Video Game Blog 039: Puzzle Binge Part 1

If you’ve been around my blog any amount of time, you already know the routine by now. I have plans, good plans. I know which games I’m going to play this year and I’ve listed them out. I know which games I’m going to write about. I have a list for that too. But then, at random times throughout the year, I go off script and wander off into sidequests that distract me and throw off everything I have so carefully planned. This is one of those times, but I have to tell you, I don’t think I’ve ever been quite this thankful for one of those distractions before. This post is about one of my favorite developers that I’ve discovered and the little puzzle games that have been eating up my evenings.

Picross! (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

I’ve mentioned in my latest year review post about my love for puzzle games, especially picross. Picross is a puzzle game played on grids of various sizes where you fill in boxes based on numbered clues on the side and top of the grid. This typically creates a simple pixel picture. My interest in these games started with stumbling upon the licensed Pokémon and Legend of Zelda Picross games in the 3DS store. Eventually I found some on mobile and then discovered the voluminous Picross E and Picross S series by developer Jupiter on the 3DS and Switch respectively. I played through the Super Mario Picross games on the Switch Virtual console and the GameBoy version on the 3DS. Fairly recently I played through a brief but enjoyable RPG-style Picross game on the Switch called Pictoquest. I also found some themed games by Jupiter based on Sega Genesis games, Kemona Friends, and more.

Over the past few years I have spent many an idle hour playing through puzzle after puzzle. I’m currently on Picross E3 and Picross S2 but own every single title in the two series. (20 in all just from Jupiter.) I find these games challenging, relaxing, and fun. It becomes meditative sitting there working through puzzles while listening to the repetitive music or with a podcast running for background.

Even though I have thousands and thousands of puzzles to play through, I still search for new ones in the console store. (What can I say? It’s gamer brain.) It was on one of these searches that I came across a new picross-style game that seemed unassuming and simple, but ended up blowing all of those previous puzzle games out of the water. (Of course, I’ll still play all of the Jupiter-developed games. I still like them and have so many left to do!) This was when I ran across the indie developer Score Studios.

Score, Gig, and the Professor. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

As I said, I was searching through the store for more puzzles to add to my ever-increasing collection (gamer brain) when I found one called Piczle Cross Adventure. It stated it had RPG elements and since I’d had fun with Pictoquest, I figured this one may be like it. Simple, short, and worth investing a few evenings to finishing. I bought it and, as so often happens with my afore-mentioned gamer brain, I immediately forgot all about it and it was soon buried in my Switch library. (If it’s not on the main screen, it’s out of sight out of mind.)

Anyway, recently my work schedule changed so instead of getting off work at midnight, I get off at 7:30. This leaves me a few hours a night to play games. At first I was using that time to finish a few games on my yearly list and then started my replay of Final Fantasy VIII. One night two weeks ago I felt like something new, so I searched through my library, going cross-eyed at all the games I forgot I bought, when my eyes fell on Piczle Cross Adventure. I fired it up and immediately fell in love. I played for over two hours straight and have been coming back to it every day for as long as I can spare. I quickly snapped up most of the developer’s other games (two of which were cleverly advertised in the prologue of Piczle Cross) and decided I would showcase the games in a spontaneous post. So now, with no further rambling, in the order I played them, here are the first three games I’ve tried by the excellent indie game developer Score Studios!

Piczle Cross Adventure. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Piczle Cross Adventure: While this is the third game in the series, it was the one that caught my eye and also the one that I’ve spent the most time with so far. (That will change, as you’ll see in my explanation of the next game.) In the prologue they talk about what happened previously in “the Piczle Cinematic Universe” and talked about the events of the first two games. Shameless advertising, yes, but effective. I bought the first two games that night.

As stated, this is a puzzle game with RPG elements, and involves 2D exploration on a world map. As you progress, more areas open up which offers up more puzzles.

