A look at My Pokemon Ranch

[thunderhero4]

Hello, and welcome to my interview review (dangit, did it again >:( ) on the WiiWare title, My Pokemon Ranch. I will be using the same format as my last review (Bully: Scholarship Edition) and use lots of pics and stuff to help you understand.



Name: My Pokemon Ranch
Platform: Wii (WiiWare)
Genre: Simulation? This game's genre is hard to determine. Ill go with Alternative.
Developer: Ambrella
Publisher: Nintendo
ESRB: E
Retail: 1000 Wii Points ($10.00)
Also On: N/A
Input: Wii Remote, Nunchuck (optional)
Release Date: June 9th, 2008

Ok, let me get to the point, this game isnt so much a "game" as the other titles in the Pokemon series. Now that that's out of the way, review time.

Story

This game has absolutely no story. Not even in the slightest bit. But I can tell you whats going on: A girl named Hayley built a ranch and put 6 pokemon in it. She invites you to come help at her with the ranch. She explains how everything in that world has been "Mii-tized" and everythng will look Chibi, and then you are free to mess around with your ranch how you please. There is more to it, but thats the basic idea.


Hayley, the game's guide and owner of the ranch

There is no story, 1/5

Gameplay

The game's gameplay is where it's going to have to shine if it has no story. Fortunetely, it does in its own way. At first, you are given 6 options of things to do on the main screen. You are only allowed to view one pokemon at a time, and one Mii at a time. Oh yeah, and when you first play, you are asked to select a Mii to represent you on the ranch. Then you may bring up to 4 more Miis of your choice.


You are required to use one of your Miis in the game

Your Ranch starts with 6 pokemon selected by Hayley. (they may be random for each person, I dont know, I havent seen another person's ranch yet) I got Piplup, Pikachu, Arcanine, Lumineon, Quilava, and Staravia, so check if you get different ones. Every day, Hayley will ask you a question and bring a new pokemon to the ranch in correspondance to that question. She asks if it's ok if she brings a *insert adjective* pokemon to the ranch. Say yes, and you will get a sillouette of the next pokemon she will bring the next day. This is how you play this game without Diamond or Pearl. It doesnt make it any less fun to not have either of them or a DS. Also, you cannot transfer Pokemon Hayley took to the Ranch to your D/P game card.

Ok, so heres the list of things to do from the start:

Wii Menu: Takes you back to the Wii Menu. Do this to have Hayley ask you the question and show the Sillouette.

Connect to DS: Connect your Wii to your DS and transfer Pokemon from your D/P game card. There are a ton of places where the game will warn you that you CANNOT transfer the pokemon back to a different D/P game, if your data for either My Pokemon Ranch or your D/P game is erased, your pokemon are stuck where they are or erased from where they were. They really want your pokemon to be safe from deletion. Also, it does not copy the pokemon, it actually moves them to the game. So you must transfer them back to the DS to use them there.

BBS: Shows the pokemon wanted (*explained further in the review) and the ranch info (# of pokemon, items, Miis, and level. **Which will also be explained later on)

Options: There are 3 options to change: Miis in the ranch, turning on/off the ability for others to come into your ranch via Wi-Fi, and the ability to turn on/off a guest, which is a random pokemon that will come in after certain things have happened.

Help: Explains everything I'm explaining right now.

Free Mode: (*lvl 2 ranch required*) Allows you to look and scroll through your entire ranch to see everything. Very much like the Mii channel here, you hold B to move around, + to zoom, - to zoom out, and A+B to grab a Mii, Pokemon, or Toy (***will be explained).

Deposit Details: Tells how many pokemon Hayley, you, or a friend from Wi-Fi owns in the garden. You can also access a Pokemon Parade (same as Mii parade) or check your "favorite" pokemon (*level 3 ranch required* for favorites)

Album: Shows the pictures you took. You may post them to the message board, put them on an SD card, lock them from getting deleted, ect. You may hold up to 20 pictures from the start.

