Pokémon Dream Radar review

by Paul on Oct 23rd, 2012

Last week saw the release of Pokémon Black & White 2 on the Nintendo DS. It always surprises me how resilient these pocket monsters are. Each new edition in the series does little to innovate, but the lure to “catch ‘em all” on each new occasion, along with the game’s enduring ability to provide a simple charm and engrossing gameplay, proves too strong to resist. For me this is both a blessing and a curse. No matter what you may think of the Pokémon games, the fact they capture the attention of hundreds of thousands of gamers each and every time is one of gaming’s big success stories and if something isn’t broken, why change it? However, this apparent lack of drive to try anything new is going to eventually sound the death knell for the Pokémon series, especially if they are to move on to the 3DS. To be blunt, what we are currently seeing is simply not going to cut it if the plan is to give us more of the same in the next release.

In an attempt to bridge this gap between past and future we have Pokémon Dream Radar, a new download-only eShop release for the 3DS that acts as a companion piece to Pokémon Black & White 2. To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect from this title and I was surprised to find that it’s a quirky Augmented Reality game with the focus on shooting clouds. Not exactly in keeping with what we know of Pokémon, is it? Give it a chance though and there is enjoyment to be had, even if it is for a limited time. The easiest way to sum up the game is to compare it to Face Raiders, another Augmented Reality game that comes pre-installed on your 3DS. If you’ve played that then you’ll know exactly what to expect here; you hold your 3DS in front of you and use it to look around your surroundings whilst trying to shoot targets. In Pokémon Dream Radar’s case the targets are pink or grey clouds. It turns out that the Dream Radar we’ve just downloaded acts as a bridge between our world and that of the Pokémon and the Radar allows us to hunt down and capture the little critters.

You use the A button to shoot the clouds with a laser, the likes of which I haven’t seen since the Death Star took out Alderaan, which breaks them down into orbs. You then shoot these orbs to collect them where they then serve as the currency in-game which you can use to upgrade your laser, buy more time in missions or to increase the number of clouds that appear in each mission. In an attempt to keep us from playing through the whole thing in half an hour, after each round the clouds will each take around five minutes in real time to regenerate so depending on the number of clouds per round, anything from ten to thirty depending on how many you’ve unlocked via the orbs, you’re looking at an hour or two between rounds. While this isn’t ideal you can understand the logic behind restricting the game in this way.

Sometimes you’ll shoot a grey cloud and a large glowing sphere will appear. This contains a Pokémon (or it could be an item) and it will start flying around the room and you have to track it with your 3DS, keeping the laser beam aimed on it with your thumb whacking the A button until it is captured. The Pokémon will then join you. There’s a fair few Pokémon to find – 21 in all – and there’s also a neat feature where you can also access five more if you insert a generation IV Pokémon DS game (so that’ll be HeartGold, SoulSilver or Diamond, Pearl or Platinum). All come with their hidden ability available to use from the outset, and if that wasn’t enough to tempt you there also special Formes of Thunderus, Landorus and Tornadus which are only available via Dream Radar. Once you’ve caught your Pokémon you can send them to your copy of Pokémon Black & White 2, which is nice and easy. Have your copy of the game in the 3DS cartridge slot then boot up Dream Radar. Then it’s just a case of pushing the ‘transfer’ button on the main menu. You then quit Dream Radar, start up B&W2 and then select “Unova Link”. From there you’ll see an option for Dream Radar and then your Pokémon will be available. It’s very refreshing to have a transfer of this type be so easy and quick, especially from Nintendo who, until recently, would’ve probably had us trying to input transfer codes 25 characters long in order to move Pokémon about. Nice one Ninty.

Unfortunately, once all the Pokémon and items have been found there isn’t any reason to return to Dream Radar. This is a pity as there’s a golden nugget of a great idea here and it’s clear that given more time the game could have evolved into a nifty time attack / high score shooter but sadly the developer has failed to build on the foundations we have here. Also, it has to be said that seeing as this is being pushed as an Augmented Reality title it’s a shame that the actual AR side of things is a bit lacking. There’s no real interaction with your environments; they just serve as the background image. Initially it is very cool to swing the 3DS’ view around your front room as you hunt down Pokémon but there’s definitely a feeling that this is a missed opportunity.

At the end of the day Pokémon Dream Radar isn’t really aimed at a thirty-something like me. It’s the younger Pokémaniacs who will undoubtedly be having far more fun here than those of us of an older age. It’s just a shame that, whoever it’s aimed at, the game is limited to just a week or so of play before everything is unlocked. Having said that, while it lasts it is a fun way to find Pokémon and it makes for an interesting alternative to just downloading them as DLC. For anyone who owns, or is planning on owning, B&W2 then this companion title is a great purchase and it will serve as a nice add-on, as long as you accept it for what it is; a brief diversion from the action in B&W2, as well as allowing you to beef up your Pokémon team a lot earlier than you would in the main game. For everyone else, there’s not enough here to justify a purchase. If Nintendo were to take this idea and develop it further into something with more content and replay options (and I sincerely hope they do) then there is a lot of potential for a title that would appeal to a lot more people. As things stand though, we’re still a long way off from the brave new world that’s waiting for the Pokémon on 3DS.

3/5

Our review policy

Categories: Reviews