"As for my first review of 2006, is this pretty good way to get your DS fix."

The Nintendo DS is a highly praised handheld system and rightfully so due to its wonderfully innovative style. However one of the smaller reasons why its so innovative is that it actually has a built-in game thats already inside the console. Namely this neat little novelty by the name of Pictochat. A program in the DS that looks like a simple IM messenger program like MSN Messenger of AIM but there is a bit more to it than that.

Right from the start Nintendo fully planned on the idea of Online gameplay for the Nintendo DS. One of the main purposes of this game is to chat with others via its IM-esque style. It has four letter options...

Regular romanized english letters
Accented english letters (the ones with the lines on top)
Japanese Kanji/Hiragana (Probably due to on how the DS has no region lock)

And just for fun the 4th option has a bunch of little signs to put in as well. Namely those such as small pics of various common things like the Sun, Snow, Telephone, various things like that. You can also use the stylus to actually draw pictures or write on the pictochat note pads. (You can make the lines you write in to be really thin to slightly thicker, same thing applies to erasing your mistakes as well.) There is a pretty good variety of things to do.

However its far from flawless, its built in a very simplistic structure. The graphics are competent enough but there is only a minimal amount of audio. There is no music and there is very little audio, fortunately what little audio is there is not annoying at least. And its not uncommon to not be perfectly able to go use it for its primary purpose which is to chat with others via online connection. Granted Nintendo has increased the Wi-fi capabilities of the DS a bit more nowadays but still. Nowadays some are saying that this is just simply another intresting but overly innocuous little novelty from Nintendo. But has this already gone the way of the Nintendo e-reader? To be perfectly honest, well... actually... no, not really...

Can only play this by yourself? No problem there, one of the top-right buttons enables you to put up used pads in the top screen. Are you an aspiring animator? You can draw in several pics in a top-to bottom progressive rate with the pictochat pads. Are you a writer of any sort and/or want to make a list? You can use Pictochat's typewriter to write up whatever you need with as many pads as you need. And the possibilities of correcting your mistakes are plentiful. And it can give you something to do since unlike DS/GBA games you don't need to put anything in the DS in order to get it to work.

Overall this is just simply a pretty good example of Nintendo tryign something intrestingly different. Its also kinda nice that its one of the few games that are availible as long as you have the actual system with it. It of course won't replace the likes of Super Mario 64 and the like for your DS pleasure. But this is already a kinda above average example of a DS game that can be a quick fix to something a bit more to handle, its all a matter of what ideas you have here. Its not a seemingly perfect studio for the creative talents many of us have, but all things considered its a very nice start.

+ Built in to the Nintendo DS with competent visual structure
+ Variety of things to do with your stylus or the game's built-in typewriter.
+ Nintendo has improved the online potential for this game
+ Can be a quick fix to a somewhat more time-consuming title, depends on how you want to use it.
+ Potential to be something a bit more
- Minimal Audio
- Unless your near a good hot-spot its limited for those whom are only intrested in chatting
- Innocuous compared to the good DS games of the system
- Structure might be too simple for some
- Nice potential little time-waster game on the DS but there is a good chance it won't replace the IM program your using on your computer like MSN, AIM and more.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/16/06