What’s up with Picross 3D 2’s orange numbers and blocks?

Guess what we’re playing here at Michibiku! That was rhetorical. You already know, especially if you paid attention to the title or screenshots. Both Graham and I are playing HAL’s Katachi Shinhakken! Rittai Picross 2, which we’re going to go ahead and call Picross 3D 2 from here on out. Did you play and love Picross 3D on the DS? Well, this is more of that same game, but with one notable difference.

If you’ve looked at the commercials and trailers, you may have noticed something unusual with the voxel characters. Specifically, that there are now angles and curves. What’s up with that?

Here’s what’s going on. In Picross 3D 2, a puzzle will now have blue and orange numbers. The blue indicate a player must paint the appropriate blocks blue. These will retain their normal cube shape. An orange number means that a block is going to be curved, angled or take some other unconventional shape. These are painted with the orange paint to proceed.

Think of it as a means of adding more definition to finished shapes to make it easier to ascertain what each figure is, while also making puzzles more complicated. Some of my favorite puzzles thus far have been ones where there are both orange and blue blocks in a line, perhaps with the grouping divided, meaning all or the majority of a blocks must remain, but it’s up to deductive reasoning to know what ones are which color.

It’s not a revolutionary mechanic, but it is an appreciated one that offers an additional challenge to anyone who can’t say no(no) to a nonogram. There isn’t much more that could be added without feeling like an unnecessary gimmick, and it feels like HAL made a good decision by offering two sorts of blocks.

Picross 3D 2 is immediately available for Japanese 3DS owners. Hopefully Nintendo will announce worldwide localizations soon. It’s $26.99 if you should choose to import it.