Picross 3D

Picross 3D is an interesting take on the Picross formula that cleverly adapts the 2D spatial logic puzzles into what is essentially sculpting voxel statues from a marble obelisk. There are now labels on rows, columns, and z-rows for what to expect from their cube layouts. Gone are the multiple section labels (ie. "1 3"), which is now labelled as simply "4 (circled)". If the row is split into 3 or more distinct sections, (ie. "1 1 1 1"), it's now labelled as "4 (with square outline)." The added ambiguity as to where the gaps are in sequence adds some depth to the logic of what are certainly smaller - if denser - puzzles compared to the 15x15 or even 50x50 giants that the 2D counterpart provides. In traditional Picross fashion, the final products of your hard work are all little sculptures that you can later look at and watch a small animation of. Outside of some mindless hammering of some 0-rows at the beginning of each puzzle, I found the actual meat of the game to be both rewarding and challenging, especially when going for a perfect 3-star performance. Comfortable touch controls and use of the d-pad to pick your tools felt really good as well and allows for rapid completion.

My largest problem with Picross 3D falls on its presentation. They tried to go for a cutesy voxel artsyle, but the low resolution and poor UI honestly make it look a bit ugly at times. The soundtrack is also not only limited in raw track count and ill-fitting for solving puzzles, but the loops of the songs themselves are PAINFULLY short. You'll hear some obnoxious tunes loop upwards of a thousand times should your goal be to complete all puzzles. There's also a little Picasso-ish duck mascot that operates on the top screen to cheer you on and congratulate you, but it has, no joke, three pre-rendered animations in the entire game, taking away whatever charm it was meant to have. Even the attempts to color in the sculptures you create look a bit tasteless. This is definitely a game that spent most all of its development time building the mechanics and puzzles over the art direction. I kid you not, I'd like this game more if it was completely black-and-white and played only ambient music. Even minor cel-shading could've helped a lot.

There is a TON of content here, with three levels of difficulty that provide upwards of 100 puzzles a piece. As for whether or not you actually complete the game depends on your ability to tolerate the soundtrack and visuals. Completing the Easy mode of puzzles (100 total) will take upwards of 10 hours, so feel free to stop there to not drive yourself crazy. It's a really fun concept marred by its tendency to trip over its own feet.

It's fun at first, until you realize that you can apply the same simple strategy to every puzzle. I'll stick with colored nonograms.