Please, please avoid this title at all costs.

For a moment, let's look past the number of logistical flaws inherent within Ping Pals and focus on what it does right. The game does what it's supposed to, in that it allows you to chat with other DS owners and includes both single and multi-player games.

The idea that separates Ping Pals from PictoChat, the chat program included with every Nintendo DS, is customization, namely that of your virtual self. As you chat, you earn coins, which can then be used to purchase new items for your avatar, including hairstyles, glasses, clothes, hats and so forth. With thousands of items to choose from, it's incredibly simple to personalize your Ping Pal. This leads to the question of why someone would spend their time earning coins and customizing their Ping Pal. Try to imagine a situation, any situation, in which you're within 100 feet of a person and your only method of communication is a Nintendo DS. Think hard.

In the off chance that such a scenario exists, I remind you that PictoChat comes hardwired in the memory of every Nintendo DS. Not only does it offer the same basic functionality Ping Pals provides, but it does so without requiring an additional purchase or even a cartridge.

One cartridge of Ping Pals allows up to seven others to temporarily download and chat using the program. As these other players don't have a cartridge, they can't earn coins to customize their virtual appearances, so there's no motivation to partake in Ping Pals as booting up PictoChat would take less time and yield the same results. This situation is somewhat rectified in the event that the other players also have a copy of Ping Pals, at which point I once again question the purpose of using a Nintendo DS to send text messages to those within a 100 foot radius. Of course, the logistics behind all of this requires actual communication beforehand to set it up, which makes the prospect that much more ridiculous.

Of the two multiplayer games available in Ping Pals, one is a direct emulation of PictoChat and the other, Hot Potato, barely qualifies as entertaining, consisting of little more than players typing "pass" until the round ends and someone loses.

The title also includes three single-player games, but at this point, you should know what to expect. One requires you to guess between one and ten. Another places you in a chat room with a simple bot, the challenge here to keep the conversation going as long as possible by typing either yes, no, or the occasional one word response. Finally, Top 10 gives players a category and a fixed amount of time to enter the answer, generally no longer than one word. The entertainment value provided here isn't worth a quarter, let alone the $30 that Ping Pals retails for.

So then, why does Ping Pals exist? The best explanation harkens back to this past May, when the DS was first revealed to the press. At that time, Nintendo had yet to decide if PictoChat would be included with every DS system or sold separately. The assumption is that Ping Pals was originally developed as an alternative to PictoChat, and by the time Nintendo announced the inclusion of PictoChat with each DS, it was more cost-effective to release Ping Pals than to cancel it.

Though this justifies the existence of Ping Pals, it doesn't justify a reason to own it. Perhaps if Ping Pals and PictoChat were both sold separately and weren't limited to a radius of 100 feet, then Ping Pals would appear a tad more appetizing. All things considered, there's absolutely no reason to even contemplate the purchase of Ping Pals.