In short, it's picross meets minesweeper.
That is to say, that although the premise and goal is identical to that of all the picross games you've played already, there is one major twist: when you successfully fill in the correct color of a square, the game clues you in on its surrounding squares (excluding diagonals), with a number of 0-4 indicating how many neighboring squares are the same color. This is the minesweeper element - sort of in reverse though, since the clues lead you to squares you're meant to click rather than avoid.
Why does the game need that? Well on top of things, the color clues are actually fundamentally different from your typical picross fare as well; the order of colored sequences isn't implied by the clues, only the number of squares present in the row/column for each color. This makes the game more challenging while maintaining the picross feel, something I personally appreciated.
The game is in Japanese only, I think? So it may be difficult to navigate the game's menus which are already a bit unconventionally laid out. But I feel like giving this game some active credit, since it's one of the few picross games I've encountered that genuinely innovates on the genre. At least, it's the first I've played that has either of the two mechanics I described, and the 2001 release date makes me believe that it might have started the ideas.
To my knowledge, the game's puzzle reach up to 30x20 size, which is pretty considerable given the challenge added by new mechanics.
If you can overcome the language hurdle, give it a go!
That is to say, that although the premise and goal is identical to that of all the picross games you've played already, there is one major twist: when you successfully fill in the correct color of a square, the game clues you in on its surrounding squares (excluding diagonals), with a number of 0-4 indicating how many neighboring squares are the same color. This is the minesweeper element - sort of in reverse though, since the clues lead you to squares you're meant to click rather than avoid.
Why does the game need that? Well on top of things, the color clues are actually fundamentally different from your typical picross fare as well; the order of colored sequences isn't implied by the clues, only the number of squares present in the row/column for each color. This makes the game more challenging while maintaining the picross feel, something I personally appreciated.
The game is in Japanese only, I think? So it may be difficult to navigate the game's menus which are already a bit unconventionally laid out. But I feel like giving this game some active credit, since it's one of the few picross games I've encountered that genuinely innovates on the genre. At least, it's the first I've played that has either of the two mechanics I described, and the 2001 release date makes me believe that it might have started the ideas.
To my knowledge, the game's puzzle reach up to 30x20 size, which is pretty considerable given the challenge added by new mechanics.
If you can overcome the language hurdle, give it a go!