PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure

The Good
A great deal of the game is visually appealing. The graphics in the game are quite good, with a fair amount of colour variety, textures, lighting, shadows and scenery. The 3D Pokémon are well-rendered and faithful to their anime look and the way they move while standing still makes it look like they are very lively and active with fitting voices to match.

Gameplay is easy to get a grip, so that you really don't need the tutorial in the starting part. For convenience, the camera and Pikachu can rotate at 180 degrees for easy backtracking. The minimap is positioned in just the right spot, serving for simple navigation. Thankfully you can't fall off the edges of cliffs. It's good that there's no stamina metre, allowing Pikachu to dash and jump as much as he wants. The mini-games included with the main adventure seem to fit well and help to progress the story in a fun sort of way.

The Bad
This game tends to have some undesired slowdowns, not in the gameplay, but in some of the elements. The rate at which the dialogue appears in the textbox is so slow, with irritating noises as it appears. Could they not make the dialogue show instantly or at least be able to skip it? And every time the player has an encounter, the screen fades to black and then the scene fades in. They couldn't even utilise the camera to zoom in on Pikachu and the encounter for a more dramatic effect. Many other 3D games at the time didn't have those fade outs. All these features don't just slow the game's pace, but spoil the presentation.

Of all the graphics in the game, the font types for text are pretty inconsistent, sometimes being sans-serif and other times being serif. That Western Cowboy font really doesn't fit. The music in the game is mellow, samey, unimaginative and fails to catch the mood of the scenes. There were better music tracks in the main Pokémon series.

The one and only hitch in the gameplay is that this game only caters for the Wii Remote. Making the game compatible with a gamepad would have made playing the game more player-friendly. It doesn't help that you have to position your fingers at the D-pad on top of the remote and the two buttons on the bottom. Maintaining that pose for hours, makes the long adventure seem like a tiring journey with aching wrists.

The Bottom Line
Some of the younger Pokémon fans will probably love this entry in the spin-offs, while some older players would feel more intrigued if there were higher difficulty settings for the mini-games and more of them. Despite this game being intended as a fun 3D adventure, there are way too many design flaws to make it a smooth and enjoyable experience, especially using the Wii Remote from start to finish. The theme of friendship with the Pokémon does give an incentive to play this title, but all existing flaws are off-putting. Generously put, a mediocre game without any lasting replayability. It's a relief you won't find another Pokémon quite like this.