Paint it Back

About

"Paint It Back" is a charming puzzle game where players must recreate vanished murals by strategically filling in missing tiles. With over 100 levels, players can use pencils, crayons, or spray paint to bring the vibrant artwork back to life. The game features a variety of challenges, including repairing damaged murals and creating new ones from scratch. Each level increases in difficulty, providing hours of engaging and creative gameplay.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

98%

Audience ScoreBased on 674 reviews

music36 positive mentions

stability4 negative mentions

The puzzles are creative and fun, providing a great challenge for all skill levels.
Paint it Back is the best Picross game on Steam, with a large variety of puzzles and a charming art style.
The game features a smooth interface and allows players to choose difficulty levels, making it accessible for beginners and challenging for veterans.

Some puzzles require guessing, which can detract from the logic-based gameplay that Picross fans expect.
The user interface can feel clunky, requiring more clicks than necessary for certain actions.
There is only one save slot for in-progress puzzles, which can be frustrating for players wanting to switch between multiple puzzles.

music
100 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
52%
12%
The music in the game is generally described as fitting and pleasant, enhancing the overall experience, though it tends to become repetitive and tiresome over time. Many players appreciate the soundtrack but often choose to mute it in favor of their own music, indicating a desire for a broader variety of tracks. While some tracks are catchy and memorable, others can be glitchy or annoying, leading to mixed feelings about the overall quality of the music.
- “Another big plus is the rotating background music; it's catchy and is pleasant to listen to while beating your head on 40x40 puzzles.”
- “The best picross game on Steam, with memorable music (albeit repetitive) and addicting progression.”
- “Lovely serene music, great design; detailed but not busy, plenty of puzzles of a variety of difficulties.”
- “Some of the music tracks are glitchy, making them awful to listen to on good speakers.”
- “The music gets boring quickly; hence I've disabled it and play my own instead.”
- “Only downside I guess is that the music sucks; after a while, turn it off and listen to something else instead.”
humor
56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in "Paint it Back" is a standout feature, characterized by its clever and often wacky art, humorous puzzle titles, and playful parodies of famous paintings. Players appreciate the game's offbeat sense of humor, which keeps them entertained through a variety of funny and imaginative puzzles that gradually increase in difficulty. Overall, the combination of colorful visuals and silly themes contributes to a lighthearted and engaging experience.
- “The puzzles are very original and humorous, and keep you entertained for hours on end as they gradually increase in difficulty.”
- “Beyond just being good at what it does, what really makes this game unique is its offbeat sense of humor.”
- “Even though I just bought two new picross games, I keep coming back to this one again and again for its wacky (and often surprisingly dark!) sense of humor, its reverent irreverence for classical art, and its colorful, inviting interface.”
graphics
44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
55%
39%
7%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their charming and clean cartoon aesthetic, which enhances the overall experience and makes it suitable for a family audience. Players appreciate the adjustable visuals, playful semi-cubic style, and the integration of humor in the artwork, contributing to a visually appealing and engaging puzzle-solving environment. Overall, the graphics are described as beautiful, with good quality and a variety of resolutions available.
- “I want to mention that the visuals in the game are nicely done.”
- “The art style is nice and clean, so it's very pleasant to look at.”
- “The playful semi-cubic graphic style fits the game perfectly, as does the simple but effective soundtrack and sound effects.”
- “The game comes with six player profile slots and a cartoon aesthetic, which implies this is supposedly a game for the whole family to enjoy.”
- “The visuals can be adjusted in the game's options menu.”
- “+ quirky bright graphics”
gameplay
42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
64%
7%
The gameplay is characterized by smooth mechanics and a casual yet engaging experience, with a well-balanced difficulty curve that prevents prolonged periods of easy puzzles. While the basic mechanics are straightforward, some players find the progression slow and controls clunky, particularly when using a mouse instead of a stylus. Overall, the game offers a satisfying blend of logic and humor, making it a worthwhile experience for puzzle enthusiasts.
- “What I actually like is the difficulty level which goes up and down - you don't need to be solving easy puzzles for the first 10 hours of gameplay.”
- “Flawless mechanics and the humor is just great.”
- “The gameplay is simple but on the higher difficulty some paintings become serious challenges.”
- “I'd recommend it as it has all the core gameplay of picross, but overall the puzzle progression feels slow (way too easy for way too long) and controls feel clunky (probably the difference of mouse vs stylus).”
- “The gameplay is simple, but on the higher difficulty, some paintings become serious challenges.”
- “Simplistic game, with straightforward mechanics.”
story
34 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
9%
82%
9%
The game features a light and whimsical storyline where players are tasked with "re-painting" artwork that has been scared white by a ghost, adding a charming context to the puzzle-solving experience. While the narrative is brief and somewhat flimsy, it enhances the overall presentation and makes the game feel family-friendly, appealing particularly to younger audiences. Overall, the story serves as a cute backdrop rather than the main focus, complementing the gameplay rather than driving it.
- “I love the themed rooms, the silly frame story (see what I did there?), and even the achievements.”
- “This gimmick is common in the genre, and really helps enhance the game experience - but Paint It Back really takes the bull by the horns and builds a bit of a storyline around the concept, where you are tasked with 're-painting' the contents of artwork that has been scared white by a ghost.”
- “The story and aesthetics are cute and make it feel family-friendly, so I would recommend it to children; perhaps above the age of...hmmm...10?”
- “The storyline is brief, and the characters at the beginning of each gallery are comical for those who know art.”
- “There is a flimsy (but working) backstory to motivate using nonograms: a ghost has scared away all the paintings in a gallery.”
- “While the storyline is tenuous, let's be honest, you're not buying this game for the story.”
replayability
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
65%
15%
The game offers high replayability, enhanced by features like Steam Workshop support, randomly generated puzzles, and a mystery mode for earning medals. Players can enjoy endless content through user-created puzzles and the ability to replay unknown paintings, making it a highly engaging experience with many hours of fun.
- “With Steam Workshop, the replayability is endless.”
- “Some very interesting, well-done pixel art and unlimited replayability with workshop puzzles and random mode.”
- “[b]In short, [i]“Paint It Back”[/i] is extremely fun, has great replay value, and yields many hours of fun!”
- “The replay value for the game is moderately high.”
- “Replayability is heavily boosted by the ability to replay a randomly-selected unknown painting.”
- “Once you're done with all the puzzles, which at 33 hours I'm still not quite, there's still a bit of replayability to earn medals in a 'mystery' style mode.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, users report a stable experience while playing on the Steam Deck, with most experiencing no glitches. However, a few have noted minor issues, specifically with grey numbers appearing intermittently.
- “There are some glitches with the grey numbers.”
- “I play mostly on the Steam Deck, and without any glitches.”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, particularly due to the lack of clarity in navigating puzzles, which can lead to frustration. The need for additional lives to manage grinding further compounds this issue.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “I originally put that it was frustrating that there was no way to see what row/column you're hovering over, which made big puzzles really tedious.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The optimization aspect of the game is designed to enhance player performance by rewarding medals based on efficiency, accuracy, and adherence to specific challenges, such as completing tasks within a time limit and minimizing errors.
- “This mode will award you medals according to your performance, such as completing the painting within a time limit, minimizing mistakes, and avoiding marking empty spaces.”