The following is a reader-submitted review by Lillian:
Judging from the comments for the recent review of Armor Picross 2, it seems that many in the JIG community really like picross, and I do, too! Sometimes I'll delay working on economics homework just to play a game (or two or three or four) of picross. And there are so many online implementations of my favorite game, and all with a different interface. So, which one to choose? For some, the question may be difficult to answer. But not for me.
I choose Picture Logic from Isomura Kai (TONAKAI interactive), developer of the previously reviewed Out File #1 and #2 escape games and the arcade game, Rapture Capture. So far, Picture Logic is my favorite implementation of picross (aka 'nonograms' or 'fill in squares with colors'), and the interface is simple: Click once for a color square, twice for 'X' square, and click again to clear. Plus, you can click-drag to quickly fill in those pesky lengths of boxes. My only complaint is that playing on a laptop can really cramp your fingers.
Each puzzle will show you the percentage of people who solved the puzzle, so you have a rough guide of puzzle difficulty. Lower percentages means harder puzzles, so watch out beginners! Some nice extras: When you finish a puzzle, the game will save your progress and checks it off!
The site is in both Japanese and English, but unfortunately the English portion is quite lacking. To get the full picross experience you will have to look at Japanese words. There are almost 200 puzzles now, so you won't finish them all in one go (unless you are addicted to picross and cannot stop playing). There is also something for creating your own puzzles, but because I can't read Japanese, I cannot help you there.
All things considered, if you love picross puzzles like me, you owe it to yourself to
Do you have a favorite site for picross? Please don't post a link to it here in the comments, submit the link (or even your own review) using the "Suggest a Game" link in the menu above, instead.
Picross has long been one of my favorite games, and although I'm happy to see all of the different versions linked from JIG, I still feel like there's one important feature missing from all of them. I once played an implementation online somewhere where each column or row list of numbers was highlighted once you had satisfied the requirements for that column/row. This makes it much easier to play large boards and keep track of what still needs to be done. Picture Logic (and the others) are nicely done, but I really don't enjoy playing puzzles more than 20 X 20 without the progress markers.
Oh wow, I havn't played this implementation of picross yet, I like it a lot. Thanks!
and they usually come out with two new puzzles every sunday or monday.
@Boston Gamer, you can fill in the boxes of what youve done yourself. just click them
@sloth, I think Boston Gamer means a feature that automatically crosses out a row when it's completed correctly, like Armor's and Nintendo's (my personal favorite site) does.
@Boston Gamer, you might like www.picross.com.
Sorry, I don't know how to use HTML!
Boston Gamer, you can actually keep track of your progress by clicking on the little number squares.
One thing that frustrates me about versions like this (that I really liked about armored picross 2) is the implementation for creating an "X" in a square. I would rather left click to fill, right click to X, because I use X's all the time.
Just a thought. I'm nowhere near as coherent as I usually am.
I've got to say that this is one of the few times I truly disagree with a recommendation from Jay himself. This implementation has so many issues I was very quickly back to Armor Picross 2:
1. First of all, if you're going to have a 30 x 30 board, at least provide a way to make a straight line between two points (like clicking, keeping shift pressed and clicking again), and show how many squares I'm about to highlight. Otherwise, clicking exactly 23 squares is a little difficult on a screen so small.
2. Size the puzzles relatively (the armor version does this really nicely) so that I don't have to use a magnifying glass for the 15 x 15 puzzles too, with all that empty space around it...
3. Picking a puzzle is annoying. There's no indication how large or small the board is, and once I'm into a particular board, clicking "next" or "previous" invokes a full page refresh, resetting my position on the page.
4. In line with a comment made above, right clicking to place an "X" would be ideal. Shift-clicking, ala Armor, would be ok. Having to click twice is silly.
BTW, I think what Boston Gamer means above, is that if I satisfy the criteria for *a single row or column*, it indicates this. This is different than showing that you've done it right like Armor does, or having to double-click through 30 squares like Picture Logic does.
On the positive side, though, the selection is tremendous, and the difficult ones are truly a good challenge.
Wow, 183 was tough.
Hey, what kind of Picross is this? You cannot lose lives, it does not show me instantly when I click the wrong square, there is no timer which destroy all my work when it times out.. :)
Now seriously, while this still isn't really up to "Griddlers" standars, it's a far superior game then Armor Picross 2. The double-click X-ing feels a little bit weird, but kudos for implementing the "dragging" mechanism. Also, I miss one feature the Griddlers have - the "save" button, since I usually do picross puzzles just one small bit at the time.
