Pokémon is a series that I have admittedly ignored quite a bit ever since they introduced more Pokémon past the Gold and Silver generation. It’s not something that I am proud of, nor is it something that I wish to continue. Havi...
Pokémon is a series that I have admittedly ignored quite a bit ever since they introduced more Pokémon past the Gold and Silver generation. It’s not something that I am proud of, nor is it something that I wish to continue. Having dabbled my feet in the Platinum pool, I had a little bit of an experience as to what was new to the franchise, and now eagerly await the release of Pokémon Black and White. For the mean time, however, I have been able to have a run through of PokePark Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure. While it’s not what you’d necessarily expect from a Pokémon game, it has both its ups and downs.
Pikachu’s Adventure takes place in the PokePark, a natural habitat for all Pokémon surrounded by “the beauties of nature”. The PokePark is split into separate zones for the different types of Pokémon, with each zone being governed by a Keeper who manages the zone and the attractions within the Zone. You see, the attractions are the way that the Pokémon have fun, and by being friends and having fun, the PokePark flourishes. But, following a decision from the Keepers to close all the zones off, many Pokémon are becoming sad and the mystical Sky Pavilion, held up by the Sky Prism is at risk of falling on the park. The only way for this situation to be averted is to collect the shards of the broken Sky Prism by making friends with other Pokémon, and open up the park again to its former glory. Who must do this task? None other than Pikachu himself, of course.
The legendary Pokémon who resides in the Sky Pavilion, Mew, asks Pikachu to collect the Sky Prisms and return the park to normal by creating as many strong friendships with other Pokémon as he can, by completing attractions and using his skills to wow the Pokémon. The premise of PokePark is pretty sugar coated and is sure to be popular with both children and parents attempting to instil really strong values within their children too.
The first thing I noticed about the PokePark itself was how lush and green the opening scenes are, and in the follow zones that players will unlock, how alive they feel. I quite like this effect in PokePark and it makes for a much more believable atmosphere, despite the relatively shallow premise of the game. Character models for the actual Pokémon encountered are quite well done, although they still seem to be using very low quality models that lack the finer details of certain Pokémon, which is a bit disappointing. I would not be surprised to see it confirmed that this game is re-using assets from Pokémon Battle Revolution, previously released on the Wii.
The player thus controls Pikachu, and must utilise most of his skills in order to recruit Pokémon as “friends” in order to earn currency, which are Berries in this case, and advance further throughout the game. The game is played with the Wii Remote horizontally, and players can aim their Wii Remote at the screen while holding the trigger on the Wii Remote. While this might sound similar to a recently released sci-fi title from Nintendo, it controls horribly. Pikachu controls way too slow for an electric, speedy mouse type Pokémon. The (Mil)tank controls (sorry, I just had to) make it extremely hard to get more precise motions down, and the large 3D world does not go well with the directional pad of the Wii Remote alone. The 1 and 2 buttons are used to control Pikachu’s Dash and Jump moves respectively, and eventually Pikachu’s Iron Tail attack. A is assigned to Thunder Bolt too.
The general idea behind the gameplay is for Pikachu to find Pokémon, speak to them, play a very simple game with them to win their friendship, and then complete one of twelve “Attractions” to advance the story and earn Berries, which can be used to coerce Pokémon to be friends with Pikachu or to simply advance further. These games are pretty simple, with some of them being chase, others being simple battles, and hide and seek closing off the three. The more detailed “Attractions” which are run by certain Pokémon allow players to play as Pokémon that Pikachu has befriended, with some Pokémon having better specialities than other. While most of these Attractions are pretty simple motion controlled games, their only real problem is the problem of repetitiveness. In fact, PokePark is one of the most repetitive games that I’ve ever played. When you consider that you have to play these twelve or so mini-games multiple times to recruit over 190 Pokémon, things can get old very fast. It’s a nice touch that there are multiple zones which mixes up the Pokémon types, but overall it’s very repetitive and samey.
Of course, one of the more interesting ways to make friends with Pokémon is of course, Pokémon battles. During these battles, Pikachu has access to two different moves, along with a third unlockable move. These battles are pretty simple to complete, with each unique Pokémon having unique moves and animations which is a nice touch. Unfortunately, again, due to the tank controls, Pikachu is very hard to manoeuvre and it’s extremely hard to target enemies with Pikachu’s thunder attacks due to the controls and problematic camera angles. Finally, of course, certain Pokémon also allows players to increase the power of Pikachu’s attacks and health too.
Adding to the game’s feel and atmosphere is the rather pre-school level soundtrack. The music and voice work fits perfectly with the theme of the game, featuring some nice and simple but playful tunes throughout the game. The voice work for the Pokémon borderline on annoying at times, but there really isn’t a whole lot more going on in terms of sound presentation in Pikachu’s Adventure. This is probably a good thing.
The game itself is pretty lengthy considering how little content is available in the package, clocking at just about six hours to get through the main “story” with a bit longer needed to befriend every single Pokémon. Also, disappointingly and considering that the game’s mini-games seem perfect for multiple players, there is no support for a second player at all, which is immensely disappointing. There is an Arcade Mode available that allows players to play through the mini-games they enjoyed from the main story mode, but besides that, there’s not a whole reason to return to the park once you’re done. As a plus, players can take photos at any point and copy them to an SD card to post elsewhere, which is another nice touch.
While I seem to have been pretty negative about Pokepark: Pikachu’s Adventure, I don’t really feel that it’s a bad game. It’s a decent adventure title that is bound to please most Pokémon enthusiasts, but will mainly appeal to a younger audience. Still, parents who are willing to get this game for their child will not be making a huge mistake, but it’s pretty difficult to recommend it at the same price tag as, say, Super Mario Galaxy or The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Still, it’s more Pokémon, and for the fans, particularly the younger ones, this is never a bad thing.
A nicely developed world with lush surroundings, but the models that Nintendo continue to use seem to be showing their age.
A very interesting idea that is somewhat of a classic twist on the “Catch them all” moniker, but the repetitiveness of the gameplay really lets it down.
Very simple music and annoying voice work makes this games audio offerings very slim.
While there are heaps of Pokmon to befriend and quite a lengthy campaign filled with repetitive content, theres little reason to return to the park once the journey is done. No multiplayer is a big disappointment too.
Having absolutely no expectations from Pikachus Adventure, I quite enjoyed playing something a little bit more simplistic and laid-back than my usual gaming experience.
From Mario to Zelda, to Splatoon to Donkey Kong. Everything on Nintendo Music.
Definitively done with the Wii U now.
But it's not for everyone yet.