PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure | Nintendo Wii

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A Pokémon park seen through Pikachu's eyes

PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure puts you in control of Pikachu as he explores a park populated by Pokémon. A crisis involving the Sky Prism threatens the park, and gathering its scattered pieces becomes the larger goal behind your travels. Along the way, making friends is central to progress. You meet Pokémon in the different zones, accept their challenges and recruit helpful companions for the park's Attractions. The adventure gives that familiar cast a social setting, with time spent wandering between short games and discovering what the next inhabitant wants to do.

Explore the zones and meet their residents

The setting changes as you move through places such as the Meadow, Beach, Iceberg and Lava Zones. These areas give the journey different backdrops, from open green spaces and sunny shores to snow and volcanic scenery. Pikachu remains the character you guide around the park, talking to other Pokémon and looking for the activities that move the story forward. New parts of the park become accessible as the adventure develops. A visit is consequently a mixture of finding your next objective and stopping to interact with creatures you recognize along the route.

Many friendships begin with a Skill Game. Chase asks you to catch another Pokémon before time runs out, while Hide-and-Seek sends you looking for a concealed opponent. Quiz challenges test answers, and Obstacle Hop makes reaching a target into a small platforming task. These games use different parts of Pikachu's basic movement and observation skills. They also create a straightforward reason to approach the park's residents: someone standing nearby may offer another short challenge and another friendship. Winning can add that Pokémon to your friends and provide Berries for other activities.

Battle is a direct action contest in which Pikachu and an opponent try to reduce each other's health within a time limit. You can dash into a rival or use Thunderbolt, and Iron Tail becomes available later in the adventure. Some opponents resist Thunderbolt, so keeping another attack in mind is useful. Dodging also helps you avoid spending all your time trading hits. The small set of actions makes the immediate task easy to follow, while the opponent's behavior tells you when to approach, step away or choose a different way to attack.

Attractions give different Pokémon a turn

The larger Attractions change both the activity and the way you use the Wii Remote. Bulbasaur's Daring Dash is a footrace driven by shaking the controller, while Venusaur's Vine Swing revolves around building momentum for a long jump. Gyarados's Aqua Dash sends you along a water course with obstacles and opportunities to boost, and Salamence's Air Ace combines flying with shooting targets. These separate games give the park its amusement-ground structure. Moving from one to another changes what you are watching for, whether that is timing a release, staying on a route or aiming at the next target.

Befriended Pokémon can participate in the Attractions for which they are eligible, and their different abilities can help with different events. Picking a suitable friend therefore connects exploration to your performance in the games. Each eligible Pokémon has its own bonus target, giving you a reason to revisit an Attraction after meeting someone new. You can look at a result as a target to improve or try another participant to see how the event suits them. Building a larger circle of friends provides more than another name in the record of your journey.

Berries link the park's smaller challenges to its larger activities. They pay for participation in Attractions and can also be spent to improve Pikachu's abilities. Winning Skill Games and earning Attraction bonuses supplies more of them, while exploration offers additional opportunities to find Berries. That creates a useful rhythm: meet someone, complete a challenge, then decide whether to spend your earnings on another event or on Pikachu's development. Improvements to abilities such as dashing and Thunderbolt support the things you already do around the park, making earlier activities useful places to notice the difference.

Simple controls and a record of the adventure

During ordinary exploration, the Wii Remote is held horizontally, and the game uses it without a Nunchuk. You move Pikachu with the directional pad and use buttons for actions such as jumping, talking and dashing, with pointing and motion used where the activity calls for them. The photo feature provides a quieter diversion from meeting event targets. Once you have arranged film through the Photo Studio, you can take pictures during your travels and save chosen shots to an SD card. It is a way to keep a favorite scene or Pokémon encounter from your own route through the park.

PokéPark Wii is a single-player adventure. Up to four separate save games allow different people to maintain their own progress, and Arcade mode provides access to Attractions unlocked through those saves. Arcade keeps its records separately from the main adventure, making it convenient for a session focused on a particular event. The main route instead ties those events to meeting residents and gathering Sky Prism pieces. For a player who enjoys Pikachu, recognizable Pokémon and a repeating cycle of small challenges, the park supplies a clear next activity without requiring a long match every time the game is started.