Preserving the 3DS’ library via a truckload of Picross.
When the 3DS eShop shut down in 2023, a wealth of games were no longer easily and legally accessible. Some of the games that were lost to time were developer Jupiter’s dozen or so Picross games only available via download. While the likes of Pokemon Picross and My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess are potentially lost to time, the nine entries in the Picross e series are getting new life on Nintendo Switch. Unless you recently replayed the Picross e games or have a photographic memory, these puzzles are basically brand new Picross puzzles to play for the first time or revisit after a decade. And unless you imported Picross e9, this is the first time that game will be playable outside of Japan.
The way these are being sold is interesting, however. The package is dubbed Picross S+ and you can buy it for $4.99 (or equivalent regional pricing). With that, you can play through the 300 puzzles of Picross e, split between regular Picross and the tweaked Mega Picross. All of the recent niceties added to the Picross S series are present here, including button or touch control options. Once you spend the initial $4.99, you can buy Picross e2 through e9 as a la carte DLC for $4.99 each. If you don’t want to break out your calculator, that means you would have to spend upwards of $44.91 to buy the content of all nine games, which amounts to 1,350 Picross puzzles and 565 Clip Picross puzzles. That’s a solid dollar-to-puzzle ratio, comparable with Jupiter’s other Picross S releases. In addition to all of the puzzles from the Picross e games, bonus puzzles are unlocked as you buy DLC, adding another 70 puzzles.
Much like the last several entries in the Picross S series on Switch, Picross S+ isn’t reinventing the wheel, but if you are hankering for more Picross, this is a great value and an excellent package. Jupiter remains the king of Picross, sitting on a throne filled with puzzles and a user interface that is evocative of the Switch’s home menu: straight to the point with a hint of whimsy.
