GENRE
	Application
	DEVELOPER
	Way Forward Tech.
	PUBLISHER
	THQ
	LOCAL WIRELESS MULTI-PLAY
	Yes
	Wi-Fi/GLOBAL ONLINE MULTI-PLAY
	Yes
	MICROPHONE
	No
	BUY NOW AT

After nearly a year of waiting, most of you reading this have finally gotten your grubby little paws on the oh-so coveted Nintendo DS. After a few weeks of Super Mario 64 DS and Metroid Hunters, I got my hands on this fun new game called Ping Pals. Ping Pals happens to be a new and unique software application from THQ that starts off where Picto Chat ended. Curious? Read on to find out more and see my take on the title.

visuals

First, I’d like to clear up a few things regarding the genre of this intriguing piece of software itself. Many of you may believe that Ping Pals is a new “game” for your DS. But in actuality it’s an application that tries to 1-up Picto Chat. So I really can’t judge the graphics but I will anyway – they’re plain. Aside from your Ping Pal there really isn’t’ much to see. You do have the option of changing the background but that’s about it. Your Ping Pal can be decorated as you feel fit, so there definitely is a lot of visual variety in that aspect, but don’t expect any mind blowing cinematic scenes; it’s a chat program.

audio

Ping Pals doesn’t offer that much variety in the audio department so be prepared for some grave repetitiveness. The music is very catchy but gets extremely annoying very quickly. You do have the option of buying alternative tunes, but the opportunities are few and far in between. The sound effects are minimal, consisting of only the ping of messages and the click of typing. Overall, the audio is bland and repetitive albeit catchy for short periods of time.

gameplay

In some areas the “gameplay” 1-ups Picto Chat entirely, but it crashes and burns in some areas. I’d like to give everyone the bad news first, just so you don’t feel disappointed at the end.

My major complaint about the game was the tiny size of the area you are supposed to type on. I have trouble with the Picto Chat screen, so this posed a major problem for me. It really hindered how much I was able to type/draw and frustrated me quite a bit at times. But if you’ve got small handwriting then fear not, it isn’t too bad. Myself on the other hand… I won’t even go there.

Another complaint I had was the terrible lack of mini-games. When THQ announced we’d be able to play mini-games with our friends and by ourselves I became very excited. But to my disappointment I found myself playing the same four games over and over to get the ridiculously high-priced goods from the store. On top of the lack of variety, the games could be very frustrating.

One of the single player mini-games was a guessing game where you are given a category such as “Things Associated with Pain” and are required to guess ten words from a pre-made list. You never get to see the list so replay value here is pretty good. But without the list, keeping track of the correct or wrong words was pretty hard, you could write them down I guess, but who wants to take the time to do that while time is ticking away?

I also had a problem with, believe it or not, guessing the words. For example, in the category “Things Associated with Pain”, the words “bruise”, “broken bone”, “black eye”, bloody nose”, and “cut” didn’t count. I found this a little discouraging. One explanation for my errors though might have been that I was in the wrong mind set. Another category was “Types of Lights”. I was guessing things like “black” and “ultra violet” when the game was actually looking for things along the lines of “traffic” and “stop”. It was a simple mistake on my part, but annoying nevertheless.

One last gripe I had about Ping Pals is what I briefly mentioned before. It had to do with saving up my coins in order to purchase items I really wanted. Some of the cooler items on display were tagged at an unreal 2000-4000 coins and some were even higher. I for one wouldn’t have the patience to play 100 games of “Top Ten” just to buy a new shirt, no thank you. Talking and playing with your friends does ease some of the pain but for the most part it’s very tedious. Fortunately there are a lot of items priced much lower, around the 30-500 range, and are easily obtained. You’ll need dedication to get the neater items though.

Well now that the bad new is out of the way, it’s time for the good. Decorating your very own personal avatar is one of the coolest things I’ve done in a game yet. At first you’ll be able to choose between a boy and a girl and from then on only your imagination can stop you. You can give your character hats, glasses, earrings, suits and more with an almost infinite number of combinations. There are around 2000 items to choose from so THQ wasn’t kidding when they said no two Ping Pals were going to be the same. Of those 2000 items, only about 300 are found on each cartridge so you’ll have to trade with your buddies to get every one, if you’re a collector that is.

Ping Pals offers plenty of character to spread around as well. You can create a biker, a samurai, a ninja, or just an average beach bum. Just about every personality is covered, so there’s no need to think you’re limited to a bunch of kiddy looking Ping Pals. You’ll also have a blast with some of the more humorous items found about Ping Pals too, I know I did.

multiplayer

Ping Pals allows you to chat it up with seven of your friends and presumably more. There are a bunch of different chat rooms so you could easily have 20 plus people chatting it up all together, either in a hot spot or POSSIBLY online later on. Why have that many chat rooms just for a measly eight people?

overall

I have a quick question before I wrap things up for everyone here, would you give Picto Chat a low score? I wouldn’t, that’s why I’m treating Ping Pals as an application in competition with Picto Chat instead of an actual game. But if I had to treat it as a game, I’d say the graphics weren’t particularly eye popping but they got the job done the way it was supposed to. The audio was nice and catchy but annoyingly repetitive after awhile. The variety in creating your Ping Pal is immense and chatting with your friends hasn’t been this fun since AIM.

Ping Pals itself is an up-beat game that definitely 1-ups Picto Chat, but paying 30 smackers just for a few extras really isn’t my cup of tea; around 15 would be nice. I’d say wait for a price drop or buy it used since it isn’t worth the listed price (in my opinion). Unless you’re absolutely dying to get this game or you are completely obsessed with collecting, I would wait. Ping Pals definitely kick-started something here and it won’t be long until we see more of these chatting applications popping up, so keep your eyes peeled and happy chatting!

8.3/10