watching paint dry at my pokemon ranch

one more filler game. i’ve had my pokemon ranch (a wiiware title) for a while now, and feel like i’ve experienced pretty much everything the title has to offer. i came in with very low expectations, but got the game anyway since i’m a completist and there’s also the added lure of getting pokemon with unique moves or abilities via special trades within the game. as you probably already know, the “game”, such as it is, is mainly just a way to store pokemon from your diamond and pearl games, although you can watch pokemon and miis interact in pretty minimal and simplistic ways. more than one reviewer has had a similar reaction as myself and nintendolife, who described it as being “a service for storing and obtaining various Pokémon that doubles as a screensaver while you’re playing Diamond/Pearl”. with diamond and pearl having long been made obsolete by newer entries (and the games weren’t among my favorite in the series anyway) the game has less value than before, and the uniqueness of the art style, such as it is, has also been lost due to the similarly underwhelming pokemon rumble series, which also debuted on wiiware and reused the same blocky pokemon models. added to that, the game had offered special event pokemon in japan and an update to make the game compatible with pokemon platinum, features that were never released elsewhere. so out of the box the game already has a lot of drawbacks to it nowadays.

still, it’s mildly entertaining to watch the pokemon and miis wander around and smile at each other. it’s sort of like a virtual aquarium: nothing much really happens, but the effect is somewhat relaxing. i’ve gotten in the habit of firing it up whenever i turn on my wii for some other reason just to see what new pokemon haley has brought to the ranch, and i’ll probably continue to do so in order to eventually get that ever-elusive mew (which is only made available after the ranch has a whopping 999 ‘mon). limited even for what it is (the main bummer being that the game requires you to withdraw pokemon to the same game card they came from), it’s hard to fault the game for being what it is. still, $10 for a screensaver is probably more than most people would be willing to pony up. the contemporary tool, pokemon bank, has the disadvantage of a $5 yearly charge but the advantage of permanent cloud storage across current gen and future gen game saves, for what that’s worth.

watch these my pokemon ranch links dry:
– entry at bulbapedia, with a page with details on hayley’s trades and the list of club look-see members
– an entertaining account of the game from someone with an unusual fondness for screensavers

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playground-level pokemon rumble

although some people may be deep into pokemon rumble u, which was released a few weeks ago, i’m a bit behind and only just recently played through the main mode of the first game in the side series, pokemon rumble on wiiware. unlike thruspace, also on wiiware, which had a demo that was much less satisfying than the actual game, in the case of pokemon rumble the demo tells you pretty much exactly what the full game is like: repetitive and monotonous. the pokemon series has had more than its fair share of mediocre spin-offs, but this one ranks pretty low. you navigate your “toy” pokemon through a series of stages that have the same layouts but with different skins (such as a forest, a cave, a fire stage, a water stage, etc.) and battle waves of other toy pokemon. the toys come with one or two moves and don’t level up, so you’ll be constantly replacing your current main character as you go along. although there is a range of moves that the pokemon may have, mostly influencing the trajectory of their attacks, they don’t make much of a difference and don’t require you to modify your mindless button-mashing strategy much. similarly, some pokemon you pick up may have special abilities, but they aren’t needed since the attack and defense stats dominate; type advantages play a similarly minor role.

not a whole lot more to say about this one. at $15 the game is fairly overpriced for what will only take a few hours to play through. beating the main mode, which features generation I pokemon, unlocks an “advanced” mode that features the generation IV pokemon but otherwise looks like is exactly the same. it’s kind of surprising that the developers felt that this gameplay justified two sequels, one on 3DS and one on the wii u eshop, but in the latter case a game that cashes in, in even a small way, on the huge success of the recent skylanders games is an all too obvious way to rake in some major bucks. this experience has made me highly disinclined to play either of them, but completionist that i am i’m sure i’ll be picking up the 3DS entry eventually.