Take Picture: Snaps a picture right when you push the icon of it. The picture then goes to the album.

Look This Way: Makes all living things that are awake focus their attention on you. Miis (Hayley include) will sometimes even pose when you do this, for this makes taking pictures ALOT easier.

**Growing up the level of your ranch is as easy as getting 7 pokemon for level 2 (lasting a day, or transfering it). Every time your ranch goes up a level, it expands. This means you are able to hold more pokemon, miis, items, and the ranh gets about a 1/4th bigger.

*Growing up a level also makes Hayley have a "wanted list" (im guessing only if you have D/P). She gets a list of 3 pokemon she wants you to transfer from your game. Getting these 3 gives you something nice (so says the game) , but I have never done it, so I can't tell you what that is. She also gives you details on how to obtain the pokemon she wants in D/P.

***Another daily thing that happen is a toy! One appears in the ranch a day. Your pokemon can play with these items to help them enjoy themselves, much to Nintendog's toy system. My first toy was a burst ball (a ball that exploded when a pokemon touches it, sending all nearby ones flying away) so you may have a different one.


Pokemon have expressions almost identical to the Miis from the Mii Channel

This is about it when it comes to gameplay, 3/5

Personalization and Fun Extras

This pretty much thrives on personalization. Each ranch will have different pokemon, and you may choose which pokemon appear on the ranch. Thats about it, however...

3.5/5

Graphics

This game was designed to not take up that much memory on the Wii (123 blocks for the channel, 28 for the file), and therefore, the graphics arent all that great. The pokemon are all blocky and chibi looking. And your miis look just about the same as they do in the Mii Channel, save for ranch type clothing. Its not impressive to look at, and it could have been better for the memory it took up, so I give it a...

2/5


All the pokemon look so blocky and un-interesting!

Sound

The music itself is very nicely made. I like it, especially the night-time BGM. It's too bad the sound FX are terrible. Nothing really sounds like it's in the right place. You hear a pop when there is an explosion, and there isnt any noise when pokemon interact with eachother or the Miis. The crys of the pokemon arent even the real ones from the game! They're just sped up, lighter versions of the origionals.

This is bad, it gets a 2/5

Controls

There really isnt a way to explain this one. Ill just say that it's the same as the Mii channel's controls.

You may grab a nunchuck to help control the camera, but otherwise there really isn't a way, and that can get annoying.

2/5

Multiplayer

Multiplayer in this game isn't true multiplayer. All that happens is if you have someone on your wii contacts list  with the game, he/she will randomly come to you and invite you to his/her ranch! You can then be there until you have seen pretty much the same thing as yours. No trading, just that. You dont even invite people yourself! You just randomly get to go to it.

1/5

Overall

This game isn't very good. It has terrible sound, terrible graphics, not many features, and mediocre controls. The customization isn't as high as you might think, and feels like it should have been 500 points. But alas, it did make me get out my copy of Pearl again, and it will change every day, so it does have some sort of replayability. Unfortunetely, not that much, for there is nothing to do in it until the next day. Plus, there is no true multiplayer even when it says there is

Game gets an overall 3/10 Bad

You may like it if you are very young and enjoy watching your pokemon do boring and random things with your other pokemon or miis, or just have an extra 1000 Wii Points and need something you want to see constantly change.

Thank you for reading, I also apologize for the lack of pictures that truly help explain the game, there wasnt much to choose from.

[THEBIRD]

If you ask me, from what I've read from your review, this game is just a way to get plenty of Pokemon for your DS game version. I'd buy it if I wanted more Pokemon for my game, but I don't care about Pokemon.

Anyway, glad to see a harsh review, some people tend to go easy on the games. Especially because once you say you hate it, you can't look at the game the same way again.

[thunderhero4]

If you ask me, from what I've read from your review, this game is just a way to get plenty of Pokemon for your DS game version. I'd buy it if I wanted more Pokemon for my game, but I don't care about Pokemon.

