The PK 27 -- Game No. 4 (1 2)

As much as I love video games, I rarely find myself so invested in a game that I play it for more than a few hours at a stretch, if that. Though I'm far from what you might consider a casual gamer, it takes a superlatively good game to hook me, make me play for hours on end until time seems to pass as though it were on fast forward -- you know, those games that eat up your day so that the living world becomes some vague afterthought. Because I have a job*, it's hard to really immerse myself in any game these days, but when I have enough time (word to Henry Bemis), and when the game is good, I'm there like Legs at an all-you-can-eat smörgåsbord**.

Picross for the Nintendo DS is one such game. At first glance a picture-puzzle game with numbers (think sudoku with carrots, giraffes, and quite possibly user-created pornography), it is so much more. Released for the DS in 2007, it's a game I still love playing, spending hours upon hours of squinting at numbers and using deductive logic to chip away at puzzles, grinning like a mentally retarded person every time I complete one. It's a bear! A bear! I'm tempted to cry out upon finishing a puzzle, embarrassed by the simplicity of my joy but still satisfied in my accomplishment.

What makes Picross for the DS so great is how near perfect the game is on Nintendo's handheld. The touch screen is the game, and I can't imagine why anyone would prefer traditional, paper-based nonograms. Put away the pencil and eraser, Slim; Picross DS was made for you like the flux capacitor was made for time travel.

Honestly, I can't do the game justice in my praise of it. You'll just have to play it and become entranced by its easily addicting persuasion yourself. Assuming you've never played it, that is, and in which case I should also add: make sure you're wearing glasses/contacts. Also: the game can be pretty hard to play when intoxicated or suffering from alcohol/nicotine withdrawal.

Steady hands, Doctor.


* perhaps not a real job, but a job nonetheless

** Girl eats half her body weight in food every day yet manages to keep her svelte figure. So jealous.