“Super Mario Multiverse” – Mario’s Super Picross (SFC) by Andrew Fisher

MARIO’S SUPER PICROSS

(AKA MARIO NO SUPER PICROSS)

by Andrew Fisher (@merman1974)

“Let’s Play! Let’s Smile!” That is the motto of Jupiter Corporation, a Japanese developer based in Kyoto and founded in 1992. (In Japanese the motto reads, “Egao no aru sekai no souzou.”) Over the years it has been both a hardware and software developer, working closely with Nintendo and Square Enix. It has also handled several big licenses – including Pokémon, Sonic and Disney – and found its niche with Picross.

Jupiter Corporation’s logo.

Picross, an alternative name for a nonogram picture puzzle, dates back to 1987 and its invention is claimed by two different people (one a graphic designer, the other a puzzle designer). A blank grid of squares has numbers along the top and left-hand sides. These numbers are clues to where to fill in a square (pixel) in that row or column. For example, 5 means there are 5 filled squares in a line. The clue 2,3 means there are two squares followed by three squares, with at least one blank square between them. The logic can be learned, cross-referencing between column and row, to fill in the picture and reveal the solution. It became popular in Japanese magazines and newspapers, and in 1995 Jupiter released a trio of Nintendo Picross titles.

A screen from Mario Picross, enhanced with the Super Game Boy surround.

Jupiter’s second Picross game, Tamori’s Picross.

First to arrive was Mario Picross on the Game Boy, with Mario as an archaeologist using a hammer and chisel to chip away at the grid to reveal the answer. It was also a Super Game Boy compatible title, giving extra colour and a screen surround when played through the SNES add-on. This was followed by a Super Famicom title, Tamori’s Picross (Tamari no Picross in Japanese). It was broadcast to the Satellaview system attached to the console, timed to coincide with a weekly radio show (Sunday Seminar with Dr. Tamorosu Sabachichikarejji) between April and September 1995. The puzzles continued to be broadcast until April 1996 and have been preserved as a ROM image since 2010. The final game in the trilogy was Mario no Super Picross for the Super Famicom, released in September 1995.

The introductory credits screen.

There is a second set of puzzles featuring Wario, see below on how to unlock it!

The theme of Mario as archaeologist was carried over from the earlier Game Boy title. The game was compatible with the SNES Mouse, making it easier to move the pointer around. After an opening tutorial, a Level is chosen. Each Level has ten separate puzzles to complete. The player is then shown ten possible puzzles, and when they are completed the image of the completed puzzle is shown on this screen. Puzzles start out small, with a grid of 5 by 5 squares. The difficulty and size slowly increases, up to the maximum size of 20 by 25.

The tutorial is shown when the game is started for the first time, and can be shown again from the main menu.

Selecting a puzzle from Mario Level 1.

Once a puzzle is selected, there is the main grid on the right and a smaller view of the puzzle to the top left. Before the timer starts, the player can receive a clue, giving the solution to a whole row and column (chosen at random by the computer). A and X chisel away a square, but a mistake costs time (see below). Pressing B or Y draws an “x” on the square to mark it as a potential blank square; this helps when trying to count where the squares should be placed. Pressing B or Y over an existing “x” wipes it away with no penalty. Pressing SELECT opens the sub-menu, where the player can get a hint, save or quit back to the puzzle select screen.

The main menu in Mario mode.

The mermaid puzzle has been completed, and animates.

My third mistake and the floating blue -8, meaning 8 minutes deducted from my remaining time.

As Mario chips away at the grid, a smaller image of the puzzle is filled in. When the puzzle is complete, this turns from black and white into colour and animates. Completing a level sees Mario either bow or give the player the thumbs up to congratulate them. During play another hint can be given in return for taking 5 minutes off the clock; the player must enter the sub-menu to get this hint. The player starts with 30 minutes in total, but mistakes are costly. The first mistake (by chipping away a square that isn’t in the solution) costs one minute, and then it doubles for each subsequent mistake (2, 4, 8…) Running out of time means the puzzle must be restarted. 

Marking crosses helps identify potential blank squares, while the highlighted row and column were the opening hints.

The battery backup in the cartridge gives two separate save files. The player can save a puzzle at any point and resume it later. The game also keeps track of the fastest completion time for each of the puzzles, of which there are 280. Completing all ten Levels of puzzles for both Mario and Wario (see below) unlocks two new sets of Special puzzles. Completing these unlocks Ultra mode. Completing Ultra then unlocks the final 13 EX puzzles.

The screen for managing save files, and Wario’s puzzle selection screen.

Half of the puzzles are completed by Mario’s nemesis Wario. Wario mode is unlocked by completing Mario Level 1, and then moving left or right on the title screen to select a character. Wario’s puzzles work in a different way. Instead of counting down, the timer starts at zero and counts up. There is no hint before the timer starts in Wario mode. The aim is still to complete a puzzle as fast as possible. However, there is no penalty for making a mistake – and the player is not told they have made one. This makes it tougher to solve but adds to the variety.

Wario’s first puzzle is a single pixel, while his second is much trickier to solve…

It is also important to credit Jupiter’s co-developer Ape Inc. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi wanted to invest in new talent, and helped designer Shigesato Itoi set up his own company in March 1989. Ape’s biggest project was RPG Mother. Itoi’s ambitious plans for the sequel saw it take five years and the help of HAL Laboratory. In the wake of Mother 2 (known as EarthBound in the West), Ape was disbanded and many staff went on to new company Creatures Inc. Ape had worked with Jupiter on its first three Picross titles, while Creatures helped Jupiter develop software for the Game Boy Camera and Picross 2 for Game Boy Color.

EarthBound on the SNES.

The Game Boy Camera add-on had some unusual built-in software, including a small game.

