Review: Picross 3D

Hm, it's been about three weeks since the first review on the site, so I thought I would go ahead and make another. The reviews may be scattered like this until we get more editors.

Well, here is my opinion on Picross 3D. Now, I didn't actually 'complete' the game. As in, doing every single puzzle, but I just about have. I figured I would write a review while I'm still into the game rather than after I've finished it and forgotten about it.


I bought this back when it came out in May so I could have a new game to play on the plane ride to my vacation to San Diego. I feel like I made the right choice because the puzzles lasted me a lot longer than I thought they would. I've been playing the game off and on since then, and it's always good to get my thoughts flowing after a hard puzzle.

I never played the original Picross DS, but I have played an online version of Picross called HeroGlyphix, and I recommend anyone to go play it on that site! The original Picross deals with a square of a certain size and amount of squares inside of it. There are numbers on the edges of each row and column to give you clues as to what squares are part of the image you're trying to uncover. Picross 3D is basically the same concept, but with an added dimension, depth, and instead of just having numbers on the rows and columns, there are hints on every face of the cube or rectangular prism that you are working on.

In pretty much every case, I was able to figure out the puzzles by using logic techniques the game taught me in the beginning levels. There are some however, that have me scratching my head and force me to guess. I'm not sure if I just ran out of logic to go on, or I'm just not seeing the clue that's so obvious to someone else. I have gone back to puzzles that have given me trouble before to get a better star rating on them to unlock more puzzles, and I think to myself, 'Why did I have trouble with this?'

The difficulty curve in the game is quite balanced. There is never a time that I thought a puzzle that I was on was too hard for the level. There's also the shear amount of puzzles that makes this game last so long. You can also create your own puzzles and not only that, the game allows you to download more from either the official source or from your friends.


The Verdict:
Overall, the game's amount of content and the very smooth difficulty curve allows me to recommend Picross 3D to everyone.

What I liked:

• Amount of content
• Balanced difficulty
• Virtually limitless replayability

What I didn't like:

• Some puzzles go over my head, and I have to guess