A decade ago, Nintendo dazzled with a smartphone platformer that saw the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto at the helm. But despite early promise, mobile gaming didn’t quite hit expectations for the company. Now, in a surprising move, Nintendo has launched Pictonico, a bizarre and playful microgame app reminiscent of WarioWare.

Each round in Pictonico sees you play 10 quick-fire games that range from the silly to the slightly unsettling. Commands like 'chomp' might prompt you to grab a mouth and make it chew some food, all while pulling faces from your camera roll to personalize the experience. The results can be hilarious and bizarre, as friends and family find themselves in unexpected scenarios.

The twist with Pictonico is that its games use images from your photo library, allowing for customization. You might find yourself making your wife chomp down on a kebab with a disturbingly large mouth or seeing a buff genie version of your 10-year-old pop out when you rub a lamp. The game lets you choose which photos appear, so things don’t get too uncomfortable.

While Pictonico might seem like an odd fit for Nintendo’s current strategy, it’s a fun and charming experience that’s almost perfectly designed for its platform. Despite its strange name and lack of familiar characters, it’s an extremely Nintendo production, with offbeat humor reminiscent of the Tomodachi Life games.

Ultimately, Pictonico is one of those moments where you just have to throw up your hands and admit that Nintendo can be unpredictable. But in a world increasingly dominated by safe bets, Pictonico stands out as a reminder that sometimes weird is wonderful.