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Friday 8 February, 2008
Gameplay 2
After several puzzles, I think I have become addicted to this damned game. How can something so simple be so fun? The music is infectious, even with only 3 tracks. The sense of accomplishment is what really seems to drive me to continue playing this simple game. There are 10 levels with 15 puzzles on each level, making a total of 150 puzzles. I have done only 5 in the span of an hour because I keep trying to get the lowest possible time on each one that I do. The replay value on this game is phenomenal.
Sometimes, the puzzles can be extremely challenging, while other times you can almost solve them with your eyes closed. The puzzles with a ton of empty space, such as the flowers, can be very frustrating. Because of the fact that there are many empty spaces, it becomes hard to determine what the pattern is. You can sit there and just stare at the puzzle for minutes, trying to figure out your next move. When you finally decide to make that move that has been in your head for 3 minutes and it turns out you were wrong, you scowl and wag your finger at the DS, thinking “you tricky bastard”. I may be here all night. Don’t leave the light on.
Design
The puzzle is draws a very heavy influence from “Minesweeper”, a game everybody knows and loves. The mechanics are very similar in the way that the goal is to determine where the filled in blocks are. You must try to avoid making a wrong guess or else time will be added to your upward counting timer, which you are aiming to keep as low as possible. The only way in which you can deduce the locations of the filled squares is to follow the numbers listed on the outer edges of each side on the grid. For example, if a line had the sequence “3,4,1”, there would be a sequence of 3 filled squares, 4 filled squares, and 1 filled square, separated by at least 1 blank square. The only thing that is not outright described is how many blank squares are in between each sequence. Only by looking at the sequence of the perpendicular lines and by using logic can that be determined.
The game’s levels are divided into difficulties, separated into categories of picture types. Each set of levels has a theme, such as birds, flowers, sea creatures, and safari wildlife. The reward system of the game is to find out what the pictures are of at the end of each successful puzzle. Easier puzzles are on 5x5 grids, but the harder the difficulty, the larger the grid sizes. Some of the hardest puzzles are on 20x20 grids.
The use of the DS touch screen is very helpful in play a puzzle game such as this. You simply point the stylus at the spot you want to fill in, making it very efficient and interactive, instead of the other option of manipulating a directional pad. There is also a zoom in/zoom out function for larger grid puzzles, in case you want to focus on a specific set of grids within the big puzzles.
There are several extra functions on the menu screen, such as Daily Picross, which selects a random puzzle once a day for the player to solve. This can satisfy the daily fix for a Picross junky, in case he/she has some place to go and can only manage to play once. There is also a custom level creation option, where the player can make their own pixilated pictures and turn them into puzzles to be uploaded online via wi-fi. You can also go online to download other people’s custom puzzles for new content. There are even puzzles where you do not have to complete a picture, but rather test you ability to quickly touch upon a disappearing dot flashing across the screen, or recreate an image shown on the top screen.
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