Pictochat is a very clever and welcome addition to the Nintendo DS handheld and although some may suggest a certain gimmick appeal it’s actually a lot of fun and a ‘game’ in itself. PictoChat is built into the DS as firmware and as such is part of the Nintendo DS menu. In essence it’s a simple console to console chat program that utilises a touch screen drawing pad and keyboard with room for up to 16 people in 4 distinct chat rooms that works wirelessly to other DS console in its range (approximately 60 feet - non line of site). The obvious weakness to this is the argument that there’s really no point in chatting using a handheld if it will only work within yelling distance, but how wrong this argument is. Part of the joy of pictochat is giggling to yourself as you look across the room to see your friend struggle to work out your latest hangman or pictionary puzzle as you taunt them with silly faces and comments that pop up on their screen with a little ‘ding!’. Sure it would be more fun if it had online and thus far greater distance capabilities but don’t think you can’t have fun with it without this function, pictochat is a laugh even with only two DS’s in your house.

The ‘Games’…
Although pictochat is not a game in itself it does lend itself to the imagination as you and your friends come up with ingenious ways of using the software. It is fun to make up silly games and when they work you feel smug, which is always nice. Some games to try are the obvious ‘pictonary’ as I’ve named it, in which one user draws a picture whilst the other user tries to guess what it is, the ‘drawer’ can of course copy the original picture using the handy copy function, add to it and resend it, thus adding steps to the game where now you can base who wins on how many additions it takes for the picture to be guessed. Hangman is another simple game where one person draws lines depicting how many letters a word or phrase has, a symbol denoting type of word (tv, Movie etc) and the other player chooses one letter at a time and so on. Various other text based games are at your disposal also including ‘truth’ in which one player writes a question and the other the ‘honest’ response (let’s remember the DS works through walls!! No need for embarrassed looks lol). The Name Game in which a letter is chosen and players write a specific subject using only that letter (ie the letter J – Boys names / john, Joe etc) until one player is stumped for a pre determined time set by the players. Essentially the ‘home grown’ gaming market is yours for the reaping with this software and I can only imgine should these ever be allowed in class rooms they would be a teachers worst enemy.

The Female gamer and deaf gamer angles are fairly moot points in this review but in keeping with the Thumb Bandits credo and including them all I can really say is female and male gamers both will enjoy pictochat if they have friends who have it also. For the deaf gamer it’s superb because there are no real sound components other than the little ‘ding’ that accompanies a sent or received message, which becomes so irritating you tend to turn the volume down anyway.

Overall you can’t really get into a negative frenzy when it comes to pictochat because it’s free and every DS has it built in, so because you’ve not actually paid anything for the pleasure of owning it you can only really review it based on the sum of its free parts. Obviously it’s not going to be for everyone and it does help if you live in a house with more than one DS or you have friends at school who own them also because given its short connectivity range you’re not going to be chatting with people on another continent until some magical net connection is released. As mentioned however the closeness of this connectivity doesn’t need to be a bad point because it is a lot of fun having a laugh with pals as you play another game of pictonary or hangman. As chat programs go it’s simple to use and has some cute features including touch screen keyboard, pen sizes and symbols. For this reviewer pictochat is a clever and welcome addition to the DS and shouldn’t be overlooked by those of you who are lucky enugh to know others with the machine.