Review | Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu: dumbed down, none of the fun bits of Pokemon Go
- The new game is a mash-up of two previous games, but it is aimed at a much younger audience
- It is oversimplified and has nothing to challenge older players
Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu for the Nintendo Switch is a remake of Pokemon Yellow, the classic role-playing game released on the Game Boy in 1998, that the franchise’s legions of loyal fans grew up loving. It features Ash Ketchum (or Satoshi as he’s known in his home country Japan), his fuzzy yellow sidekick, and a host of Pokemons or pocket monsters.
The gameplay is a mishmash of the old (the Pokedex, locations map, gym leaders and mind-boggling dialogue all return from Pokemon Yellow) and the new (the Pokemon catching mechanics is borrowed from Pokemon Go which was published for smartphones in 2016). So with this new release it is clear Nintendo is out to catch younger and new players who are familiar with the augmented reality version.
Like me.
I briefly played another game, Pokemon Black, on the NDS – my first handheld game console – but I never completed it. I did watch the anime but I don’t feel the same emotional attachment to the franchise.
This is precisely why I find Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu so disappointing.
Pokemon Let’s Go is independent from the core entries of the franchise so it starts from zero – you are a 10-year-old trainer who just caught your first Pokemon and embark on a journey through the Kanto region.