DS Review: Pokemon Dash

I'm going to admit something here: Despite my age, I never got into the Pokemon craze when it was big. My siblings did, but I guess I was a year or two too late to miss the boat or something. I was never able to understand the appeal, try as I might.

Even so, time and time again, I found myself guilty of "trying out" their video games. Just to see what they're like, I'd justify it. They weren't entirely bad - nothing as skull-numbingly boring as the show, or worse still, the movie.

So as you can imagine, I was a little skeptical in trying out this one. But in a pleasant act of serendipity, I was surprised to find that this game really isn't entirely all that bad!

No knowledge of Pokemon is needed to play this game. (Which is definitely a plus, as I probably would've been doomed otherwise.) All you need to know is how to follow a map. Easy enough, yes? The premise of the game is that you, along with about 5 other Pokemon each race, go hurdling through different race courses, collecting pokeballs. Whoever collects them all in the correct order first is the winner. Pretty simple stuff. It's just a cute little racing game.

Different terrain conditions affect your speed in a fairly realistic way. For example, you may be zooming along the paved roads, but when it comes to running across a desert? This slows you down considerably (unless you get a power up). You drown in the ocean and in swamps, you get hurt if you fall down on ice, etc. I actually like this concept VERY much. It's overlooked in many games, and they tend to defy physics. Not this one!

When running through the maps, you may find the overwhelming urge to shove your fellow Pokemon down and get them out of the way. (C'mon, you know you want to!) Go ahead. It lets you. Not very good sportsmanship, sure, but it happens in real life too. You're not penalized for it in this game, though.

The one thing I didn't care for too much in this game was the dependence on maps. Oh, sure, yes - this is a valuable life skill that kids should definitely know how to do. But perhaps it would be a little better if the crucial items, such as balloons were listed accurately on the maps. Half the time, I'd run to where one was listed on the map - and there was nothing there! Therefore wasting my time and usually costing me first place.

The music and sound effects of the game are pretty typical of any Pokemon game. Not terrible, but if you try and play this game for hours, you might do better to turn the sound down, as the constant cries of "PIKA PIKA!" are bound to drive you nuts sooner or later. (I went to bed that night with the annoying little Pikachu's voice still ringing in my head.)

The English for the dialogue in the game is pretty good. There were a couple of "Engrish"-type mistakes that I noticed, but that's okay. They made me giggle. I won't judge too harshly because they amused me so much.

There were a couple of things in the game that made me sit back a little and go "What?" about. One of them being, when you first start up the game and it comes to the opening screen, your little Pikachu will come running up to you. It appears that there are no buttons with which to start this game, but - what's this? Pikachu's pointing to his cheek. ("What's that, Pika? Timmy's fallen down the well?") You'll find that apparently, his blushing red cheeks double as buttons that bring up the menu. Why is this? I couldn't rightly tell you, because I have NO idea. Seems a little strange, doesn't it? Also, when you finish a level of races, when your Pikachu is either up on the stand holding his new trophy or if he's sulking because he didn't get one, you can pull on his various body parts and stretch him like silly putty. Oooooookay then...

Upon finishing all the levels in the Grand Prix (which took me approximately 3 hours - including pauses I took to attend to my internet affairs), it rolls the credits and appears to be game over. What? That's it? Seriously?? But no, when you come back to the menu screen, it has unlocked "Hard GP" and "Special". There's still one more button that has a question mark over it that's yet to be unlocked. (I haven't gotten that far yet.)

The game isn't exceptionally hard (which does make it kid-friendly), but it also poses just enough of a challenge to keep you coming back without pissing you off. It seems more like a game you'd play during a long drive or flight just to pass the time than to get seriously into, but it does work nicely as a time-killer. I will say that, even on the regular Grand Prix mode, it took me several tries of playing the Red Cup all the way through just to get a passing score on it. I guess that makes up for the other levels all being so simple.

The way the game is designed, I think that, given when the game was released, the point of the game was more of the novelty of using the stylus as a tool than creating a really intricate, involved game. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. If you have a little one who's just gotten a DS, this would actually probably be a really fun game for them! Just make sure you thoroughly clean your touch screen and your stylus of any dirt or dust first, or else you'll probably scratch up your screen.

Overall, the game was quite a bit better than I expected, I have to admit! (Although, I couldn't quite stop imagining Pikachu as being Ling-Ling from Drawn Together the whole time I was playing it.) I give this game 6 1/2 Pikachus.... Give or take away another half depending on whether you're actually a Pokemon fan or not.