Mario's Picross

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This article is about the game Mario's Picross. For the Club Nintendo comic based on the game, see Mario's Picross (comic).

Mario's Picross
North American box art For alternate box art, see the game's gallery.
Developer	Jupiter
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Game Boy, Virtual Console (Nintendo 3DS)
Release date	Game Boy: Template:Release Virtual Console (3DS): Template:Release[?]
Genre	Puzzle
Rating(s)	ESRB: - Kids to Adults
Mode(s)	Single-player
Input	Game Boy: Gamepad Nintendo 3DS: Gamepad

Mario's Picross is a puzzle game for the Game Boy developed by Jupiter and the first game in the Nintendo-published Picross series. It was released in 1995 and stars Mario who appears in the role of an archaeologist. Mario's Picross is based on paint by number puzzles known as nonograms. Several sequels have been released since then, most of which are Japan-only games.

Gameplay

A 15x15 square puzzle.

The objective of each logic puzzle is to reveal a hidden picture in a grid by scraping specific squares of it. Each puzzle starts with an empty grid and several numbers are given at the side of each horizontal row and vertical column of the grid. The numbers tell the player how many squares have to be scraped in each line.

For example, a "5" means that the player has to scrape five consecutive squares in the respective line. If there is more than one number, then there has to be at least one blank square between the scraped areas. For instance, "4 6 2" means that four consecutive squares have to be scraped in the line, followed by at least one blank square. After the blank space(s), the player has to scrape an area of six squares. Again, there has to be at least one blank square between this area and the last two consecutive squares that have to be scraped. If the player is sure that a square doesn't have to be scraped, e.g. when a blank square is needed or all required squares in a line have been scraped, they can mark it with an "X".

The revealed pictures show food, animals and other objects, but also make some Super Mario franchise references.

Modes

The game features 256 puzzles in total. All puzzles are a size of 15x15 squares, except for the 5x5 and 10x10 square puzzles of Easy Picross that are aimed at beginners. The puzzles are split into different modes (64 puzzles each):

• Easy Picross (for beginners)
• Picross (split into two courses)
  • Kinoko Course
  • Star Course (unlocked after completing Kinoko Course)
• Time Trial (unlocked after completing Star Course)

The first two modes, where the puzzles can be played in any order, follow the same rules. Before playing the game, the player can decide to get a hint, which means that the correct squares of a row and a column are already scraped when starting the puzzle. A roulette the player has to stop defines which lines are revealed, which can make a puzzle easier to solve, though it is possible to solve them all without using hints. Each puzzle has a time limit of 30 minutes. Marking squares with an "X" that should be scraped incurs no penalty, but scraping squares that should not be scraped reduces the time limit. The first mistake costs two minutes, the second one four minutes, and any others eight minutes each, meaning that a maximum of five mistakes can be made. If time runs out before the player has revealed the picture, the game is over. For each puzzle, the first and best times are saved, with an "H" to the left of the time if a hint was used to solve a puzzle.

Time Trial

The last mode known as Time Trial comes with different rules. The player does not get a hint at the beginning, and the game does not note wrongly-scraped squares, so the player does not know whether a mistake has been made. The 64 puzzles appear randomly; the player is not able to select a specific puzzle. This random selection is guaranteed to show the player a puzzle they have not yet solved, until all 64 possible puzzles have been solved once.

There is no time limit - instead, time counts up from zero, measuring how long the player took to solve the puzzle. Upon completing a puzzle, the player has the option to enter their time into a high-score board of fastest times, with up to three letters to represent their name. This score board is shared across the 64 possible puzzles. After entering a score, the player can decide to "try again" - however this will load a random puzzle, not necessarily the one that was just completed.

The default entries on the score board are the following:

• 15:00 - NIN
• 20:00 - APE
• 30:00 - JUP
• 40:00 - MAR
• 50:00 - PIC

Levels

The puzzles in the game's first three courses are stored in order in the game's memory; this pattern has been used to determine the "order" of the Time Trial puzzles.