Kitty bot. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Story: The story is fairly simple. After the events of the previous two games, an evil villain has gotten her hands on Professor Matrix’s dangerous pixel technology. She builds a robot that looks like the hero Score-Chan, and sets it loose on her town to transform things and people into pixels. It’s up to Score-Chan and her companion Gig to wander around, solving puzzles and returning everything to normal. (Or at least as normal as things get in their town. They live in an area with a city, forest, beach, desert, snowy mountain, and a full-on jungle.)

More hot picross action! (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Gameplay: This is a classic nonogram puzzle. (I know I keep calling them picross, but that’s actually the name given to the puzzles by Jupiter. They’re actually called nonograms.) The puzzles are timed, but as long as you complete them within an hour, they’re counted towards your completion percentage. There are hints available, but I never use those. The puzzles vary in sizes, and each area also contains a composite puzzle, which is a larger picture made up of six to nine smaller puzzles. The completion time for each section adds together to give you your overall time.

There is a lot of customization in this game, from the themes you can select from (or create yourself) to the options you can toggle on or off, and even a mode where you can make it look like it’s being played on an old CRT monitor.

Now that’s treasure. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Progression on the game is controlled by the puzzles. Usually to enter another area you have to complete a puzzle that blocks your exit, or find an item to proceed. (For instance, you can’t get past the bear until you catch a fish for him to eat.) You have an inventory that you fill throughout the game and some of the items are hidden. There is a map and the various areas are colored in once you’ve completed every puzzle and found every secret in the area.

The RPG elements are well-integrated. Each puzzle you complete grants you experience points and leveling up gives you access to some puzzles that are level-locked. This helps gate progression and encourages solving more of the puzzles and coming back to previous areas.

Mini games! (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

There are also games within the game. There is a fishing mini game which I did not like at first but once I figured out the trick I got into it. (After casting you don’t wait for the lure to bob, you have to hit the button right away.) There is also an extensive side quest to buy batteries for a GameBoy, which I’m assuming has another mini game on it. I haven’t completed this quest yet, as of the writing of this… I found the GameBoy and seven of the ten coins. I still need three coins and a cartridge.

As with all the best games, there is an in-game trophy system, where you earn achievements for various things like solving a certain number of puzzles, catching all the fish, reaching max level, completing the story, and more.

Score-Chan is great. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Thoughts: This game went so far beyond my expectations. I expected it to be a short diversion like Pictoquest, lasting me a few play sessions. I didn’t expect such a sprawling story mode, varied gameplay, challenging secrets and sidequests, and solid puzzles. All in all, this has been a memorable gameplay experience. This will be the sort of game where I come back in a year or two, delete my save file and play it all over again. There is just so much to this game and I didn’t expect any of it.

I can’t wait until I get to Level 8 in real life. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

The designs are great, the graphics are retro and stylized, and the progression keeps you playing to see what new surprises are around the corner. And I haven’t mentioned it yet, but the music in the game is fantastic. It’s bouncy and catchy and I love it so much.

With the story mode, the hidden puzzles, the mini games, the trophies, and hunting for secrets, completionists will be busy with this game for longer than you might think. This game has over 300 puzzles, although not all of them need to be completed to finish the story.

Piczle Lines DX. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Piczle Lines DX: This was the first game and the second I tried. If you haven’t realized it yet, “Piczle” is a combination of the words “picture” and “puzzle“, and also a play on the word “pixel”. The DX version I purchased includes the base game, some free puzzle packs, and the DLC which has a whopping 500 additional puzzles.

I’m not sure why the Professor lets her in the lab. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Story: Professor Matrix has completed a camera (the Piczle-matic 3000) that reduces whatever it’s pointed at into pixels. You know, for science. Score-Chan grabs it and instantly breaks it, wrecking everything in the Professor’s lab and house. She has to connect the pixels together to set things right.

These get surprisingly detailed. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Gameplay: This style of puzzle is different, yet similar to nonograms. You draw lines to connect two circled pairs of numbers, filling all the spaces to create a picture. The numbers and colors always match, as shown in the screenshot above. There are various sizes of puzzles and you have the ability to zoom in and out.

