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WiiWare Review: My Pokemon Ranch

Jun. 13 1:59 AM by Sardius

My Pokémon Ranch is not a game. Think of it instead as a Mii plaza for your Pokémon. It offers about as much interaction as your Wii's Mii Channel, yet it still manages to be entertaining in its own goofy, laid-back way.

Prepare for Trouble

My Pokémon Ranch is nothing like the Gameboy and Nintendo DS Pokémon games, and it bears little resemblance to previous spinoffs like Pokémon XD and Pokémon Colosseum. There's very little gameplay in My Pokémon Ranch at all, actually. The experience largely involves transferring Pokémon from your Nintendo DS Pokémon Diamond or Pokémon Pearl Pokédex and watching them frolic around as low-polygon Wii models at your Wii Pokémon ranch.

And...well, that's pretty much it. My Pokémon Ranch otherwise serves mostly as an extension to Pokémon Diamond or Pearl's gameplay. Hayley, the ranch's owner, will occasionally issue Pokémon bounties, and will reward you with items and Pokémon trades upon successfully finding, capturing, and transferring wanted Pokémon. Transferring more Pokémon to the ranch also raises the farm's level, allowing you to store more Pokémon and earn additional bonuses at the beginning of each new gameplay day.

So why would you want to do any of this? Well, if you transfer 1,000 Pokémon to My Pokémon Ranch, Hayley rewards you with a Mew, an incredibly rare Pokémon that is otherwise impossible to encounter or catch in recent Pokémon games. This factor alone will likely sell My Pokémon Ranch to millions of obsessed Pokéfans worldwide.

Otherwise, there's not much point to My Pokémon Ranch, especially if you don't own a copy of Diamond or Pearl. If you lack both games, Hayley will still bring new Pokémon to the ranch every day, but this alone does not provide enough reason to keep playing past the first day.

Surrender Now, or Prepare to Fight

As it turns out, though, you can still enjoy My Pokémon Ranch with only a base level of experience with the series, or if you have a friend or roommate willing to transfer his or her Pokémon to your ranch. Gameplay starts off slow, with only a select few Pokémon allowed on your ranch at a time, but as the farm levels up (after a mandatory and somewhat frustrating 24-hour "construction" period each day), the game soon springs to life.

Despite its lack of gameplay, My Pokémon Ranch is strangely relaxing to watch, especially when you throw some of your own Miis into the mix. It's fun to watch Miis of your friends and family be generally ill-at-ease around your often angry and combative Pokémon, and you can't tell me that watching a Stunky fart all over a Mii version of Dr. Robotnik is anything less than the most hilarious thing of all time.

You can also march your Pokémon in a parade, make them play with toys that are delivered daily, take and send pictures through the Wii message board, and visit your friends' ranches, among other things. My Pokémon Ranch is a surprisingly compelling exercise in Pokémon-watching; it's just that you aren't in control of very much of it. The almost total lack of interaction makes the title difficult to recommend to many audiences, but if you need to fill out your Pokédex and enjoy watching cute creatures fart on each other, My Pokémon Ranch might be worth a look.

PROS: Cute as the dickens; can earn you a free Mew; fun to watch Pokémon be jerks to your Miis.
CONS: Almost no gameplay whatsoever; significant time investment in Diamond/Pearl required; 24-hour wait between gameplay days can be frustrating.

GRAPHICS: 3.00
SOUND: 3.50
CONTROL: 4.00
FUN FACTOR: 3.50

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