The
Total Recall DUD OF THE MONTH COLLECTION!
HEY YOU PIKACHU
(Nintendo/Game
Freak, December 10, 2000)
Nintendo was
resting on a huge gold mine after those original twin Pokemon games
on the old Black and White Gameboy made a gigantic splash in the North
American market in the late 90's. Nintendo even scored big with their innovative
(yet still very limited) franchise spin-off called Pokemon Snap plus
who could forget the two Pokemon Stadium games as well, all for the
Nintendo 64. It was clear if Nintendo was going release any game for
their N64 system that it would have to be something unique and special. Here
we have 'Hey You Pikachu', a game that is so innovative that the game
even gives you a free microphone kit packed in the box. How cool is that?
With this new microphone you have the ability to really talk and interact
with the popular Pokemon character, Pikachu. Sounds good so far doesn't it?
You play the role of a 10 year old boy who has just been summoned by none
other than Pokemon expert, Professor Oak for training. The Professor gives
you the chance to find your own very own Pikachu creature. If you don't know
what a Pikachu is then it's a cute little yellow mouse type animal with the
ability to use electricity as a defensive attack. To get the Pikachu's attention
you must actually talk to the little yellow guy and hopefully the two of you
will become friends. The main problem here is that the Pikachu creature you
have to talk to here is very stubborn and you won't have very much control
over him (or is it her? I don't know) either. If you don't say the right thing
or you don't it loud enough or the Pikachu just doesn't understand you then
he will ignore you altogether and do his own thing. This happens all too often
and way more than what I would have liked.
If you're a fan of the original Pokemon Role Playing Games then this title
is going to bore you to death. For all the hours that I played this I never
got into a battle with rival trainers and their Pokemon, I can't collect them
all so there are no bagging rights if you find 151 Pokemon, and my Pikachu
here can't gain any levels either. It's like a Pokemon game with the life
sucked out of it!
Although this Pokemon game was released late in 2000, this game doesn't look
too hot any more. The colours are very bland for one thing and the textures
are at least a couple years behind what we have usually seen that year anyway.
The characters are cute and easily recognizable but I was just expecting more
from this title because the game play was a little linear and that usually
means that the designers would have more time to create a better looking game.
For a game that requires you to talk your way through the game, the actual
game itself has a lot of text oppose to digital voices here. Sure you can
hear the Pokemon talk in the game but they just mostly say they're own name
over and over again. Did Nintendo and Gamefreak run into some memory problems
or are they just getting lazy? C'mon, other N64 games like Conker's Bad
Fur Day and Star Fox 64 have tons of voices so you can't blame
it on the hardware. Either way the game suffers for it.
"Bbboorring! BBbrorringg!" What sounds like an innovative idea for
a game turns into an exercise of tedious teaching of a cute yellow rat. I
feel so stupid talking into the mic that comes with this so called game and
if that wasn't bad enough the Pikachu creature doesn't respond 60 to 80 percent
of the time it seems. Add to the fact that the game is really slow paced and
doesn't even look that great (come on, the N64 can do better than this). I
let some other little StarSoldiers play this and they didn't like it either
even though this game is clearly targeted for younger children. Maybe other
kids will like this but I doubt it. Hey You Pikachu feels too much more like
work and less like a challenging and engaging video game. The microphone accessory
was a original concept and all but Nintendo waited far too long to bring this
over to the North American audience because Seaman for the Dreamcast
was actually released over here before this game was and there was far more
that a player could do in Seaman than in Hey You Pikachu. This was the first
and last N64 microphone on the Nintendo 64 and with good reason. Definitely
a weak attempt to milk a popular franchise for all it's worth and because
of that this game should be called F U Pikachu!
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