Free!?
With little to no fanfare, Konami released Pixel Puzzle Collection on mobile devices today. Taking advantage of the company’s large franchise portfolio, the game has players going through Picross puzzles featuring iconic gaming characters. From Gradius to Castlevania to Bomberman, the amount represented is staggering.
What makes the whole deal sweeter however is that the game is entirely free.
Yes, that’s right, unlike most publishers including Nintendo, this whole thing is free with none of the usual free-to-play mechanics included. There are no microtransactions or energy bars. There are ads, but only on the main menu for Konami’s other games. However, they do not display without a Wi-Fi or data connection. There are also timers, but they are only on boss fight puzzles. When completed, the puzzles fill out a piece of a mural, similar to the ones found in the Pokémon and Zelda Picross games.
Why Konami released the game this way, I have no idea. However, there is no way that I’m going to pass up on it in the meantime. A mobile game that doesn’t require me to use my cellular data is a godsend, and being video game themed is even better. Combined with the complete absence of the mechanics that plague other mobile games, I’m absolutely going to support this by downloading it.
You can find the iOS version here and the Android version here.
