Being a newbie at Picross, I found it to be a game right down my alley. Puzzles with a twist. Picross 3D is actually the second Picross that has been brought out. The original Picross was 2 dimensional, whereas the new Picross 3D, as the name suggests, is in 3D, which naturally makes it much more complicated, however more fun.

Basically, the point of the game is to use the rules given to you and logic to make a figure out of a solid 3- dimensional ‘box’. Imagine a Rubik’s cube. Now imagine there is a cross within the cube, and you have to take away all the pieces of the cube to reveal the cross inside. Well, that’s kind of what you have to do.

There are numbers at the end of the rows or columns, which indicate how many blocks in that column/row needs to be kept to form the image. Use the red chisel button to smash away at the blocks that are not part of the image, and the green paint button to secure the blocks that are. Using the paint button also prevents you from mistakenly chiselling the correct blocks away.

You are allowed 5 mistakes, and a time limit of 60 minutes to finish each puzzle. If either of these run out, the game is over. 60 minutes is a long time, and you should be able to finish all the puzzles in this time, however to make it more exciting, they give you a smaller time limit, depending on the difficulty of the puzzle, which when done within this time gets you a star. If you make no mistakes you receive another star and when you complete the puzzle you also receive a star, so the goal of each puzzle is to receive all three stars.  Once you have all the stars you get bonus puzzles after you have completed each level.

There are many layers that you need to inspect to make sure you chisel away at the correct blocks.  This is made easier with a tool called ‘slicers’. Slicers allow you to see what’s going on inside the puzzle. You can slice horizontally and vertically in any direction. This might be a bit confusing at first, but as you get more into the game you will soon find it comes second nature to you.

The controls are very easy. There are only two controls you need throughout the game, which was mentioned before. You are able to choose where you want these controls to be when you go to settings. You are also able to change the background of the puzzles, however I like to leave it on default, because it gives you clues as to what the object is that you are trying to discover.

The artwork is, well,  OK. It may be a little kitch here and there, but it keeps you interested to find out what on earth the next crazy object will be. Some backgrounds are silly little spreads of kitchly-drawn office spaces or stripes and bubbles, whereas others are beautifully painted underwater landscapes and glaciers.

The great thing about the game is that they give you step-by-step instructions on how to play as you are getting on with playing, they are very helpful but may be a little slow for some people – I just wanted to get on with the games. 

Another thing that Nintendo has kept in Picross is that you can build your own puzzles in MyPicross, I really loved this part of the game and you will too as it allows your imagination to run wild! Once you have invented your own crazy animals/objects/people, you can then submit them online to friends and see if they can solve your puzzles.

All in all, this is a great DS cartridge to have; it’s fun and will keep you going for ages. It’s somewhat challenging in the beginning and might look a bit daunting at first, but if you persevere you will start to love it. So go on, don’t be scared, pick up your DS and join the Picross 3D revolution!