CiniCross

About

CiniCross is a single player casual strategy game. It was developed by Hydrobates and was released on February 11, 2026. It received positive reviews from players.

CiniCross is a dark fantasy roguelite built around nonogram puzzles (also known as Griddlers). Descend into a cursed dungeon where every puzzle solved brings you closer to powerful enemies, and greater rewards. Increasing difficultyThe deeper you go into the dungeon, the more complex the puzzles become. Solve procedurally generated nonograms of various grid sizes from 5x5 to 20x20. Risk grows…

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

85%

Audience ScoreBased on 257 reviews

gameplay8 positive mentions

grinding5 negative mentions

Unique and addictive mashup of nonograms/picross puzzles with roguelike mechanics, offering a fresh and challenging experience for fans of both genres.
Creative and varied boss battles that introduce novel twists to puzzle-solving, enhancing gameplay variety and engagement.
Well-designed progression system with item and artifact upgrades, classes, and level scaling that add strategic depth and replayability.

Significant balance issues cause runs to become too easy or broken after certain upgrades, making late-game and endless modes repetitive or trivial.
The persistent timer and timed puzzles create stressful and sometimes frustrating gameplay, which may not suit players seeking a relaxed picross experience.
Lack of mid-run save functionality and some UI/quality of life issues, including difficult readability and clunky controls, especially on controllers and Steam Deck.

