Pictonico! review: new Nintendo WarioWare-like is a silly blast

Nintendo has surprise-released another WarioWare game, and it seems to be flying under everyone’s noses. That’s because Pictonico! isn’t a WarioWare game in name – and yet this new mobile mini-game collection certainly is in spirit, and it’s an absolute blast of silly joy.

Like the WarioWare games, you’ll pop in for rounds of fast-paced mini-games where you must perform an action in a completely absurd scenario: you must water a sentient flower, put a moustache on a person, unroll a red carpet, bury someone in sand, peel corn off the cob, and so on.

The twist that elevates Pictonico! to being meme-worthy art is that the game uses the photographs in your phone library to add faces and settings for each game.

You’re not just covering someone in sand, you could be covering yourself – or a friend, or a family member, or just someone you happened to take a photo of once.

If you’re like me, and you love taking photos of the various media you enjoy, you could also end up with Hiro Nakamura from 2006 NBC hit Heroes making a cameo appearance in your games.

Pictonico! celebrates the absurd

We need more silly, experimental games like Pictonico! – games so light-hearted, fun and bouncy as to be transportive.

As a title that was shadow-dropped without much fanfare, I’ll admit Pictonico! wasn’t really on my radar prior to being offered a code to review the game.

Having now run through dozens of rounds across its first two volumes – hopefully the first of many – I have been completely buoyed by the experience. Lying on the couch, giggling at the latest absurd mini-game as I shaved the cartoon goatee of my friend Steph, I couldn’t help but be enamoured by this weird and wonderful little game.

In rounds of dozens of unique mini-games, you can see all sorts of silly sights.

In one round, the game pinched the face of someone hiding in the corner of a friend’s wedding. I had no idea who it was, until the late-game wrap-up revealed the context for the photo – and it was very funny sending it on to that friend so they could enjoy it too.

In another scenario, I ended up with Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell from Top Gun: Maverick attending my virtual birthday party, with the face taken from a photograph of the 4K edition of the film. (I love to share photos of my physical media collection.)

Seeing which faces are taken by Pictonico! is part of the joy. It can be hilarious at times, particularly when the game’s sorting system decides a Monster High doll is a real person, or when it pinches a face from a movie poster, or even a stranger in the background of one of your photos – and you then get to wonder how that stranger would feel, knowing they’ve become corn, and you’re peeling them.

Using photos from your own camera reel can also be a rather pleasant walk through your memories.

Having fun with your friends and family in Pictonico!

Now, Pictonico! doesn’t really discriminate with photos. So if you’ve got anything in your camera reel that makes you sad – life is full of ups and downs, after all – you may end up with those photos suddenly appearing and sparking old memories.

But for the most part – and for most people – the game maintains such a tongue-in-cheek approach that it’ll be more like a pleasant, rosy walk through memory lane.

There was so much I’d forgotten about hiding in my unsorted camera roll. The game surfaced a visit with friends to the aquarium, where we roamed through an Animal Crossing-themed exhibit. I got to reminisce about a press trip to New York – a solo journey that was stressful but incredibly fun and character-building.

Trips to Vivid popped up in Pictonico!, as well as family christenings, movie premieres, award nights and seeing a vampire-themed museum exhibit. It was particularly good to see a life-like statue of Nosferatu being adapted, with mini-games forcing me to feed him lollipops and tomatoes by dragging his jaw up and down.

A novel mix of challenge

What works best about this blast through memories, beyond the inherent comedy of seeing Nosferatu chomp away at sweet treats, is that Pictonico! is actually a fairly challenging game eventually – much like its WarioWare spiritual predecessors.

You can get lost in the humour and still have a fantastic time, but the further you get into rounds, the more challenging it becomes. Mini-games typically involve clicking, dragging or holding motions, with some time to parse what exactly you need to do (and it’s not always clear).

The further you get into each volume of mini-games, the faster the pacing becomes, and the more complex things get. You’ll need to really lock in once you’re past the high 10s in levels, with the speed adding challenge, and even more humour.

It’s ridiculous really, and that’s what makes Pictonico! shine.

If you’re in need of a laugh, or you know your friends could do with one, this really is a gut-busting time. Nintendo so rarely gets experimental these days, and it’s fantastic to see the company hasn’t lost its touch.

iOS codes for Pictonico! Vol. 1 and Vol 2. were provided to ScreenHub for the purposes of this review.

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