Picross e7 (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Picross e7 contains plenty of the classic Picross puzzles to keep series fans playing for hours—150 of them, to be exact—ranging from 5x5s to 20x15s. These puzzles have time limits, and making a mistake results in penalties, which add considerable amounts of time onto the score. The resulting pictures are generic and simple images, from household items, to animals, to landmarks, and pictures of public domain books. To be honest, most of them are pretty difficult to see outside of the very simple patterns or the 20x15 size pictures. What's this brown blob!? It's a mink! Do you see the schooner!?

On top of these regular puzzles are the extra game modes of "Mega Picross" and "Micro Picross." Micro Picross gives an 8x8 Picross puzzle to complete, and upon solving it, each square within it becomes a Picross puzzle of its own, making for an 80x80 puzzle. There are three of these, and each will take even the best players around an hour to complete.

Then there is Mega Picross. Ultimately, this is the same as regular Picross, but with an extra type of hints on the side; now, there are numbers that can sit across two lines. For example, a giant 9 sitting across two rows means in total there are 9 combined between the two rows, and this combination must be in both rows and must be connected. It's a simple addition, but one that actually makes for an extra level of challenge. There are 150 Mega Picross puzzles to tackle, including 20x15 for the first time.

All in all, that's 150 regular Picross puzzles, 150 Mega Picross puzzles, and three Micro Picross, which equate to another 147 puzzles. There are also a handful of extra puzzles for those who have bought previous titles in the series. It all adds up to a considerable number of puzzles that equate to a fair few hours' game time, but is it worth the price tag? Well, that depends on the player, but pretty much. At £4.50, it's not going to be breaking the bank, and the amount of time played is certainly worth the investment.