My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Developer(s)	Jupiter Corporation
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Series	The Legend of Zelda
Platform(s)	Nintendo 3DS
Release	March 30, 2016
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player

My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a puzzle video game in the Picross e series, and a spin-off of the 2006 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, an entry in The Legend of Zelda series of action-adventure games. It was developed by Jupiter Corporation and published by Nintendo. The game was released on March 30, 2016, for the Nintendo 3DS eShop as a tie-in for Twilight Princess' HD remaster, and was available exclusively as a My Nintendo reward. Critics rated My Nintendo Picross positively for its value and presentation, but called some aspects of the game limited.

Gameplay

My Nintendo Picross offers several puzzle modes accessible from the main screen. The first is regular Picross, the second is Mega Picross, and the third is Micross, in which players must assemble a larger image from numerous smaller puzzles. Each mode has different graphics and music. When first starting the game, the player is walked through a tutorial by the character Midna, who also serves as the game's "hostess".

Release

My Nintendo Picross was initially planned to be a limited-time offer, and would have been removed from My Nintendo on October 1, 2016. However, Nintendo eliminated the expiration date soon before the game was due to expire, and allowed the game to be redeemed indefinitely.

Reception

Neal Ronaghan of Nintendo World Report said that the game lacked any sort of Zelda twist besides its graphics and music, but that the theme alone was "a hell of an enticement". He called the tutorial "great" and "one of the better entry points for this style of puzzle game", praising its inclusion of Midna. He also called the game's controls and options "polished", comparing them to a full Picross e game. He called the game's biggest downside that the normal puzzles and Mega Picross puzzles made the same images, recommending it heavily to Zelda fans, but saying that it would likely not be interesting to players "swimming in other Picross games".

Thomas Whitehead of Nintendo Life rated the game highly, saying that a high amount of effort went into making a "quality" audio-visual experience. He cited the helpful tutorial, calling the broader game "limited but charming". Noting that the game had "a surprising amount of content", he praised the inclusion of multiple modes, but criticized the lack of a zoom option, believing overall that it "[set] the bar high". Jenni Lada of Siliconera largely praised the game, calling Midna's personality "spot-on" and saying that the sound design helped "make the game". She called the game's main flaw that marking panels worked differently than most Picross games, hurting the player's muscle memory if they were an experienced player.

Legacy

While Pokémon Picross and My Nintendo Picross, both Nintendo collaborations, released in quick succession, the games never received a Nintendo-based follow-up, with Jupiter Corporation left to release non-themed Picross games or collaborate with other publishers. In 2023, Norichika Meguro, managing director of Jupiter, stated that while the company wanted to collaborate with Nintendo, it was more difficult than ever before due to how protective they are of their intellectual property.