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IT'S PIKACHU!

What’s Picross, and Why Is It Mario’s?

Picross is a series of puzzle games by Jupiter Corp., still going to this day,[1] and Mario’s Picross is where the series began — a humble beginning on the humble Game Boy.

It’s a puzzle game where you are given a blank grid of tiles — 5×5 to begin with, then later 10×10 and 15×15 in the more challenging levels. Around the edge are numbers — these indicate what tiles are on each row and column, without stating the exact position. For example, a row that says “2 4 2” means there’s two tiles together somewhere on the row, then four together, then another two.

It feels a little bit like the child of Sudoku and Minesweeper, though certainly less punishing. You can always make some initial assumptions about some starting tiles to uncover, and from there, it’s up to you to gradually deduce the rest, each tile you reveal potentially offering a clue to another row or column’s contents.

The B button lets you mark a tile with an X — functionally this does nothing, but it lets you make notes to yourself of which tiles you think are blank. The A button chisels a tile, either remaining chiseled if it was a correct choice, or costing precious time if you make a mistake. This penalty is important to prevent brute-force guessing your way through the puzzles, as trying to do so will very quickly deplete the time remaining to complete the level.

The game ends when you either run out of time, or chisel every required block — the latter plays a victory jingle and explains what strange shape you just made is supposed to be. Most often it’s something that has nothing to do with Mario, like a duck or a trashcan or something.

In fact, this game actually has nothing at all to do with Mario, aside from his visage at the top corner of the screen, watching and judging every one of your mistakes.

GOD DAMMIT! AHHHHHH

The Nuts and Bolts

The game consists of a whopping 256 different puzzles[2] spread across four difficulty levels.

The intial Easy Picross stages begin with some 5×5 training puzzles, then move up to 10×10 and finally 15×15 grids. Then the Kinoko[3] and Star courses up the difficulty with another 64 puzzles each, and finally, the Time Trial course adds the remaining 64, with no hints and a stricter time limit. Each set of stages also increases the time penalty for making a mistake, upping the pressure.

Aside from occasionally mixing up which button is which and chiseling a tile I didn’t intend to,[4] the controls are crisp and responsive, the time limits are generally fair, and most of the puzzles avoid becoming so challenging that they’re frustrating.

The graphics are… well, it’s a Game Boy game, you’re not here for flashy graphics. They’re clear and functional with a fun Egyptian theme — which, again, has nothing to do with the game — and overall, the gameplay is a really good fit both for a portable game, or for some longer sit-down-and-chill sessions.

My one complaint is the music, however. There’s only one background track for each of the four groups of puzzles, and while they’re fun and jaunty, hearing them play on an endless loop — especially if you’re taking a while to solve a particularly difficult puzzle — can become somewhat painful. Try listening to this for 20 minutes straight, while you’re trying to concentrate on a puzzle, and tell me you don’t want to turn down the volume and/or burn down your house.

Overall, it’s a nicely challenging, fun and chill puzzle game with a decent amount of content to get through, but the music… The music will forever haunt my restless nights.

The Verdict

Footnotes

[1] You may have seen some of the more recent offerings on the Switch.
[2] Hey, that's pretty impressive for the Game Boy.
[3] Mushroom
[4] And I admit, that's entirely on me.