Piczle Lines DX (Switch) Review

Hello, PushDustIn from Source Gaming here. Today, I will be reviewing Piczle Lines DX for the Nintendo Switch. Full disclosure, we were provided with a copy of the game by its’ publisher, Rainy Frog, for review purposes. Piczle Lines DX is an upgraded port of a mobile game of the same name. It’s the third puzzle game Rainy Frog has published for Nintendo’s latest console but is it the best of the bunch?Let’s find out in our review.

Story:

The premise of Piczle Lines DX is quite simple. The professor’s latest invention has the ability to transform an object into an 8-bit version of itself. However, it has gone haywire, turning random objects into retro images. It’s up to the player to revert the pixelated objects back by completing the puzzles. The story is pretty basic…there’s really not much else to say about it. This is kind of to be expected since the main draw of the game is its puzzles and mechanics.

Gameplay:

Piczle Lines DX is a perfect example of the phrase, ‘what you see is what you get’. The game is extremely limited in terms of varying gameplay. The main objective of the levels is to complete pictures by connecting colored dots. On the colored dots are numbers which determine how long the line is. After connecting all the colored dots, an image will be revealed which will complete the level. There is no real evolution of or experimentation with the formula; Piczle Lines DX increases the size of the puzzles in later levels, but it doesn’t really get difficult, it merely gets more laborious. I found myself getting into a zone, and all that entailed was just matching the colored dots. For the review I decided I should try one of the bigger puzzles — a 64×64. It took well over an hour to complete, but the worst part is that I felt like I was going through the motions. In all honesty, it’s kind of boring. The formula simply gets stale quickly.

Players can use the touchscreen to draw in the lines. I found this method slightly more engaging, but I found the Joy-Cons to be more precise. If you are going for the “no mistakes” trophy, then I feel like the Joy-Cons method is the only way.

Presentation:

Besides its’ gameplay, Piczle Lines DX is plagued with serious issues. First, the music is awful. I swear each track is 30 seconds long, and the repetition gets grating very quickly. This is disappointing as players will spend over an hour on the larger puzzles. In addition, the music will stop and start over again during loading screens. It’s pretty jarring.

I also ran into an issue with the trophies failing to unlock. I’ve checked out the credits several times, but the corresponding trophy has yet to be attained. Overall, there aren’t a lot of trophies — most are connected to the story mode. There’s no “grading” system as far as I can tell on the levels either, which kind of cuts down on the replayability of the game. A simple clock and an online leader board could have subverted this issue, inspiring players to compete for the best records.

The graphics are clean, and there are some animations…but not much. On the title screen, the blinking animation of the various characters last for about 5 seconds and then loops. The game isn’t terrible to look at, but it’s not terribly interesting either. Limited animations and an inoffensive art style just reek of a mobile game, not a console game. Overall, it’s discernable that Piczle Lines DX is a port of a mobile game first and foremost rather than something that was built for the Switch.

Verdict:

If you are on the fence, download the iOS/Android app and play that for an hour. If you enjoy the app, you should enjoy the Switch version, especially since it has additional puzzles, and will continue to get even more for the foreseeable future. If you find that relaxing, then you’ll probably enjoy this game. Personally, I find it pretty dry and lacking lasting appeal.

Piczle Lines DX is not the best puzzle game on the Switch nor is it the best game Rainy Frog published for the platform. If you are looking for a satisfying puzzle game, check out Puzzle Adventure Blockle, we have the review on this channel.

I’m giving Piczle Lines DX a 2 out of 5.