We as gamers have two categories of games we play. The first is games that we love and play over and over again because they are so good. The second category goes to games we just despise because they are poorly made and not fun to play. However, there is a secret category that we use that we don’t like to admit, but we play secretly, the guilty pleasure section. This category has games that we play because it’s a guilty pleasure to play. It could be good or bad or just in the middle. I even have a list of games that I find to be guilty pleasures like Tetris and Pokemon Puzzle League. I decided to add a new game that I haven’t played in years, but had some fun with while playing. This game can only be known as Pokemon Channel. Yeah, I know, I have said in the past that I don’t like Pokemon that much, but it is considered to be a guilty pleasure kind of franchise that a lot of people play and not admit it. While I haven’t played a new Pokemon game in like forever, I have picked up a Pokemon spin-off game once in awhile and this happens to be one of them.
The main plot of the game is that Professor Oak, the coolest professor ever is sending a special TV to trainers or just normal people like me that are meant to be enjoyed by both humans and Pokemon. He decides to send people Beta versions of these televisions as a group of Magnemites bring you the television with an unexpected guest, a Pikachu. He then decides to move in with you, and you two decide to watch the television and test it together and become friends.
The game play is somewhat like having one of those Tamagotchi pets or whatever they are called, but to be more precise, it’s like its spiritual prequel, Hey You! Pikachu. You basically do stuff like watch television channels, play mini-games, and other stuff. There is a good amount of stuff you need to do and meet multiple different Pokemon. There is actually a mini-series of shorts that is called the Pichu brothers. You can even get the Japanese version of it, which is pretty cool in my opinion, since the Japanese Dub is better. As you progress through the game, you and Pikachu will become closer, well as close as you can get with a video game character.
The graphics are as good as the other Pokemon games on the Gamecube. I’m not saying that they are bad or anything, but I will explain later in the review. The music is very well done in my opinion. It isn’t fully orchestrated stuff like Final Fantasy 6, but it’s a very calming soundtrack, which fits this game, since it’s more of a sit-down-and-calm-down kind of game. It is nice that they have more Pokemon in this game since in games like Hey You! Pikachu and Pokemon Snap, they only have a limited amount of Pokemon and it just seemed small.
However, there are a few reasons why this game did get harsh reviews and bad criticism. For one thing, a lot of people say that the game is boring, and I have to admit, when I played this game, I didn’t play it as long as other games like God of War 2 or Super Mario Galaxy. I only play this game when I need to chill or just kill some time. Like I said, the graphics aren’t bad, but they don’t do the Gamecube justice. I mean, if you look at games like Starfox Adventure or Resident Evil 4, the graphics on those games are amazing. The game also gets tediously repetitious. It seems like they can give you possibilities like battling Pokemon or making friends with them like inviting them over and such would be pretty interesting, but all you do is mainly watch TV, go around answering questions, and other simple stuff. Though those are just my ideas.
Overall, it’s an okay/somewhat bad game by today’s standards, but I find it a fun little title. Definitely worth about 5 to 10 dollars or maybe less. You can also get this as a WiiWare thing for 500 points. Like I said, it’s a guilty pleasure for me to play this game, and I am honestly excited about this next spin-off called Pokepark that is coming out this summer.
This game gets a 6.9 out of 10
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