Sprung has some pretty humorous writing, so for $10 CN, that certainly sounds like a decent price.
Poor Ping Pals... half of the reviews raped it simply because Pictochat is already built into the DS... but Nintendo didn't announce they were going to do that until fairly close to the DS's release date, so WayForward and THQ were stuck with the idea of either giving up their existing development, or pushing it out the door and hoping for any sales they can get. But you're left with so many people yelling, "OMG, LIKE, HOW STUPID! PICTOCHAT'S ALREADY THERE!!!"
Not saying what I saw of Ping Pals was perfect by any means, but it was meant to compete, then suddenly the competition got built in to every DS manufactured. Maybe they should've held it back, and figured out the WiFi component ahead of everyone else, releasing the first chat program to let you take your DS online and talk to others... That might've really helped.