{"id":14396,"date":"2016-01-06T00:01:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T00:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=14396"},"modified":"2015-12-08T13:15:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T13:15:00","slug":"pokemon-picross-3ds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/06\/pokemon-picross-3ds\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon Picross (3DS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PICROSS_BOX\"<\/a>There\u2019s a new free-to-play Pok\u00e9mon puzzle game that you can download on the 3DS, and this one is based on the logic picture puzzler Picross.\u00a0 Use number clues to reveal pictures of Pok\u00e9mon, and then catch them so they can help you solve future puzzles!\u00a0 Since the game was free to start, I decided to write a little review of it anyway.<\/p>\n

In Picross, you have a grid playfield and must use number clues on the top and left sides to figure out which squares to fill in and which to leave empty.\u00a0 I\u2019m not very good at explaining the rules further than that, but luckily the game does a much better job than I could.\u00a0 You start out with 5×5 grid puzzles as a professor walks you through the basics (there\u2019s always a professor in these Pok\u00e9mon games, isn\u2019t there?).\u00a0 Then after the tutorial, you\u2019ll venture out onto the world map to solve (mostly) 10×10 grid puzzles and reveal pictures of Pok\u00e9mon.<\/p>\n

When you solve a puzzle and reveal a Pok\u00e9mon, you then catch it and can use it on future puzzles to help you solve them easier.\u00a0 Some Pok\u00e9mon will reveal certain squares or rows for you, while others can slow down or freeze time, among other things.\u00a0 Only problem is that sometimes it can be hard to tell what skills each Pok\u00e9mon have, as they don\u2019t explain it very well.\u00a0 Plus, once you use a Pok\u00e9mon, you must wait a while before using it again.<\/p>\n

You can do other puzzles besides revealing Pok\u00e9mon, though.\u00a0 Every day, the professor will have a training exercise for you to do.\u00a0 Sometimes a rare Pok\u00e9mon may appear on the map, and you have a limited time to try and solve the puzzle to catch it!\u00a0 After solving certain puzzles, you may get a stone tablet that you can put in a mural, where you can solve another Picross puzzle to reveal part of a big picture.\u00a0 After a while the professor will show you an Alt. Map Mode where you can solve new puzzles that are much harder as numbers count for two rows or columns, and I didn\u2019t understand how to play those at all!<\/p>\n

When you complete most any puzzle in the game, you\u2019ll earn Picorites, little gems that act as the game\u2019s currency.\u00a0 At first you\u2019ll earn a bunch, but later on you\u2019ll earn much less as you solve puzzles.\u00a0 Most anything you want to do in order to progress will cost Picorites.\u00a0 Want to move to the next area on the map?\u00a0 Want to open another slot to put a Pok\u00e9mon in your party?\u00a0 Want to cut down on the wait time to use Pok\u00e9mon or refill your game play energy?\u00a0 It\u2019ll cost you.\u00a0 And the further you get, the more Picorites it\u2019ll cost.\u00a0 You can buy more Picorites with real money in the in-game store, and that\u2019s how they get you in this free-to-play game.\u00a0 However, without paying anything, I was able to solve about 30 puzzles, which isn\u2019t too bad.\u00a0 I could\u2019ve solved a little more if I worked at it, but I didn\u2019t feel like it.\u00a0 Honestly if they would ditch the free-to-play stuff and release this as a cartridge, I probably would\u2019ve bought it.\u00a0 Maybe they could do a Pok\u00e9mon Puzzle Collection with games like Pok\u00e9mon Trozei, Pok\u00e9mon Shuffle, Pok\u00e9mon Picross, and maybe Pok\u00e9mon Puzzle League as well.\u00a0 Yeah I think that\u2019s a good idea!<\/p>\n

Aside from not being able to progress after a while due to the free-to-play nonsense, the only other main problem I had with this game is that any puzzles that were larger than 10×10 were too small on the screen!\u00a0 It was hard enough to use the stylus to tap the right square on the small puzzles.\u00a0 If only there was an option that let you zoom in closer.\u00a0 At any rate, as far as free-to-play Pok\u00e9mon puzzle games go, I think I liked Pok\u00e9mon Shuffle<\/strong><\/a> better.<\/p>\n

\"PICROSS_SCREEN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Naturally, parental supervision is recommended since there are in-game purchases.\u00a0 Reading skill is needed since everything is told with text, and good number recognition, math and logic skills are needed to enjoy the game, too.\u00a0 Because of this, it could be considered educational.\u00a0 Pok\u00e9mon Picross is rated E for Everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a new free-to-play Pok\u00e9mon puzzle game that you can download on the 3DS, and this one is based on the logic picture puzzler Picross.\u00a0 Use number clues to reveal pictures of Pok\u00e9mon, and then catch them so they can help you solve future puzzles!\u00a0 Since the game was free to start, I decided to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14396"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14398,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14396\/revisions\/14398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}