After a long winding day of grinding the whole life thing, I tend to look for a release and video games are just that. A way to have fun and to get lost in an experience other than the ones I have in real life. Emerging myself in a heavily fantasy based RPG, customizing the hell out of my characters is what mostly does the trick for me. Giant worlds with great looking and perfectly placed pixels can soothe my stress away. Besides that, I also like to have a simpler release with some basic puzzling. Picross S2 is right there to scratch that itch.
Never change a winning team
Picross S2 is the second Picross game for the Nintendo Switch. Its developed by Jupiter Corporation which means you’ll get quality puzzles. Jupiter has been developing these picross games since the Game Boy days – Mario’s Picross comes to mind – and has made about 20 of these iterations for various Nintendo consoles – mostly handhelds. With the Nintendo Switch being a hybrid handheld system, a picross series was just meant to be.
Pixel puzzles galore
Picross S2 is filled with about 300 puzzles for you to solve. Each puzzle presents you with a grid where you’ll need to fill in some squares to form a – pixelated – picture. Next to each row and above each column are numbers to indicate how many squares are to be filled. When cross-referencing both rows and columns and using some logical techniques, you can start to fill out squares and mark some squares as certain blanks. After gradually filling out parts of the puzzle, you’ll be able to use other rows or columns that previously didn’t offer any clue. This sets up a really fulfilling experience when you finally find that last square to be filled and thus completing the picture.
New modes
If you’re a veteran of the genre, you can – like in the original Picross S – play megacross. This introduces a new way of thinking by giving you clues that span over multiple lines as opposed to the standard one row/column clues. A nice addition in my opinion to the classic way of picross. While playing Picross S2 you’ll gradually unlock parts of the new clip picross mode. In this mode you’ll combine solved puzzles to make a bigger picture. Not really groundbreaking but fun to do nonetheless.
Unnecessary 2-player mode
They added a 2-player mode where you can work simultaneously on the same puzzle. Each player gets its own color and once finished the player with the most squares found is the winner. I already hated it when my girlfriend started commenting on where I should focus on next while playing on our TV. It’s a logic game where I needed to be left alone to focus on the task at hand. Playing with two players only would mean raised stress levels and probably some yelling around too. Maybe you’ll like the 2-player mode, I don’t see why it needed one.
Conclusion
Picross S2 is a nice-looking puzzle game from a company that knows what a puzzle enthusiast needs. Although the game could benefit from some more tie-ins with known characters – Mario’s Picross was so great – instead of the bland pixellated pictures of a green pepper. But nevertheless, I had fun and will be playing this game way beyond the time it took to make this review.
