Puzzle Your Way Through Pokemon Friends: A Review
If you’re an avid social media user, you might have noticed advertisements promoting various light logic, puzzle, and action games designed for mobile devices. These games often claim to challenge players’ spatial awareness, reasoning skills, and pattern recognition. Enter Pokemon Friends, the latest title from Nintendo, Wonderfy, and The Pokemon Works. This game feels reminiscent of many mobile game compilations but distinguishes itself with a genuine approach to gameplay.
The Premise: Unraveling Yarn While Crafting Amigurumi
In Pokemon Friends, players step into the shoes of a character who specializes in crafting amigurumi plush toys of beloved Pokemon. The adventure begins when the protagonist arrives in Think Town, only to discover that their yarn has become entangled during the journey. The primary goal is to solve puzzles with the assistance of Pokemon to untangle these threads and gather enough materials—such as balls, cones, and skeins of wool—to resume crafting these cherished toys. As you successfully complete puzzles, you can consult with the local residents to discover which stuffed animals they desire, earning points for unlocking additional requests and calendar stamps along the way.
A Routine Worth Following
Engaging with Pokemon Friends is all about establishing a routine. Players should start by loading the game and tackling three random minigames to help untangle the yarn. Each session presents different challenges, with higher difficulties unlocking as you progress. Completing tasks within established time limits rewards players with yarn, which can be fed into a crafting machine. By playing consistently, or by excelling in daily minigames, you can create multiple plush toys or secure high-quality wool. The friend quests are also an exciting feature, as completing these can unlock cosmetic items for your character or fulfill specific toy requests.
Challenging Yet Charming Puzzles
Among the various minigames available, Stamp-n-Roll from the second DLC pack stands out due to its increasing difficulty, requiring quick thinking to locate the stamp on a rolling cube. Another delightful puzzle is Don’t Wake Gengar, which involves strategically placing lanterns to brighten the screen while avoiding sleeping Gengars. Other puzzles, like Wooloo’s Way Home and Tinkatuff Tunneling, focus on utilizing spatial awareness and minimizing moves for optimal results. The game truly shines when players gather different types of Pokemon to cover various areas, adding complexity to the gameplay and making the quest for efficient speedrunning captivating.
Areas for Improvement
While many puzzles captivate players with their engaging challenges, a few can feel unexciting or even simplistic. For example, Find the Froakie involves basic counting and rotating, while Shine on Cherrim and Operation: Bath Time are nearly identical puzzles that rely on manipulating angled blocks to interact with multiple Pokemon. Challenges like Tricky Triangle and Square Solver are also overly repetitive, lacking freshness as the levels progress.
Customization and its Shortcomings
The available customization features, while present, haven’t particularly excited me thus far.Pokemon Friends essentially treats the plush toys as commodities, required for Friend Quests. There is an element of randomness in acquiring characters through crafted toys, which can lead to frustrating scenarios where you may need a specific plush that hasn’t appeared for days. This compels players to hoard toys rather than display them, often reducing the enthusiasm for the customization aspect over time.
The Bottom Line: A Fun, Simple Experience
As I continue playing Pokemon Friends and uncover higher difficulty levels, I’m finding that my enjoyment grows with each session. The game’s simplicity is charming, although some puzzles divert from the series’ core themes. Optimal performance often relies on handheld mode, balancing between touchscreen and standard controls to maximize efficiency. Overall, Pokemon Friends delivers joy in bite-sized doses, making it an excellent game for those casual daily play sessions.
Currently, Pokemon Friends is available on the Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms.
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