Customer Reviews

Games Magazine Presents Paint by Numbers (The Unique Geometric Logic Puzzles for Ages 14 to Adult)

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Even though, I am a word puzzle lover by nature, there are a number of reasons why Paint by Numbers are my favorite puzzles:

1. Great for all ages. And these puzzles are great for improving your logic skills.

2. Language independent. Anybody from anywhere around the world can complete these puzzles.

3. They turn into a picture. This is a big factor. Unlike a crossword, where you feel satisfied for having solved it but done is done, each Paint by Numbers puzzle turns into a picture. It could be an animal, a person, or an entire scene. This book contains a little of everything, in fact.

This book of puzzles is great because there are many puzzles to keep you satisfied. A person who has never done a Paint by Numbers puzzle before can look at the diagrams to see how it's done (or read the instructions and tips provided in the book) and start immediately with an easy puzzle. The best part is, as the puzzles get bigger and more challenging, the pictures get better and better. There are some incredible pictures to be completed, and to me, they are art when they are done.

I recommend this book to anyone of any age. If you buy this book as a gift, a great present to accompany the book would be a mechanical pencil with a good, soft lead and a nice eraser.

Before you buy this book, you can take a look at this type of puzzle. One great website is that of Conceptis Puzzles at www.conceptispuzzles.com. Conceptis creates many of the picture-forming logic puzzles contained in Games Magazine, and at their website, you can download a few free weekly puzzles or play them online. (They are called Pic-a-Pix puzzles at the Conceptis website.)

After you've visited this website, I'm sure you'll be as addicted as I am. I have owned this particular book of Paint by Numbers for about three years now, and have shown it to quite a few people. They in turn are now as addicted as I am! Really, this is a great collection of puzzles, and I suggest you give them a try. Have fun!

This book is a great introduction to Pixel puzzles. If you like math and logic puzzles, you'll probably like these too. They are fun and most of the puzzles can be completed fairly quickly. If you're ready for more of a challenge, I recommend Mind Sharpening Pixel Puzzles or Perplexing Pixel Puzzles. To give you an idea of the difference, you could probably complete the entire Paint by Numbers book in the time it would take you to complete one of the more challenging puzzles in the Perplexing Pixel Puzzles book. The pictures in the pixel books are much more intricate and interesting too.

I, too, was first introduced to these puzzles through Games Magazine, and think they are great! I've done this book, and didn't mind the kanji and unfamiliar cartoon characters, because it increases the challenge if you can't guess what you are drawing. Although I try and ration the puzzles in my Games World of Puzzles magazines, they eventually are all solved, and I anxiously await new puzzles.

Enter the internet - there is a fabulous web site...with a large archive of puzzles to do online, with more being added every week or two. Sizes range from 15x15 to 40x40. You can choose this site in English or Japanese and it took me almost a year to do all the puzzles there. In reading the bulletin board comments there, I discovered these puzzles were also called nonograms and griddlers in the UK. They are published in the Sunday Telegraph and there are books of these available, 4 calling them nonograms, and 3 so far calling them griddlers (they had to change the name for legal reasons)....

This book is just a slapdash reprinting of Japanese book. The images in half the puzzles are of Japanese characters and references that most Americans would be unfamiliar with. Also, there are no special puzzles, such as the ones where you'd use two different colors of ink, for example.

I don't remember when the last time I had so much fun with mindplay. Unlike other puzzle games, the games presented in this book are challenging without being painfully difficult. They are a great way to burn that hour waiting in the doctor's office, or in your morning commute (assuming you have a seat), or during a layover at the airport. You'll end up wishing that you had more time to wait, so you could have more time to do more of these puzzles. Great mind candy and intellectual stimulants, with no nasty side effects (except the pencil lead smudges that tend to get everywhere while completing the puzzles in this book).

I first bought this book a couple of years ago and loved it. In fact, last year I bought another copy and did them again. I wish there was another book. Does anyone know of any others?

I bought this book from the advertisement in Games magazine (the best). I am a huge fan of paint by numbers. I've completed every single one Games magazine has ever published (and most of World of Puzzles) for the last 2 decades. I was disapointed for 3 reasons: 1) the squares are too big. This takes way too much lead. This may also have something to do with the paper. 2) Most pictures are un-interesting. They are choppy (also due to the big squares), and many are symbols from Japan and are unfamiliar to an American. 3) Several are impossible to decipher after they're solved; I had to look up the solution just for the title to tell what the heck I was looking at. The bigger ones are much better, but you have to go through 85 of them before you get to them.

For some time this was the only stand-alone "picross/paint-by-numbers/nonogram/griddler" type puzzle book of it's kind released in the USA, and to date, it's still the best U.S. published offering for puzzles of this type. The book starts out relatively simple, which is great if you are new to these types of puzzle. As you progress through the book the puzzles become a tad more complicated, but never anything overly-impossible (like some japanese published puzzles magazines that have fold-out puzzles with grids that are 100x100!!!!!).
I purchased this book awhile ago & it took me about 3 weeks to complete all the puzzles- I don't know if that's good or bad- As I've been hunting down and doing these puzzles anywhere I can find them for the past 7 years; thankfully, with the progresion of time and the gaining popularity of this puzzle-type it's infinitely easier to locate magazines and books of this kind.
Oh, and the completed puzzles are really nice- good selection here.

I just recently became interested in Paint by Numbers puzzles and one of my professors recommended Games Magazine. This book is helpful because it explains how to solve a Paint by Numbers puzzles. You can start off with simple puzzles and work your way up to harder puzzles in the book. The only complaint I have is that it would be easier to work on the puzzles if it were spiral-bound.

I have done all of the pixel puzzle books on the market. The ones by Nishio are the best. I often feel that the other books on the market have lame pictures, while this book has the best pictures...they're well thought-out and truly satisfies anyone's inner Da Vinci.