WarioWare Studio Built a Game Around Your Photos

Intelligent Systems doesn't do small ideas. The studio behind Fire Emblem, Paper Mario, and the entire WarioWare series has co-developed Pictonico, a new Nintendo mobile game that pulls photos from your phone and turns them into playable minigames. Nintendo announced the game today, and it launches on iOS and Android on May 28 as a free-to-start download.

The concept is pure WarioWare DNA: rapid-fire minigames built around absurd scenarios. Nintendo's own descriptions include peeling a face mask off your dad, plucking your mom's nose hair, and turning your best friend into a final boss. Players can pull images from their existing camera roll or snap new ones directly in the app. According to the official site, your photos are not sent to Nintendo, and a constant online connection isn't required after the initial launch.

A small selection of minigames will be free. Beyond that, Nintendo is selling the rest in "volumes": Volume 1 costs $5.99 and Volume 2 costs $7.99, with up to 80 minigames available across both. Under $14 for the full package on a mobile game co-developed by one of Nintendo's most respected internal partners is honestly pretty reasonable by modern mobile standards. I'm more interested in this than I expected to be; the WarioWare comparison isn't just surface-level when the actual WarioWare team is involved.

The timing is interesting. WarioWare series director Goro Abe left Nintendo in February after 27 years, and this is Nintendo's first original mobile game not tied to an existing franchise since Dragalia Lost launched in 2018. That game shut down in 2022, and Nintendo has been quiet on the mobile front since. Pictonico feels like a low-risk experiment, but with Intelligent Systems' name on it, I wouldn't write it off as throwaway phone filler.

Pictonico is already available to pre-order on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store ahead of its May 28 launch.