Jupiter's Picross series

A series of nonogames spread across Nintendo platforms. Many feature characters from the Mario series, though this aspect has been dropped for the DS iteration. Jupiter Corporation's Picross games just feel a bit nicer than other company's: the hammer and chisel pointers, and the crunchy way they mark the board, is not quite matched elsewhere.

1. 1995 - Mario's Picross
2. 1995 - Mario's Super Picross
   Maybe the best version of the game. Has since had its first western release on the PAL Virtual Console.
3. 1996 - Picross 2
   The second Game Boy version adds an unintrusive map, where players move between puzzles. Most puzzles are self-contained portions of larger puzzles: and it works!
4. 1999-2000 - Picross NP
   A series of 8 nonogame compilations released via the Nintendo Power system. They feel squeakier than Mario's Super Picross, but feature a wider variety of Nintendo, and non-Nintendo, themes. Also some interesting multiplayer modes.
5. 2007 - Picross DS
   DS version, where bigger puzzles include an unfortunate screen scrolling feature. Replaces the old-Nintendo Mario theme with the sterile new-Nintendo DS/Wii theme.

1. 2009 - Picross 3D
   Version where puzzles are built in a 3-D grid. Made for the DS by HAL.

• see: Nonogames (genre)