An arty and 3D version of Minesweeper
User Rating: 8 | Rittai Picross DS
In Picross you start of with a cuboid made up of individual cubes and some of these have numbers on them which show how many blocks need to remain in the row or column. If the number has a circle round it, it means they are separated into 2 groups. A square means 3 or more groups, otherwise they are in continuous group. It's a process of elimination using these rules. It plays out like Minesweeper; you either flag the block as safe or destroy it if you believe it is safe. At the very end you are left with a 3D model. If you make a mistake, you lose a life and many mistakes mean you fail the level. You are also under a time limit. The best achievement is to complete the level under a certain time limit and without any mistakes and this will award you 3 stars. Make a mistake or don't finish in the target time and you will only gain 2 stars. Failing both will give 1 star. Accumulate stars to unlock the bonus levels. There are a huge amount of standard levels and some levels can take 20 mins or more which collectively gives you a long game indeed. It's quite original and provides good value. The negative point is that once you have the strategy, its just a matter of time before you find the solution. This could be said about other types of puzzle games like Sudoku but they are enjoyable and keep you busy.
