Picross 3D (2010)

I seem to have backed myself into a corner recently, where I've only really felt like blogging about films or story based games. I've felt at a bit of a loss for what to write about, having seen no new films since Looper and not really playing any big games either. That's not to say that I haven't been playing games at all though, in fact I have been almost completely addicted to Picross 3D. Y'know, that kind of overplay where you try to get to sleep afterwards and end up playing a made up game in your head for about half an hour and then dreaming of cubes...

Console gaming has pretty much been relegated to weekends at the moment, so through the week the only gaming I really do is late at night on my DS. I can't say I've always been a big fan of logic puzzles but ever since the Sudoku craze swept the nation in around 2005, I was introduced to various kinds of puzzles like Slitherlink and Picross. Picross and its variations like Pic Pic/Colour Cross have always been among my favourites as the reward of a hidden picture always felt like the icing on the cake to the logical satisfaction of finishing a puzzle.

Picross 3D takes that concept one step further, revealing a 3D object made of cubes that you gradually chip away. It received great reviews when it first came out back in 2009 and it was always something on my list to pick up but as is so often the case, it became hard to track down a short while after its release. Browsing pre-owned sections and even asking in stores would only lead to disappointment and confused looks. But I eventually set up alerts via Gamestracker.com and CheapAssGamer.com, so when it finally showed up on TheHut.com for just over £20 I finally snapped up a copy. It immediately replaced Puzzle Quest in my DS slot and hasn't left the device since.

There really is very little to quibble about with the game - it does perhaps have quite a steep learning curve, despite a very competent tutorial. I found myself struggling quite early on and wondering if I was missing some essential technique (though I think on occasion I was just forgetting how to deal with rows split into multiple groups). There are points where it can feel like you have to make a guess between two possible cubes but I know that there should always be a logical way of figuring it out.

That's why I normally prefer Picross games to remain silent when you make a mistake, so that you can't just guess your way through the puzzle. Here there are penalties for mistakes but after thinking about it I believe this was necessary given how you chip away cubes. If you realised that you'd made a mistake, how exactly would you go about filling them back in? The penalties also turn it into a completionist's dream, with stars and additional puzzles unlocked by completing puzzles perfectly. So often when I finish a Picross game I will tell myself that I will go back to improve my times but the desire to do so generally fades. Here, the additional stars for completing within a time limit gives you a tangible goal and also a sense of how well you are doing in comparison to the 'par' times.

It's also a game of startling size; while I can wade through most Picross games in a matter of weeks, here I am yet to graduate from the 'Easy' level puzzles, with at least two more levels remaining above that. The 'collections' that each individual puzzle is part of are a great motivator too, pacing their completion just right to keep you hooked and sometimes providing some much needed context to some of the more unfamiliar objects.

About the only other issue I can think of is that I would have liked to see a 'cross-section' view available on all three axis but that's a very minor issue. I would advise any DS owner, puzzle fan or not, to snap up a copy of this while it's currently readily available.