Picross e was decidedly royal blue, Picross e2 was leaf green, and Jupiter’s third instalment now treats us to hot pink. Sadly, such a colour spectrum continues to belie any advancement made within the Japanese studio’s popular picture crossword puzzle series, with Picross e3 mostly serving up a new selection of puzzles across modes that fans will now be more than familiar with.
For the uninitiated, the Nintendo eShop release tasks players with slowly constructing pixellated illustrations housed within grids, with only numbers surrounding them hinting toward how many separate pixels must be placed in individual columns and rows. Complete these within 60 seconds and you’ll be rewarded with the hidden illustration becoming filled with colour, if not you’ll have to settle with black-and-white until you quicken your deductions.
Easy and Normal Modes will allow newcomers to gain an understanding of precisely what they need to do before moving on to tackle increasingly tricky puzzles that find themselves in ever larger grids, with there being a slate of 150 puzzles in total.
This leads toward Picross e3’s only new addition, Mega Picross mode. Here, players will encounter “Mega Numbers,” which show pixel placements that span two rows. This inevitably challenges you in new ways, yet fails to really elevate the experience any further beyond that which the series has served up before.
Such criticism largely rounds off the game, echoing precisely what we found with Picross e2 earlier in the year. There’s plenty here for those that have enjoyed their time spent with the series, as well as welcoming those that are yet to see what all the fuss is about. There’s just not enough to drive it any further forward beyond expectation.
Version Tested: Nintendo 3DS
Review copy provided by Jupiter
