The video game legacy of Picross, an easy-to-learn/hard-to-master nonogram puzzle, has been tied to Nintendo throughout the years, dating all the way back to the mid-1990s on the Game Boy in Mario’s Picross. In recent years, the developer Jupiter (responsible for the Nintendo-published Picross DS) has been releasing progressively better Picross games on the 3DS eShop and now, that team is reuniting back with Nintendo for Pokémon Picross, an epic free-to-play adventure that, while occasionally getting overwhelmed by shoddy free-to-play traps, delivers an absurd amount of content that feels like the ultimate sequel to the Picross e games.

Pokémon Picross takes place in an 8-bit world that calls to mind the puzzles you’re solving. It is laid out in a series of worlds with multiple puzzles tucked away in each one, all tied to a Pokémon you can capture when the puzzle’s finished. Defeating the puzzles within a time limit, using certain Pokémon and specific abilities to help you complete missions in each stage that earn you Picrites - the game’s currency. Of course, being as this is a free-to-play game, you can also buy Picrites. Early on, you’ll be faced with a dilemma: either grind for hours upon hours and wait for weeks to get enough Picrites to move to different stages, or crack open your wallet and buy some Picrites.

The two main uses of Picrites are for your energy meter and to unlock worlds. Each of the latter is gated by a Picrite cost that increases as you get deeper into the game’s 30 worlds. The energy meter is tied to how many blocks you uncover and recharges over time. However, it can be upgraded a few times before your energy is unlimited. This was one of the first things I did in game and it essentially eliminated a free-to-play element.

If you buy 5,000 Picrites, which is equal to roughly $30-35, you have unlimited Picrites (similar to Pokémon Rumble World), and honestly, the amount of content in Pokémon Picross is akin to a full retail game. It has more than 300 regular puzzles each with 3-4 missions to complete. There’s the Alt-World, a much harder alternate version of each of the 30 worlds made up of tough Mega Picross puzzles, which add a wrinkle to the nonogram formula. In total, you’re looking at upwards of more than 500 puzzles with more content being slowly released over time. To compare, the Picross e games have about 150 puzzles.

Part of the Pokémon element involves capturing the creatures and building up your own collection. Each one has a different ability that you can use in puzzles, including freezing time or revealing tiles. The one issue is that they are unwieldy to sort. A lot of levels call for specific Pokémon types or abilities, and while you can filter by abilities, you can’t filter by type to only show Water-types. You can sort by type, but even then, it only displays 8-bit renditions of the Pokémon’s face and a color. I’m familiar with most of these critters and it still frustrated me.

After a slow tutorial-laden start, the challenge ramps up decently fast, pretty much on par with the recent Picross e games. Each world has a few secrets, whether it’s a legendary Pokémon or the occasional puzzle on a bigger grid. The Mega Picross levels get mind-bendingly tough rather quickly.

One puzzling element of the game is the fact that while you can switch to button control in puzzles, the menus and screens all can only be controlled by the touch screen. Button control is superior to quickly complete puzzles, especially since stylus control still requires buttons, and it’s annoying to have to switch between buttons and the touch screen so often.

But to me, those few issues are worth wading through because moment-to-moment puzzle gameplay in Pokémon Picross is dependable and excellent. It’s a perfect gateway drug to nonogram puzzles if you’ve never tried them before. And if you’re a Picross vet hankering for more, this is well worth diving into as long as you’re okay with the fact that, if you want to play this free-to-start game without mindlessly repeating puzzles ad nauseum, you’re going to have to spend some money.