Posted by Bob Mackey
Yesterday, my general boredom led me to the Wii's space-gobbling Nintendo Channel, in the hopes that something could eat away minutes of my precious free time. I was lucky enough to stumble across a DS demo for Sega's PictoImage, which amazingly transforms your DS into a virtual piece of paper! Here's the trailer:
Yep, PictoImage is the same gimmicky crap that made everyone think the DS was a bad idea back in 2004. Thank god we can experience these feelings in 2008, what with Ping Pals being a forgotten tragedy nearly four years after the system's launch.
I know, I know--Pictoimage is essentially Pictionary. And there's really nothing wrong with that. But it doesn't need to be a video game, let alone on the DS. Unless, of course, you need some sort of CPU middle-man to ensure your weekly Pictionary games do not end in bloodshed.
In order to show you just how exciting PictoImage is, allow me to summarize my experience with its two-player mode.
- - The game asks me to draw "mustard."
- - I do, and pass the DS to my girlfriend.
- - She struggles for a few minutes with PictoImage's awful handwriting recognition.
- - The game tells her that her guess of "mustard" is correct.
- - We are now awful people.
We later tried the same concept with a pencil and a piece of paper, and amazingly, no one died and hard feelings were mysteriously absent throughout the entire experience. It goes without saying that I immediately ran down to Gamestop, ordered my copy of PictoImage, and put $5 on Sega's next DS game, I'm Thinking of a Number Between 1 and 10. Wish me luck!
+ DIGG
+ DEL.ICIO.US
+ REDDIT
About Bob Mackey
For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's
Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.
If unsatisfied, please return unused portion for partial refund.