I never checked out the original Detective Pikachu game, despite being super curious about it.

A detective adventure game with a talking Pikachu, it couldn’t sound more up my alley. After watching end enjoying the movie far more than I should have, I still didn’t play the game. Now the sequel Detective Pikachu Returns is out, I figured I’ll jump in.

The game kicks off with a short synopsis of the first game, which turns out was pretty close to what happened in the movie. Tim meets Pikachu who not only talks, but is a great detective. The kicker, only Tim can understand him. They are doing some investigating when an issue of rampaging Pokémon leads to them finding a mysterious drug called R has been getting released. So pretty much what we saw in the movie.

Detective Pikachu Returns kicks off 2 years later. There is a celebration of what Tim and Pikachu achieved two years earlier when a raging corviknight attacks. Here Tim and Pikachu need to get to the bottom of it. The reason I am not touching the story much is because a lot of the story is pretty obvious, and a lot of it is also in the movie. It’s an odd choice, but yeah, it is what it is.

The bulk of the game is walking around, talking to people and getting past puzzles. The puzzles themself are consistently incredibly easy, and I don’t know how I feel about that. It’s clearly an excellent entry point for our younger nerds to get into detective games which is cool. But it would have been awesome if it needed a little bit more brain power and let there be accessibility options and hints for younger players.

The art style is, well, fine.

They have used some chunkier styles to make it simple and look OK, but it just never gets past OK. Like, it’s not bad, it’s just not good. Not a lot of detail, not the cleanest lines, again, just kinda OK. The voice acting is pretty similar as well, with being totally fine. Pikachu’s deep voice really threw me off as I was expecting Ryan Reynolds voice to come out, but yea, it’s good enough.

Whether you will enjoy Detective Pikachu Returns will really depend on your mood, or age. If you want a chill as, silly, detective adventure, there is fun to be had here.

If you’re younger and want to try something different, this is a great gateway into the genre. If you want to engage your brain, this won’t be what you’re looking for.

The post Detective Pikachu Returns (Switch) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

A Pikachu with memory loss and a young man without a Pokemon.

Detective Pikachu is a live action film where Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) has closed himself off from the Pokemon filled world around him, working a boring day job as an Insurance Salesman and not really living life.

Set in a utopian world where Pokémon and humans live together, a city where Pokémon fighting is outlawed with every human having a Pokémon companion – infact not having a Pokémon at your side is regarded as highly unusual.

Tim Goodman’s mundane life is about to be thrown in to a hurricane of an adventure as he receives a call that his father, Harry has died in motor ‘accident’.

Having lost his mother when he was younger Tim had been raised by his Grandmother. Although being estranged from his father after all of these years, he heads to Ryme City where his Dad worked as a Detective.

A city where humans and Pokémon’s can live harmoniously, a city headed by an ailing visionary Howard Clifford (Bill Nighy) and his son Roger Clifford (Chris Geere).

Here, he meets a Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds). A Pikachu that only he can understand and converse with.

Very quickly it becomes apparent that there is more to his father’s accident and a major cover up is going on. Aided by the wise cracking Pikachu and a young intern reporter Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton), Tim begins to unravel the mystery behind a purple gas that appears to have an adverse effect on all Pokémon’s, turning them feral and hungry and a vengeful Mewtwo.

Detective Pikachu has done a superb job of not only turning the anime, video game franchise in to a fully watchable and engrossing film – but it will also educate those that do not know much about Pokémon. Introducing the more known varieties, taking the audience through the Pokémon Battle lore and more.

You do not need to be a Pokémon fan to really enjoy Pokémon Detective Pikachu.

An excellent film for everyone; young and young at heart and very, very enjoyable.

Pika Pika.

The post Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Warner Bros. Pictures – 2019) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.