gameplay
58 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
76%
10%
The gameplay innovatively blends nonogram puzzles with roguelike elements, adding time pressure and unique boss mechanics that refresh the classic puzzle experience. While the core puzzles remain engaging and accessible to Picross fans, balance issues, frustrating RNG relic systems, and occasional UI quirks detract from the overall flow. Nonetheless, the inventive mechanics, varied character builds, and challenging gameplay loop offer a compelling, if somewhat grind-heavy, experience.
- “Nonograms meets roguelike mechanics, and it works... mostly!”
- “Unlockable 'characters' change up your methodology without deviating from core nonogram gameplay.”
- “Having an incentive to solve puzzles quickly makes the well-tread picross gameplay feel fresh, and the various items and passives are fun to play with.”
- “20x20 boards with the tiny window you are left with are painful; visibility and accuracy should not be a challenge outside of boss mechanics.”
- “A couple gripes of mine are that when rolling artifacts after completing a puzzle, there is a chance that a slot gets nothing, which then locks that slot from being rerolled; this feels like a frustrating mechanic that serves no purpose.”
- “Very derivative roguelike gameplay paired with poor balance makes this an easy thumbs down.”
music
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
46%
31%
23%
The music in the game is widely praised for its quality and charm, especially the spooky 8-bit style, enhancing the overall atmosphere. However, many users feel the soundtrack is limited in variety, leading to repetition and occasional monotony over longer play sessions. While the music and sound effects are generally well-loved and well-crafted, some note issues with mixing and a lack of in-game options to adjust audio settings.
- “If you like picross, minesweeper, rogue likes, spooky 8bit music, this one's for you!”
- “I'd love to see more music added, it's criminal how good the few songs here are.”
- “This game has incredible art, music, animations and a super fun gameplay loop.”
- “Presentation is solid, but a couple more music tracks and level themes might have helped reduce monotony.”
- “Still, there's many slow loading screens you can't skip (boss intro, game over, floor transitions), no good ending, no way to look at a finished nonogram (to appreciate your efforts), performance issues on higher floors and the soundtrack becomes repetitive rather quickly.”
- “There's also no way to adjust options in game, so the music gets infuriating after a long run like this.”
optimization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The game suffers from notable optimization and performance issues, especially in later stages and certain screens, causing slow load times, crashes, and a lack of autosave. While the core gameplay is enjoyable, these technical problems hinder the overall experience and require prompt fixes.
- “As of patch 1.0.4, I am still seeing performance issues in later floors (like 9+).”
- “There also seems to be some kind of optimization issue that needs to be addressed.”
- “The performance completely dies on some rewards screens, and the game needs serious balance and performance patches asap.”
- “As of patch 1.0.4, I am still seeing performance issues on later floors (9+).”
- “There are many slow loading screens that you can't skip (boss intro, game over, floor transitions), performance issues on higher floors, and the soundtrack becomes repetitive rather quickly.”
- “Performance completely dies on some rewards screens, especially in endless mode where balance issues also affect gameplay.”
graphics
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The graphics feature a cool, nostalgic 8-bit aesthetic that adds charm and visual effects like explosions and auto-filling columns, enhancing gameplay feedback. However, some users find the graphics somewhat derivative of Loop Hero and criticize the pixelated style for making numbers hard to read. Overall, the visuals support the gameplay but don't stand out as a primary strength.
- “You get a good look on your paths through the levels, and by the time you reach the depths, you are just so powerful; solving the puzzle becomes a glorious graphical overload, as every few marks a column auto-fills or an error causes a burst of explosions that reveal patches of the puzzle while healing you.”
- “Right now, though, I think it's a cool game with a cool aesthetic.”
- “The aesthetics and music are great, but the gameplay is king here.”
- “My main complaint, and this is in "we can't do anything about it at this point" territory, is that the game apes Loop Hero's aesthetic a little too much.”
- “The 8-bit graphics are a detriment; it's hard to read the numbers.”
- “The graphics?”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in this game is noted for being time-consuming and somewhat tedious, particularly with achievements related to reaching floor 15 and difficulty challenges. While the concept is enjoyable, the balance leans more toward tedious repetition than rewarding difficulty.
- “Has some very grindy and very challenging achievements.”
- “Grinding achievements: yes, beating floor 15 and the difficulty achievements are grindy.”
- “The most grindy achievements are for floor 15 (this is just time-consuming, because by that time, the timer isn't the challenge anymore) and mostly the difficulty achievements.”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
50%
The game's replayability is moderate, offering a solid but limited experience as players can quickly see all content within a few runs. Balancing issues and a flawed clue system reduce long-term engagement, leading to boredom after a few hours, especially at higher difficulties. While enjoyable initially, the replay value may not sustain players seeking deeper or more varied challenges.
- “The replayability is largely there.”
- “It's a a really cool game with tons of replay value.”
- “For a roguelite, it has decent replayability, though you might see everything in a few runs if you win them.”
- “For a roguelite, it doesn't have very long replayability; you'll see everything the game has to offer in only a few runs (provided you win them). While it's a good time, it's nothing really stellar.”
- “If the game was balanced better, then perhaps it would be more playable, but I got bored after just 3 hours once I got enough of everything to not care about damage.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is generally solid but occasionally marred by UI glitches and freezes, possibly linked to item bonuses. While not heavily buggy, the healing mechanics can feel imbalanced, swinging outcomes between puzzle skill and item effects. Overall, these issues don't significantly detract from an enjoyable experience.
- “9/10 (please solve the freezes. I think they may be due to some bug with the item's bonus stat? Because I generally have 5+ items per slot on the rewards screen when it happens)”
- “The pendulum does swing pretty wildly between outcomes being decided by puzzle skill or item interactions, and there's definitely some UI glitches, but I'm having a great time.”
- “Not like in a buggy manner, it's just that the HP healing gets way faster than any damage your mistakes may cause.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is highlighted by quirky and darkly funny bosses, especially the jester character. However, some comedic elements are slightly overshadowed by technical issues related to item overload.
- “Some of the bosses are genuinely evil and/or funny but still evil.”
- “The jester boss is really funny.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional experience is mixed, with early to mid-game providing satisfying challenge and engagement, but late game and endless mode feeling tedious and unrewarding. The difficulty is appreciated by fans of nonograms, though newcomers may find it frustrating without prior experience.
story
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The story aspect received mixed feedback, with some users wishing the game focused more on narrative rather than its roguelike puzzle gameplay, indicating a desire for a stronger story-driven experience.