Nelson Schneider's Game Review of Pictionary

For Parties Only
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/15/11

"Pictionary" is one of the launch titles for THQ's unimpressively unsupported uDraw Tablet. While uDraw titles are bargain-basement priced to begin with, the fact that the uDraw Tablet came with an additional coupon for $10 off this game or "Dood's Big Adventure" made the purchase relatively painless, despite the fact that I wasn't really expecting much.

Presentation
The main game interface looks decent enough. It's not spectacular, but it's also not an ugly, jaggy-riddled mess. The majority of the game's presentation revolves directly around the drawing ability of the players, so playing with someone like Chris can lead to hilarious horror.

The music is pretty benign and fades into the background, but the countdown until time runs out at least does a good job of increasing tension as players rush to finish their drawings or throw-out last-minute guesses. The board game aspect is narrated by an annoyingly-cheerful male, who sounds like he would have been quite at home in the 1990s' TGIF Friday evening sitcoms.

Story
"Pictionary" is a straight-up digitalization of the pen & paper game. There is no story mode, which would have been a nice way to allow single-player play.

Gameplay
"Pictionary" requires at least 4 players to play 'properly.' I played improperly with the other MeltedJoystick staffers, which didn't hinder our enjoyment of the game, but definitely destroyed any semblance of 'winning' and 'losing.'

The game plays like a typical party game, where each team of at least two players has a token that moves around a board by rolling dice. Landing on different-colored squares provides that team with a variety of drawing/guessing challenges determined by the square's color. The 'guesser(s)' must cover their eyes while the 'drawer' reveals the clue to be drawn. Once the drawer is ready, they simply click a button to start the timer and must scribble-away on the tablet while the guesser(s) attempt to identify the scribbles. Successful guesses allow teams to keep control of the dice as they race to the end of the game board. Since there is no speech-recognition software involved, successful guessing and score-keeping relies entirely on the Honor System.

Where this game differs from the traditional version is the use of the uDraw digital tablet as the drawing medium. The tablet performs typically for a low-quality peripheral aimed at kids and first-time tablet users. It can be difficult to draw specific shapes, but at least that leads to even more riotous humor. The tablet interface allows the drawer to change the color of their digital ink and change the shape/qualities of the drawing tool as well.

Overall
"Pictionary" is fun for large groups, but utterly useless for small groups or single players. Anyone who splurged on a uDraw Tablet and occasionally hosts or attends medium-sized parties would be well served by this bargain purchase.

Presentation: 3/5
Story: n/a
Gameplay: 3.5/5 Multi-Player; 0/5 Single Player
Overall (not an average): 2.5/5