3DS Virtual Console
Some things in life just seem set in stone. Godfather 2 is the best in the series. Cake is better than pie. Hot dogs are for sure a sandwich. Tetris is the greatest puzzle game on the Game Boy. Or least that's what I always thought, but as I recently found out that may not be true.
When the latest Picross game was released, Picross 3d Round 2, I decided to go back to the beginning and jump into Mario's Picross on the virtual console. I almost literally could not put it down until I saw every puzzle to it's completion. I was hooked through all the 128 main puzzles, as well as the tutorial world. Near the end of my quest some of these number crosswords seemed impossible to finish, but I made it through. In doing so I got that, "man this game makes me feel smart" feeling that only a high level puzzle game can give. Mario's Picross is this perfect level of difficulty, to the point where some of the puzzles feel challenging, but not even close to challenging enough to step away from. The structured time limit, gives a sort of pace, where at the end of a given sit down with the game I always wanted to do just one more. One more puzzling my way to three o'clock in the morning on one occasion.
If I had any gripes, it would be with the time trial mode, that unlocks after the last puzzle. The idea of getting rid of the time limit, and not warning you of mistakes is interesting enough after 128 mainline puzzles. However, after finishing the Star World all I wanted was for the game to tell me good work, and let me continue living my life. Instead I finished the seemingly one puzzle in a timely fashion, but lost some of that complete feeling that finishing the last main challenge had given previously.
That is so a minor thing though, and what I would tell anyone reading this, that has never played the original Picross Nintendo game, is simple. Play this damn game, it's really good. Now onto Picross 3d!