Switch Retro Spotlight: Mario's Super Picross

Retro puzzle fans have something to be happy about because the delightful Mario's Super Picross is on Nintendo Switch Online and it's great.

Mario's Super Picross is a Super NES follow-up to the Game Boy original and it adds a lot to the equation. For starters, the colour visuals make it more appealing right off the bat and it features a new control option! By detaching a Joy-Con, you can play it in mouse mode and it's excellent that Nintendo incorporated this feature in these classic games. When you play it in mouse mode, the cursor sort of snaps to a grid so it doesn't feel like fluid mouse controls but it is interesting and a welcome addition. In fact, I prefer the button controls in this game because they're more accurate and quick for filling out rows and columns but maybe that's because I've played a ton of Picross in my life, haha! 😸 v1d30chumz xzyewyzteyzc

Switch Retro Spotlight: Mario's Picross

If you're unfamiliar, Mario's Super Picross is played by filling in grids according to numbers that are placed next to each row and column. These tell you how many squares are filled-in together and if there are multiple numbers, it means that there's a gap between them. Using this information to complete the puzzles bit-by-bit is super-satisfying stuff for sure. One very cool feature in Mario's Super Picross is that after completing the first group of Mario's puzzles, you unlock Wario's puzzles and the difference is that time counts up instead of down and you aren't informed of your mistakes so it acts more like a challenging time trial mode; I love it! 🧄

Nintendo Switch Online: Mario's Super Picross gameplay video →

A funny thing about Mario's Super Picross is that it released only 6 months after the Game Boy original and unlike that version, it didn't see an official release in the west so it remains entirely in Japanese. However, navigating the menus is still super-easy and all you need to know is that the left option before beginning a puzzle fills in some squares for you to start you off while the right leaves everything up to you. Of course, if you don't read Japanese then you can't follow the tutorials, see the puzzle names that are revealed, or understand the dialogue but these aren't necessary and there's still a ton of fun to be had so get solving those puzzles, chum! 🔨

I loved playing Mario's Super Picross and it really put a smile on my face, especially when Wario popped up out of the blue; so much fun! 🥳