Put Your Brain In Gear And Get Ready To Puzzle!

29 MARCH, 2007 - It's time to put on your thinking cap and prepare to immerse yourself in fun and addictive puzzles as Picross DS launches across Europe only on Nintendo DS. Players will have to have speedy fingers and even faster minds to conquer the many puzzles available. Picross DS will offer the ultimate in light puzzle entertainment, only for the Nintendo DS when it launches on 11th May.

As the latest in Nintendo's Touch! Generations Series, Picross DS offers quick and accessible entertainment for everyone, irrespective of age or experience. This title joins hugely popular games such as Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? Nintendogs and 42 All Time Classics, all of which enjoyed massive success with gamers and non-gamers alike.

In the game's main Picross Mode players must reveal a hidden image that lies beneath the puzzle by filling in a grid with squares and crosses to complete patterns. Variety is the spice of life and Picross DS does not disappoint with a staggering 300 puzzles available to play at your leisure. These games range from the elementary five by five grids, to highly complicated twenty by twenty grids which will keep even the most hardened gamer happy. Finishing all these challenges will keep you busy for weeks. There is no need to worry if you get stuck by one of the more devious challenges as you can opt to receive clues to help finish puzzles as well as give yourself a head start with a roulette style hint function that reveals one line of the puzzle.

Once the main game is mastered the puzzling action is by no means over. My Picross mode allows players to create their very own puzzles to challenge or share with friends. Using the Nintendo DS stylus and easy-to-use touch-screen, players can design Picross DS puzzles of all sizes. What's more they can even design the image beneath the puzzle which is released upon its completion. Once created these puzzles can be shared with friends using the Nintendo DS wireless connectivity or the Wi-Fi Connection service.

For Players looking for a quick distraction on a regular basis Picross DS features a calendar based Daily Picross mode where players are challenged to take on several quick puzzles every day. The fun and addictive puzzles in this mode all feature the smallest five by five grids and are designed to see how quickly players can analyse and complete five small puzzles. Each days results are then plotted on a chart that shows the player's progress over time. Playing Daily Picross DS mode for periods of consecutive days will unlock all new modes including No X's, Error Search, and Memory.

The fun doesn't stop there with a selection of touch-screen minigames available to be unlocked and played in the main Picross Mode. These games all utilise the Nintendo DS's unique features with skill and reaction based challenges to complete against the clock.

Picross DS also allows users to fully customise their game environments to suit their tastes with a variety of different skins available to unlock, with themes ranging from nature to sporting or video game heroes. There is also a highly addictive multiplayer mode so you can show up your friends and settle old scores. In multiplayer mode up to five players can compete against each other and the clock to finish puzzles first in Multi-Picross Mode. And, thanks to Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection Service, players can take part in Online Battle mode with another player from anywhere in the world!

Nintendo's unique Wi-Fi Connection Service also provides access to a nearly endless supply of new puzzles to download. Users can upload puzzles they create in My Picross mode for other players to browse and download online and can also download official puzzles from Nintendo.

So get ready for quick and quirky puzzle solving fun as Picross launches across Europe on the Nintendo DS on the 11th of May at the estimated retail price of around £30

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About Nintendo

The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.2 billion video games and more than 387 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda and Pokémon®. As a wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of Europe, based in Grossostheim, Germany, was established in 1990 and serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in Europe.

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