My Pokemon Ranch (Wii)
Review By Roger Hargreaves – We're always more than happy to defend the batting average of Pokemon spin-offs, which continues to be amongst the highest of any regularly milked series.
They can't all be hits though and this first WiiWare title is as big a waste of time and money as we've ever seen.
More screensaver than game, it seems to have been produced more as branding exercise than a piece of entertainment.
This is little more than a 3D version of Pokemon Box, which hardcore pokefreaks may remember as a sort of console storage system for Pokemon.
For those that don't endure the daily hardship of having nowhere to store their 1,000s of Pokemon from Diamond and Pearl, this has almost no value.
Not, given that your Miis interacting with Mii-fied versions of your Pokemon is a novelty that lasts for seconds.
Interaction is almost too strong a word for what you're actually allowed to do in this latest non-game.
Once you've uploaded some Pokemon from the DS (or been given some free if you don't own any other Pokemon titles), you can observe them play around with your Mii, by giving piggyback rides and begging for food.
You don't actually control the Mii - just watch voyeuristically.
As you add (or get given) more and more Pokemon, the range of features slowly increases along with your ranch size.
Eventually Pokemon will start to put on special parades and you can give them toys like balloons and flags.
You still don't control anything yourself, so it's random chance as to whether a Pokemon chooses to fire itself out of a cannon for your amusement or not.
Graphically the game is awful, with the attempt to portray Pokemon in the same ultra basic style as Miis coming across as cheap and ugly.
The only real benefit to the whole thing is the game occasionally giving you a Pokemon for free, that it knows you haven't got in your pokedex.
Real Pokemon fans will be able to find far more interesting ways to fill their collection than that.
IN SHORT: The first WiiWare Pokemon title is more interactive screensaver than game – and not a very good one.
PROS: Connectivity with the DS is seamless and the chance to fill in your missing pokedex will please some.
CONS: You can't directly interact with your Pokemon or indeed anything else. Ugly, cheap looking graphics.
SCORE: 3/10 Out: Now (Online)