PICROSS S5 – Switch – ntower

To begin with, a little history lesson: In 1987, the non-Japanese Ishita won an art competition in Tokyo by turning the lights on or off in a skyscraper, revealing an image when looking out of the building’s windows. His achievement inspired him to do logic puzzles, which he called “window art puzzles”. At first he published only three puzzles of this type, but in 1989 he contacted the British puzzle collector James Tolgetti, who was interested in the idea and concluded a contract to commercialize the puzzles outside of Japan.

In 1990 Taljetti coined the term nonogram based on Ishida’s name and was able to persuade The Telegraph to print logic puzzles in the weekly edition of The Sunday Telegraph. Ishita later acquired exclusive rights to the nonogram name, while The Sunday Telegraph continued as “Gritler”. Since then, nonograms have appeared under a variety of names in print, book and video game format. On Nintendo consoles, brain teasers like Sudoku are called Picras. Since Mario’s Bigros on Game Boy, the Japanese development studio Jupiter has created the Bigross games on Thursday, which still make new series today. The latest branch of the PICROSS S5, released on November 26, 2020 for the Nintendo Switch.

PICROSS S goes to the next round

For almost four years under its belt, the Nintendo Switch could already enjoy a wide variety of PICROSS games. In addition to the five main parts of the PICROSS S series, the spin-offs of various brands such as Kemono Friends or Overlord saw daylight. Although I skipped the S3 and S4 offshoots, in the meantime I didn’t feel like I missed much. Picross is still Picros. My intention was confirmed after I went through the regular clean menu and solved the first classic puzzles. You could say it felt like coming home.

So this may be for those of you who have already read several series. Development Studio may only carry out the Jupiter series formula in very small steps, but it is true to itself, and only replaces one or the other screw on each new branch without changing the entire clock. In this sense, I would like to match the game tests for other PICROSS S games, and point out the players – as expected – no spectacular discoveries are expected here. You have already swallowed the previous parts, and if you want, go ahead. You can not go wrong with PICROSS S5. For all newbies, there is an introduction to the Game of Thrones.

A picross is basically a variable size verified field. Usually these are square fields, for example 5 x 5 or 10 x 10, which can also cause rectangular fields, for example 5 x 10. It can be read from left to right and from top to bottom. These numbers indicate how many boxes need to be completed in a row or column. If multiple numbers are specified in a row or column, this means at least one square space between the square chains to be filled. It is assumed that a picros will be resolved once you have filled in all the appropriate boxes, thus creating a central theme.

Now this type of puzzle would not be so popular if it were not for a trick. Decoding Picras becomes more difficult and requires a more appropriate mind. For example, I would like to mention some strategies for solving Picras. Let us assume a simple 5-by-5 ​​field. Slight rows and columns will show 0 or 5. With 0, all the boxes can be marked with an x, which must be empty. We fill everything with a 5.

Next view: Shows another row or column 3. From this alone we can not yet determine where the chain of boxes is. But since we only have 5 boxes, we have to fill 3 of them one after the other, so make sure the middle box is filled. It does not matter where our row boxes start, the middle box in the row or column will always be filled. With intelligent control of possible limits, this strategy can be applied to other numbers as well. The more you dig into the Picross system, the better you are at recognizing routines and tactics in order to easily solve logic puzzles.

Since the creative mind on Jupiter has been creating Picros missions for over two decades, it should be clear that the simple Picros rules do not stand there. Over the years, new methods have been added, which have turned the familiar concept in its head by changing the rules. In Mega Picros you will find numbers in more than one row or column. In the Picros clip, you gradually dissolve small pieces of a larger image. ColorBigross eventually adds a color layer to the latest additions and well-known concept, which is due to be reconsidered among players. The PICROSS S5 does not dare to add significant innovations, but rather offers more of the old ones.

The sub-options that make each part of the series especially friendly for beginners are as appreciated as ever. Everything from automatic debugging to sub-roulette, to color-coded orientation aids, everything you need to be a future Picross master is included. You do not need to look online for additional training because all your questions should be thanked for the sports exercises. What more can I say than this: Give it all a chance! If you are insecure, you can try the free demo version of the game offered on the Nintendo EShop.

Finally, a few words about the less pleasant features of the PICROSS S5. Jupiter is also reluctant to innovate and has been playing the same game with modified content for at least a year and a half. Both player mode returns to this area and draws attention with its lack of comments and unused capability. The Nintendo Switch touchscreen is not yet supported. Not a big deal, but even the Nintendo 3DS branches used touch controls. So what’s wrong with the Nintendo Switch? In the meantime, you can even buy the official stylus for the console, which is perfect for this type of game. Anyway, my stylus collects dust due to the small number of games that use touch screens.