Anyway, glad to see a harsh review, some people tend to go easy on the games. Especially because once you say you hate it, you can't look at the game the same way again.

You cant take Hayley's pokemon and transfer them to your DS, onlystore your own, and withdraw your own... its not exactly a good idea, couldve been better...

And thanks! ;D I review harsh if the game deserves it!

[Tupin]

If you ask me, from what I've read from your review, this game is just a way to get plenty of Pokemon for your DS game version. I'd buy it if I wanted more Pokemon for my game, but I don't care about Pokemon.

Anyway, glad to see a harsh review, some people tend to go easy on the games. Especially because once you say you hate it, you can't look at the game the same way again.

You cant take Hayley's pokemon and transfer them to your DS, onlystore your own, and withdraw your own... its not exactly a good idea, couldve been better...

And thanks! ;D I review harsh if the game deserves it!

Wow.

What's the point of her giving it to you then? Watch her bring a shiny one day.  :D

[thunderhero4]

If you ask me, from what I've read from your review, this game is just a way to get plenty of Pokemon for your DS game version. I'd buy it if I wanted more Pokemon for my game, but I don't care about Pokemon.

Anyway, glad to see a harsh review, some people tend to go easy on the games. Especially because once you say you hate it, you can't look at the game the same way again.

You cant take Hayley's pokemon and transfer them to your DS, onlystore your own, and withdraw your own... its not exactly a good idea, couldve been better...

And thanks! ;D I review harsh if the game deserves it!

Wow.

What's the point of her giving it to you then? Watch her bring a shiny one day.  :D

To make it "worth" buying the game for people who dont have D/P or a DS... :|

[Tupin]

If you ask me, from what I've read from your review, this game is just a way to get plenty of Pokemon for your DS game version. I'd buy it if I wanted more Pokemon for my game, but I don't care about Pokemon.

Anyway, glad to see a harsh review, some people tend to go easy on the games. Especially because once you say you hate it, you can't look at the game the same way again.

You cant take Hayley's pokemon and transfer them to your DS, onlystore your own, and withdraw your own... its not exactly a good idea, couldve been better...

And thanks! ;D I review harsh if the game deserves it!

Wow.

What's the point of her giving it to you then? Watch her bring a shiny one day.  :D

To make it "worth" buying the game for people who dont have D/P or a DS... :|

I already knew not to buy the game, even without D/P.

I'll just wait for EB or get that platformer where you play as a baby.

[thunderhero4]

If you ask me, from what I've read from your review, this game is just a way to get plenty of Pokemon for your DS game version. I'd buy it if I wanted more Pokemon for my game, but I don't care about Pokemon.

Anyway, glad to see a harsh review, some people tend to go easy on the games. Especially because once you say you hate it, you can't look at the game the same way again.

You cant take Hayley's pokemon and transfer them to your DS, onlystore your own, and withdraw your own... its not exactly a good idea, couldve been better...

And thanks! ;D I review harsh if the game deserves it!

Wow.

What's the point of her giving it to you then? Watch her bring a shiny one day.  :D

To make it "worth" buying the game for people who dont have D/P or a DS... :|

I already knew not to buy the game, even without D/P.

I'll just wait for EB or get that platformer where you play as a baby.

When it comes to WiiWare, all I have is Dr. Mario and Pokemon ranch. The only one im really looking forward to now is Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People...

[Tupin]

If you ask me, from what I've read from your review, this game is just a way to get plenty of Pokemon for your DS game version. I'd buy it if I wanted more Pokemon for my game, but I don't care about Pokemon.

Anyway, glad to see a harsh review, some people tend to go easy on the games. Especially because once you say you hate it, you can't look at the game the same way again.

You cant take Hayley's pokemon and transfer them to your DS, onlystore your own, and withdraw your own... its not exactly a good idea, couldve been better...

And thanks! ;D I review harsh if the game deserves it!

