Thanks to Lightwood Games for the review code

Title: Block-A-Pix Deluxe
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $7.99
Release Date: 03/21/2019

Presentation

By this point, games in the Pic-A-Pix series have proven that they don’t really change at all, and that applies to Block-a-Pix. Unfortunately, that means the same grating music tracks as before are available, and there’s not much else to note outside of how the sound effect bug that was fixed in Pieces is fixed here as well. That, and the background is purple now.

Gameplay

Block-a-Pix shifts the focus from Picross puzzle solving to filling in every gap to make an image, kinda like a weird form of connect the dots that Piczle Lines DX did in a similar fashion. Like that game, you must draw out parts of the image in a certain amount of spaces, (indicated by what number you selected) but whereas Piczle Lines dealt with only lines, Block-A-Pix lets you expand into four-sided shapes of varying lengths to accomplish the task, making it a bit more thought-heavy than before.

As in the Pic-A-Pix series, the puzzles gradually go from small to really, really big, to the point the biggest will take you over an hour, and the second-biggest size will take you 45 minutes at the least, meaning that these puzzles will increase in difficulty at a steady pace that I very much enjoyed in Pieces. Like in those games, you can also use the error check tool to check for errors and auto-correct them if you wish, but ignoring the auto-correct tool will grant you a medal for clearing said puzzle without any hints, which adds to the fun, and you can also suspend a puzzle at any time to come back to it later.

Besides that, there’s really little else to talk about. Block-a-Pix is more puzzle solving, but this one ended up being my favorite Lightwood Puzzle game for a few reasons. For starters, the controls are super snappy and quick, like in the Pic-a-Pix series. Touch and button controls are both supported and I found myself using a comfortable mix of both to solve puzzles at my own pace, using the touch screen to quickly expand the bigger squares, while using the cursor and buttons for more careful, shorter lines. Whichever method you choose, there’s really no clunkiness or lag to speak of which makes the experience a lot more smoother than the Piczle games, despite how those also have fun puzzles.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Block-a-Pix is a simple, yet surprisingly fun puzzle game. I ended up playing a good amount more than I usually would for a review, and ended up having so much fun I cleared the entire first page without hints despite the fact that I had little reason to play more than a few puzzles from varying sizes, yet like with Picross S, I just couldn’t help myself, and I may even add this to my gaming backlog as a result.

It’s a big shame the music is pretty terrible and worth muting, though, but besides that this $8 pricetag is a great fit for such a welcoming and simple puzzle game. If you’re sick of picross, or just want something new to your puzzle collection, then Block-A-Pix Deluxe is definitely worth checking out, or at least trying via the demo, which offers a good variety of differing sizes.

I give Block-a-Pix Deluxe an 8 out of 10.