Hidden Potential of Pokepark

[Justjack91]

Hey everyone.

So it's been a while that most of us have been in the know about the Japanese game, Pokepark: Pikachu's Great Adventure, and its eventual release internationally.

For those that don't know, you play as Pikachu who has been sucked into this "alternate" world (don't quote me on this exactly) where he meets many other Pokemon for battles, races, and other minigames.

The exploration part of the game is very interesting as you can travel into different environments to meet and compete with several Pokemon.

What I want to ask is why they didn't take one step further with the game.

Sure, you can upgrade Pikachu's skills/attacks as you level up and go through the game, but from a video gamer's perspective, you're only playing as one character in a world of hundreds of other potential characters. What's more, there's a wi-fi connection that is not being utilized as best as it could be.

I posted this because I want this game to both be successful but also receive some real suggestions for the sequel (or a similar game). Here is a solid list of great upgrades to an already interesting concept:

1) An overworld where you could play as more than one Pokemon would be a good start. For those of you that remember Silicon Valley for the N64, this shouldn't be too complicated even with several of the simpler Pokemon. Players choose from a decent list of Pokemon to use as they traverse the overworld to complete various quests/battles/challenges (much like a simpler version of Wow).

2) Players can go online to meet others in the overworld and do tougher quests together. Having trouble dealing with all the Metangs that attack you as you are fighting Groudon? Have a friend or two (or more) help out with dealing with the challenge.

3) Players can also go online to battle against others "melee" style within a ring or a general battlefield. The list of Pokemon for this is still relatively large as you explore the abilities of many Pokemon and make use of them based on their strengths and weaknesses. Sure, you can't really fight with a Metapod, but you can fight a large majority of the main stream Pokemon.

4) Players can level up and learn different moves to utilize for both the offline and online game world. This adds the same twist that the RPG's already have in strategy that could impact a fight with an opponent.

5) Players can also switch Pokemon in and out based on abilities. If you've ever played a "Great Dash" game (where you control up to 9 different characters but switch between them as you travel through levels to tackle obstacles), then you'll know what I'm talking about. Using a Heracross but can't get across a large gap? Switch to Beedrill and travel across the gap and follow up with a Donphan to roll through a field faster.

6) This "switching" ability doesn't have to just be part of the overworld though. Players can switch out Pokemon in a similar fashion as the RPG games with some sort of delay/penalty for switching out of an attack. How this would be done, I would leave the developers to decide, but the concept is not impossible.

And finally...

7) Interaction with the Nintendo DS/i/3DS both with a handheld Pokemon game. With a game connected, you can transfer special items you receive on the Wii game (TM's, Metal Coat, etc.) to the DS. You could also do the same with special Pokemon that you receive for certain challenges (this has already been done with PBR).

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has thought of this list before, so I'm thinking Nintendo may just release a game of this caliber if they believe it will get our attention.

If you believe anything else should be added to the list, please post it.

Other than that, please share your thoughts of these ideas and of Pokepark in general.

[Buizel456]

These are actually... Great ideas that should be added to the game

[LiteTheIronMan]

So... basically you want this game to be more of an online MMO hack-n-slash RPG? Well, I wouldn't object to that. There's definitely a lot more they could've put into this game (and, as you pointed out some time ago, with Rumble) that could make the game much better.

[Amir]

While these are great recommendations, they certainly aren't going to happen. People like us are going to get the game no matter how good or crappy it is anyway. It's actually sad how everything is about making money for little work.

I mean, I got Pokémon Rumble in the first place because I thought it had Wi-Fi play where you could face off against others. Sure, I still say that PR is a decent game, but that's mainly because I'm a Pokémon fan.

I digress, your ideas are lovely and the game would be perfect if they were in!

[Justjack91]

What I see is that most of my ideas have been done to some extent...in separate games and not as effectively.

I like to believe that game companies do look at user posts on forums and see what kind of responses they get from their games. Valve, for example, does this often on their forums and looks to improve games like TF2 as best as possible based on user input.

I doubt Game Freak doesn't have someone looking through a few websites (possibly even this one) every now and then and looking to see what ideas we come up with.

Even if this thread falls in obscurity, at least I posted what everyone else was thinking (to some extent). And I'm not saying that Pokepark is bad. I'm saying it could be better for the sequel or another non-turn based RPG Pokemon game.