Frankly, the words "simulated chat program," which aptly sum up this game’s single-player mode, give me the creeps. And it must be a mutual affection, because this particular DS title sells about as well as dehydrated water.
From the moment this game was released, I have heard almost nothing but poor criticism of it. But after finally getting my hands on it, even so long after it originally came out, I must say it’s not half bad. Certainly you have heard the phrase “united we stand, divided we fall.” Various figures have echoed those sentiments throughout history and the same fundamental idea can be applied here, to Ping Pals, a game.
Alone, struggling in the emptiness of its own single-player chat rooms, this game is feeble and only mildly entertaining. However, in the hands of enough willing players, this game has the potential to be strides above the alternative. Ping Pals is, in my opinion, in many ways better than Pictochat. No, let me rephrase that, let me instead say that Ping Pals is what Pictochat should have been.
I am not saying that Pictochat should have gone to quite the extent that Ping Pals did, putting up all the bells and whistles of its competitor; no one could expect that from Nintendo’s built-in chat application. But Ping Pals has many features that, although they may seem tiny in comparison, blow the opposition out of the water. For example, I am sure almost anyone would have loved the ability to choose their font color and save messages – the latter especially, with so many capable Pictochat-artists emerging. Both of those features, and many more, are all part of what makes Ping Pals such a tempting buy.
None of this is to say, however, that Ping Pals is perfect, for it is far from being without its faults. In fact, one of the first things you should do when you start Ping Pals is to check and see if you started out with any cool items, restarting if you don’t and until you do. You see, one of the major flaws of this game is that everything of any quality is so very expensive and earning money is so very slow. While the developers may have seen it as incentive for you and other gamers to keep at it, in reality it is more a reason to quit now, before you invest too much time into it.
You may notice when you first start that the game assumes gender, which is no surprise really, considering that all the characters seem designed by the creator of Bratz. It is perhaps because of this too-anime-to-be-anime look that Ping Pals is so rarely picked up.
If you did pick it up, it may soon become all too apparent that the only point of this game is to socialize, make money and spend it to no clear end. It’s like The Sims, except without a story, any clear goals or the micromanagement of their pixilated lives. This goes a long way towards making Ping Pals feel like only half a game.
If you decide to accept the challenge, however insignificant and vague it may be, there are plenty of ways to earn money for your avatar. Unfortunately, each is just as slow as the next. The easiest way is just to play, as you earn coins for signing in once a week and for every 100 letters you send – so talking to yourself can be just as rewarding as a group chat. You may also stumble upon some of the 1001 “money words,” which are worth different amounts depending on how rare the word is. Putting your unwanted items up for sale can also net you some spare change, assuming you can find another Ping Pals owner. But, if you can find another copy of Ping Pals, it would just be easier, though not necessarily any more fun, to opt for the mini-games.
There are only a handful of games in Ping Pals, so if variety is the spice of life your little avatar may be seeing the white light as you read this. In the single player foray, there are three games: Top 10, Hi-Lo and Solo-chat. Multi-player has just two more: Hot Potato and Doodle. Top 10 is the only one of the single player mini-games that requires you to think, a sort of lonely man’s Family Feud that has you filling in the top ten answers for a random category. Hi-Lo is a game of sheer dumb luck, asking you to correctly pick a number between one and ten. And finally Solo-chat, which is about as fun and exciting as it sounds, believe me. Here, you are asked to answer a series of yes or no questions in hypothetical conversations.
Things don’t get much better for multi-player. The first game, Hot Potato, has you and your friend quick-as-you-can typing “Pass” to send a bomb back and forth until time runs out. Finishing up the mini-games is the only enjoyable one out of the whole bunch, Doodle. This multi-player game is a sort of mix between charades and Pictionary, where the player in the “doodle seat” must draw pictures to clue others onto a specific item in a random category.
Should you find another person to chat and play with the game’s selling point, the avatars, leaves single-card download players somewhat screwed, all of them appearing as the same alien. But, for all those who have their own cards, the game has you covered: Ping Pals claims to have thousands of different options to customize your in-game persona. While I have not seen all there is to offer, it is not hard to believe after having seen both ends of the spectrum: the chic and the ludicrous. While a lot of items are there to take up space, I can say that there is probably something for everyone. If there are no clothes for sale that suit your taste, you can always buy backgrounds and sound effects for the chat program – a nice feature, and one that brings me to the chat program itself.
The developers did their best to put everything Ping Pals has to offer right at your fingertips - which they achieve with aplomb, I might add. Everything is accessible, though at the price of compromising the accessibility of the chat program itself. With the various other sub-directories right out there, your keyboard and composition screen are shrunk to a pitiful size. It only adds to frustration as you try to communicate with minuscule drawings and a minute keyboard that manages to feel smaller as you are forced to jab at it with your stylus.
I must say, this is at least one area that Pictochat got right, allowing you to navigate your keyboard with the D-pad. As the chat program seems the only real function of Ping Pals, I can’t see why a better control scheme was not devised for it.
It is this kind of mistake, among many other errors on WayForward’s part, that kill this game and make it clear why so many gamers are reluctant to buy or play it.
Bottom Line:
It seems an utter shame that any game should be docked points because no one is buying it, but in a game such as this it really is a factor. Unless you can find someone else willing to or already has, I’m not sure you should...even though the price is dropping to mythical proportions right now and lots of people are stealing a second glance.
I said before that I found this game to not be half bad, but that doesn’t mean it is half good either. It really is nothing more than a glorified Pictochat, but that may be just what you are looking for.
So, should you find yourself playing a copy soon, alone and bored, here’s a word of advice: why don’t you try watching the credits – there is money to be had in that, too! After all, what else have you got to do?
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
|
|
5.0 |
Posted: 2005-10-08 15:42:28PST