I heard Dan mentioning that you should play the first game before this, is it really that bad? I kind of expected the game to include the puzzles from the old game.

Does it include the old puzzles and if not does it have some easy stuff to ease you back in if you didn't play the first one that much?

I never played the first game, but I don't think it includes the puzzles from it. I also had zero trouble getting into this one. The tutorials are pretty good (though definitely a bit too verbose), though I have played a bunch of 2D picross games before.

It does not have the original puzzles. The first game had a linear difficulty curve where you played a set of easy puzzles, then a set of normal puzzles etc. This game has a difficulty setting which changes the information displayed on the same puzzle to make it easier or more difficult. This at least means puzzles aren't of fixed difficulty forcing you to replay them over and over until you can move on, you can just change the difficulty to complete it.

@forcen: I would probably recommend playing the first game as well just to wrap your head around the puzzles, plus it's a great game on its own. The major gameplay change in this game is that you not only have to find which cubes to keep but they can be 1 of 2 colors. It definitely helps if you already have a pretty good idea of how the puzzles work because the game definitely hits the ground running with that stuff.

Ok, sounds good. Will probably get it when it arrives in europe, I kind of want to purchase the old one until then though..