Review No. 42 Pokémon Dash - DS (3+)

Strong Points:
All right controls
Nice clear menu where you can also play with Pikachu
Good multiplayer
All right terrain physics
Nice sound effects
Good tutorial
Lapras is fun
GBA levels are all right

Weak Points:
Repetitive
Slightly confusing with the hot air balloons
Graphics are bad
Boring
Can be completed easily
Power ups are unimaginative
Hot air balloons are boring
Music isn't great
Map is confusing
Insane difficulty spikes

In-depth Review:

Release Dates:
Japan: December 2, 2004
Europe: March 11, 2005
North America: March 13, 2005
Australia: April 7, 2005
Korea: March 22, 2007

Controls: use the stylus to control Pikachu and touch the menu icons

This game is the first and only racing game involving Pokémon. It was also the first Pokémon game ever on the Nintendo DS which is sad as this game is awful. It involves you controlling Pikachu in a footrace against 5 other Pokémon in poorly thought out terrain and terrible graphics. And all this before you really start the game. The start menu is good though and serves as a minigame on its own due to you being allowed to play with Pikachu.

The tutorial is good and clear although if you had played the game before there is no way to skip the tutorial.  The sound effects for Pikachu are nice although the music is repetitive and on a loop which makes it annoying. Also, you can't play as anyone but Pikachu.

There are also 25 courses in total which serves to pad out the game a bit and along with the GBA games (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen) own stages and multiplayer this game looks to be quite long. However due to most of the levels being relatively easy and that each person needs to own the game to player multiplayer (up to six players) this game starts to shorten. The powerups are self-explanatory with Sand Speed up etc. being used only for certain stages and feel not like a power up but an item you have to have to progress through this short game.

There are also Lapras's and Hot Air Balloons which allow you to traverse through areas otherwise unreachable. Sadly, the controls while all right on the Lapras are quite difficult with the hot air balloon and make the game frustrating.

Conclusion: overall this game is a half-done excuse for a game which puts the Pokémon name in shame.

Rating: 22%

Thanks for reading, Satamer.