I am not much of a fan of puzzle games, but I am a huge fan of anything made by Nippon Ichi Software (NIS). Jigsaw World (ジグソーワールド ～大激闘! ジグバトル・ヒーローズ～) is somehow both of these things, so I had to investigate it. As the name implies, the game is basically about completing jigsaw puzzles with your Nintendo DS. Sounds a little boring, I know, but NIS is great at putting a fun, stylish spin on the seemingly mundane.

Jigsaw World is a about an Evil “Devil King” from a certain television program who is bitter about being defeated many times in the past. To get revenge, he decides to summon 8 heroes and heroines from various hit TV shows to his Jigsaw World to challenge them on his terms. All 8 characters have not been revealed yet, but here are a couple:

Gameplay: The player and his or her opponent(s) share one image that needs to be assembled. Each side is given one piece at a time, and with the stylus, the player selects where the piece goes. Whoever puts the most pieces in the correct spot wins. Simple, right?

If that was all there was to it, then the game would get boring fast. Luckily, that’s not the case. Each character has their own special moves which can be used to slow the enemy down, or help the player.

Muté Kid’s “Muté Kidash” for instance, lights up a the correct spot for a piece that you’re holding. Of course, these skill cannot be spammed wildly–each skill consumes a certain amount of stamina, eventually reducing it to 0. It is probably better to save the important skills for the end of the picture, when each piece really counts.

Jigsaw World has 4 confirmed modes of gameplay:

• Story Mode: The player is allowed to select a character to play through the story with. As the player beats the game with the available characters, more characters and more of the story will be unlocked.
• Free Battle Mode: The player selects their favorite (available) character and has a 1 on 1 against the CPU.
• Genius’ Big Study Mode: After completing the story, Genius’ Big Study Mode becomes available. In this mode, the player will be given clues as to what picture he is putting together, but will never be shown the end result. There are multiple subjects to choose from such as insects, dinosaurs etc.
• Multiplayer: It is possible to have up to a 4-way battle via the Nintendo DS’s wireless linking ability.

I am really hoping to find a YouTube video of the action soon so I can get a better idea. If and when I do I will be sure to update. Jigsaw World comes out in Japan on June 26th, 2008. The games official Japanese website can be found here.

Roy nintendo ds, nis, preview, puzzle 0 comments