If you are a puzzle game lover, classic jigsaws and personalised photo puzzles have provided countless hours of fun. Now Nintendo is bringing that fun to the switch with their new game. Piczle Colors is the latest installment in the Nintendo Switch puzzle series developed by Score Studios and published by Rainy Frog. Will this game’s canvas be worth finishing or should it be scrapped? Let’s find out!
Piczle Colors begins with Professor Matrix showing off his latest invention, Piczle Paint 3000, to Score-Chan and D-bug. This new paint will erase any color it touches. After a mishap from Score-Chan, the world’s color is drained, leaving everything without color. Seeing that pizza, of all things, will never be the same, Score-Chan and D-bug leap into action to paint each object back in order to enjoy the beautiful sight of pizza again in all of it’s colored glory.
The presentation of Piczle Colors has changed quite a bit since Piczle Lines DX back in 2017. The hand-drawn comic book-style artwork has been replaced with a full 3D rendering of the characters. The prologue cutscene shows the whimsical banter of the characters in pop-out-style pictures mixed with the 3D renders, making for a unique art-style. The UI is simple and clean, allowing a crisp image of the interface, whether played in portable or docked mode. This is a very nice contrast from Piczle Lines DX that forced 720p regardless in docked mode. While the game features more music than the previous title, it still loops the same song when solving puzzles over and over again. Though the music and sound effects can be disabled, I would have appreciated a wider variation.
This game takes inspiration from the concept of Picross, which has players solving a puzzle grid surrounded by numbers on the top and bottom. Those numbers indicate the amount of spaces needed to fill in the grid to form a picture. Instead of leaving certain spaces blank, each space will be a different color. This adds a new degree of puzzle-solving as each corresponding number for each grid or row now has a separate color as well. When looking at the numbers of a grid line, it might seem obvious at first to follow the order of the numbers that are given, but that isn’t the case here. If a number like 3, was inside a circle, then that color would be filled into the grid in a row. However, if the number was not inside a circle, then the color would need to be separated between different spaces on that line. Keeping a careful eye on the order, color, and pattern of the numbers is important to uncovering each puzzle. This might seem a bit more complicated, but the game has a gradual learning process that teaches you the mechanics through easier puzzles at the beginning.
The puzzles were a lot of fun once I got past the easy 5×5 grid puzzles. The added depth of color is a small, but engaging tactic of figuring out each solution. Even when the challenge got more difficult, I never felt dismayed, knowing I could restart with a few hints or by rethinking my strategy. The game also allows players to customize their puzzle journey with nice quality of life options, which include turning the timer off, allowing hints at the start of the puzzle, adding the ability to paint over colors for challenge, and adding visual aids.
Piczle Colors features a ton of content in this colorful package. Each of the 6 puzzle packs contains 50 unique challenges to solve. On top of the challenge of completing every puzzle, the game features robust trophy support. Each trophy challenge rewards the player with a unique 3D rendering of a Piczle series object. There are even extra modes and content that can be unlocked by acquiring special coins from completing puzzles without hints.
Overall, Piczle Colors is a great package for puzzle enthusiasts. While the game could use a bit more variety in the music tracks, the rest of the presentation and the amount of content in this title is abundant for only $12. With over 250 color puzzles,18 trophy collectibles, and plenty of extra content available, this is one colorful package that any puzzle fan or Picross veteran should look into for the Nintendo Switch.
Piczle Colors is now available on the Nintendo Switch.
Developer: Score Studios
Publisher: Rainy Frog
Review copy provided by the publisher for review purposes.
Tim Williams is a guest contributor for NintendoFuse. He has a BS in Human Communications from Arizona State University. When he’s not beating Wind Waker for the 74th+ time, you can find him tinkering with Linux, chilling on Discord, and hoping for Dreamcast 2. You can follow him @Sing_Awake on Twitter.