It’s a PIcture CROSSword in your pocket!

If you’re a game geek and puzzle junkie, you probably heard of Mario’s Picross for the Game Boy. But like most video-gaming fanatics of yore, you avoided logic-puzzle games like the plague back in the day due to the stigma associated with being caught playing them. Forward to the 21st century, where Sudoku practically rules the world.

Although Picross is already a long-running series in Japan, Nintendo finally decided to give it another shot: A decade after its Game Boy ancestor, we finally have Picross DS.

To give you an idea, Picross (read: Picture Crossword) plays out like a mix of Minesweeper and Sudoku. Using only your wits, logic and deduction, you’ll need to figure out by looking at the numbers on each row and column which squares should be filled out to form a crude pixel-picture. And, yes, it’s inexplicably enamoring. The trappings of getting the best time on certain puzzles and soldiering forward to the more difficult ones ensnare you easily. Soon, you’ll waste hours chipping away on your DS, battling your friends through Wi-Fi, and potentially be looking for the previous series games on eBay.

Luckily, though, Nintendo was thoughtful enough to include all those puzzles we’ve missed through the years as downloadable content. That’s right, from Mario’s Picross down to the Picross NP series, everything can be obtained in due time. If that’s not enough, you can also get puzzles specially made by your friends.

Players weaned on previous Touch Generation games will be glad that the non-obtrusive visuals sounds won’t ruin your concentration. The presentation’s nothing spectacular and the music’s not really an opus, and that’s exactly what a game like this needs. as expected, there’s a Brain Age-like “Daily Picross” mode, where you complete daily challenges (not necessarily Picross puzzles) and see how you improve.

Picross DS is yet another home run for Nintendo. Once you get past the fact that it’s another puzzle game, it’s a habit-forming little gem for the whole family to enjoy.