Ping Pals
Ping Pals is a chat/accessory program developed by WayForward Technologies and published by THQ for the Nintendo DS. It was released on December 8, 2004, in North America & It was released in Europe in early 2005. The program allows the user to customise their "Ping Pal" avatar and game interface by selecting from over 1000 different items such as hairstyles, makeup, clothing, backdrops, music loops and sound effects.
Ping Pals
- Date
- 2004
- Publisher
- THQ
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Ping Pals is a chat/accessory program developed by WayForward Technologies and published by THQ for the Nintendo DS. It was released on December 8, 2004, in North America & It was released in Europe in early 2005. The program allows the user to customise their "Ping Pal" avatar and game interface by selecting from over 1000 different items such as hairstyles, makeup, clothing, backdrops, music loops and sound effects.
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wikidata · Q7195668 · wikipedia · Ping Pals
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Developer — WayForward Technologies • Publisher — THQ • Designer — Matt Bozon • Producer — Derek Dutilly • Programmer — Ian Wakelin • Writer — Paula Shumard • Artist — Matt Bozon • Composer — Shin'en Multimedia (Manfred Linzner, Martin Schioeler) • Genre — Simulation • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer • Platforms — Nintendo DS
Gameplay
Gameplay
Items can be unlocked by trading with other players or buying them in a shop. Players must trade to complete their collections, as each cartridge's shop offers a different subset of the items. Players receive a regular allowance of coins, using the DS' date-keeping functionality, and can get more by playing mini-games (such as Guess the Number and Hot Potato), typing certain secret words in chat (each word works once per file) and even for choosing to display the credits screen more than once. Up to 16 players can connect wirelessly using one game cartridge; each must be within about 100 feet (30 m) of one of the others to exchange text and picture messages.
Places
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Places
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- United States
Named but not plotted · 1
Ping Pals is associated with United States.
Country
Reception
Although Ping Pals was marketed as a nonviolent, girl-friendly game, it was frequently criticized as not being interactive enough to be called a game. In addition to this, the DS has a built-in chat program called PictoChat. PictoChat includes features that Ping Pals lacks, and due to this, the game received "generally unfavorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. For instance, Nintendo Official Magazine, in its Nintendo DS special, opened their review of the game by describing its existence as being "a bit like paying money to breathe air." By contrast with other summaries in the magazine, which were typed and more detailed, the reviewer gave a one word summary, handwritten in PictoChat, reading "POINTLESS". Several images in Ping Pals were licensed from QPlay. These include the Cupimon, a green creature that dances in the startup animation, and several avatar and clothing graphics. The game received two zeroes and one 1.5 from Electronic Gaming Monthly, the lowest average score in the history of the publication.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Ping Pals. IGN. 2004-11-24.
- 2.CBS Interactive. Ping Pals for DS Reviews. Metacritic.
- 3.Maragos, Nich. Ping Pals. 1UP.com. Ziff Davis. January 4, 2005.
- 4.Ziff Davis. Ping Pals. Electronic Gaming Monthly. 187. 143. January 2005.
- 5.Navarro, Alex. Ping Pals Review [date mislabeled as "December 16, 2004"]. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. December 15, 2004.
- 6.Theobald, Phil. GameSpy: Ping Pals. GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. December 17, 2004.
- 7.Zacarias, Eduardo. Ping Pals - NDS - Review. GameZone. December 28, 2004.
- 8.Harris, Craig. Ping Pals. IGN. Ziff Davis. December 14, 2004.
- 9.Nintendo of America. Ping Pals. Nintendo Power. 188. 115. February 2005.
- 10.Metts, Jonathan. Ping Pals. Nintendo World Report. NINWR, LLC. December 30, 2004.
- 11.Future plc. Ping Pals review. Nintendo Official Magazine. 151. March 2005.
- 12.van Leuveren, Luke. Ping Pals Review. PALGN. August 27, 2005.
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Secondary witness
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