Pokemon Picross Release Date Announced. 3rd Free to Play Pokemon Game for 3DS eShop

Pokemon Picross is the latest F2P (Free-to-Play) Pokemon game to hit the 3DS eShop this year with its release date set for December 3rd, 2015. According to Pokemon.com, Pokemon Picross includes over 300 puzzles when it gets released digitally worldwide in a few days, next Thursday!

Here’s the lowdown on what to expect from Pokemon Picross at 18:34 minutes.

This time a Pokemon version of “Mario’s Picross” (GB, 1995), “Picross DS” (DS, 2007) & “Picross 3D” (DS, 2010). It follows on the heels of “Pokemon Rumble World” (April 2015) & “Pokemon Shuffle” (August 2015). And joins other F2P eShop titles by Nintendo: The recent “Nintendo Badge Arcade” and last year’s “Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball”, as well as the smattering of fun games available in the “StreetPass Mii Plaza”.

Pokemon Picross plays exactly like “Mario’s Picross” & “Picross DS” before it (it’s 2D however, so it doesn’t have the “3D” elements seen in “Picross 3D”) and is similar to “Soduku” and other “Nonogram” grid-based logic/math/number-based pen & paper puzzle games. The kind your grandma & grandpa probably enjoy in the newspaper (along with other classic pen & paper puzzle games like “Crosswords”, “Connect-the-Dots” & “Word Search” puzzles).

In the game, you must use the rows of numbers along the left side and top of the puzzle, to figure out which boxes to check and which boxes not to check. Doing so will fill in the puzzle, revealing a picture… In Pokemon Picross, naturally, it creates a picture of a Pokemon.

Pokemon Picross 3DS Puzzle Solving Nanogram Number Logic Gameplay Screenshot
Solving those logic puzzles!

In this game, solve puzzles to “capture” Pokemon. Add them to your party & use their Support Abilities to help you beat tough puzzles!

To consult wikipedia: “As picross is traditionally played, to solve a puzzle the player must mark a box in a window of varying sizes to create the resulting picture. The numbers on the top and left side of the window guide the correct boxes to mark. For example, if the window is 10×10, and one of the numbers at the top is a “10”, that means all ten boxes in the column below it are part of the solution to the puzzle. If the numbers “5” and “4” are at the left of the window, that means that all but one of the boxes in the row next to them are correct, with five consecutive boxes, followed by four more consecutive boxes, separated by one space.” Right.

In this game, solving puzzles “Captures” that Pokemon and adds it to your stable. Each Pokemon has a “Support Skill”, and you can have up to six Pokemon in your party, just like in a normal Pokemon game. Take these Pokemon into a puzzle, and you can use their Support Abilities to help you solve a puzzle more quickly. For example, Vulpix has the ability to completely clear away an entire two columns of the Picross grid.

Pokemon Picross 3DS Party Support Abilities Gameplay Screenshot
Add captured Pokemon to your party to help solve puzzles.

Pokemon Picross features 300 stages & all Mega Evolved, Legendary & Mythical Pokemon! Offering Pokemon and Puzzle fans hundreds of hours of gameplay!

Like Pokemon Shuffle & Pokemon Rumble World, this game supports spending real money on digital items via microtransactions. In the game you earn “Picrites” which allow you to solve puzzles more easily (just like the Pokemon Support Abilities). You can purchase more Picrites with real money to help you solve a tough puzzle if you find yourself stuck, but Picrites are not required to solve puzzles, they just make it easier.

Pokemon Picross features 300 stages and every Mega Evolved, Legendary & Mythical Pokemon, offering Pokemon and Puzzle fans hundreds of hours of gameplay; and the game is perfectly suited to portable systems. If you find a little bit of time between your job or studies, you can quickly and easily solve a puzzle or two.

Here’s the official trailer for Pokemon Picross.

It’s a wonder that no one at Nintendo thought to combine Pokemon with Picross till now… It’s such a perfect match!

Pokemon Picross is another great addition to the 3DS’ lineup of F2P Nintendo games. Like Pokemon Shuffle, puzzle games make some of the best portable titles, because they are easy to learn, hard to master, and can be quickly picked up and played. It’s easy to just solve one or two puzzles then quit.

I’m glad to see Nintendo using the Free-to-Play model with games like Pokemon Picross, which are not games that you’d want to play top-dollar for, but are still fun to try out and play often. Thus making them truly perfect F2P candidates.

It’s a wonder that Pokemon has not been combined with Picross till now at the end of 2015… It’s such a perfect match!

Here’s the Pokemon Picross image gallery.
Click on any of these image thumbnails to see the full-size photos:


Do you think you’ll be consumed with puzzle-solving when Pokemon Picross hits in early December?