PictoChat is a highly limited Wi-Fi based chat system, and a big pile of wasted potential.

User Rating: 3 | PictoChat DS
The Nintendo DS is the most recent handheld system released by Nintendo, and sports some new interesting gameplay mechanics based around it's Dual Screen layout and touch screen capabilities. PictoChat is a free piece of software built into the Nintendo DS and shows off the DS's functions.

While PictoChat in itself is actually quite interesting and lays some groundwork for some interesting games for Nintendo, it's executed poorly and is pretty much pointless outside of introducing new Nintendo DS users to the system.

PictoChat is pretty simple - when you boot it up you are presented with a number of rooms. Joining these rooms allows you to communicate with other people in the room by drawing pictures or using the on-screen keyboard for text and sending them to everyone else in the room via Wi-Fi. Basically, it's a chatroom... that you can draw pictures in.

Although this sounds like a good idea, the execution is pretty flawed. For starters you a limited to only being able to communicate with people within your range, which is about, 100 feet. Give or take. This kind of makes the "using it for communication purposes" kind of pointless. You may as well just talk to the guy in person. As for drawing, paper is always good too.

PictoChat wouldn't have been completely useless, had Nintendo used its potential for some interesting additions. Maybe allowing you to connect to DS's you've already connected with in person via Le Internet. Or some games based around drawing. Or anything really.

Overall, it's pretty much just a pile of wasted potential.

Gameplay: 2/10
Graphics: 2/10
Sound: 1/10
Replay Value: 3/10