Juxtagram

While Lexgrid is kind of an evil version of Boggle, Juxtagram is the evil version of nonogram puzzle game Picross. You’re presented with a grid, ranging from small, Atari 2600-esque blocky imaginings up through sprawling pixel art landscape artworks. Then you fill it in, pixel by pixel, with a solid color, or put an X where no color should go. While Picross gives you clues along the sides by telling you the number of filled in blocks, Juxtagram twists that by telling you how many filled in blocks there are, as well as how many GROUPS of alternating filled/empty squares you’re dealing with. It’s a minor adjustment that laughs in the face of years of Picross experience. It’s literally changes the game.

Do I like it more than the original? I’m not sure! I feel like I get stumped a lot quicker on even the medium-sized puzzles here, whereas I can blast through even the largest Picross puzzles with relative ease. But then, maybe that’s the point? There’s no hint system (unlike Lexgrid), and it won’t tell you if you put a block in the wrong space with a time penalty or anything. It feels like it’s specifically for people that want a more challenging puzzle game experience, like Picross Hard Mode.

There are a ton of puzzles across all different difficulty levels, divided by theme. Each stage is timed, but you’re only competing against yourself. It’s got a real “Sit down at the kitchen table with a logic puzzle book during the middle of summer vacation” feeling to it. Not every game needs to, like, change you. Some can just be a nice little treat for yourself where you don’t have to worry about anything or anyone else for a while.

(Released October 24, 2024, on Itch and January 21, 2025, on Catalog. Copy provided by developer.)