Picross 2’s title screen with added colour, thanks to the Game Boy Color.

Jupiter followed Mario no Super Picross with a series of eight Picross games available on the Nintendo Power download service. This early form of flash cartridge appeared late in the Super Famicom’s life but saw a lot of interesting titles. Using the same game engine, the NP Picross titles (released bi-monthly between April 1999 and June 2000) had many unique puzzles; each volume also had a set of Nintendo sprites to solve. Volume 6, for example, had puzzles based on Super Mario 64.

The title screen of NP Picross Volume 6 with Super Mario, and Wario appears in Volume 7.

Other Picross titles on the Super Famicom include the two Oekaki Logic games from Sekaibunka Publishing. These feature cute characters, with “white bear” mode giving lives to fix mistakes and the harder “brown bear” mode. The second entry (Ochan no Oekaki Logic) had Ochan and other characters from the Hebereke universe and a two-player mode.

Puzzles from Oekaki Logic (in hard mode) and Ochan no Oekaki Logic.

Picross games have been a staple of Jupiter across successive forms of Nintendo hardware, including DS, DSiWare, 3DS and now Switch. The developer also worked on the Pokémon Mini, created two best-selling Pokémon Pinball titles, Sonic Pinball Party and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. (The original Pokémon Pinball was for Game Boy Color, the sequel and the other titles listed were for Game Boy Advance). Perhaps its most high-profile title was its collaboration with Square Enix on DS’s stylish RPG, The World Ends With You. Pictlogica Final Fantasy featured Picross puzzles based on Square’s most famous RPG games, while Spectrobes was another DS RPG that sold over a million copies.

The Sapphire table from Pokémon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire, with the player about to catch a Jigglypuff.

A battle scene from DS game The World Ends With You.

Mario no Super Picross remained a Japanese exclusive until the twelfth anniversary of its release. Then it became a Wii Virtual Console download for PAL regions in September 2007, under the title Mario’s Super Picross. This was as part of the Hanabi Festival, where each region of Wii user was treated to games that had not been imported there. Mario’s Super Picross was not translated and all text remained in Japanese, although like all WiiWare titles there was an electronic manual to help the player. The game was added to the Wii U Virtual Console in April 2016 and the 3DS equivalent in November 2016. (SNES or Super Famicom titles are only available to New 3DS and New 2DS users). Japan received all three Virtual Console re-releases, but the game has never been officially available to buy in North America.

Wario’s first appearance on completing Mario Level 1, and Wario puzzle 1-B completed. It’s a footprint.

Critical reception – in English – centres around the Virtual Console release, although Game Informer’s 9.25 out of 10 dates back to 2003. Eurogamer scored it 8 out of 10. Marcel van Duyn’s review for the Nintendo Life website resulted in a mammoth 9 out of 10. The conclusion compared it favourably to the Game Boy titles, noting “it’s great whether you’re a beginner or an expert, its difficulty starting off on the gentle side before ramping up as more puzzles are completed.”

The completed penguin puzzle and the larger version, which walks out of shot.

Sadly there have been no fan translations or patches for Mario no Super Picross, unlike other Picross titles. The Cutting Room Floor website notes that the game will not play on PAL Super Nintendo consoles, responding with two different anti-piracy screens. But the game is perfectly playable without understanding all the Japanese text. There are some short sequences with dialogue between Mario and Wario – mostly on completing a Level or set of puzzles – but it doesn’t detract from the gameplay itself.

The region lockout and anti-piracy messages discovered by The Cutting Room Floor.

I am a relative newcomer to Picross, having not played any of the games until discovering them through emulation. Since then I have played several different versions, particularly for Nintendo, and have even composed music for a forthcoming Commodore 64 Picross game. Known as Grid Pix, it features 100 different puzzles plus plans for extra “DLC”. The original game comes on a cartridge, with the ability to load new puzzles from a disk. It will be published by RGCD (www.rgcd.co.uk) in spring 2020, with original cover artwork by Ste Pickford. Picross is relatively new to the C64. Ozsiphantom made a 4K Picross title for a coding competition, there is the unfinished Illogical and Carl-Henrik Skarstedt made No No Pixie for 2019’s RGCD 16K cartridge competition.

The first of 100 puzzles in Grid Pix on the C64.

No No Pixie features several control options on the C64, including using the mouse.

So Mario has proven himself a master of Picross, and Wario got in on the act too. I hope you have enjoyed this look-back. Sayonara!

Mario bows on completing the first set of ten puzzles, and it’s Game Over for this article. But keep scrolling…

Andrew Fisher is a freelance writer specialising in retro games, with a personal collection of over 3,000 retro games across many formats. He is a regular contributor to Retro Gamer magazine – https://www.retrogamer.net, and writes the More C64 column for The Retrogaming Times website – https://www.classicplastic.net/trt/. His book The Commodore 64 Games Book 1982-19xx, featuring over two hundred game reviews, was published in 2008. He recently completed over 700 SNES game reviews (including several Picross games) for the Super Nintendo Anthology from Geek-Line Publishing. He has contributed music and been a games tester for newly released C64 games. He has been working on a book project with fellow writer Jerry Ellis, titled Arcade Imperfect, due for publication in 2020. Andrew is 45, married to Alison and helps look after his stepdaughter Madalyn.

[Andrew enjoys a well-earned cup of tea from his ZZAP! 64 mug. Photo processed with the Retrospecs app.]

Wahoo! You are a Super Reader! But the adventure doesn’t stop here… There’s more of this project in another castle! This article is just one level in an entire Super Mario Multiverse, a galactic collaboration between writers around the world sharing a bit of our hearts and memories about our favorite Mario games. Visit the Center of the Multiverse to see more: