Picross DS!

[Aussie Ben]

Hot damn! I had no idea this was coming out! And at a budget price, too! SOLD. Sure it's Japanese, but you don't need to read Japanese to play Picross. I had so much fun with Mario's Picross back on the Gameboy - I'm thrilled that a DS version has finally been made. It's such a perfect fit for the system.

Has anyone else played a Picross game before?

[toblix]

What-cross?

[Roderick]

YES!! Praise to baby jesus! Feck Sudoku; Picross is the best puzzle game of all times! I'm going to enjoy this!

[Aussie Ben]

PICROSS.

A combination of the words "Picture" and "Crossword". You chip away the squares according to the numbers on the sides of the grid. When you're done, you reveal a picture. It's really great.

[Roderick]

It's more than great; it's the best puzzle in the world. So fulfilling! It has all the instinctive greatness of minesweeper, yet combined with the elegance and infallability of a crossword puzzle! And in some cases, even Mario themed! Holy smack! It's THAT great!

[miffy495]

Bastard. Now I'm addicted.

[toblix]

Jesus... Christ... so... addicting... completed all the puzzles in one sitting... ass hurts... can't... stop!

[Thrik]

I avoid small puzzle games like the plague for the sake of my time, but Picross sounds like the best match ever with the DS stylus 'n' screen.

[adfegg]

There's these puzzle books called Hanjie which are basically the same thing. They used to be called Tsunami, I suspect they changed the name after the Boxing Day disaster. You use pencils(remember those) of various colours to fill in the blocks.

I think there's also something similar called Griddler in some newspaper. The numbers for it are along the bottom and right-hand side, which is pretty illogical. Your hand keeps getting in the way!

[Aussie Ben]

Oh my god oh my god oh my god! It looks like you can make your own Picross puzzles too! Could this get ANY BETTER?

Edit: Why yes! Yes it could! I CAN SEND MY CUSTOM PICROSS PUZZLES TO OTHER PEOPLE, APPARENTLY.

[Roderick]

*high five's Aussie Ben*

[elusivespoon]

For those of you who are still lost or want to learn solving strategies, here's the Wikipedia entry on Picross, which has a plethora of names. I just recently discovered them looking for an NP-complete problem to apply a genetic algorithm to for a class. The puzzles are a lot of fun with pen and paper, and I imagine would be great on the DS.

p.s. The genetic algorithm solver was painfully slow and thus useless, but still got me a good grade.

[adfegg]

Do you think they'll be doing Enigma on DS as well?

If you want me to explain what that is, you'll be disappointed because I doubt I could do it justice.

[Aussie Ben]

Oh wow hey, you know what else! You can download MORE Picross puzzles from Nintendo via the Interborg! Including puzzles from the old GB Mario's Picross games! My friend has downloaded this onto a flash cart to check it out, and man, they've really got the interface down pat. Waiting for my copy to arrive is becoming agony. I actually dug out my old GB Mono version of Mario's Picross to dull the ache a little.

[miffy495]

Dammit I want to get that game. I'm holding off on ordering until after reading week so it doesn't arrive while I'm in Ottawa, but it's tough to do. Stupid physical world requiring time to move things around...

[toblix]

So, having just ordered this because I need it like I'd need heroin, was I a heroin addict, which, thankfully, I'm not, I was wondering whether there are any other crazy Japanese DS games that are cool even if you don't know a word (or letter, even) Japanese, much like Ouendan! and Picross DS (which I just guess is playable even without understanding anything).

[miffy495]

Well, depending on how the game works, you may need to brush up on your kanji numbers (not hard. There are only 10 symbols that get combined around a bit) but I get what you mean. If you're open to plugging Japanese games into the GBA slot as well, I'd suggest Rhythm Tengoku. Think Warioware does rhythm action, because that's exactly what it is. So damn good. Also, there are some really good little games in the bitgenerations series. Personal favorites are Orbital, Digidrive, and Dotstream. (in that order) Most people seem to like Orbital and Dotstream, whereas Digidrive is more of a love it or hate it sort of thing. Happy importing!

Oh, and I didn't mention Ouendan because you did. I assume you have it already. If not, fucking get it.

[Aussie Ben]

I really, really liked Soundvoyager. Played through that one entirely. But I think I'm the only one that did. Although, it is hilarious that a game based solely on stereo sound is made for a system which has only one speaker (PLUG IN THOSE HEADPHONES!).

[miffy495]

So toblix, did you end up getting any other games aside from Picross? I was bored earlier tonight and ended up playing a bit of Rhythm Tengoku. Thought of this thread, and now I'm curious.

[toblix]

Yeah, both Picross and Rythm Bukkake are in the mail. In the Japanese mail. I thought I saw a screenshot of Picross with real numbers on it. Cool, because I hate ninja numbers. Sad, because I'd like to learn them. Maybe there's a toggle?

Anyway, thanks for the recommendations!

[Aussie Ben]

Have fun!

[toblix]

Number: 4

Pronounciation: si/yon

Hiragana: /

What the fuck? Who has two ways to pronounce a number? How am I supposed to remember that?

[eljay]

Also what you have quoted there has incorrect pronunciation for one of them anyway.

It's shi, which sounds like the japanese word for death, so is an unlucky number.

The French also have two ways of saying 4, although one is just an abbreviation of the other...

also if you can't remember 2 things, I think you'll have trouble in anything you do

Oh and finally, the numbers in picross will undoubtedly be written in Kanji, not hiragana.

[Aussie Ben]

ARGH! It's sitting RIGHT HERE! And my DS has decided to pike out on the Picross action and have its touch screen go spak. Meaning that I can't play it on my DS. I've had to borrow my mum's DS (which has primarily been used for Brain Training and Phoenix Wright), so I've managed to get a quick fix. The word on the street:

- You can play regular Picross, which gives you different sets of puzzles to do, and makes cute little animated pictures from them when you're done. Varying difficulties.

- You can choose Daily Picross, which functions in a Brain Training-like way: do five random Picross puzzles as quickly as you can, once a day. Your progress is tracked via a line graph.

- Design your own Picross via My Picross. Draw up your own Picross puzzle, then go ahead and play it if you like.

- Go online and play Competition Picross against a random person - might be able to use Friend Codes too, but I don't know.

- Go online and download extra puzzle packs. There's two up so far - a ten pack of Mario's Picross puzzles, and a ten pack of Nintendo Power Picross puzzles.

This game even supports the freaking rumble pack! Very little supports the Rumble Pack! I'm blown away! It gives you a little jolt whenever you pick away at a square, it's quite subtle.

That's all I can decipher for now.

[miffy495]

Question about the download stuff, as it intrigues me: How is it stored on the DS? I was under the impression that the DS's memory is wiped when you turn it off. Is it all on the cart and just unlocked, or what's the deal?

This list is probably better for your purposes, toblix, as it has the Kanji. Pronunciation won't matter if you're just reading, and as eljay said they won't be written in Hiragana anyway. Hate to break it to you, but there are two pronunciations for 7 too. Shichi and Nana. Just learn to recognize the symbols (you'll probably only need 1 to 15 anyway) and you'll be good.