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38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Official Apology for "Hey You Pikachu!"..., December 31, 2003
Let's get this straight first off... Pokemon Channel is a budget game. It's cheap, it's short and it only appeals to a limited audience of kids, and the occasional adult who has nothing better to do with his time... like me.
Anyone who's played the horrendous "Hey You Pikachu" will get into the groove quickly here, only to be pleasantly surprised that this game is far better than it's predecessor. The main focus of the game is to watch TV with your Pikachu. Yeah, sounds kind of boring, and at times it is (such as the channel that just features Mareep jumping over a fence) but at times also addictive (Shop N' Squirtle is just as addictive as eBay). There are also quiz channels in which you can compete to win money and just plain bizzare channels (one channel features a Smoochum that keeps yelling at you that you're not popular enough). You unlock more channels as days pass, though older gamers will more than likely cheat by altering the Gamecube clock. Pikachu is also cute to watch. Watch as he tries to tackle you or as he gives you an evil stare when you turn off the TV as he's watching it. You can even give your Pikachu a nickname and eventually Pikachu will move in with you.
It's not all just TV though. You and Pikachu can also go out interact with object and other Pokemon in the backyard, or purchase Bus Passes from Shop N' Squirtle and visit three other locations on the map. You can unlock minigames this way as well as virtual trading cards. Late in the game, you can also delve in a short (very short) dungeon and solve a puzzle to obtain a lost program disc. More interesting areas such as this would've increased the play time considerably, but sadly, it's over almost as soon as you start.
The Pichu Bros. short included with the game is cute, though it has a lame ending. It is split into five parts that you unlock each day that you play the game. It is well animated and dubbed, plus you can unlock a Japanese version of it as well.
The graphics look clean, but aside from Pikachu and Meowth, the polygon models look like they've been pulled from the N64 stadium games. Why this game wasn't cel-shaded is beyond me, as it would fit the series to a "T". The sound is excellent, from the easygoing music to each Pokemon's destinctive cry. The controls are simple, just point and click with an on-screen cursor.
If anything really bad could be said about this game, is that it's too short. Five days is really all it takes to "beat" the game, as in find all five parts of the Pichu Bros. short, not even that long if you exploit the Gamecube's clock. Three "mystery" channel slots will appear after you collect all five parts, but they're really not worth the effort to find unless you're fluent in Japanese. The only reason to return to play the game is to decorate your room (which seems to be a feature picked up from Animal Crossing) by purchasing from Shop N' Squirtle or complete your card collection.
But the final word is, it's cheap and it's enjoyable while it lasts. Young ones will enjoy it and Pokemon fanatics will want to add it to their collections, but everyone else might be satisfied with a rental.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting diversion, especially if you're bored., December 15, 2003
Having played Pokemon games for the past several years and continuing to do so despite my advanced age of 23, I found this interesting little game when I was bored and frustrated because I could find no other games to try my new Gamecube out on. I have played Hey, You Pikachu in the past (bought it some years back) and while it was childish and charming, it was indeed for younger children.This, too, while technically geared for younger children, is much more complex and would even keep older people captivated for awhile. It runs in real time, and there's no confusing microphone technology to contend with (you can interact with Pikachu just as much without the darned thing!) There's much more to do, also. Instead of other pokemon not really interacting with Pikachu, he can do so with them freely. There are many pokemon here, well over a hundred. Have Pikachu talk to them and the first time, they'll give him a "nice card" (a sort of trading card) for answering a quiz question correctly. Talk to them again, and you'll get pika points instead. The game starts out with a bunch of Magnemite delivering a TV to your house. Your name is taken, and Professor Oak comes on and tells you that you've been selected to be his first test audience for the brand new Pokemon Channel System. A wild Pikachu promptly shows up at your door and wants to join you in watching TV, making the good 'ol Professor exclaim that this is incredibly rare! He wishes you luck, and leaves you to explore your TV and your game world. There's lots of channels to choose