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A new Nintendo game is out… on smartphones. Pictonico! is a WarioWare-style microgame compilation that pulls from your photo library to add your friends’ and family’s faces to the games. The pitch is that simple, and that irresistible. I just gave it a quick try and could picture the delight and hilarity of my 7-year-old daughter when I show it to her later. I also snapped instantly into the game’s one-two-three-go WarioWare groove, perfectly translated by developer Intelligent Systems, which has worked on WarioWare almost from the start.
It all makes perfect sense. But it’s also pretty unexpected, because Nintendo had seemed to completely renounce mobile games after a flirtation with the form in the mid-to-late 2010s.
Nintendo had turned to mobile as Wii U floundered, seemingly without enthusiasm; then-president Satoru Iwata was forced to climb down after initially swearing off the smartphone market. A partnership with DeNA saw some modest successes, like Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour, but even Nintendo could not resist the race to the bottom with exploitative gacha games like Fire Emblem Heroes and Dragalia Lost.
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