Genre: Video Game
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
Retail Price: $10
Availability: Nintendo Wii (Wiiware)
I think the initial thing to note about this release is that it isn’t really a game. Pokemon Ranch is a glorified storage container to hold your Pokemon if you are running out of room in any of your DS games. There are no gaming elements to this release with the exception of being able to pick up your Pokemon and drop them. The only tasks you are given in the game are completely optional, and require you to find a Pokemon you have yet to see in your Diamond or Pearl game.
That isn’t to say that this is a complete waste of time and money, but only people that are really into the Pokemon series should bother picking this up. The casual gamer needs to steer clear of this release as it really doesn’t offer you a whole lot of options. The real meat of the title comes in the game’s capability to store 1500 Pokemon, and the special Pokemon you can get by storing a certain amount.
The game also encourages and in some cases forces you to stretch out your experience with it. On the first day you get an introduction to the ranch and a description of what you can do. The thing is, you can only store twenty Pokemon on the ranch. If you do put a bunch of Pokemon in there, when you leave, Hayley will tell you that tomorrow the ranch will be upgraded and you will be able to store more. The next day you repeat the same process as you can now store fifty Pokemon, but you need to have that many in order to upgrade the ranch again.
Besides the daily upgrade as you store more Pokemon, Hayley will also
give you challenges that involve you catching a Pokemon you haven’t seen yet in your Diamond or Pearl game. She will show you the shadow of the Pokemon and tell you where and when to find them in your game. Then if you manage to catch one and deposit it into your ranch, you will be given a new challenge. It’s an interesting approach to get you to go out and complete your Pokedex.
There are also other incentives for catching the challenge Pokemon. Each day you come to the ranch, Hayley will bring in one of her own Pokemon that you may be able to trade her for, which may have special moves that are otherwise hard to acquire. You can trade her for one of the challenge Pokemon you retrieved and deposited in the ranch. This is a fun addition to the game if you are attempting to catch everything and are really into the competitive elements of the game.
The game’s main attraction is your ability to acquire Mew and transfer him into your copy of Diamond or Pearl. The catch is that you have to deposit 999 Pokemon into the ranch before you are able to trade for him. Apparently I still have a lot of Pokemon to catch, as I quickly made my way up to about four hundred, then realized that I had a long way to go.
Graphically, the game is nothing special as it incorporates your Mii and puts a Mii like graphical overlay onto your deposited Pokemon. If you enjoy looking at low res graphical versions of your favorite Pokemon, well you’re in luck, otherwise you probably won’t enjoy much of what this have has to offer visually. It was an interesting attempt to create a unique style, but overall it just falls flat.
The game does have a decent amount to offer, but only for a small group of people. Most people probably don’t have nearly enough Pokemon to need this storage container, and the exclusive Pokemon with the exception of Mew aren’t really all that impressive. If you are a die hard Pokemon fan you might want to pick this up, but otherwise your ten dollars can easily be spent elsewhere.
