Kirby-Chan's PokePark Wii review

[Kirby-Chan]

This is my first review that I wrote for Turtwig's website. Feel free to leave comments on what you think and criticisms would help me learn to write better reviews.

PokePark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure



Intro

You are play as Pikachu as you explore PokePark where humans built this place and used to live here. Now the PokePark became a place where Pokemon can play and make friends. It is divided into Zones based on the type of terrain. Each of the Zones have a keeper where they manage and watched over other pokemon. The Pokemon can visit other zones through the gates at the Meeting Place. Rumors say there are legends of ruins in the sky and where Mew lived. It is called Sky Pavilion, but no one knows if this place actually exists or how it could be found...

Story: One day, Pikachu, Piplup, Charmander, and Chikorita were playing with each other. All the sudden, Mew appeared and create a hole. Pikachu looked at the hole and Piplup accidentally pushed his friends and Pikachu fell down through the hole. His friends went after him but they got separated in PokePark. Mew tells Pikachu the PokePark is in danger! The Zones were closed and the Pokemon couldn't play the attractions, became less friendly towards each other and left. The Sky Prism pieces are scattered due to the lack of friendship and happiness of all the Pokemon in the PokePark. The Sky Pavilion is a place where the Sky Prism is held and kept its power. If the Sky Pavilion loses all the power from the Sky Prism, it will crash down.

Gameplay: There are a couple of ways you can befriend a Pokemon in order to more likely to win attractions and move on the story. Some Pokemon do better than Pikachu and can play some of them that Pikachu can't. To befriend a Pokemon, you have to play a skill game and win.

• Hide and Seek: Find a Pokemon before time is up. It ranges from ridiculously easy (Sudowoodo hiding in a mine cave seriously?) to moderate depending on how well a pokemon hide.
  
• Quiz: You will be asking 3 questions based on how far you are in the game so far. Sometimes the question is about a Pokemon's feature (What is Pikachu's tail shape like) and which Pokemon would be best in a attraction. If you get an answer wrong, you have to start the quiz over again and the questions change. The quizzes are usually easy if you pay attention to the details from the game.
  
• Chase: One of the most common game you play to befriend a Pokemon. Basically you dash toward them and try to get them. Sometimes they defend themselves by attacking you to slow you down, making the chase somewhat challenging.
  
• Battle: You can use Thunderbolt, Iron tail (learn later on), and dash to K.O a Pokemon before you get knockdown or time ran out. Weakness and immune attacks apply here. Ground Pokemon have no affect on Pikachu's Thunderbolt and water Pokemon are weak against it to name a few examples.

You can play 14 attractions in the game and they all use simple controls to play. Often you move your wiimote by shaking it, the d-pad, or press A/B to play. The attractions are shallow and often you wouldn't go back to play them again unless you want to beat your high score or get the special Pokemon. Some of the attraction are similar with minor adjustments. For example, Pelipper's Circle Circuit and Salamence's Air Ace are almost the same game except you can shoot out projectiles and the controls are better than Pelipper's game. As you unlock attractions, you can play at the arcade which is in the menu anytime without paying for berries. I find that addition didn't add much at all for the gameplay since it didn't add anything new.

There are a lot of activities you can play and the battles are often fun because the Pokemon would get stronger every time you challenge them. However it doesn't last too long because it's pretty simple but it's fun while you play the game. Overall an 7/10 mainly because the variety of games but some minigames that you will play them only one time and never again.

Controls: The controls are pretty easy to do. Push the A button to perform a Thunderbolt and the 1 button to dash. To adjust the camera view, face the direction you want to go and push the B button. I have the most trouble adjusting the camera when you are falling from an obstacle or turning quickly because you can't always control the way you wanted and often you are fighting for the best view. Otherwise the controls work fine for the most part except for the camera issues. 6/10

Graphics/Music: The Pokemon looks really good for and their animations are realistic and cute to watch. The scenery in each Zones looks great and the music fits the mood well whether it's in the beach, the haunted house, or the mine craft. It doesn't have to be fancy to set the mood, but it does well keeping it simple while effective. 9/10

Replayability: The game takes at least 6 hours (depending if you get off story mode and befriend more Pokemon) if you play as a regular gamer. If a child plays, then it could take them at least 9 or 10 hours to finish the game. After you finish the game, you can play all the attraction in the arcade. Unfortunately, that's nothing special as I mention earlier in the review. Since this is the 1 player game, it would be hard to play the attractions for the high score if you have no one to compete beside the computers. The arcade could have a multiplayer option to make the game a little more replayable to compete games with your friends. Another thing you can do is to friend all the Pokemon including the special Pokemon if you are into completing 100%. Once you finish the game, you wouldn't feel like to replay it. There's little content that would make you come back and playing over and over. 3/10

Gameplay:7/10
Controls: 6/10
Graphics & music: 9/10
Replayability: 3/10
Overall: 6.25/10

Conclusion: PokePark Wii is a fun game for younger kids and for people who likes the simple gameplay. The game doesn't take long to beat and there's little replayabilty since you will be playing alone. This isn't worth $50 (In U.S dollars) if you are not a Pokemon fanatic or like the simple gameplay which is like the Hey You Pikachu style. If you have an interest playing the game, I would recommend you rent the game or borrow from someone who has the game since you won't be able to go back and play it again. Even the Pokemon who are cute and charming can't save the game from making the experince longer and more satisfying.