There's no shortage of Picross-style games on the App Store, so a studio needs to do something really special to make their own collection of puzzles stand-out. Fortunately, Casual Labs has done precisely that with Paint It Back, and produced a delicious collection of intriguing logic puzzles to tease your brain in the process.
For the uninitiated, Picross puzzles require you to use numbers and logic to correctly fill in the correct squares in a series of grids. There's usually a theme to the puzzles, and in Paint It Back you're tasked with restoring a series of paintings, and your logical doodlings form the outlines of the masterpieces that are just waiting to be shown off to an expectant crowd.
The Good
Paint It Back does a really impressive job of explaining this particular form of puzzling to the complete novice, which is no minor achievement by any means. There's a decent variety of puzzle difficulties to get stuck into as well, so there should be something to challenge even veterans of the genre. It's also the perfect blend of free and premium gaming - you get a nice chunk of levels for free, so you can decide if it's your cup of tea, then a very reasonable $2.99 will unlock absolutely everything.
The Bad
If there's one thing that holds Paint It Back from greatness, it's that anyone familiar with the genre will breeze through the early packs - how much of that $2.99 value you get from Paint It Back will largely depend on this experience. We were pretty happy with the money we spent though, and we've played this sort of game to death!
The Verdict
Hands-down the best introduction to Picross puzzle solving you can get on the App Store right now, and even old hands should find something to entertain them. A superb puzzle game by anyone's standards.
