Pictonico is Nintendo's newest app that turns photos into games, coming later this month

• Pictonico is a new app coming to iOS and Android from Nintendo
• It recreates the Face Raiders-style 'turn your photo into a game' format
• But it's set to offer plenty of different minigame options too

While they're best known for their consoles and catalogue on that platform, iconic developer and publisher Nintendo aren't strangers to mobile. Now, they've announced a brand-new mobile app arriving May 28th, in the form of photo-turned-minigames hub Pictonico!

If you're at all familiar with Nintendo's 3DS, then the gameplay of Pictonico will seem quite familiar. In Pictonico, you use photos of your friends and family to play minigames, manipulating the images to do things like eating corn or walking the runway. It's all very Warioware, and is clearly meant to offer bite-sized fun.

And again, it's a concept that Nintendo seem quite fond of. Face Raiders for the 3DS was a built-in app that allowed you to turn photos into enemies to face in an AR shooter. Slated to arrive on May 28th, Pictonico seems to be an expansion of the concept built primarily for mobile devices.

Face the facts

I've often thought of Nintendo as being a bit like a Japanese Disney. They command a loyal following of fans, and more often than not, their main focus is keeping their brand consistent and family-friendly. Pictonico, it would seem, continues that trend. But it's interesting to see it make its way to mobile (seemingly alongside a launch on the Nintendo Today app) as a standalone game.

I definitely like the idea of Pictonico. But Nintendo are taking a bit of a gamble making this a paid app (free to try, of course). While it looks to offer family-friendly, wholesome fun, the real question will be what replay value it has when it releases on May 28th.

Still, if you're looking for other great options to play on mobile, then there's plenty of new releases we'll happily recommend. Why not check out our review of Gambonanza and see whether this chess-themed Balatro-like holds up?