wrong answers cost you time.
The point of solving the puzzles is to uncover the picture made by the squares. Solving a puzzle earns you the right to watch a short video clip explaining what the picture represents. For example, if the shape is a dog it will show a picture of a dog fetching a ball. However if you fail to solve the puzzle in under an hour you do not get to watch the video. Although you will usually solve the puzzle in time unless you make guesses and don't really try to solve the puzzle.
Picross DS doesn't the most outstanding graphics. Although it can be argued that a game of its style doesn't have to look outstanding. For each of the different sets of puzzles there is a different theme. Levels that are about animals have a jungle theme while levels featuring technology have a sci-fi sort of look. The grids themselves change too. They vary from a grass field to a sheet of bubble wrap and are all pretty unique.
The game's soundtrack is decent, but annoying at times. The different sets of puzzles all have different songs that go with them and they each have a sort of old school, 8-Bit style. It's a nice sound but it gets annoying after a while. The sound effects are really good though. There are many different sounds for when a square is filled in and the other parts of the game.
As far as value goes you get way more then you pay for when buying Picross DS. There are hundreds of puzzles available from the start and they are releasing even more puzzles through Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. So for the twenty dollars you pay you get more picross puzzles then you could ever have time to complete.
Picross DS is a game that may not appeal to some people. However for the people looking for an addicting puzzle game with tremendous value would be doing themselves a favor. To put it simply twenty dollars for hundreds of simple, addicting puzzles is a deal too good to pass up.