Game seems to be really stalling here lately, guys .... :-(

*ping*

Unfortnately foXgog has a record of not checking back daily. Seems to either lead a busy RL and/or suffering from not having daily access to the web - or both. But so far he has always returned to the game when it was his turn, so cut him some more slack.
I myself have tried cheating a few days ago and actually did find a result, but as I'm unsure whether it's the game he's looking for I can't provide a hint unfortunately. We'll have to wait.

**edit 5.12.:
|| - It seems we've found the same one.
v

I found the game by cheating, and it's not none of the guesses so far.

I gotta say, it's a very obscure one. Had only 17 player ratings and 6 critic ratings on Mobygames across 3 platforms.

Hello everyone!

Pardon me, please! Indeed, I am having a quite busy real life both with my current job and family situation. Other than propably the majority of people here, I neither do have mobile internet access nor a stable internet provider/connection at home.
Hence, I am not able to check-in on a daily basis. The past days it was planned to have a bit more spare time, available to accompany and advance our screenshot game. However, unexpected events prevented me from doing so.

Thank you, Duke Garland, for your understanding and accurate observations!

Well, let us continue the game:

It is not a homebrew game or hack. It is an official Nintendo game!
So, no "Super Mario Forever".

It is relatively niche in its audience, due to a limited distribution around the globe, though.
More niche than the Mario educational games (including "Mario Teaches Typing"), I do not know.

Next hint(s):
You do not play any of the fellows shown before. You rather do "this"...

Kind regards,
foxgog

PS: In case, it won't be guessed (or discovered) correctly tomorrow, then I will post a series of unedited screenshots gradually revealing the game's identity on sunday afternoon/evening.

[Edit:] (Some typing errors fixed. and re-adding of the attached screenshot--I did not know that it gets removed from your post when you do edit it!)

*ping*

Alas foXgog has missed this window, in order to advance this round - maybe kalirion will also chime in given that we've both cheated for the solution, I will provide a hint (which should narrow things down a lot if you're willing to do some research):

The game that is being searched for is indeed a spin-off series that saw it's first release on Nintendo's hand-held consoles. Not telling which one though, as that would be too obvious probably.... :)

OK, I'll continue providing screenshot hints while foxgog is away:

Looks like Mario Picross?

It was a DS puzzle game that involved trying to find a picture on a grid of pixels. I thought it was a fairly popular casual game at the time though.

Edit: Actually, it looks like it might be Mario's Super Picross, on the SNES. Looks like the series actually started on the Gameboy and had iterations across multiple Nintendo consoles. It probably took off a bit more on the DS, as it was quite a hit with casual gamers and the game fit well with the stylus + touchscreen.

That is indeed what my cheating pointed to.

Duke Garland could reveal if it was the same for him.

We may want to wait a couple days for foxgog to confirm though.

Ok, cool. It'll probably take me a day or two to post a new one anyway :-)

I can confirm (as mentioned in my edited post on 5th Dec.) that my "cheating" efforts found the same game, Mario's Super Picross. I still have the cartridge from the original Game Boy's Mario's Picross at home, alas no longer working hardware to play it on....

Hello Time4Tea!

Yes, as Duke Garland and kalirion already confirmed, it is "Mario's Super Picross" on the SNES.

Thank you two for continuing the game for me! Lots of rain here caused agian an interruption on our internet service provider's side...

(Just for completion, attached are the screenshot series I intended to post on sunday.)


I knew the Picross series since the original Gameboy game, never played the DS version, but really enjoy(ed) the SNES version, although (to my knowledge) it was not released outside of Japan, at least not in retail.

Besides the bigger grids (up to 20 blocks wide and tall), the SNES version has a second game mode (the one hosted by Wario) in which you do not get a time penalty on chirping away a wrong block. Actually, you do not get any feedback in Wario's mode at all, until you correctly marked all and only the correct ones!
It increases the difficulty, significantly. But it is a welcome challenge! Other than that, most of the solutions are displayed with a short colored sprite animation.
The Japanese should not be a entrance barrier. Since, mostly you need to know the game mechanic(s) and to respond either on the left side ("hai" = yes) or on the right side ("iee" = no) on the start of each puzzle to choose if you want the head start with a (pseudo-)random row and column, or not.

Regarding the gameplay mechanics, you use one button to chirp away a block (marking it dark for the result) and another button for placing a "x" mark as placeholder for forbidden (wrong) fields.
Mark all correct ones and the game switches automatically to the result screen(s).
The other helpful option you have as the player is to move the cursor outside playing fields (grid screen) to mark the adjacent numbers red, for instance, after you have already identified and marked (chirped) those in that row or column respectively.

The SNES version also has much more and bigger puzzles than the Gameboy version and additionally the aforementioned extra mode with Wario.


Congratulation, Time4Tea, now it is indeed your turn to continue with a new one!

Kind regards,
foxgog

Ok nice, thanks! The picross games look like quite good fun, I might have to pick one up and try it some time.

Here's the next one. I'll try to give you all a sporting chance :-)
(blocking out the characters though, as that would probably make it too easy)

Still too easy! :p

I hadn't thought the game was particularly well-known or widely-played. But yeah, anyone who has played it would probably recognize that location.

Eh, I'm good to post an easier one, for a change :-)

Sam & Max: Hit the Road?