As some may know, I am an avid Pokémon fan, and I had some cash to burn on video games. So, looking around, I decided I would buy Poképark, for no apparent reason, blindly not reading any reviews before-hand. Little did I know, this game would be monotonous and boring to me.
In this game, you play as Pikachu, who has been sent to the Poképark by Mew to…fix it. You have to collect 14 shards to make everything better. However, when you arrive to the park, the leaders have shut down all the amusements, so it’s your job to make everything fun again and open the park to other Pokémon.
The main problem right away is the control. While there is no rush right now, Pikachu is controlled by the Wii Remote on the side, with the D-Pad moving it, jumping with 2, and dashing with 1, while using Thunderbolt with A. The camera will not like you though, following Pikachu at a low angle, and making areas where you must jump up platforms extremely difficult. Pressing B will only centre the camera, and it will never move to help in situations. It just lays there idling away, and only turning when you turn.
Before I get to the gameplay, the graphics are okay. There’s nothing really special looking. It just looks like Pokémon Channel on the Wii, with 193 Pokémon in it, including popular 4th generation Pokémon like Munchlax, Bonsly, Turtwig, and so on. However, the areas look so barren and repetitious that you’ll require to use the on-screen map to navigate around, which is hidden by pressing B and Start (and they never tell you that).
Otherwise, the Pokémon themselves do their stereotypical Anime grunts. They don’t use their RPG cries, but their Anime voice-actors just saying their names. That’s fine, but there’s not really much to say. The music isn’t bad, but it is slightly distracting to the atmosphere.
But the gameplay is as boring as watching a TV that is turned off. You basically run around the areas to talk to Pokémon to become their friends, by playing a Skill Game. I’ve experienced four: a chase game (where you run after the Pokémon and literally bash into it), a hide-and-seek game (where you try to find the hiding Pokémon, sounds hard, but they tell you where it is anyway), an obstacle course (where you jump a series of platforms (which are quite large, and there’s about 3-5 of them) without falling off, and a fighting game (where you either bash into your opponent or use your Thunderbolt). These games are extremely easy, and are repeated in the game probably over 100 times. And there’s not much difference each time you do it.
However, the actual mini-games themselves are okay. I only played two: one where you move the Wii Remote up and down to run a race (ugh…), and another where you have to time your swing to go as far as possible. They have both been okay, but they both last less than 20 seconds. You can play as about 25 different Pokémon, but it’s the same deal every time, just that some can go further or some can run faster. These games are too easy though.
And that’s it. The only thing you have left to do is run around and find berries (which you get plenty from doing mini-games anyway) which are the currency of the game. You spend them on playing the mini-games and upgrading your skills (for the battle skill games).
Poképark is okay, but the main problem comes towards its unintentional target range. Pokémon, while aimed towards kids, has a great depth to adults as well, training their Pokémon to become the ultimate they can be, with EV training and having specific natures to get the best stats. Poképark is severely aimed towards kids around 7 of age, and that is mainly evident in its repetitious gameplay and push-over difficulty. This makes the game something that you might want to get for someone of that age. If you’re over that though, you might as well skip the game, because it will lull you to sleep within an hour of playing.
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