Art Style: Pictobits
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A lot or a little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this is another safe for all puzzle game available for downloading from the DSi store. The simple color matching premise seems easy, but can quickly frustrate even seasoned gamers.
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What's it about?
PICOTBITS is a DSi store downloadable puzzle game in the Art Style series. It is similar to other puzzle games in that it has you shifting colored blocks around on a screen to complete cubes or squares. Partial shapes fall from the top of the screen. Rather than simply trying to remove blocks, the twist this time is that any block you clear is made up of small blocks units representing pixels, and those pixels then transfer to the upper screen to fill in a picture of a classic game character. Once that picture is filled in completely, the level is finished and a new one is unlocked.
Is it any good?
While the premise is a relatively simple one, the level of difficultly does ramp up quite quickly; thus limiting who can play the game. The controls are very well executed with blocks being moved by tapping them, which adds them to a holding queue on the side of the screen. To place them simple tap an empty location. Groups of blocks can be moved by drawing on them, providing there is enough room in the queue.
Each level features an unlockable "dark" version that can be bought with coins earned during play. These dark levels are even tougher than the standard levels, and will keep people challenged for quite some time. Other things to keep people playing include unlocking music from classic games like Mario Brothers.
Talk to your kids about ...
Families can talk about why even when there are endless puzzle games on the market, people continue to make more? What about them makes playing them fun, even when frustration settles in? Is it the feeling of accomplishment when you finish a tough puzzle, or something else?
Game details
- Platforms: Nintendo DSi
- Price: $5.00
- Available online? Not available online
- Developer: Nintendo
- Release date: May 18, 2009
- Genre: Puzzle
- ESRB rating: E for (No Descriptors)
- Last updated: August 25, 2016
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