PokePark was an interesting game, as I remember before it came out I watched Japanese gameplay trailers online and I begged my parents for it and I eventually received it as a gift. I beat the game, and I beat it again and something occurred to me: PokePark was the shortest game I ever played up to that point. I can only really recommend this game to young children or major Pokemon fans like me.
The premise is that you play as Pikachu exploring what is known as Pokepark, where you can interact with and befriend Pokemon. The main gameplay consists of the player battling, playing tag with and mini-games with these Pokemon that populate the park. This was the biggest selling point for me, as a kid because I really wanted to chat and befriend all of my favorite Pokemon.
These friends you can then play as during what are called "Attractions" which are mini-game sections that are akin to "main quests" in adventure games. You need to befriend certain Pokemon as you can only get the high score in each mini-game using one overpowered Pokemon designed for that one mini-game.
I will admit I had a lot of fun with some of the mini games and playing as my favorite Pokemon (like Salamence and Flygon) is satisfying. You can also upgrade Pikachu, teaching him new moves and powering up old ones so combat becomes easier.
The game looks nice and polished and the music is relaxing. Other than that the game is just cute. It's cute and that's it. The story the player is given is pretty laughably stupid: Pikachu and friends are having fun while suddenly Mew transports them to Pokepark where crystals have gone missing and Pikachu must find them all to save the park... from what?
It is not really clear what the park needs saving from and made even more confusing that these crystals are kept at these attractions. Why don't the Pokemon running the attractions just give Pikachu the crystal instead of having him to play and win? Ugh, it's silly and makes no sense. Why does a game like this even need a story? Just run around and explore kids, have fun!
The game is again, SUPER SHORT you can 100% complete it (High score every attraction and befriend every Pokemon) in less than 4 hours. If running around, talking to Pokemon, playing mini-games and being surrounded by cuteness for 4 hours sounds good to you, I hope you are willing to cough up 20$ on the WiiU eshop.
IMO it's not worth it, but that price is way better than when it was $65 CAN (I think now it is $35 US at GameStop). Pokepark is alright, but not anything special.
