XCross is a puzzle game based on the popular picture logic Picross puzzles (also known as Nonograms, Paint by Numbers and Griddlers) in which cells in a grid have to be filled in or left empty according to numbers given at the sides of the grid which reveal a hidden picture when completed. Grids can range from 5×5 cells and usually up to 25×25 cells in games, but in theory the size is limitless.
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XCross follows the traditional rules of a Picross game with a couple of twists. The built in tutorial will help newcomers to the genre to understand the game and has some interactive sequences to show how to fill in the grid correctly. The game will at first appear to be hard to understand but the tutorial and rules are very simple and you will be filling in the grids in no time at all.
There are over 100 puzzles in total, starting with a series of 5×5 puzzles to ease people into the game, the grid sizes and complexity of the puzzles increase as you progress, eventually facing staggering 50×50 sized puzzles. The puzzles are grouped into blocks of difficulty levels with a new experimental 3D Picross puzzle at the end of each which acts as a boss of sorts. Successfully completing a puzzle earns you experience points which can be used to unlock new puzzles to progress in the game or to buy hints to help you in a future puzzle. There are also some in game trophies to unlock including beating puzzles within a time limit which adds a challenge to the game.
The puzzles are well chosen with a cryptic text hint for each to give you a general idea of what the picture will be. The difficulty can sometimes be hit and miss with a hard puzzle followed by a relatively easy puzzle, this is partly on how you approach solving the puzzle but I am a fairly experienced Picross player and did find some harder than others when played in order. If you get stuck in a puzzle you can use up to three hints which will fill in a horizontal and vertical row. Hints do come at a premium and cost experience points, up to 500 is the limit, but you can replay completed puzzles to get half the usual XP back if you are short.
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New to XCross is a experimental 3D Picross puzzle which is a cube puzzle where the player must create a 3D object instead of a 2D picture. You need to complete sections of a puzzle to build up an overall 3D object, the sections are played in the normal Picross style. The puzzle is a little confusing at first but once you play them a few times it makes sense and is a nice addition to the game which I found very enjoyable.
I am more used to playing Picross on my DS with a stylus so I was interested to see how well the joypad controls would work. There are two pointer movement options, a smooth scrolling analogue joystick or the alternative d-pad control which moves cell by cell. Both control methods work well although I preferred the d-pad control as it gave the most accurate and fast movement. The joypad buttons are used to fill in and a cross for an empty cell. I would have liked to have seen a button to put an ‘unsure’ question mark in a cell as this can really help solve a puzzle when experimenting to complete it, I would not class this as cheating as instead you have to try and do this mentally which makes things a bit harder.
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The game is presented with a clean design that works well and continues throughout the game. The menus are easy to navigate with completed puzzles showing a graphical representation of the puzzle. In game, the graphics are fine and for a Picross game look the part. There are several music tracks included in the game and range from dance to rock, the variety is good and the songs are not too bad either, something for everyone.
There are two small issues with the game, the first can be resolved with paying more attention and is due to the way the numbers are displayed. The numbers 1 1 and 11 on a row look similar at a glance and without paying attention will make you think the row contains two filled cells instead of eleven, I noticed this a couple of times so you should pay some attention when starting a puzzle. The second issue is more apparent on large grid sizes where the numbers overflow onto the grid, this can make filling in cells quite tricky to do and I did find it quite annoying at times as you have to move the cursor to another column or row to see the grid.
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XCross costs 240 :MSPoints: which is easily worth the money, as an added extra there is a lite version of the Arkanoid style game ArkX which can be unlocked upon gaining the Completionist trophy. Despite the minor issues, the game still plays great overall and the number of puzzles, especially the larger ones, will keep you occupied for many hours. XCross gets two thumbs up from me.
You can find out more about XCross on the homepage.
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