from, and as long as you watch each new program through at least once, more will appear the next day promptly at five am. There's a pokemon news channel run by an often-sleepy Psyduck and his on-the-scene reporter Meowth (this is often amusing), a Wobuffet quiz show where you can earn more pika points to blow, a Squirtle shopping program where you can burn your pika points on cool stuff like TV's, passes, pokemon dolls, and Pokemon Mini games, and more. Then there's the anime! A whole new Pichu Brothers exclusive to the game alone. Each day a new part of the anime is aired, five parts in all. Day 6 you will even get to see the whole thing in the Japanese version, hosted by Kansumi, the Japanese version of Misty! It's a rare opprotunity to see pokemon in their original Japanese formats. It's not just the TV thats interesting. There's many places for Pikachu to explore--your yard, the bus stop, Greenleaf Field, Mt. Snowfall, Viridian Forest, and Cobalt Coast, each with bonus sub-areas. Depending on the time of day or night AND the weather, different pokemon will appear, including some incredibly rare legends! And Pikachu can do much more than simply go and talk to the pokemon--fishing, concerts, and lots of other activities. Oh, yeah, don't forget the Pokemon Mini system included in the game (each obtained by purchase in the Squirtle shopping channel). Finally, you can play the games that previously were only avalible in the Pokemon Center in New York. There's much more to this game, but I won't give it all away. It makes Hey You Pikachu seem simple and 1-D by compairson.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Hey You Pikachu", with a Twist, December 13, 2005
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I honestly can't understand why so many people apparently hate this game, or "Hey You Pikachu". Maybe they just want games where you blow stuff up, or something.
But anyway, this game is, in a word, great. Like in "Hey You Pikachu", a Pikachu comes to live in your room and you become friends with it. However, it's a bit different this time around: the game centers around watching TV with Pikachu.
The game keeps track of time via the GameCube's internal clock, so each day you get a new program (until you've gotten every program in the game).
Here are the pros and cons of this game:
Pros:
1. There is an all-new Pichu Bros. short called "Pichu Bros. in Party Panic", and each day you get five more minutes of it. You also get to see it in Japanese.
One of the best parts of the short is the 3-D "Meowth's Party" sequence. I like the Meowth's Party sequence in Japanese a bit better, though, despite my not understanding a single word they're saying.
Don't get me wrong, the English version of Meowth's Party was really good too. The music was a bit drowned out, though. And any sequence where Team Rocket gets the spotlight is worth seeing in my book.
2. The graphics are great--much better than Hey You Pikachu, which also had quite good graphics (despite Pikachu's occasional walking through something).
3. The music is quite good, too, especially the music for Mount Snowfall, the Japanese "Meowth's Party" song, and the Japanese theme song for "Pichu Bros. in Party Panic". Some of the pieces are variations on Hey You Pikachu music. (They did re-use one piece from Hey You Pikachu--to be exact, the really sad one that plays when Pikachu temporarily leaves. But for some reason, in this game they have it playing when you look up at constellations.)
4. The game has a built-in Pokemon Mini.
5. You get to draw a picture and place it on your wall. Unfortunately, if you want to draw a new one and keep it on your wall, it deletes the previous one. (So I've had the same picture on my wall for over a year.)
6. You get to redecorate your room.
7. You can give a nickname to Pikachu.
8. This is really just a personal thing, but I thought Psyduck as a newscaster was hilarious. Also, occasionally your Pikachu gets to show up on the news.
Cons:
1. There isn't as much to do as there was in Hey You Pikachu--I guess they had to make room for the TV shows. So you can't travel as much, and the areas you travel to are much smaller than the ones in Hey You Pikachu. (But it's OK.)
2. You can't talk to Pikachu, but it doesn't really detract from the game. (You can, however, pet him with the "C" stick, which I think is a nice touch.)
3. There aren't enough programs, but maybe they took up a lot of memory or something.
Pokemon Channel is most certainly worth owning, despite griping you're likely to see. Of course, it's not for everyone--some people would much rather see Pikachu get creamed by a Mack truck. But these people are well worth ignoring.
So in conclusion, this game would probably be very well-liked by younger Pokémon fans, and probably even older ones, so I'd suggest at least giving it a test drive.
If you like Pokemon, chances are you won't be disappointed.
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