If any game franchise just exudes cuteness, it has to be Pokemon. Cute little animal friends that just want to hang out with you and beat the snot out of any other critters you come across in your travels. The newest Pokemon themed game is PokePark Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure. Pikachu and his friends fall down a hole and into an adventure through a Pokemon theme park. As Pikachu, explore five different zones and challenge Pokemon you meet in order to make friends and restore the park to is former glory. In a mix of exploration and minigames, PokePark makes a fun little title for younger gamers who have comfortable reading skills.

After a cutscene and a brief training, the game starts in the meadow area where you meet various Pokemon and become friends by winning their challenges, such as chasing them in a game of tag, finding them in a game of hide and seek, or by fighting them using Pikachu’s dash or electric attack. Once you have made friends with a Pokemon, they can be used to play the story-line minigames called Attractions.

Attractions are how the story progresses within the game. Each pokemon guarding an attraction will require Pikachu to perform at a certain level before the story will move forward (typically by unlocking some area). Thankfully, Pikachu can recruit friends to help, any eligible friend will attempt the attraction in its stead. Thus, while Pikachu does just fine in the first attraction (a footrace where you shake the controller), it is helpful to make friends with some of the monkey-style Pokemon to succeed in the second attraction which entails jumping off a vine swing. Some attractions can’t even be attempted by Pikachu (such as ones that involve flying or swimming.) Score the minimum value on the attraction and the story moves on, unlocking new areas to explore with new Pokemon to meet and new attractions to attempt.

All this is fine, but what gives the game most of its replayability is meeting friends and then using them to compete in attractions. An attraction may have a couple dozen Pokemon eligible to play. Each Pokemon will have a minimum score to beat that will award a bonus. This is based on the specific type of Pokemon so faster Pokemon have shorter qualifying times. When you earn the bonus, you are rewarded with berries (the currency of the game) which can be used to play games (very cheap) or even improve Pikachu’s abilities (can get costly). Thus, as more friends are gained, there is motivation to return to past attractions to use them to earn even more berries.

On the whole, I was quite impressed at the simplicity and friendliness of the game, it seemed very well designed for younger gamers. However, there are two main caveats. First, the game is full if text. While a very experienced gamer may hunt and peck their way through the game without being able to read, that would be a major exception rather than the norm. Second, the main control scheme is set up to use the controller held sideways so that the d-pad controls how Pikachu moves around. This is not the easiest movement scheme for the youngest of players and is a tad unfortunate. If it weren’t for the reading and control issues, I would recommend this game as great even for preschool kids.

As things stand, the game is a bit too “cutesy-friendly” and easy for most advanced gamers and its large amounts of text and control scheme make it a bit tricky for the very youngest gamers. This results in a somewhat narrow target band of gamers. However, within that zone (early grade school or so), Pokepark Wii is a fun little adventure for casual and younger gamers.

Kid Factor: There is a bit of fighting here and there but nothing violent, E for Everyone pretty much covers things. Be aware of the reading requirement, or (better yet!) sit next to your kid to help out with things while they play. Very young kids will do fine if they can handle a d-pad and may even be able to play by themselves once they’ve made their way into the mid-game and figured out how the menus work.

Tags: Game Reviews