Reviewer: Sara E.
Developer/Publisher: Lightwood Games
Category: Puzzle, Multiplayer, Party, Strategy
Release Date: Demo is available now, Full game available 01.03.19
***This review is focused on the Holiday Demo, which is available now. Full game review to follow***
Download the demo and preorder the full game from the Nintendo eShop here.
A New Challenge to the Classic Nonogram
Pic-a-Pix Pieces is a remix of the classic nonogram puzzle games of our handheld youths, such as Nintendo's Picross games. In recent decades, nonogram games have evolved from the traditional monochromatic grid, adding new challenges such as colored tiles and differently shaped puzzles. Pic-a-Pix Pieces shakes up the format once again, not only with (sometimes massively) multicolored puzzles but also by taking the completed image and splitting it across several puzzles at once. Instead of solving a complete image per puzzle, you are picking a piece and solving only that small portion of the larger image in each puzzle. Pic-a-Pix Pieces' format adds the new challenge of not necessarily being able to "predict" where certain colors might go until you've revealed enough of the larger image to establish a pattern.
The holiday demo includes two images to solve with holiday themes. Each image is split into several puzzles: the first, 6 grids of 10x10; the second, 12 grids of 15x15. The difficulty ratchets up a notch in the latter puzzles, with more colors and more squares. The puzzles are challenging, but not so much so that you grow frustrated and walk away. In fact, the "piecemeal" format of the game encourages you to continue playing as you reveal more and more of the larger image by solving its pieces.
Controls
Controls on the controllers are intuitive, and take only a moment to learn. The game provides a clear control map and instructions on how to solve nonogram puzzles in the title screen. Taking a moment to review this provides clarity on the controls as well as providing a good foundation of strategy if you have never played this particular type of game or solved this type of puzzle before. Controls in handheld mode are even simpler, and honestly, I played through the entire demo on handheld mode. Simple touch screen UI allows you to tap a color and a square to solve the puzzle rather than scrolling, but I still found scrolling to be quicker especially as I fat-fingered the tiny boxes on the larger grid's puzzles.
Audio/Visual
Colors are vibrant and music upbeat, and although the music does change from puzzle to puzzle, there is only a rotation of a handful of tunes so it can grow repetitive. The music is catchy, though, and hearkens back to old Picross sessions on the Game Boy. Sounds prompt you when you are pressing buttons to input colors or symbols onto the puzzle, which can be helpful if you are going along quickly to alert you to a wrong move. The solved puzzles are vibrantly colored pictures that are definitely quite cute (which is almost a standing prerequisite for any game played on the Switch, in my opinion).
Wrapping Up
The Pic-a-Pix Pieces Holiday Demo is certainly worth a play to whet your appetite for the full game when it arrives on 01.03.19. For what it is, this cheery demo warrants a nice 10/10 and definitely gets me amped up for more puzzling!
Final Score (Demo): 10/10
Download the demo and preorder the full game from the Nintendo eShop here.
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*Review Code Provided By Lightwood Games
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