Would be perfect if it didn't penalize for mistakes. Sometimes I accidentally hit the wrong key and have to start over because I like having perfect scores. Other than that, it's an excellent game for people who likes nonograms and the badges/themes give a sense of progression which is great.
Reviews for "Pixelo"
I love this game - I'm fan of picross puzzles, so I had a lot of fun. I loved the interface - moving and setting pixels by keyboard was brilliant idea (most picross games move only by mouse).
I've beaten all levels on perfect and I'm quite dissapointed. No badge/achievment for this :(? I don't have anything else to play so to get higher lvl (I ended up with 70) I should repeat the ones already completed? Didnt like this either.
Most levels are possible to solve without guessing pixels (I had to shoot blindly just few times). I wish the daily puzzles was enabled. Now that I completed whole game I probably wont come back here too often.
Good job and thanks for this game :)
whew. after like weeks of playing, i finally finished all the levels.
that being said, my main qualm with this game is that lots of the medals don't work. i've finished every level, many more than once, and i'm still missing several medals from completing levels. I got the badges for the achievements, but not the medals.
i liked the personalization options, even though i chose not to use many of them. i think it was a good idea to add, and the game overall looks very clean.
i think the badges were priced well. none of them were ludicrously expensive, and the only ones that were really expensive were worth it (case in point: Pray to Pixelo God).
i found playing with the mouse annoying, but i'm playing on a laptop, and my trackpad probably influenced that opinion. i missed the 'switch' button a lot, and failed lots of pixels because i didn't realize it in time.
the stats page seems to work well, and is a nice addition. it's nice to see how many times i fucked up >.>
9.5/10, man. i LOVE picross puzzles, and i've played about every single picross game i've found. this one kept me entertained ENTIRELY too long, and that's definitely a good thing.
tl;dr: fix the broken medals and daily puzzle, and you'll be set. everything else was awesome!
i finally finished this game after some months and got all puzzles without failed pixles too
great game and i love playing it very much
gonna give it 4.5 cause the concept isnt entirely new
for everyone who can save progress as far as i know the progress is saved as cookies on your hard drive so if you delete your cookies you wont be able to save stuff
I'll split this review into two sections: 1.) things I liked about the game and 2.) things I didn't like about the game. I'll also append a tutorial to the end of the review.
Let's start with 1.)
This game is simple but at the same time can be quite a challenge. I've never played picross, but it is - simply put - addictive. It is likely you'll spend hours marking "dangerous" tiles with x's and shading boxes black to reveal the image that is hidden, only revealable by the code (the numbers outside the box). When the image becomes clear you get a brief feeling of success and satisfaction, and I think that was pretty nice.
Another thing that kept my interest in the game are the badges and the purchasable items. The upgrade system persuades to keep playing just so that you can unlock more things. This fits in very well with the mould of picross, because picross is all about unlocking images. The upgrades, badges, achievements and all those other things were a rather delightful addition. I approve the upgrades particularly, especially the ones that enhanced the gaming experience i.e. "ability to move edge to edge" etc.
I also like the fact that the music is not obtrusive and just acts as background sound rather than trying to steal the thunder of the game. This is essential in puzzle games, so kudos on making music that is not distracting. The changeable backgrounds are also rather fetching. "Do I want serene blue, calm green, passionate red, hmmm..." you might think to yourself. Well, you'll get the option to choose whatever you want.
Now, on to the things I didn't quite like.
For one, the tutorial was very confusing and didn't do so well in explaining the game. I've never played picross before so the rules were not intuitive to me. While I was watching the tutorial I was wondering what you actually had to do. At first I thought you had to copy an image from a template, but the levels had no such thing! I decided to just go into it, and pretty soon, I figured out by myself what the numbers meant, and I realised we weren't actually copying a picture but we were unveiling one using the numbers outside the box. The tutorial wasn't even helpful at all.
So I'll attempt to explain this game to anyone who is confused in the tutorial below.
I've read some of the reviews here saying there is no logic to the game. That is, in fact, false. There is a very consistent logic to the game, the tutorial just didn't explain it very well.
Another (some might say trivial) thing I noticed is the amount of grammar errors in the game. One glaring one was in the upgrades: "mark x prevent from filling out". This might not be a big deal to most people, but it gives off a really unprofessional vibe. I can forgive simple grammar errors, but ones like this should be fixed immediately. A suggestion would be: "Prevents marked blocks from being filled in", or something of that sort. I didn't take stars away for this, though.
This next one I have mixed feelings for. The largeness of the game and the number of puzzles. I think there are an adequate number of puzzles but the threshold for progression, in my opinion, is way too high. I do understand that you can get the Architect badge and use it to unlock more levels. Yes, the final level is the only thing you need to move on to the next section "Normal", "Hard" etc. There's a huge volume of puzzles to go through, and sloshing through easy puzzles repeatedly could easily become boring after a while. A more even difficulty curve might be nice. I don't have too much of a problem with this part though. Having more puzzles to solve is pretty cool. I just thought the rate at which you move on to the next puzzle felt too much of a slog.
Anyway, you get a 4.5/5.
TUTORIAL:
Say you have a 5x5 grid and it looks something like this:
2 2 5 1 1
3
1
1
3
3
The column with "2" on it means there are 2 blocks you want out of 5 available. If it's "1" it means there is 1 block that you want out of 5 and so on. Conversely, "2" also means you'd want to avoid 3 out of the 5 available blocks. You might want to "mark" these to prevent yourself from getting confused and forgetting you're not supposed to reveal those.
The same logic would apply to the rows. You should use both the columns and the rows to assist you with what blocks you should shade.
Now, let's try a 10 x 10 grid. This thing can get a bit more complex than it already is.
Let's say you get the following grid:
4 8 2 1
1 1 3 5 2 1 8 4 1 0
1
4
3
3
3
4
5
2 3
1 3 2
5 2
Oh no! What are those multiple numbers?! What do they mean?! Don't panic. The game didn't do a great job of explaining these numbers, but I shall reveal to you what this numbers mean.
Remember from the first 5 x 5 problem that "2" would indicate 2 blocks you want to shade and "3" you want to avoid? Well, you're still following those rules, but there's something more here, because when the numbers outside are more than one, it indicates that the blocks you want are split into segments. If it's a single number it's assumed that the blocks you need to shade are connected to each other.
Take for example, "6" in a column. In a 10 x 10 grid, 6 would indicate 6 shaded blocks in one column. These 6 blocks are all connected to one another.
Now, something like "1 3 2" in a column, in a 10 x 10 grid would mean that there are three segments separated by gaps in that one column. The first segment would be 1 shaded block long, the second segment would be 3 shaded blocks long, and the third segment would be 2 shaded blocks long. The important thing to note when you see these kinds of numbers is that these blocks are never connected even though they occupy the same column space. They'll always have at least 1 unwanted block between them.
If I could think of an analogy for it... hmm.
Okay, single numbers would be like trains. "6" would indicate a train with 6 connected cars going forward on one rail.
On the other hand, multiple numbers appearing in one row or column would be like cars. They're driving on the same road, but they're not connected. They're separated by some gaps. Let's think of cars as rolling containers here, because that's what they technically are. Also, when I say "car lengths", one car length signifies a block " Consider "1 4 1". 1 would be a solitary car. Then, in front of the car, a distance of 2 car lengths away, is a large truck. This truck is "4". This "4" is connected to 3 rolling containers. There's another vehicle in front of the truck, also 2 car lengths away in distance. It's another "1", a solitary car.
I hope this explanation helps clear up how to play this game to people who are confused,