 Game Review - Nintendo DS Picross3D
By Theo Boshoff
For those moments when you have a little time, are bored and need something to do, the revamped Nintendo DS Picross3D game is a great distraction. It is Nintendo's number puzzle game, but updated from 2D to 3D, making it a tad more difficult than the previous version, as you will have to activate some more brain power to solve the problems.
It is great for keeping the brain active, especially if you feel yourself slipping into the kind of "muffled brain syndrome" we all experience from time to time.
The puzzles in Picross3D are presented in a 3D numbered grid of blocks and the player needs to figure out which cubes in the 3D grid on various layers can and should be removed using the number clues. The goal is to reveal a 3D image of something made up of the remaining blocks. It is much more challenging than you might think and figuring out which numbered cubes of the various layers of 3D cube to erase is no easy feat. Maybe we should not have called it a distraction, as it does take time to play and is very addictive once you start.
Things are made a bit easier though, with the introduction of Slicer tools, allowing you to look deeper into the belly of the puzzle to see which blocks should be removed - giving you the option to adjust the width and depth of your inside view.
 There are also new number clues added to the regular numbers that indicate how many blocks in a row or column are part of the hidden shape, as with the 2D game. These new number clues include circle and square blocks - circle blocks indicating that the blocks to be kept are in two groups instead of one continuous line and square numbers indicating the keepers are in three or more groups. As you unlock puzzles, you will move up a level and you will also be able to unlock bonus levels with culmination of stars.
As we mentioned, it's not that easy, but the tutorial option will give you a step-by-step run-through of how it works and you'll be able to practice a bit before you actually start a real game.
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