+- Tendo City (https://www.tendocity.net)
+-- Forum: Tendo City: Metropolitan District (https://www.tendocity.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Tendo City (https://www.tendocity.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=42)
+--- Thread: Picross 3D Round 2 (/showthread.php?tid=7070)
Picross 3D Round 2 - A Black Falcon - 16th August 2017
Picross 3D was one of my favorite games for the original DS, so I was really looking forward to this sequel. I waited a while after its release before buying it, but did get the game a few months ago and have been playing it regularly since. This is not a review though as there is still a huge amount left in the game, but I do want to say a few things about this mostly-awesome, and incredibly addictive, game. So I won't discuss everything about how the game works, at least not yet, just say some things I particularly like and dislike about it.
First, on the positive side, Round 2 is more Picross 3D, except sort of better! Just like the first one, Picross 3D Round 2 is a puzzle game which takes Picross, Nintendo's logic puzzle series, into the third dimension by having you chop blocks out of a cube until you are left with a shape that resembles something. Numbers along some edges tell you what blocks on each path should be kept, but there aren't numbers on all lines, not even close, so you'll need to use logic in order to succeed. Luck is rarely required, though; if you are patient and remove all blocks correctly, puzzles should all be solvable with no mistakes.
The first Picross 3D was fantastic and this game is the same, with one addition: now there are two colors. In the first Picross 3D, and in all 2d Picross games, you just have numbers along some lines and then mark or remove spaces/blocks based on that. This game, however, has two different colors of blocks, blue and orange, and each has separate sets of guide numbers and blocks. The numbers marking what blocks are in that line may have numbers in only one color or may have a number in both colors on the block. If there is only one color along one line, you know that that line only has that color of blocks. So, if a vertical line has a blue number and a horizontal line has an orange number on it, then you can remove that block because those two conflict. But if one has no number or both numbers on it, you will need more information to be able to remove it. Adding a second color significantly increases the complexity of the puzzles in this game, and it's a great addition. I really like the additional challenge of Picross 3D Round 2, versus the first one; two colors is a great idea and a good challenge!
And the colors are not just randomly applied to the blocks that make up the shape, either. Instead, in the finished sculpture, blue blocks become solid cubes, while orange blocks become shapes that uses less than the full cube, like a sphere, small rectangular solid, or things like that. Knowing this can sometimes help if you do want to make a guess, depending on what you think will be made up of full cubes versus other shapes.
Picross 3D Round 2has a lot of puzzles in it, too. I'm well into this game, but it looks like there is a lot more to see. That's great, I want this game to last! However, compared to the original game, Round Two has two major flaws.
First, the puzzle editor has been completely removed. In the original game, you can make your own Picross 3D sculpture. You set the blocks, set the colors you want them to appear in once the player finishes it, and then save it to the cartridge. Then you can play that puzzle yourself, or send it to friends via local wi-fi for them to play. You also could upload levels to Nintendo, for their consideration. Making levels was great; I only made a few, as solving your own levels isn't the greatest since you know the form before you start, but it was a lot of fun.
Second, on that latter note, Nintendo offered many downloadable level packs for Picross 3D for the original DS. Some of these level packs are made up of stages made by Nintendo while others are collections of fanmade levels, but either way these level packs were awesome and added a lot of life to this game. Unfortunately the service has been shut down, since all Nintendo DS and Wii online multiplayer servers were shut off when Gamespy went out of business, and individual Picross 3D carts can only hold maybe half of the levels that were offered, but still it was great while it lasted. I downloaded as many levels as I could, but there are more I never saw... I hope fans saved all of those packs, for play somehow! (The same applies to other games with online level sharing, such as the last Mario vs. Donkey Kong game for DS.)
This 3DS sequel Picross 3D Round 2, however, completely removes both of these important features. There is no level editor to be found this time, and no online level packs to download; instead, the levels included with the base game are all you get, period. If you want to play more Picross after finishing all of them, well, you'd better like 2d Picross, because Nintendo has made a bunch of different downloadable 2d Picross games on the 3DS. There is no way to get more 3d Picross content, though, and that's sad because it was all right there in the original game, you just had to copy that but with additions for the two-col;or system! Sure, that would make level creation more complex, but it'd still be very doable and lots of fun.
overall, though, despite that very annoying flaw, Picross 3D Round 2 is an awesome game and I like it a lot. I wish that they hadn't removed the online level trading and level editor, but the hundreds of puzzles that are in this game are great and I'm having a lot of fun slowly working my way through them.