Pictonico Is Ten Years Too Late

Overview

The video is a review/roast of Nintendo’s Picto / Nintendo Picto Nico–style photo microgame experience. In it, your photos (faces) get cut out, warped, filtered, and inserted into quick “WarioWare-like” games.

The narrator explains that the core gameplay is essentially the familiar microgame format:

• Short timed rounds
• Lots of variety
• Randomized, photo-driven content
• Multiple difficulties
• Visual/theme changes as you progress

They credit the game for working as advertised and being genuinely fun in brief bursts, especially when it pulls in different pictures from you or your friends.

Main Criticisms

Feels outdated and poorly timed

The narrator’s central complaint is that it feels like a concept that arrived about 10 years too late. Their reasoning includes:

• Photo/silly-face novelty is overdone, particularly given smartphone culture.
• Nintendo’s camera/photo ideas have existed earlier (they mention loving the Game Boy Camera), and later references like 3DS Face Raiders, but this specific “photo → microgame” moment never hit at the right time.
• Even the branding/naming feels like “brand-word salad” (examples: amiibo / labo / picto), reinforcing the idea that the product was left in a drawer and shipped only now.

Monetization: free-to-start isn’t very generous

The narrator also criticizes the free-to-start model:

• You get only a tiny taste (described as roughly “one and a half moments”).
• The rest requires payment, with full access around $14 in the U.S.
• They argue this monetization doesn’t match what mobile audiences expect from free trials.

Notable Bits / Reactions

• The narrator jokes that the game seems to reject certain kinds of faces, specifically saying it doesn’t handle “monster faces” or blue, furry characters well.
• They repeatedly fail to get the game to use a specific real person’s photo (Hidetaka Miyazaki), implying the system “doesn’t like” certain faces.
• They compare the shallow experience unfavorably to bigger Nintendo life-sim ideas (mentioning Tomodachi Life), concluding that Picto Nico feels more like a novelty product than a fully fleshed-out game.

Conclusion

The creator suggests it may appeal to Nintendo fans, or even someone like a “grandma” who’d laugh at it—but they doubt it will break into mainstream success. Their argument is that smartphone markets are huge, and this release feels niche and mistimed.

They also express a wish that more games be included in the free version.

Meta Rant (Unrelated)

After the review, there’s an offbeat, unrelated complaint about trying to transfer phone screen recordings to a computer, with repeated freezing/failure—adding real-world annoyance after the gaming commentary.

Main Personalities (Implied)

• The single narrator/reviewer (one speaker; no other characters/personas appear in the subtitles).