One feature that I really appreciate in these puzzles is that in the upper left corner you can see a preview of what the picture looks like so far. It helps to gauge how much further you have to go, and shows you what you’re working towards. Not all the picross-style games I have feature this, and it’s appreciated.

Story mode. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

The game includes an extensive story mode and several packs of additional themed puzzles. (Sports, vehicles, etc.) In story mode, every puzzle you complete adds something to the scene until everything is brought back to normal. (Although it’s still floating around in complete chaos, but at least it’s not all pixels anymore!)

This all seems very reasonable. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Thoughts: I wasn’t sure what to make of this game at first. My brain is wired to work picross, and so I was learning a new style of puzzle here. It wasn’t long before I got into it, though. It’s just as fun as the picross type, and the challenge can be even higher. While there are some pairs of 2 and 3 that are easy to complete straight off and can serve as guides for the lines around them, there are different ways to draw the lines that could cut you off from some of the other numbers. Just like in a physical jigsaw puzzle, they only fit together one way. Usually messing up on this only involves removing a line or two and tweaking them enough to make everything line up right.

Yay trophies! (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

There are trophies in this game too, earned by progressing through the game, completing certain numbers of puzzles, watching the credits, and playing “humungous” puzzles. Those are the trophies I’m working on now. Humungous puzzles are 128X128, which is staggeringly massive. (For context, the starter puzzles are 7X7 and most of the ones I’ve done are 20X20.) It’s going to take me forever. I worked on it for a half hour last night and I have just the tiniest corner completed. The worst part is that you get a second trophy for resetting a humungous puzzle after clearing it. So I’ll have to do it twice! (You know I’ll do it, though. I’m a trophy chaser.)

The music in this one is even better than in Piczle Cross. Whoever scored these games is great. The extensive story mode, the sheer number of additional puzzles, and the trophies all add a lot of play time to the game. There is an impressive amount of content to get through here, especially in the DX version.

Puzzle mode. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

As I mentioned earlier, this is likely the Score Studios game that I will devote the most time to completing. The sheer number of puzzles available is staggering. In the DX version there are 100 story puzzles, all those in puzzle mode, over 300 in free update packs, and the 500 puzzles in the DLC. All in all, there are around 1100 puzzles. (I’ve completed about 40 of them so far.) Add in the humungous puzzles I mentioned, and I’ll be working on this game off and on for years.

Piczle Colors. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Piczle Colors: The second game in the series is going to be the last one we’ll look at today. In this one we return to the nonogram/Picross style but we add color and new gameplay into the mix.

I’m with Score-Chan on this one. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Story: As with the other games, Professor Matrix has invented something well-meaning but dangerous and Score-Chan immediately messes with it. This time it’s Piczle Paint 3000, a paint with the ability to drain the color out of anything it touches. As expected, the moment Score-Chan goes near it, chaos ensues. She wants to shirk responsibility and take a nap, but the Professor points out that now pizza will be gray. This is enough to get Score-Chan to set off on the task of coloring everything back in.

Excellent tutorials on all these games. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Gameplay: This one plays like a regular nonogram but with an interesting twist. There are not only various colors to fill in for each puzzle, but there are two types of numbers. The circled numbers are consecutive blocks, like in a normal Picross puzzle, all of the same color. The uncircled numbers are blocks that are not consecutive but appear in that line. There are no X’s in these puzzles, just differently-colored blocks.

So bright. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

As you complete the puzzle, you have to cycle through the various colors and use the numbered clues to determine which block of which color appears on the lines, creating a picture in the process. The puzzles are arranged in different color packs and each time you complete a puzzle without using a hint, you earn a coin. The coins can be spent to unlock trophies, secret features, and stuff like that.