Easy Picross

Level	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	Letter L	Letter E	Letter T	Letter S	Letter W	Letter O	Letter R	Letter K
2	Note	Diamond	Spade	Heart	Clover	Question Mark	Dollar Sign	Arrow
3	Crescent	Star	Sailboat	Car	Cactus	Apple	Chestnut	Doughnut
4	Knife and Fork	Flag	Cup	Flask	House	Glove	Balloon	Pencil
5	Pot	Umbrella	Bell	Boot	Candle	Faucet	Bulb	Anchor
6	Choplifter	Ball	Boo Diddly	Panda	Wild Duck	Chicken	Snail	Mario
7	Lipstick	Silk Hat	Ax	Wood Stove	Locomotive	Frozen Pop	Carrot	Whale
8	Chair	Hourglass	Bottles	Skillet	Coffee Maker	Mail Box	Camera	Scissors

Kinoko Course

Level	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	Game Boy	Star	High Heel	Bread	Cake	Hanger	Bus	Tinkle
2	Skate	Shoe	Cap	Telephone	Can	Garlic	Hand	Hamburger
3	Shovel	Necklace	UFO	Bullet Bill	Tomato	Flower	Grand Goombas	Coffee Cup
4	Mutt	Overalls	Leaf	Unicorn	Bull	Controller	Onion	Skull and Crossbones
5	Snowman	Chameleon	Cucumber	Buildings	Pear	Owl	Rice Ball	Soap Bubbles
6	Baby Buggy	Bomb	Kettle	Weightlifting	Coffee Mill	Plug	Sunglasses	Crow
7	Vacuum	Nessie	Camel	Oranges	Bucket	Angel	Racing Car	Purse
8	Rocking Horse	Ice Cream Cone	Deer	Strawberry	Bicycle	Atlantic Penguin	Ambulance	Backhoe

Star Course

Level	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	Bubble Pipe	Shirt	Hermit Crab	Shooting Star	Acorn	Lamp	Sunfish	Green Peas
2	Ladybug	Balance	Samurai	Wild Duck	Mini Yoshi	Weathercock	Crown	Poodle
3	Scarecrow	Grapes	Cannon	Ship	Duckbill	Crab Beetle	Christmas Tree	Tiger
4	Bowling Pins	Sea Lion	Sunflower	Ice Cream Sundae	Cowboy Hat	Ray	Spiny	Cherry
5	Palm Tree	Tank	Hawk	Fly	Spinning Top	Mushroom	Squirrel	Bath
6	Skiing	Coat	Crab	Goldfish	Reindeer	Jack-O'-Lantern	Mud	Chilli Peppers
7	Radar	Mermaid	Fox	Sumo Wrestler	Frog	Cat Fish	Racket	Guitar
8	Spider	Pelican	Dragonfly	Wild Boar	Beetle	Seal	Kite	Armadillo

Time Trial

Level	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	Witch	Bow	Man in the Moon	Alarm Clock	Watermelon	Straw Hat	Rocket	Rabbit
2	Bird	Banana	Corn	Ostrich	Teruteru Bouzu	Pineapple	Feather	Mouse
3	Blooper	Fish	Monkey	Dirk	Buzzy-Beetle	Bee	Cat	Koopa-Troopas
4	Candy	Crane	Ram	Giraffe	Scorpion	Kangaroo	Pig	White Lion
5	Sake Bottle	Flower	Friendly Dog	Shrimp	Hippopotamus	Tulip	Clay Image	Wooden Horse
6	Socks	Butterfly	Tortoise	Football	Scooter	Koala	Lock	Chick
7	Cheep-Cheeps	Snake	White Eye	Elephant	Horse	Tea Cup	Pegasus	Rhinoceros
8	Angler	Ring	Woodpecker	Grim Reaper	Hedgehog	Dump Truck	Bi-Plane	Sheriff

Cameos

Some of the pictures show characters, enemies, and items from the Super Mario franchise. A picture of the Game Boy appears, too. Caption of these puzzles appear in full uppercase, unlike other puzzles which their caption appear in full lowercase.

Easy Picross

• 6C - Boo Diddly
• 6H - Mario

Kinoko Course

• 1A - Game Boy
• 1B - Star
• 3D - Bullet Bill
• 3G - Grand Goombas

Star Course

• 2E - Mini Yoshi
• 4G - Spiny
• 5F - Mushroom

Time Trial

• Cheep-Cheep
• Buzzy Beetle
• Koopa Troopa
• Blooper

Differences in the Japanese version

In the overseas release of the game, a handful of puzzles were changed to remove references to alcohol and other elements. The puzzles included in the Japanese release are listed below.

