Review: Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S leaves a lot to be desired

Title: Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S
Developer:Crypton Future Media
Publishers: Crypton Future Media
Platforms: Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
Release Date:March 18, 2021

I’m fairly certain I’ve been a rhythm game fan since the moment rhythm games arrived. And being a fan of practically every rhythm game every from Amplitude to VOEZ,  I’m naturally a fan of the queen of all rhythm games — that being Hatsune Miku.

I’ve played a ridiculous amount of games. Even did the virtual concerts in VR. As much as it pains me to say as a grown man with two kids, her music slaps. I’m sorry but it does. I mean, come on, listen to this.

She sets the room on fire through the sheer force of thrashing. But note the quality of everything here. Sure, the vocals are synthesized but the lyrics were written and the music performed. Then someone designed and animated a video specifically for this one song. This is the amount of work that gets put into practically everything Hatsune Miku and gang are attached to.

Until now it seems.

Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S dropped onto the Nintendo EShop out of seemingly nowhere earlier this week.  The second I saw Hatsune, I selected it. And seeing it was a Picross game (another long-time jam of mine) I immediately bought it.

While it’s a Picross game, I honestly can’t tell you that this is a Hatsune Miku game. A lot of the puzzles themselves are alright but the end response is weak. If you haven’t played a Picross puzzle before, it requires you to fill in boxes based on numbers around the edge that tell you how many boxes are going to be filled in in that row or column.

You use logic to fill it in and, in the end, you have a picture. With this game, the pictures are kind of bizarre and for a lot of easier puzzles are kind of poorly designed. For example, this is supposed to be a choker.

They definitely try to make it themed towards Hatsune Miku for a bit but after about 15 or so puzzles they start running low on ideas and you’ll find yourself drawing things like pigeons.

As far as other modes go there really isn’t a lot here. There’s the basic mode that gets progressively harder and then “Special Puzzles,” which are my personal favorite. Instead of making small crude shapes, you use a 15×15 grid to make a small part of a massive detailed picture.

As far as a Picross game goes, it’s not bad. But as far as a Hatsune Miku property goes, this is remarkably lacking.

By completing puzzles you can use points to unlock more songs. But you can only unlock 18 songs and none of them are fan-favorites. Most of them are just instrumentals which was disappointing.

Not only that but you can pick one song. So if you’re playing for a bit it’s going to be the same song over and over again instead of a playlist or a song change between puzzles. This might possibly be the first game where I debated just turning the music off and playing some of my own music.

I know this might sound harsh but this is Hatsune Miku. People expect a certain level of effort put into her stuff. One of her games has over 400 songs and she actually puts on live concerts which sell out massive stadiums. I’m not kidding.

So people that are familiar with Hatsune Miku are familiar with a lot of effort put into things associated with her name. So, if you’re looking for Picross, you’ll get it but that’s genuinely about it. This game feels like a basic Picross game that someone put Hatsune Miku stickers all over.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.