Art Style: PiCTOBiTS is pure retro love packaged in a clever puzzler. The downloadable game is a DSi Ware exclusive (500 points, $5) and on first look will invoke comparisons to Tetris and other "falling block" titles. However, the Tetris comparison is a disservice to PiCTOBiTS, which puts enough twist on the falling block formula to provide a stylish and full experience.
Blocks are representative of pixels, and each pixel that you clear out travels to the top screen to fill out an 8-bit portrait of one of Nintendo’s classic NES characters. If you fill in the character on the top screen before the bottom screen fills with blocks, you beat the level.
Unlike Tetris, PiCTOBiTS grants the player the unique ability to pick up and move blocks or store them in a “reserve” bar to be doled out on demand at a later point. It won’t shift the paradigm in terms of puzzle games, but it does make things unique and is well done.
The game’s difficulty may turn people off initially from PiCTOBiTS, but the silver lining is that it never feels cheap and rarely will the player feel robbed. Each of the 30 stages (15 of which need to be purchased through in-game currency) throws something new at the player and requires a different tactic to complete. Over time and many failed attempts, the player will learn how to better tackle the game’s difficulty.
Getting pissed at PiCTOBiTS is always a short-lived condition because the charm this title exudes will keep pulling you back in. The familiar 8-bit sprites combined with chiptune remixes of classic NES themes by Japanese group YMCK distance it from any Tetris or related puzzle-clone label.
