When I upgraded from the DSi up to the 3DS there were two things I missed and couldn’t transfer over to my new console. The first was ‘Flipnote Studio’, the excellent piece of animation software, which should be getting a new version soon if rumours at to be believed, and the pre-loaded software program ‘PictoChat’.
OK. If I’m being honest ‘PictoChat’ was never that good and was too ahead of its time for the capabilities of Nintendo’s flagship touch-screen console. For those who have not experienced it ‘PictoChat’ was a tool that allowed you to enter one of four sixteen-capacity chatrooms where you could type or draw messages or illustrations and send them to other DS users. Unfortunately, to receive messages you had to have your DS on, be in the same chat room, be friends with the other DS user(s) and, of course, be within the distance of the wireless signal. Back then, I was at University, and the only use for it was to send notes to friends across the lecture theatre and even then I never did it because my friends didn’t have a DS console so it was pretty much pointless aside from messing around with friends in the pub for a laugh.
Six years on and another firmware update later and the free ‘Letter Box’ on the 3DS is everything that ‘PictoChat’ should have been if the DS had been as versatile and connectable as the new 3DS.
Available to download for free from the 3DS eShop, and presented, naturally because it’s Nintendo, by a friendly Mii avatar called Nikki who takes you simply and relatively quickly through the features of the program using a series of hand-drawn notes, it’s a cracking piece of software that makes the 3DS much more of a connected console.
Using ‘Letter Box’ what you can do is send message to other friends you have on your console list via SpotPass, or to strangers by StreetPass. Now for Nintendo, a company that always seem to fear that console owners will be corrupted by strangers sending rude messages and images to other people, this is a definite relaxing of their tight rules. I am now free to send anything out as a message to be picked up by other console users and, aside from a polite request asking me not to send anything rude or illegal out, there is no check on swearing or whatever. Phew, I’ve come out in a cold sweat.
The full features of the program only come out after you send half-a-dozen messages so you really need to find a friend that is willing to let you spam them to unlock it all.
Once you have unlocked everything you’ll end up with a powerful set of tools, if limited in certain respects in their power, to send free messages to your chums which will appear on their console on their notification menu.
Clicking ‘Write Letter’ sends you to the edit screen, which allows you to write letters of up to four pages. You have one pen which you can draw or write in either 2D or 3D, which means you can do two layered notes if you wish, with notes popping impressively out of the screen. You can also erase in 2D or 3D as well as using one of six stationery themes which vary from, erm, stationary stationery, to ones featuring your Mii on it, to some with moving parts. There is also the option to add one of your photos onto the page even if you can only include images already taking, with no connection to the camera. If you want to take a new photo it’s back out to the camera app then back in I’m afraid.
Though those tools are great there are some questionable limits such as no coloured pens or different thicknesses or stamps which, considering the variety of tools in the old ‘PictoChat’ software seems weird.
Graphically the 3D of the menus is as great as you need on a menu and the till-ready music just dances on the right side of the annoying line.
Messages are all stored in a paper chain with a creation date stamp, and can be re-sent at any time. You can also, if you wish, set up a slide show which slowly cycles through all your letters showing also how you drew them.
Once you’ve composed your letter you can do one of two things with it. You can either send it to a friend in your friend list using SpotPass or add it onto StreetPass which means anyone passing by your 3DS with their wireless option on will see your message. You can cancel this at any time but it’s a great way to interact with other 3DS users who can, using a photo, put a face to a console and shows, as mentioned, that Nintendo are less afraid now to give users more freedom to what they send out. Whether it’ll become misused is another thing but there are a series of parent-friendly privacy options available on it which come up when you first load the app and from the in-app menu. You can even select whether you want 3DS users to have the ability to save your messages or not to their console.
‘Letter Box’ is a fantastic piece of software and, coming hot on the heels of some A+ games and eShop apps, is helping the 3DS become great after its stuttered release back in March. Though the tools could have more options what is there is powerful and the way of getting messages to friends as perfect as you’d need.
There is just one major problem I have with the software. Coming on the same day as a firmware update I think Nintendo missed a trick in automatically installing it to every user’s dashboard. Though I’m sure the majority of users will trundle over to the eShop to download the free app, software like this can only work to the best it can if everyone has it. Every DS owner had ‘PictoChat’ so every 3DS owner should have ‘Letter Box’. Come on, Nintendo, get it automatically installed!
That aside it’s a must-have app that works really well. All I need now is for someone to reply back to my messages so I actually have someone to talk to, which is of course the flaw in a social app!
[4 out of 5 stars]
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