play with these playground-level pokemon rumble links:
– official site: includes some passwords as well as a mini-game.
– entry at bulbapedia: which includes a more-comprehensive list of passwords and how to earn release tickets
– FAQ at gamefaqs: has info on increasing chances of getting specific pokemon (basically use pokemon with specific abilities/moves to increase the chance of a critical hit and use pokemon with a type advantage).
– review at nintendolife.com
– entry at howlongtobeat.com
– entry at wikipedia

encyclopedia of virtual pets in pokedex 3D pro

one more bit of fluff before i return to slightly more-serious fare. i’d found the free pokedex 3D app on 3DS to be an entertaining diversion, esp. as a complement to the pokemon black and white games, and i thought it would be interesting to try out the “pro” version not because it expands its entries to include all 649 of those little monstas, but because it includes quizzes in a variety of categories as an additional feature. along with the TV series’ “who’s that pokemon” test where you have to name a pokemon based on its silhouette, the game also includes quizzes on pretty much everything pokedex-related you could think of, including evolutions, alternate formes, heights and weights, egg groups, stats, abilities, moves, and cries. identifying cries was one of the more-difficult tasks and has led me to a renewed appreciation of the work that went into them, although being able to match moves to pokemon ended up being the one area that was just too esoteric for me and that i had to resort to looking up to pass. after getting perfect in all the regular quizzes, an additional hard mode is unlocked with additional quizzes. the quizzes were surprisingly fun and addictive, although with obvious limited appeal in terms of both audience and longevity. the app includes all the other features of the original, including AR features, search options, and pretty much all the details you could want to know about the li’l critters. like the original, this functions as a slightly more-portable and attractive reference than a complete bulbapedia wiki page (albeit with less information) and pro players prob. already have all this info memorized anyway, but as a fairly loyal pokemon fan this was a decently worthwhile purchase for me for $5 off, if just to play through the animations of my favorites, although i doubt i would’ve bought it for the full $15. still, for a minimum of a few hours’ entertainment you could do a lot worse, and legions of pokemon fans have probably already fully appreciated this app and justified its creation.

pokedex 3D pro links:
– official site, includes info on unlocking the entries for genesect and meloetta
– additional info at nintendo.com
– review at nintendolife.com
– entry at bulbapedia

pokemon ranger circled

i’ve played a fair number of pokemon spin-offs, but i still have a ways to go. the DS era saw the greatest number of pokemon spin-offs, and pokemon ranger is notable because it spawned two sequels. the game was the fourth pokemon spin-off to appear on the DS (after pokemon dash, trozei, and mystery dungeon), all of which were to tide fans over until the release of the next entry in main series, diamond and pearl.

i knew that the reviews had been lukewarm, but i went in with low expectations and came away reasonably satisfied. the core gameplay mechanic sounds simplistic since it involves drawing circles around pokemon to capture them, but the game explores this basic premise fairly well. you can use different pokemon to assist you, and their types alter the behavior of the capture (e.g. you can use a water pokemon helper to enclose the pokemon you’re trying to capture in a bubble). the gameplay also proves to be less shallow than on first impression. most of the time madly circling a pokemon with your stylus will get you through, but the game certainly isn’t completely mindless: planning out when to use your assists, using their type advantages, executing them, and also planning your circle-drawing strategy based on your target’s movements (sometimes seemingly random and erratic, but oftentimes unique) all play a part in getting through the game.

the game paces itself by gradually introducing new types you can capture as the story progresses, but the story itself is simplistic (about on par with the main series). the gameplay outside of battles is your standard RPG town and dungeon setup, although the game succeeds pretty well at providing a natural, stylus-only interface. in the end, though, the gameplay, while more interesting than i expected, still isn’t quite enough to sustain the entire game and as a result it ends up dragging on a bit too long. there’s a post-game mode to complete your “browser” (this game’s version of a pokedex), but it’s just more of the same so there’s not much motivation to do so.

i can see why pokemon fans would dismiss this game since all the core mechanics of the main series, namely collecting and levelling up pokemon, are missing (in this game you’re continually capturing pokemon because they automatically get released once they’ve assisted you). still, it does provide a nice change of pace and the pokemon character designs are as lovable as ever, and the game features a good cross-section of the critters from all three of the first main games. as a one-off experience i had just about enough patience to see this game through, but even though it sounds like the sequels added more variety in the game mechanics i’m not in much of a hurry to check them out.

circle these pokemon ranger links:
– as usual serebii.net and bulbapedia are the first places you should check out for info on the game. the former has a handy guide to finding all the rarer pokemon, most of which you can’t capture until after you complete the main game.
– info on the post-game special missions as well as the wi-fi downloadable missions (including the manaphy egg mission, which is the only pokemon you can transfer to a game, namely diamond/pearl)
– if you’re wondering what happens after you complete the browser, check out this page
– entry at wikipedia