LOL review

LOL is only as funny as the acquaintances you play it with and if, as in our case, your acquaintances have a predilection for cartoon anatomy and a seemingly never-ending supply of meanness about whoever’s mother, it’s very funny indeed. To put none too fine a point on it, this is Pictochat dressed up as a quiz show. Four DSes link to one cart. One player decides the theme of the round and dictates the time given to complete it. Everyone scribbles madly before the round’s host shows off the entries one by one and everyone votes on the most gigglesome. Our first round, a rather tame ‘draw a horse’, was met with stony gazes and one cartoon phallus. This set in motion one of the most hoot-filled – and gross – hours in our history.

Draw this. Answer that. Finish the sentence. The trick to enjoyment is being able to devise interesting challenge formats – there are only so many crude doodles you can chortle at – but it would’ve been nice had Route24 included a menu of format suggestions. As it is, the round setter often wins – only because they already had a humorous answer lined up when they devised the task. Outside of this Wi-Fi silliness is, well, er, there’s nothing outside it. The game doesn’t even have a main menu, booting straight into search for other DSes. No-frills stuff and, in humourless hands, no fun either.

Jul 21, 2008