Other then that, this game provides quite an enjoyable picross experience. How one can prefer Armor Picross over this is completely outside my way of reasoning.
Hawkeye, regarding point number 3: on the puzzle selection page, you actually can see how large each board is. It's right under the "by _______" credit.
I agree with all your other points.
Oh my gosh this is so much better than the last one. Thanks for the post, Lillian and Jan. Easy to play, intuitive interface, perfect for someone who drinks these puzzles down like water. WOO HOO!
Scramble and Hawkeye--double click and drag to X more than one box.
Yay, no. 7 is an iPod!
oh this is EXCELLENT this is by far the best version of picross I've ever seen online. It combines a sleek, simple interface with a wonderful (and huge!) set of puzzles. And it has just the right set of features! I really hate picross puzzles with a "lives" system like Armor Picross and I can't stand features that help you solve the puzzle, like the "fill in" feature in Wii Picross.
this is a straight up A+ implementation
its ok until you get to the unsolvable puzzle...
grr.
good thing its only a small one, I had to replay it 3 times to make sure it couldn't be solved.
oh, uh, sorry
I guess you want to know which one?
its puzzle 191 and its green
Thanks for the tips all - lennyjaxn, you were right that picross.com had what I was looking for! I only played there cursorily before, but they actually have a nearly perfect implementation after I set the options the way I wanted.
@OpenTheGait i solved it, wasn't too hard :)
Ages ago I bought a picross magazine and I attempted to solve it, but no way in hell did I manage to do so. I was so confused for some reason! I left the magazine aside, and over a year later, I find this game online, so I give it another go.
And I managed to finish two! Yaaay, now all I have to do is find that magazine so I can finally solve the problems on paper.
oh, and I also solved 191, but it took me a while to understand what it was (if I actually understood it, my japanese is not too sharp anymore)
Kind of a good implementation, actually... If someone solved 22, pleeeease post a hint or solution or something, cause it's driving me insane!
Anyone know what number 20 is? I solved it, but I still can't tell what it is.
anyone seen 153? i think its screwy
This is the best PiCross interface I've seen on the web, to date. I was so impressed that I dropped the author a congratulatory email and asked for more of the puzzles in English.
I also happened to mention a small improvement in the clue marking would be the ability to "block-swipe" them, same as in the main grid. Today I received a very polite reply, in excellent English, telling me that he had implemented my suggestion, had translated all the puzzles up to #100 and would eventually translate the design section.
Needless to say, I am very impressed.
I have hit only one snag on this site--there are far too many symmetrical puzzles. I wonder if they would accept picture suggestions from outsiders? I might check that out.
Thanks for the post, Antagony--that was something I wondered about. Even though I don't use them in advance, I sometimes can't tell what the final picture represents.
Maybe there's something wrong with my logic, but I've tried several times and 205 seems to be unsolvable? And yet it shows 20% of people getting it right...
I solved it the first time, Mari, and I don't know if this helps but, like so many of the puzzles on this site, it is ALMOST perfectly symmetrical.
I've been playing these for a couple of months now. One thing to add: they've gone back and made English translations of almost all of them. I'm up to about #176.
Except #57. I cannot figure out 57 for the life of me, and it looks like others have trouble; on the Japanese side, there's even some kind of red warning label, although the Japanese translation sites can only make out "solution" and "absurd". :)
Since some here have claimed to have beaten all of the puzzles, I'm curious: what's the trick to 57? Every method I know of solving picross isn't helping me here!
-cow
Oh, and:
@Antagony--so it was you that suggested that! The lack of block-swipe of clue markers had frustrated me, and then all of a sudden it started working one day. Many thanks. }:D -cow
@Cow if you haven't gotten #57 yet:
Going through the columns left to right, there's a Zero in the first column, and a 5 in next column. Fill the Zero column with Xs.
Look at where the group of five blocks might go in the second column and what that would do to the third column with the 2/1/3 . There are certain positions that would force a block of 4 or 5 bricks in the 2/1/3 column, which wouldn't be allowed.
I have been playing this on the Japanese page for a couple of months, because, when I started, the English page said it was under construction. I checked tha English page today, to see if I could get some hints on the puzzles I haven't solved yet. It is up and running. Yay!
I think that Picture Logic has the potential to be a great game, but there is a very important feature that it lacks-
It has nothing to tell you whether or not you've made an incorrect move. The feature is important because if you make an incorrect move and don't know it, the whole puzzle might need to be redone. The game should also be more easily seen for the bigger puzzles.
They now have puzzles with multiple colors!
Yeah, the lack of automatic progress and error detecting really puts me off this site's puzzles. Conceptis did it right
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