Pokemon Picross (Nintendo 3DS) Review

 Pokemon Picross (Nintendo 3DS) 7/10

Hello everyone and welcome to my first Pokemon review. Pokemon Picross was released on December 2, 2015 for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was developed by Jupiter Corporation and published by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company. This game took me over 2 years to complete. The reason being is that this game is built like a free-to-play mobile game. However, I found this game to be so interesting that I stuck with it for the better half of my high school career. This game also introduced me to picross puzzles, which I am now mildly obsessed with. I’m gonna try and keep this short, so let’s begin.

For those of you that don’t know, a picross puzzle is a grid in which you have to fill in the squares to make a picture. Each row and column have numbers which indicate how many squares are to be filled in their respective rows/columns. The whole puzzle is you trying to figure out how to fill in the grid with the least amount of mistakes. When finished, you’ll have created a picture. How this game spins the normal picross puzzles is the use of Pokemon. For each level, you can bring along Pokemon that’ll help you in completing the grid. Each Pokemon have different abilities (such as unveiling certain areas of the grid before you start, giving you hint options, correcting your mistakes, etc). Some of these Pokemon are complete game changers and make the later, more challenging grids much easier to complete. I still have flashbacks of struggling with Entei for the longest time. Entei, Typhlosion, Manaphy, and Mega Mewtwo Y were probably the most difficult.

This game is very time sensitive. There is a meter in which with every square you fill in, the meter depletes. When the meter is empty, you have to wait in real time for it to fill. Or, you can use picrites to refill it without waiting. You can gain picrites (which are points) through daily training regimes and completing restrictions when doing puzzles. You can also get picrites through the shop (I spent like $5 and gained access to all the upgrades. A bit scummy but if I hadn’t this game would’ve taken even longer to beat). Because of this time restriction, it can take forever to move on to the next areas. There are 30 areas to complete, each with different Pokemon to catch, including legendaries and mega evolutions (you catch them by completing their puzzle). There are 304 Pokemon to catch (including mega evolutions and form variants).

In addition to completing missions for puzzles, completing certain restrictions will grant you mural tiles. Completing these mural puzzles will reveal an even greater picture (80 x 80 to be precise). There’s actually two pictures that these tiny murals will unveil: Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre. This whole thing about having picross puzzles themselves create a greater picture was honestly dope as hell and I enjoyed unveiling these monsters.

The game's flaws are really annoying. First off is the stupid time restriction on the whole game. Unless you're patient and don't mind farming for the picrites, you're not going to enjoy this game (or you can pay microtransactions and speed up the game). Another problem is the Pokemon refresh time. After you use a Pokemon's ability, you have to wait to use them again. This entire game is just a waiting game for you to do puzzles, and it's really annoying.

Despite the game's flaws, it can be addicting and really fun (hence why I was able to cling on to it for over 2 years). I can only recommend this game to those with a lot of spare time and constantly have a 3DS with you (which isn’t very common nowadays). Until my next review, stay safe out there.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.

[I also replayed this like two years ago after the 3DS eShop went down and it took me a little over 5 months to beat with no microtransactions. I just stayed on top of the daily training stuff and used my picrites accordingly. This is still a solid game and one that you can play on the side similar to most mobile gacha titles]