Thanks to Rainy Frog for the review code

Title: Piczle Lines DX: 500 More Puzzles
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $9.99
Release Date: 07/26/2018

Story

Unlike Piczle Lines DX, which actually had a very brief story, this 500 Level expansion of sorts has no story to speak of. It’s just a standalone application with a new set of levels to enjoy, although there is an art gallery here this time around that explains a bit more about the characters and world that these games take place in.

Presentation

Over the past year, Piczle Lines DX has received several free content updates, expanding the game’s level count more and more with each update, yet despite the extra levels, the irritating music I mentioned in that review was never changed. Thankfully, 500 More Puzzles replaces that repetitive loop with a brand new track that’s a lot more suitable for puzzle solving, and in a funny little twist, the old, awful track begins to play normally before the title screen before it stops and gets knocked out of the sky by a random cat. A funny way of improving a minor flaw, but very appreciated nevertheless.

Besides the music change, the UI and visual style of the game remains much the exact same as before, and the art gallery offers some look into promo material and concept art, although the gallery is fairly brief.

Gameplay

True to the title, Piczle Lines DX: 500 More Puzzles is literally 500 more puzzles in the same engine of the original Piczle Lines DX. None of the puzzles are recycled from the older game, thankfully, but the controls are all the same as before, so if you played Piczle Lines DX, connecting the lines in the labeled number of spaces is still the way to go for these new puzzles. Thus, my original review will cover those aspects just as well as they would here.

Instead, the new additions come from a category of puzzle known as “One-color puzzles”. These are true to the name, being puzzles where every line is the exact same color, leading to no color clues being available to help dictate what direction the lines could be in. They do add an extra challenge, and like always the bigger the puzzle, the more difficult they get, but I don’t feel that they change things up to the point where it’s as big of a gameplay change as Mega Picross in Picross S, or a fun diversion like Micross in that same series.

Besides the new type of puzzle available, all of these other puzzles are themed after several categories and presented in all shapes and sizes, just like in the original. Puzzle categories based on places such as France and Korea, along with objects like Food among many, many others are available to play, and you can back out of a puzzle at any time to return to it later just like in the original.

Conclusion

In conclusion, 500 More Puzzles does exactly as the title says, and outside of a new music track and a concept art gallery, there’s pretty much no difference in the game’s presentation to speak of. These could have easily been part of the original game, but the sheer volume of puzzles available at once do bring about a minor reason to have it be a separate app. Heck, the starting roster for this game is more than the original starting lineup for the original Piczle Lines DX, and being priced at $5 less with a better music track makes this a steal for newcomers, but a lot harder to recommend to those who already own DX. In all honesty, this whole second purchase seems pointless, but I really would love if Score Studios could patch in the better BGM track to the original DX so I could play those puzzles with the new music.

I give Piczle Lines DX: 500 More Puzzles a 7 out of 10.