Picross Mania
Picross Mania is a picture logic puzzle game, where the player must ’paint’ a picture by coloring the correct blocks in a grid, based on the given number clues. For example, a clue of ”5 2 3” would indicate that in the corresponding row or column, the first set of colored blocks consists of five units. After this set, there is at least one blank block to separate it from the second set of two colored blocks. Then blank(s) again and finally a set of three colored blocks. This type of puzzle game is often also called a nonogram, griddler, paint-by-numbers or picture sudoku.
Together, all the number clues provide the means to solve the level. When the player solves one row or column, this will always result in more clues about the other rows or columns. When playing the game, the player must determine which blocks are to be colored and which are supposed to be empty. Marking the blanks (right mouse button) is as important as coloring the blocks (left mouse button). The secured blank blocks become important clues as the game goes on, and based on the information they give together with the number clues and secured colored blocks, the player can color new blocks. It’s important not to guess, until perhaps in the very last stages of the puzzle, because one error in the beginning may lead to dozens of others. For help in the problem solving, check out this page.
There are four game modes in Picross Mania. These are
- Challenge
- Time Attack
- Single Puzzle
- Marathon
In the Challenge mode, the player will face increasingly more challenging picture puzzles. In the beginning, the levels are relatively small and thus easy to solve, but at later stages, the fields get larger and more difficult. The Challenge mode is the most demanding game mode available in Picross Mania and will take endless hours to complete. In total, there are 140 picture puzzles to solve.
In the Time Attack mode, PM generates random nonogram puzzles, which the player needs to solve as fast as possible. The goal is to minimize the total time spent on solving all the 5-10 levels. The total time is then submitted to an online highscore database. There are three difficulty levels in the Time Attack mode: easy, medium and hard - depending on the size of the grid. The number of different randomly generated puzzles is practically unlimited: there is always new kind of puzzles to play.
Single levels can be played in the Single Puzzle mode. The player can select a suitably sized puzzle and try to solve it. More puzzles can be downloaded at here.
Marathon is another variation of the Time Attack mode. However, now the player doesn’t need to minimize the time to solve some given number of levels, but instead to complete as many levels as possible within the given time of one hour. The Marathon game mode is for all the die-hard picross puzzle fans, as it always requires one hour to be finished. The puzzles are randomly generated and represent every possible level of difficulty: they can range from 4x4 fields to 30x30 fields. The time needed to solve one level in the Marathon mode can vary significantly.
Every game mode, apart from Single Puzzle, features one or more skips to be used as needed. In the Time Attack & Marathon, these can be utilised only after the first 30 secs. The time of the skipped level is added to the total time of all 5-10 levels.