Picross, nonograms, griddlers(apparantly) etc.
Nonogames are videogames based on Nonograms: logic-based puzzles where the goal is to reveal an image. Each row and column is marked with numbers indicating how many boxes are to be filled, but the location of these boxes within the row or column is up to the player to figure out.
Example play (of Mario's Super Picross) on Youtube.
When I have the options, I like to tweak things as close to my ieal way of playing as possible. Jupiter's games are pretty good at this.
The 3DS, especially a hacked one, is the best system for nonogram fans. Not only does it have the largest quantity of quality games, but the stylus is the best way to play them.
| Club Nintendo Picross series | |
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| Two free games purchasable from Japan's Club Nintendo thing. Standard e series Picross with Nintendo characters. Translation patches for both games are available: Club Nintendo Picross, Club Nintendo Picross Plus |
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| My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess | |
| A free game you can get as a My Nintendo reward, but thankfully not structured like a free-to-play game. Solid nonogame, the other thing that feels a little weird to me is that you toggle between the different mark types (including none), where I'm used to holding a button to enable. | |
| Picross 3D: Round 2 | |
| Gosh I love this. Takes too long to get through the tutorials, but they do go over all the different logic techniques, so probably very handy for some people? Round 2 adds multiple colours, which is a nice extra element that occurs in some other nonogames. When puzzles are solved the cubes take some other geometric forms and you end up with some really charming designs :D |
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| Picross e series | |
| Very nice picross feel. Maybe the nicest. Almost feels like the tiles are being directly popped-in with the stylus. And they're a nice pink. The 'mega picross' has become my favourite nonogame format twist—it's actually a bit challenging! A ninth version was release exclusively in Japan, but there's a translation patch available if you need it, as well as a save to unlock the bonus levels you won't have access to unless you have Japanese versions of the rest of the series. |
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| Pictlogica Final Fantasy ≒ | also on: Android, iOS |
| F2P thing like Pokémon Picross, but maybe a little bit less shit? The only hassle so far is having to wait on a timer to unlock new areas, but that doesn't actually bother me. There are normal stages, then there are ones called 'quests' where you fight monsters with characters you've unlocked by quickly solving simply puzzles. The order you solve lines dictates the order the characters attack in, which effects which abilities are used. You also build meter which lets you use spells and things. Kinda fun! Translation patch available, but I highly recommend patches the ROM if you're playing on a 3DS rather than relying on real-time patching, as that brings some real tedious and frequent load times. |
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| pokemon_picross | |
| It's free! But as you get further into the game it takes a long time to make progress. | |
So far I only have a few recommendations, others I've tried include: hungry_cat_picross (hints work weird), crossme_color_nonograms (required guessing), picross_survival (wants me to install some bullshit),
| nemonemo_picross | |
|---|---|
| Cribs a bit from the DS Picross and seems to work just as smoothly. Has ads. though. The largest puzzles don't quite fit on the screen, which is a bit fiddley. | |
| nonocube | |
| Decent rip-off of Hal's picross_3d, with some thoughtful control additions to make up for no stylus. There are still a few more Picross 3D-like games I have to try. | |
| picross_fairymong | |
| Pretty standard. Has some obnoxious ad. pop-ups post-puzzle every now and then. | |
| Mario's Picross | also on: 3DS |
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| picross_2 | |
| Mario's Super Picross | also on: 3DS, Wii Wii-U |
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| Picross NP series | |