[Review] Nikoli's Pencil Puzzle (3DS)

As the dominant portable in the last generation, the DS hadmore than its fair share of puzzle games come out. Puzzle games, universallyappealing as they are, is fun for others besides the hardcore gamer; the morepuzzle games a system has, the more likely its success with casual gamers. WithKonami’s Nikoli’s Pencil Puzzle, the3DS sees its widely appealing puzzler that even those with an AARP membershipcan enjoy.

Nikoli’s Pencil Puzzleincludes four unique, simple types of puzzles within. In Bridges, numbersdenote how many bridges extends to and from separate islands, eventually creatinga giant map once completed. Boxes has players drawing rectangles on a numberfilled map, all of the rectangles with a size corresponding to the numberwithin, until the map is filled and no boxes overlap and no area is empty. Museumis probably the most interesting one, where player-placed lights illuminateeverything in both the vertical and horizontal directions without hittinganother light; this particular game is completed when the whole room is lit up.Lastly, the game also includes Sudoku, a game that truly needs no explanationat this point, as a sort of headliner puzzle game, eclipsing the other optionseven in the main menu. Graphically, each puzzle is enhanced by a 3D graphic onthe upper screen, most notably one of various Bombermen greeting each other anddestroying bridges during Bridge.

It’s kind of hard to do a puzzle game wrong, other than by havinga shortage of puzzles or not providing a challenge; while Nikoli’s Pencil Puzzle has enough difficult puzzles, the variety isdefinitely lacking. With such simplistic puzzles, players would expect a largervariety but will find no such thing. For the four categories that are included,however, Hudson has done a great job of including tutorials that flesh out allthe puzzles quite well. During their actual playtime, when players are gettingfrustrated by a puzzle and choose to quit, they’ll be disappointed to hear thatthey cannot work on another puzzle in the meantime and must choose to play thesame puzzle when they return to their 3DSs. As a cheat prevention method, thisis weak at best and easily pushes away players who cannot tolerate difficultchallenges.

While the puzzles themselves are by no means a bore, thevery existence of the game seems to be a questionable one at times. The veryname shows that these puzzles can be solved without the digital platform. Buyersmay find themselves reaching away from the $29.99 game and toward a printedbook of puzzles instead; the bang for buck ratio isn’t quite there, but puzzlefans with a 3DS might still find this worth their while.

Available on: 3DS; Publisher: Konami; Developer: Hudson; Players: 1; Released: October 25, 2011; ESRB: Everyone; Official Site

Note: A retail copy was provided to Denkiphile for review purposes by the publisher.