Easy Picross

• 6C - Cocktail
• 7B - Wine Glass

Kinoko Course

• 2A - Shogi Piece
• 2F - Shrine Bell
• 2H - Rice Pot
• 4D - Tsukimi Dango
• 6H - Beer Mug
• 7F - Folding Fan

Star Course

• 6H - Niō's Face

Time Trial

• 1H - Pellet Drum
• 3D - Shuriken
• 3F - Tobacco
• 4D - Kasa-obake

Reception

Mario's Picross was unable to sell notably well in either North America or Europe when it was released, leading both territories to no longer receive any more Picross games by Nintendo until Picross DS in 2007. The game, despite citations that the Game Boy's tiny screen makes it difficult to see the puzzles clearly, is considered a cult hit in the Western world.

Legacy

Due to the game's success in the region, Japan received a number of sequels. The first one was Mario's Super Picross for the Super Famicom in 1995, followed by the Game Boy title Picross 2 in 1996. In 1999 and 2000, eight Picross NP games for the Super Famicom were released and could be downloaded by the players onto Nintendo Power cartridges. Four of them feature puzzles related to the Super Mario franchise. Of these, Mario's Super Picross is the only one available outside of Japan, appearing on the European and Australian Virtual Consoles in September 2007 for the Wii and April 2013 for the Wii U. Japan received a Virtual Console release in December 2006 for the Wii and April 2013 for the Wii U. In 2012, a Japan-only Club Nintendo exclusive title called Club Nintendo Picross was released; that title received a sequel called Club Nintendo Picross+ in 2014.

References in later games

• Mario Party 2: Mario's outfit for the Mystery Land board resembles the outfit Mario is depicted as wearing in Mario's Picross.
• Super Mario Odyssey: A costume Mario can wear in the game is nearly identical to the explorer outfit Mario is depicted wearing in Mario's Picross, and later sequels.

Gallery

Logos

• 

  Japanese logo

• 

  International logo

Box art

• 

  Japanese box art (front)

• 

  North American box art (front)

• 

  North American box art (back)

• 

  European box art (front)

Artwork

• 

  Mario

• 

  Mario

• 

  Mario

• 

  Mario

• 

  Mario

• 

  Mario (Nintendo Magazine System)

• 

  Cover artwork

• 

  Cover artwork (no logo)

Screenshots

Title screens

• 

  Title screen (Game Boy)

• 

  Japanese title screen (Game Boy)

• 

  Title screen (Super Game Boy)

• 

  Japanese title screen (Super Game Boy)

Super Game Boy in-game borders

By default, the Green border will be used.

The other colors can be selected if the player holds a specific direction on the d-pad while progressing past the title screen:

• Up: Black
• Down: White
• Left: Yellow
• Right: Red

If the player enters all four directions without repeats (the order does not matter), a tone will play. Proceeding into the game at this point will load the Clear border.

• However, pressing any direction after the tone but before proceeding will undo this - border selection will revert to the above single-direction options, or the default Green.

• 

  Green

• 

  Green (Japanese version)

• 

  Black

• 

  Black (Japanese version)

• 

  White

• 

  White (Japanese version)

• 

  Yellow

• 

  Yellow (Japanese version)

• 

  Red

• 

  Red (Japanese version)

• 

  Clear

• 

  Clear (Japanese version)

Other

• 

  Level 3G

• 

  Game Over

Prerelease

• 

  Prerelease image

• 

  Second prerelease image

Other

• 

  Magazine advert

• 

  German advertisement

• 

  Prototype cover of the game box

Trivia

• The letters in the solutions of the first eight puzzles in 'Easy Picross' spell "LETS WORK."
• Star course 6-G is titled "Mud" in the English localization, despite portraying what appears to be a snail with an elongated shell. In the Japanese version, this puzzle is named タニシ, which is a family of freshwater snails called Viviparidae. It is possible that the intended localization was "Mud Snail", as the puzzle does bear a resemblance to the New Zealand mud snail.

External links

• Official Site from Nintendo (Japanese)
• Japanese Virtual Console Site
• North American Site
• Nintendo UK Site
• Official Site from Jupiter (English/Japanese)