It was the perfect engine for this game. I use RPG Maker because I have become very familiar with it through the course of this year. Is this your first ever game you made or did you make another game through another engine?
I have never heard of PICO-8, based on your description it somewhat with making puzzle games. I like to use RPG Maker because I like RPGs since they are more story focused which are the kind of games I like. Although with my Game Jam entry I wanted to see if I could make something that wasn't an RPG.
Well, you can make anything in PICO-8, not just puzzle games. It's not really better for any one genre. But it has lots of restrictions that make it better for smaller games, like a 128x128 resolution, 16 colors, restricted memory, etc. Basically you can make small, old school pixel art games with it, like NES or Commodore 64 and similar stuff.