For 20 bucks, you can get one of the most addictive puzzle games on the Nintendo DS.
The concept is about as mathematical as Sudoku is, which is to say that it's not very. Using the clues given at each row and column, you've got to determine which blocks are active in the grid. The clues given are how many "groups" are active: if a row says "1, 3" it means that the particular row has one square, then a group of three squares, with at least one inactive square between the groupings. If it's a 5x5 grid, it's pretty easy to know that, using this example, the first, third, fourth and fifth square in that row are active to the puzzle, but if it's a larger grid you'll have to do a bit more hunting to figure out where the active ones are. Solve the puzzle and you'll reveal the picture to win.
In addition to Normal and Easy modes, there's Free mode, the player is not informed of mistakes, and the puzzles are generally more difficult to complete. To offset this, a Try it Out mode is available in which an overlay can be constructed to test various solutions. When finished with this mode, the player can delete it or apply the overlay.The Free mode minigames are the same as in Normal Mode but are generally more difficult. My Picross contains Original and Classic puzzles. Original puzzles are those that are created by the player or downloaded from friends in local or online wireless modes. Original puzzles can be classified as Normal or Free mode, and are given an automatically generated one to four star rating based on the puzzle's difficulty as assessed by the game. When these puzzles are played, the music selections are the same as in the regular Normal and Free modes depending on how the Original puzzle is classified.
Daily Picross contains up to five challenges, all on a 7×7 board with Normal mode rules. Mistakes in this mode incur a five-second penalty. Once a challenge is completed, the game time is recorded, graphed and assigned a letter grade, with A being an average time under 30 seconds. When other modes are unlocked, the grades are averaged together to obtain an overall grade, with five A grades resulting in the highest overall grade of S. The 5 challenges are:
Nonstop Time Attack mode is initially available, which is a fast-paced series of five puzzles in rapid succession.
No X Marks mode is identical to Nonstop Time Attack, but the X mark, which is used to mark squares that the player thinks cannot contain a filled mark, cannot be used. This mode is available after playing Daily Picross for three (not necessarily consecutive) days.
Error Search mode shows the player five partially completed puzzles, with some squares needing a fill and some of the filled squares erroneously filled. On the top screen, the player is shown how many squares must be filled and how many erroneous squares need to be cleared before the puzzle is complete. If a filled square is cleared that should not be, no penalty is incurred, but if a square is filled that should not be, it incurs a time penalty similar to the Nonstop Time Attack mode. This mode is available after playing Daily Picross for seven days.
Memory mode gives the player one puzzle to solve. For 20 seconds, the numerical clues on the edges of the grid are shown. After these disappear, the player is free to complete the puzzle. After various time intervals, one clue in one row or column is revealed until all of them are shown or the puzzle is complete. This mode is available after playing Daily Picross for twelve days.
Secret mode is similar to Nonstop Time Attack in that a 7×7 grid must be completed and time penalties are possible; however, three of the numerical clues are replaced with an X mark. Three numbers are placed on the top screen; one of each of these are the true clue, and must be determined by the player by filling out the rest of the puzzle. Only one puzzle needs to be completed to finish this challenge. This mode is available after playing Daily Picross for twenty days.
For Normal and Free Modes, you can select music to listen to while playing. The three types of music available in Normal mode are jazz, reggae and bossa nova. The three types of music available in Free Mode are rock, house and ambient. While that's nice, the music needs more variety since it gets repetitive after a while. You can turn it off thankfully.
On top of this, players can create their own drawings and turn them into Picross puzzles, and then trade them all locally or online. While there's more than enough to do alone, they went the extra mile of including online multiplayer. It's a simple race against the other person to see who can finish the puzzle first - any mistakes penalizes the player by deactivating his puzzle for five seconds…and that could be an eternity against a veteran Picross player. This mode can be played locally or over the internet. Locally, you only need one copy of the game to play it. The benefits of a graphically minimal game design.
The amount of modes to do, easy to get into and addictive gameplay will keep you coming back for more. It's a dream for those who like puzzle games and has a Nintendo DS. Be sure to add this to your collection since it'll be hard to put it down once you start playing. And with it only being 20 bucks, that's a steal.
Final score: 9.0/10