Maybe you have already purchased this first Platinum Points-exclusive title from the My Nintendo program. But maybe you are still in doubt whether it is worth the 1000 points, or maybe you are still on your way to get to the 1K needed. Than this article is for you! It is not exactly a review of My Nintendo Picross, although we will highlight what the game is about. No, this article is more of a guide to help you decide if it is worth your hard-earned points.

First things first. As most of you know, the My Nintendo reward program has been running for two weeks now. The biggest goal of the program is to collect points which can be traded in for goodies. Right now they are limited to eShop discounts, digital games and some backgrounds for your 3DS homescreen. But Nintendo already pointed out that they have bigger plans in the future. You can earn both Platinum and Gold points. Gold points are awarded when you purchase content from the eShop, while Platinum points can be gained by completing missions. At the moment, there are general missions such as “log in to the eShop once a week” and missions to be completed in Miitomo such as “answer 3 questions daily”. There are different rewards for Gold and Platinum points, so you will need both if you want everything.

Points points points! Yaah!

But back to My Nintendo Picross. As said before, the game costs 1000 Platinum points. The first points are easy money, since you will get quite high rewards from missions such as “connect your Facebook account” and “link your NNID to your Nintendo account”. So it is not too hard to get to the 1K. But after that the daily and weekly awards are much smaller (ranging from 10 daily to 30 points weekly). So you can imagine that it takes some extra weeks to get another 1000 points. Right now there is not too much competition for My Nintendo Picross. The other big game is Warioware: Touched!, the 2005 Nintendo DS classic which is still big fun. But undoubtedly we will get more games in the future, which will make the choice more difficult. And there is another catch: Rewards are only available in the program until a certain date. Warioware: Touched! expires at the first of July this year, while My Nintendo Picross is available until the first of October. So you got some extra time to save up, but again, there are probably more awards on the way.

That leads us back to the main question: Is My Nintendo Picross: The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess worth your points? That really depends on whether you like puzzle games (and picross in particular). If you do, than this game is great value for points. The content of My Nintendo Picross is quite rich, with over 90 puzzles in a number of variations (Picross, Mega Picross and the spectacular Micross). You will be able to spend quite some hours to complete all puzzles. The gameplay is solid, and it has quite some options for both beginners and experienced puzzlers. First you can choose whether you use the stylus or the buttons as a mode of input. Next, you can turn on a number of help options, such as auto-correct if you make a mistake (although this will give you a time penalty), and Hint Roulette which already fills in a random row and column.

If you have never played a picross game, there is a tutorial in My Nintendo Picross which explains the basics to solving a puzzle. However, if you get to the tutorial, you have already bought the game and it is too late to worry about spending points. Lucky for you, there is another way to find out if picross is a game for you. A while back Pokémon Picross launched for Nintendo 3DS, and it is free to play. So just fire up your 3DS eShop, download it, and soon enough you will know if you like the game type or not.

Another big point of this title is of course the Twilight Princess theme of this game. What if you are not into Picross, but are just a wildly enthusiastic The Legend Of Zelda fan? Would this be a game for you? Truth is: no. Although the game has some nice touches from Twilight Princess, it is just the dress-up for the puzzles. The game is explained to you by the witty Midna. Further, the puzzles all have something to do with The Legend Of Zelda (such as items from the series). The music and the backgrounds behind your puzzles are also Zelda themed. But since you will be focussing on the puzzle, it really doesn’t matter too much which backgrounds you have.

All in all My Nintendo Picross: The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess is a great choice if you are into Picross puzzling. The amount of content is rich and it will keep you busy for quite some hours. When you are in doubt about Picross itself, give the free to play Pokémon Picross from the eShop a go. If after that you are still in doubt, it may be better to hold on to your Platinum points. The game will be around until October 1st, and who knows what Nintendo has up its sleeve for future rewards.