We've always equated PictoChat with the banana peel in Mario Kart DS. It might be better than nothing, but we were really hoping for something a little more useful when we opened up that item box. Despite its polished interface and availability with every Nintendo DS system, hardly anyone uses PictoChat regularly. This can be attributed to the application's limited functionality and lack of online support. Unless you're sending phallic doodles to a nearby friend, there's really no reason for using the communication utility.

Thankfully, there are several homebrew projects that better realize the DS' potential as an instant messenger or a canvas for digital artists. Pictoblog is another application that extends the system's capabilities, enabling users to sketch something out on the handheld's touchscreen, and upload the picture to a post on their blog. Pictoblog works with a number of CMSs like WordPress, Movable Type, and many others.

Developer 0xtob has set up a test blog for users to experiment with, but it probably won't be long before the site is flooded with crude illustrations of the male anatomy.