Johto Legends
|
Spring Edition
|
|
 |
||
Main
|
|
Top Affliates
|
Hey You Pikachu
Using the included microphone you bark orders to your new Pokemon friend and help it through a variety of fun activities, all of which are timed. In one, you'll help Pikachu help a Bulbasaur cook Pikachu's favorite food: curry and rice. To do so, you'll need to help Pikachu identify the right vegetables, herbs, and spices so that Magnemite can transport them back to the grass-type chef. Blatant product endorsement aside (Pikachu endorses a popular Japanese curry sauce), this exercise is fairly annoying, as getting Pikachu's attention can be difficult at times, and one mistake will result in a foul-tasting soup - a competing brand of curry, perhaps? Perhaps these problems are a result of nonnative Japanese speech, but other activities aren't so frustrating. In one you'll help Pikachu find treasure chests, which can only be opened by commanding Pikachu to dance or strike Ash's famous pose. In other activities, you help Pikachu fish for Tentacools, Magikarps, and other aquatic Pokemon. There are other interesting activities in the game, and it also has some humorous little Easter eggs - utter the word "PlayStation" and Pikachu unleashes a furious thunder attack.
Spending time with Pikachu will open up new areas, activities, and interface options. After a few days of play you'll be rewarded with new camera controls and a new interface to help you get more out of your time with Pikachu. Later on, you'll even be given a backpack that lets you carry items into the field. Tired of hunting for Oddishes? Well, play a little game of catch with Pikachu. Time well spent yields money to spend - for all successes and failures you'll accrue PikaPoints, which can be used in Abra's shop to buy new items, which in turn unlock secrets hidden throughout the various locales and open up new ways to play. Unfortunately, you can't use new interface options on older courses, making going back to previous areas somewhat tiresome and unrewarding. While there's just enough time for one activity during each day of game time, your days with Pikachu aren't limited. Unfortunately, the number of activities is - many of the later activities are merely more difficult versions of previous ones except with new interface options, or they're old activities in exotic new locales.
Pikachu Genki De Chu isn't your typical game. You don't really help Pikachu grow and develop or work up to any kind of objective or goal. Pikachu Genki De Chu is really more of a toy than a game. Sure there's a lot to do, but without a goal or story the novelty wears off quickly. You'll probably have explored all of Genki De Chu's more salient options within the first ten hours of play. After that, all there is to do is accrue PikaPoints and look for secrets.
The earliest of the Nintendo 64 Pokemon releases (in Japan, anyway), Pikachu Genki De Chu is a little bit behind Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Stadium in the graphics department. The usual Nintendo 64 graphical issues abound, and the Pokemon models aren't of the quality of those in Snap and Stadium. Overall, however, the game's colorful visuals are definitely above average, even if they don't push your system to its limits. Genki De Chu isn't particularly notable in the audio department, save for an adorable, wide assortment of Pikachu sound samples.
One of a few games that uses technology to introduce new experiences to gaming, Pikachu Genki De Chu is an entertaining and whimsical plaything, even if it isn't much of a game, per se. Hopefully, some of the interface and goal-orientation issues will be addressed for the US release.
|
||
|
||
Pokémon Games
|
Middle Affliates
|
|
|
||
Pokémon Cheats
|
Topsites
|
|
|
||
|
||
TCG
|
Lower Affliates
|
|
Movies
|
|
|
 
|
||
Walkthroughs
|
|
|
|
||
|
||
Other
|
|
|
|
||
|
||
Webmasters
|
|
|
|
||