Still, to this day we cannot understand why anyone would buy this title, nor why development on this game continued after Pictochat was announced. When Nintendo demoed the Pictochat application at E3 2004, it was also forced to decide what to do with it, eventually the decision was made to bundle the DS with the software, and yet, come the Nintendo DS launch, THQ were ready, right there with their own application - for a more premium price.
When the game first begins there are two options, upload and log in. The upload allows for quick chat, whereas the login option goes into a more customisational chatroom. Both options actually prompt the player whether to turn the wireless play of the Nintendo DS on. Clicking on no will actually boot the user back to the main screen, with the choice of those two options.
We shouldn't have turned the DS wireless play on
Whilst Ping Pals isn't an exact replica of Pictochat, it comes very close. To justify this ludicrous price tag THQ have included a few little bonuses that cannot be found in Pictochat. The game employs a rewards based system for chatting, when chatting players acquire credits, which can be used to change the chat experience, the credits allow the player to purchase items such as hats, background effects etc..
For those who simply cannot find anyone to chat with in Ping Pals there is an artificial intelligence program that can have a small conversation. Although it isn't too intelligent, and is equivalent to PALGN's AI bot Amy. Although we did have the courage to tell it to go away, in not such nice words and the player left at least.
There is a few chat style mini games included, such as a Family Feud challenge, where the AI will ask something along the lines of "Top Ten Holidays and the player has to guess. This mode also isn't as good as it could have been, as the AI is always looking for the perfect answer, and the game hasn't even been localised correctly, with Independence Day (and Halloween) being one of the top ten holidays. At the end of each round the game doesn't even tell you the correct answers, we presume this retain the lifespan of the game. There are 174 of these mini games.
How does he know he is there? Oh yeah, they are next to each other
The chat presentation is much more detailed than that of Pictochat, the text to actually talk is smaller, and the player cannot even type and draw at the same time. All in all, it feels more like Ping Pals is actually a downgrade of Pictochat. Players are able to wirelessly transmit the chat program to those with a Nintendo DS who don't have the game (lucky them!).
The gameplay on this game is really hard to rate. Theoretically the game could be extremely fun with eight players all in the chatroom at once, but the chances of this happening are very slim. There is also the option of using Pictochat if there are people wanting to chat wirelessly, so it's not like this game is offering anything decent, except a few pictures and items.
Graphically there really isn't much to the game at all. All the characters are static on the screen and they never move. This can make the action fairly boring. It feels like THQ have tried to justify the price tag but covering the game with different colours, and making the game look like a better version of Pictochat, but in the end the game is actually really clunky to navigate.
Please Note: The Luke in that game is not me, I would not endorse a title like this
The sound on the game is really below par. We can't tell whether THQ couldn't be bothered, or if they wasn't to make the game feel sound like an instant messenger program, but that's exactly what has happened. The sound effects are unspiring and will quickly have the player rushing for the mute button. The sound effects are very loopy, this is definitely not a game that you'll want to play through those DS speakers.
The unlockables in the game could mean that it lasts a fairly significant amount of time. There are a lot of puzzles, multiplayer games, and coins to collect, those who like to collect everything will be pleased to know there is a diverse selection of hats etc, but considering they don't actually add anything to the game, we question why anyone would actually bother to take the time to unlock everything. Beyond that, there is barely any reason for this game to keep in your DS.
Between Pictochat and Ping Pals we actually prefer Pictochat, and we'd say that even if both software was free, this game should have been cancelled when it was announced that Pictochat was coming out free, but chances are it only took a day to develop and was finished months ago, possibly before the Pictochat announcement was made. Unless you are trying to get every game on the Nintendo DS, this just simply isn't worth picking up, for anybody.
This review is brought to you courtesy of Infinite Gameplay, with unlimited game rentals starting from $19.95 a month.
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