Like WarioWare but on your phone: this is Pictonico!—Nintendo’s new game featuring absurd mini-games using your photos

Following titles like Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Nintendo continues to experiment with all kinds of smartphone games. Its latest release draws heavily from the legendary WarioWare series and lets us play all kinds of absurd mini-games... using our own photos! That’s Pictonico!, an irreverent game where we can turn ourselves or our friends into the center of attention and tackle all kinds of crazy challenges.

Pictonico! is Nintendo’s latest venture into mobile gaming: take photos of yourself and star in some crazy mini-games

Nintendo has surprised everyone with this completely unexpected announcement. While everyone thought the company would continue to focus on its new releases for the Nintendo Switch 2 and the final stages of the original Switch’s lifecycle, the Japanese company is proving with Pictonico! that it still places importance on the mobile gaming ecosystem. This game will be available for Android and iOS devices via the Google Play Store and the App Store starting May 28.

The developers describe Pictonico! as “a collection of comically chaotic minigames that let you interact with your photos in surprising ways.” As we can see in both the trailer and the official screenshots, you can take photos of yourself or your friends and play minigames featuring the people in the frame. For example, you’ll have to open and close a person’s mouth to make them eat or remove crabs and other sea creatures that have attached themselves to a face. The comparisons to WarioWare, one of Nintendo’s most popular series where you have to complete mini-games that are as crazy as they are frantic, are obvious. Some even wonder why this recognizable and well-established brand wasn’t used instead of creating this new IP.

According to Nintendo, Pictonico! will feature up to 80 different mini-games with varying levels of difficulty, including such outlandish scenarios as zombie attacks, outrageous wardrobe changes, and carnival games. The game will be free to start: the download will be completely free, but there will be in-app microtransactions and optional purchases. And as for the privacy of the photos and videos you take, don’t worry: the developers assure us that the photos and videos you capture will only be saved on your device—they aren’t sent to Nintendo—so if you want to share them with the rest of the world, that’s entirely up to you.

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