Wow.

What's the point of her giving it to you then? Watch her bring a shiny one day.  :D

To make it "worth" buying the game for people who dont have D/P or a DS... :|

I already knew not to buy the game, even without D/P.

I'll just wait for EB or get that platformer where you play as a baby.

When it comes to WiiWare, all I have is Dr. Mario and Pokemon ranch. The only one im really looking forward to now is Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People...

You should look up World of Goo, it looks pretty fun and co-op is Wii exclusive.

[The_Waddle_Dee_Knight]

Nice review! I agree with you for the most part, especially the sounds. The music did sound nice (almost like I've heard it before in another pokemon game...?) but sound effects are pretty... Uhh... Dull. :P The pokemon cries in this game are all altered like, which actually makes them a bit worse... But it gets me thinking, what if you sent a chatot with your voice recorded as it's cry? I dought the creators would go that far to add a recorded voice in the game but... :o

Anyways, like I said, nice review!

[thunderhero4]

Nice review! I agree with you for the most part, especially the sounds. The music did sound nice (almost like I've heard it before in another pokemon game...?) but sound effects are pretty... Uhh... Dull. :P The pokemon cries in this game are all altered like, which actually makes them a bit worse... But it gets me thinking, what if you sent a chatot with your voice recorded as it's cry? I dought the creators would go that far to add a recorded voice in the game but... :o

Anyways, like I said, nice review!

Thank you very much. And ive never done that! :O

[DededeCloneChris]

If you ask me, from what I've read from your review, this game is just a way to get plenty of Pokemon for your DS game version. I'd buy it if I wanted more Pokemon for my game, but I don't care about Pokemon.

Anyway, glad to see a harsh review, some people tend to go easy on the games. Especially because once you say you hate it, you can't look at the game the same way again.

You cant take Hayley's pokemon and transfer them to your DS, onlystore your own, and withdraw your own... its not exactly a good idea, couldve been better...

And thanks! ;D I review harsh if the game deserves it!

Wow.

What's the point of her giving it to you then? Watch her bring a shiny one day.  :D

To make it "worth" buying the game for people who dont have D/P or a DS... :|

I already knew not to buy the game, even without D/P.

I'll just wait for EB or get that platformer where you play as a baby.

When it comes to WiiWare, all I have is Dr. Mario and Pokemon ranch. The only one im really looking forward to now is Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People...

...Are you attractive?

[thunderhero4]

If you ask me, from what I've read from your review, this game is just a way to get plenty of Pokemon for your DS game version. I'd buy it if I wanted more Pokemon for my game, but I don't care about Pokemon.

Anyway, glad to see a harsh review, some people tend to go easy on the games. Especially because once you say you hate it, you can't look at the game the same way again.

You cant take Hayley's pokemon and transfer them to your DS, onlystore your own, and withdraw your own... its not exactly a good idea, couldve been better...

And thanks! ;D I review harsh if the game deserves it!

Wow.

What's the point of her giving it to you then? Watch her bring a shiny one day.  :D

To make it "worth" buying the game for people who dont have D/P or a DS... :|

I already knew not to buy the game, even without D/P.

I'll just wait for EB or get that platformer where you play as a baby.

When it comes to WiiWare, all I have is Dr. Mario and Pokemon ranch. The only one im really looking forward to now is Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People...

...Are you attractive?

Yes, very :P

[Daft Pink]

K thanks thunder, you saved me from spending Wii Points on this. I think I'll get FFCC: My Life as a King and Defend your Castle.

[thunderhero4]

K thanks thunder, you saved me from spending Wii Points on this. I think I'll get FFCC: My Life as a King and Defend your Castle.

No prob. I would review those, but I've never played em :)

I think I'll do another review...but what should it be? A game not many people review... EXCITE TRUCK! That'll be next

[guido123]

if you are going to get defend your castle you got to be fast with the wii remote and you have to be smart to where you put youre people