Longtime Pokemon fans have come to accept that they’ll always get great Pokemon role-playing games on Nintendo portable systems. They’ve also come to accept that they’ll only get mediocre to good games on Nintendo home consoles (with the exception of the wonderful Pokemon Snap for Nintendo 64).

Pokepark 2: Wonders Beyond does nothing to change the situation. It’s heavy on charm and light on substance. Casual fans, younger gamers, and extreme Pokemon fanatics will enjoy the game. Those looking for the deceptive depth (EV training is cool) and great design of the handheld RPGs will find the game a cute distraction and nothing more.

Story

The game starts off innocently, with Pikachu and Piplup enjoying a leisurely vacation from the rigors of battling. The two notice several of their Pokemon companions being lured to a place called Wish Park. On the surface, it sounds like a brilliant idea — an amusement park with free cake! Against Pikachu’s judgement, the two check things out and discover that…wait for it… the cake is a lie!

You see, the cake is being used to control innocent Pokemon and make them minions. Pikachu and Piplup try to escape, presumably to bring a frickin’ Snorlax army to whomp the baddies, but the latter gets left behind. Pikachu teams with the latest Pokemon starters–Oshawott, Snivy, and Tepig–to save their fellow Pokemon from the evil proprietors of Wish Park.

That part of the story is mildly sinister for a Pokemon game. Clearly it’s a Nintendo allegory denouncing communism and socialism. More seriously, the game takes a surprising twist towards the end when it’s revealed that Pikachu, despite his small stature and comparatively modest powers, is destined to save the world. Legendary Pokemon Reshiram and Zekrom are involved, and I’m pretty sure Pikachu is anointed the Pokemon messiah. This makes him your own Pokemon Jesus (think Depeche Mode).

Gameplay

Like its predecessor, the main game mechanic is making friends with other Pokemon. The heroes encounter a few hundred Pokemon and becoming friends with them is the only way to advance to the later stages. A large portion of the game consists of talking to Pokemon and beating them in a short gameplay segment. It can be cute and fun at first, but it gets old after a few dozen times, depending on your attention span. Few gamers will find the wash-lather-and-repeat gameplay all that enjoyable after the 147th time.

Making friends and influencing other Pokemon usually involves a chase sequence or a short battle. Chases are totally straightforward: you run around and chase your opponent while avoiding obstacles. Battles are like a light version of the ones found in the handheld games, with different Pokemon types determining your strategies. Obviously limiting battles to one-on-one and limiting the selection of powers doesn’t make battling as complex as it is in the handheld games, but it’s certainly more involved than chasing.

Other friendship methods involve answering trivia questions, getting a desired item for the prospective friend, or snapping an in-game picture of a certain location. The second and third options amount to simple fetch quests. All told, there isn’t a lot of variety when it comes to making Pokemon friends. Quests become stale after doing the same task, with slight variations, dozens and dozens of times.

It would have been nice if there were more mini-games. These Wish Park attractions are found in story mode and can also be played by up to four players in multiplayer mode. There’s a simple carnival shooting game where you have to shoot the proper ingredient for a cake. There’s a Dance Dance Revolution-like game where you have to mimic the moves of a dancing Pokemon. There’s even a game that’s similar to Fruit Ninja, but instead of slicing melons, you just bash them. For one player, there aren’t enough mini-games to truly mix things up. For multiplayer sessions, it’s like a really limited version of Mario Party.

Visuals

While the graphics aren’t technically impressive, as is the case with many Wii games, they’re definitely charming. The environments and color palette are bright and cheerful. The art direction and vivid colors give Pokepark 2 a vibe that makes you smile… and forget about why you smiled seconds later. The different areas of Wish Park aren’t the least bit memorable, but they add to the happy feel of the game.

The real visual stars are, of course, the hundreds of Pokemon in the game. As someone that has played more than 1,000 hours of various Pokemon games on Nintendo handheld systems, it was great to see the adorable monsters on a big screen and in much richer detail than their handheld versions. While all 649 Pokemon aren’t in the game, you’re sure to see some of your favorites and mark out at their high-res renderings.

Sound

The game’s sound design is similar to its graphics design — it’s cute and colorful, while far from the most technically impressive in the world. The musical compositions add to the happy vibe, but won’t make you rush out to buy the soundtrack. It’s cute filler that’s mostly forgettable.

The charm comes from the Pokemon language used by the cute critters — it’s just like the cartoon! The handheld Pokemon games mostly use primitive sounds, while the animated series has them using a made-up language that consists of the syllables found in their name (though there are exceptions, like the talking Mewtwo and constantly grunting Starmie). It’s cool to hear “proper” Pokemon language in a game… though for some reason people look at you funny when you start talking like a Pokemon in real life.

Bottom Line

Pokepark 2: Wonders Beyond is cute and charming. The monsters look and sound great. Unfortunately, the game lacks depth and is extremely repetitive. Doing the same tasks over and over again, dozens of times and with little variation, gets old. If you’re longing for a great Pokemon experience on a home console then you’ll be left unsatisfied with Pokepark 2. One day, there will be a Pokemon home console game that’s as great as the Pokemon handheld RPGs. It’s just not today and it’s certainly not this game.

6 / 10