Drawing with a time limit is a great recipe for laughter, especially among friends. PictoParty channels your inner terrible artist, letting you poorly draw cupcakes, skyscrapers and lamps as your friends desperately try to guess what it is you're trying to create. It's a simple party game that you may have seen before and is easy to pick up and play for anyone, even if they've never played a game before.
PictoParty has one player draw while all the other players try to guess what it is. This player holds the GamePad, drawing on it using the stylus while the other players watch your picture show up on the TV. The artist can choose different colours if it will help convey the drawing better, and can do so just by tapping one of the various coloured pencils on the side of the GamePad screen. Still, you're on a strict time limit, so you'll want to draw everything as fast as you can.
Even if you're in a big hurry you'll want to draw clearly to get as many correct guesses as you can get. Each person who guesses your drawing gets a point, but you also get a point for drawing something that can be identified. Once someone guesses your picture right it's up to the artist to tap the Correct button on the GamePad and tell it who got the answer right before your next drawing task comes up. The artist aims to get as many pictures done as possible before a round ends.
You're not just drawing whatever you want, though. The game gives you a word to draw each round and grants you a new one every time someone guesses it correctly or if you choose to pass on the word (which gives you a time penalty). One of the nice parts of the game is that the words are divided into dictionaries like Animals, Actions, and Food. You can choose to add or remove dictionaries before a match, so you won't have to draw from categories you find too challenging, or you can have a bunch of them all running at once to make it harder to guess.
PictoParty has a lot of dictionaries, but even so you may crave more words or want to have your own custom category. Thankfully you can create your own dictionary if you like, and you can put in whatever words you want. Have you made up some nonsense word that's an inside joke with your friends? It can go in. Want to start playing a dirtier version of the game? Go for it. The game allows you to spell out whatever word you like, and there's no adult filter to spoil your (age appropriate) fun. You can make this game as awful as you like.
There are options for free-for-all and team modes depending on how you want to entertain your guests, and you can squeeze up to fifteen players into a game if you have that many people around. You can also choose things like round duration, time penalties, and customize almost every aspect of the match. It's handy stuff that will keep the game moving quickly and ensure everyone is having fun.
That being said, you may already have this game in your house. PictoParty doesn't do a whole lot that the board game, Pictionary, doesn't do already. Having it on the Wii U streamlines things, meaning no searching for pencils or worrying about cards or anything like that, but it doesn't add a whole lot to the game. It's fun, but if you already have the board game you already essentially have PictoParty.
Conclusion
If only for the ease of adding bad words alone, PictoParty is entertaining and simple to pick up for anyone with any level of gaming experience. It takes a few minutes to get a ton of people playing, and with the dictionary customization no one will feel like their words are too hard or too boring. Also, it's rather funny to see someone try to draw the simplest thing when the clock's ticking, so if you're looking out for some easy, lighthearted fun, grab PictoParty. It doesn't reinvent the board game it's inspired by, but it does streamline it quite well.
Comments 21
This sounds exactly like the drawing game in Wario (which is by far the best thing about that game). We have played that tons, but it is nice to have a proper version with better word lists and options. I don't like the ability to use colors (so many things are so easy to draw just by using color) but I guess we can just agree to just use black.
The only thing I hated about the drawing game in Game & Wario was that it was limited to just 5 players. Seeing as it was a pass-and-play game, I see no reason why they didn't accommodate 12, even 20 players. Hell, WarioWare: Smooth Moves accommodated 12 players in one of its modes (though the most popular one at my place is the 5 player mode that ends with each player taking turns cutting ropes until only one player is left standing).
@sillygostly You're quite lucky when you can get 20 people together who all want to play the same game.
I'm surprised it's taken this long for something in this mould to emerge! The game and wario option was good but it's hidden inside a pretty terrible game overall.
This type of game/app is EXACTLY the type of thing that should have come pre-installed on every Wii u at launch to add value to the package and 'sell' two screen gaming to the public as unique!!!
The main thing separating this from Game and Wario is the ability to add your own words. I actually might pick it up for this reason.
@Kamalisk Yes! We were just playing Sketch with friends on Halloween this weekend and lamenting it's 5-player limit. This will be a must-buy for us as having 15-player and ability to add words (and use color!) is awesome! Kind of a low rating for one of the best possible uses of the GamePad in a party setting.
Sighs
I miss Pictochat.
@bofis To be honest I kind of like the 5 person limit in Sketch as it prevents the game from running too long. Whenever we have more than 5 players we always just pair up, which can lead to some pretty hilarious team photos, and have each pair take turns drawing (usually when I play with more than 5 there's a few who don't want to draw anyway).
I'll probably pass on this. It just seems too generic and almost like a rip-off of Sketch
Is this coming to Europe?
@John_Enigma pats shoulder
Don't worry, pictochat will live on in our hearts.
Man, hate to see this guy's review of the Wario mini-game. Meanwhile that's the second main reason I even pull the Game and Wario game out anymore. It's this... and flinging Fronks around.
@manu0 : That's never happened with me but it would be nice to have the option considering that only one controller is used for the game. I think I did have a 12 player WarioWare: Smooth Moves session once, and over the weekend, a friend took his Wii U to another friend's place and I brought along my controllers and games for some 8-player Smash (first time I had the opportunity to use all those controllers).
While I doubt that it will come to Australia and Europe, I'd be all over this if it did.
Like Spin the Bottle: Bumpie's Party, I assume that this game lacks any kind of single-player mode (aside from the ability to create custom dictionaries).
Hopefully this game will use IARC and be released around the globe. It would be fun to make dictionaries with native language so kids and my friends who doesn't understand english could play this when they come to visit.
Hey guys,
Niklas from Retroid Interactive here, just want to clear stuff up and answer your questions.
Colors: There are up to 6 colors available, but you can decrease that number if you want a challange, only using the black color for instance.
Players: The game will feature up to 15 players when playing the regular mode, if you play a team game you can be up to 24 players. If you feel that that's too many and the game takes up too much time you can easily lower the game timer before starting the game.
@sillygostly: The game will indeed come to Europe and we currently investigate if we will release the game for the Australian market.
@DarkJamD: The European release will feature the following languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Swedish. We will update the North American version after this to feature those languages as well. Is there a language you are missing from that list?
Thanks guys for all the great comments, glad you enjoy PictoParty!
This game is like Wii Party U and Wario Wii U, the Wario is better than Wii Party U minigame but this is a dedicated game with more colors, words and players (the most important the most players the most funny). I will download it in the next party in my house.
Only a very important question for me (I´m from Mexico). Does it have spanish language? This is very important because not all my friends and family understand english.
@DarkEdi : Yes. Retroid just confirmed above that Spanish is supported.
@sillygostly Thanks a lot, that feature is very important to play with my family and friends.
@Retroid
I'd really be happy to see the Russian language support in the release or an upcoming updates. Unfortunately, all my friends are poor in English so we can't enjoy foreign language game.
This games bring me to another question: If you see the Wii Party U Minigames and little bit of PictoParty and Spin the Bottle, there are NO quiz/trivia games on Wii U. The GamePad seems perfect for that kind of games. On the Wii I had so much fun with Smarty Pants and TV Show King.
Do you remember the first introduction videos of the Wii U GamePad with drwaing? Where you had to guess how long 4,6cm are, and everyone had to draw the line, and nearest result won? So awesome and nowhere to find!
@DStroke: The game you described was used for a minigame called "Design" in Game&Wario.
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