I win! (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Thoughts: Out of all the games, this is the one I went into with the lowest expectations. Sure, I loved the other two games, but as much as I enjoy Picross, I’m not a fan of color picross. The one I have on mobile is not as fun as the non-color ones, and I just wasn’t able to get into it. Despite my doubts, this game also won me over in the end. The rules are a bit different and that change is enough to set this apart.

The added challenge of switching between the various colors and having interrupted lines elevates this above what would be a by-the-books picross game. The colors are distinct enough that they’re not easy to mix up, which was a problem I had with the other color picross game I mentioned. The big thing I like is that they chose to make the R and L shoulder buttons cycle the colors rather than making players move a cursor over the different paint cans. It seems like a small thing, but ease of play is huge when it comes to puzzle games and really helps the playability.

Hey you got smart-learnin’ in my puzzle game. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

The trophies, extras, and puzzle mode all return here. I like the addition of the coins, which rewards you for playing without hints and adds to the experience. One little feature that I really like is the characters pop up after some of the puzzles to teach you something or give you trivia about the characters and their world. I will never forget the kanji for twenty now! (Piczle Cross taught me what Daruma dolls are all about. I didn’t expect to learn stuff, but it’s a nice perk!)

There are around 300 puzzles in this one across the different color packs. I want to say there are some unlockable puzzles too, but I could be remembering wrong.

Is bunny. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

So those are the first three Score games I’ve tried! Although I’ve only had one play session of Piczle Colors so far, I have been playing Piczle Lines and Piczle Cross every single day since I started them. I’ll fire up Lines and do a puzzle or two in both Puzzle mode and Story Mode and then switch over to Cross to continue the adventure. As of this writing, I’ve finally reached the final area of Piczle Cross and have most of the map colored in. I’m at, I think, 87% completion. I will be finishing the story tonight after I’m done with this post.

I’ve been having a blast with these games and with over 1700 puzzles across the three games, I’ll be working on them for a long, long while. They’ve become my go-to way to unwind after a long day. And, I know I mentioned it before, but I can’t compliment the music enough. Puzzle game music can get repetitive and tiring, but I never tire of the music on these games. The music instantly lifts my mood and gets me psyched for puzzling. I don’t listen to podcasts when I play Score Studios games. The music dazzles me and it’s the best.

That’s a great billboard. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

Everything considered, these games are amazing. It’s so easy to throw together a puzzle game and then just keep releasing more and more through new games or DLC to make money. (Jupiter has 20 games based on this model!) But these games are all different, creative, and unique. They’re clearly the result of a lot of time, effort, and care. It’s refreshing to see a small developer with the skill, passion, and drive to put out a series of games that each break the mold and deliver a unique and fresh experience. The little details, vibrant colors, amusing characters, customization, challenging gameplay, and banger music all combine to make some seriously incredible puzzle games that I will be coming back to again and again for years.

I know it probably sounds like I’ve been sponsored, but I promise I haven’t. I’m just a big fan and felt like gushing. I truly believe the things we enjoy should be celebrated as a counterbalance to all the negativity in the world. These games grabbed me unexpectedly and have already given me hours of enjoyment and I’m just getting started on them. They’re chill puzzle fun with great attention to detail and accessibility, funny dialog and plots, and bouncy music that continually blows me away. I have become a huge fan of this developer and will continue to follow their work. I encourage you to check them out too, if any of what I’ve said resonates with you. (The games are also really affordable, which is surprising considering the amount of content you get.)

A visit to the temple. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)

As I said, there are more games, and I have almost all of them queued up and ready to try. (I haven’t bought Piczle Lines 2: Into the Puzzleverse yet. I’m waiting to see if a DX version of that including all the DLC will be released. Several puzzle packs are out for it already.) Later in the year I’ll release a second installment to this post covering the next four games.

Thank you for joining me as I went on and on about three of the games that have been distracting me from my planned course. I hope you enjoyed this post and I’ll see you soon with more video game reviews and ramblings!

I think Gig’s a bunny? (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)