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The Official Apology for "Hey You Pikachu!"...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 38 / 43
Date: December 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Let's get this straight first off... Pokemon Channel is a budget game. It's cheap, it's short and it only appeals to a limited audience of kids, and the occasional adult who has nothing better to do with his time... like me.
Anyone who's played the horrendous "Hey You Pikachu" will get into the groove quickly here, only to be pleasantly surprised that this game is far better than it's predecessor. The main focus of the game is to watch TV with your Pikachu. Yeah, sounds kind of boring, and at times it is (such as the channel that just features Mareep jumping over a fence) but at times also addictive (Shop N' Squirtle is just as addictive as eBay). There are also quiz channels in which you can compete to win money and just plain bizzare channels (one channel features a Smoochum that keeps yelling at you that you're not popular enough). You unlock more channels as days pass, though older gamers will more than likely cheat by altering the Gamecube clock. Pikachu is also cute to watch. Watch as he tries to tackle you or as he gives you an evil stare when you turn off the TV as he's watching it. You can even give your Pikachu a nickname and eventually Pikachu will move in with you.
It's not all just TV though. You and Pikachu can also go out interact with object and other Pokemon in the backyard, or purchase Bus Passes from Shop N' Squirtle and visit three other locations on the map. You can unlock minigames this way as well as virtual trading cards. Late in the game, you can also delve in a short (very short) dungeon and solve a puzzle to obtain a lost program disc. More interesting areas such as this would've increased the play time considerably, but sadly, it's over almost as soon as you start.
The Pichu Bros. short included with the game is cute, though it has a lame ending. It is split into five parts that you unlock each day that you play the game. It is well animated and dubbed, plus you can unlock a Japanese version of it as well.
The graphics look clean, but aside from Pikachu and Meowth, the polygon models look like they've been pulled from the N64 stadium games. Why this game wasn't cel-shaded is beyond me, as it would fit the series to a "T". The sound is excellent, from the easygoing music to each Pokemon's destinctive cry. The controls are simple, just point and click with an on-screen cursor.
If anything really bad could be said about this game, is that it's too short. Five days is really all it takes to "beat" the game, as in find all five parts of the Pichu Bros. short, not even that long if you exploit the Gamecube's clock. Three "mystery" channel slots will appear after you collect all five parts, but they're really not worth the effort to find unless you're fluent in Japanese. The only reason to return to play the game is to decorate your room (which seems to be a feature picked up from Animal Crossing) by purchasing from Shop N' Squirtle or complete your card collection.
But the final word is, it's cheap and it's enjoyable while it lasts. Young ones will enjoy it and Pokemon fanatics will want to add it to their collections, but everyone else might be satisfied with a rental.

An interesting diversion, especially if you're bored.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 16
Date: December 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Having played Pokemon games for the past several years and continuing to do so despite my advanced age of 23, I found this interesting little game when I was bored and frustrated because I could find no other games to try my new Gamecube out on. I have played Hey, You Pikachu in the past (bought it some years back) and while it was childish and charming, it was indeed for younger children.

This, too, while technically geared for younger children, is much more complex and would even keep older people captivated for awhile. It runs in real time, and there's no confusing microphone technology to contend with (you can interact with Pikachu just as much without the darned thing!)

There's much more to do, also. Instead of other pokemon not really interacting with Pikachu, he can do so with them freely. There are many pokemon here, well over a hundred. Have Pikachu talk to them and the first time, they'll give him a "nice card" (a sort of trading card) for answering a quiz question correctly. Talk to them again, and you'll get pika points instead.

The game starts out with a bunch of Magnemite delivering a TV to your house. Your name is taken, and Professor Oak comes on and tells you that you've been selected to be his first test audience for the brand new Pokemon Channel System. A wild Pikachu promptly shows up at your door and wants to join you in watching TV, making the good 'ol Professor exclaim that this is incredibly rare! He wishes you luck, and leaves you to explore your TV and your game world.

There's lots of channels to choose from, and as long as you watch each new program through at least once, more will appear the next day promptly at five am. There's a pokemon news channel run by an often-sleepy Psyduck and his on-the-scene reporter Meowth (this is often amusing), a Wobuffet quiz show where you can earn more pika points to blow, a Squirtle shopping program where you can burn your pika points on cool stuff like TV's, passes, pokemon dolls, and Pokemon Mini games, and more.

Then there's the anime! A whole new Pichu Brothers exclusive to the game alone. Each day a new part of the anime is aired, five parts in all. Day 6 you will even get to see the whole thing in the Japanese version, hosted by Kansumi, the Japanese version of Misty! It's a rare opprotunity to see pokemon in their original Japanese formats.

It's not just the TV thats interesting. There's many places for Pikachu to explore--your yard, the bus stop, Greenleaf Field, Mt. Snowfall, Viridian Forest, and Cobalt Coast, each with bonus sub-areas. Depending on the time of day or night AND the weather, different pokemon will appear, including some incredibly rare legends! And Pikachu can do much more than simply go and talk to the pokemon--fishing, concerts, and lots of other activities.

Oh, yeah, don't forget the Pokemon Mini system included in the game (each obtained by purchase in the Squirtle shopping channel). Finally, you can play the games that previously were only avalible in the Pokemon Center in New York.

There's much more to this game, but I won't give it all away. It makes Hey You Pikachu seem simple and 1-D by compairson.

"Hey You Pikachu", with a Twist

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: December 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I honestly can't understand why so many people apparently hate this game, or "Hey You Pikachu". Maybe they just want games where you blow stuff up, or something.
But anyway, this game is, in a word, great. Like in "Hey You Pikachu", a Pikachu comes to live in your room and you become friends with it. However, it's a bit different this time around: the game centers around watching TV with Pikachu.
The game keeps track of time via the GameCube's internal clock, so each day you get a new program (until you've gotten every program in the game).
Here are the pros and cons of this game:

Pros:

1. There is an all-new Pichu Bros. short called "Pichu Bros. in Party Panic", and each day you get five more minutes of it. You also get to see it in Japanese.
One of the best parts of the short is the 3-D "Meowth's Party" sequence. I like the Meowth's Party sequence in Japanese a bit better, though, despite my not understanding a single word they're saying.
Don't get me wrong, the English version of Meowth's Party was really good too. The music was a bit drowned out, though. And any sequence where Team Rocket gets the spotlight is worth seeing in my book.

2. The graphics are great--much better than Hey You Pikachu, which also had quite good graphics (despite Pikachu's occasional walking through something).

3. The music is quite good, too, especially the music for Mount Snowfall, the Japanese "Meowth's Party" song, and the Japanese theme song for "Pichu Bros. in Party Panic". Some of the pieces are variations on Hey You Pikachu music. (They did re-use one piece from Hey You Pikachu--to be exact, the really sad one that plays when Pikachu temporarily leaves. But for some reason, in this game they have it playing when you look up at constellations.)

4. The game has a built-in Pokemon Mini.

5. You get to draw a picture and place it on your wall. Unfortunately, if you want to draw a new one and keep it on your wall, it deletes the previous one. (So I've had the same picture on my wall for over a year.)

6. You get to redecorate your room.

7. You can give a nickname to Pikachu.

8. This is really just a personal thing, but I thought Psyduck as a newscaster was hilarious. Also, occasionally your Pikachu gets to show up on the news.

Cons:

1. There isn't as much to do as there was in Hey You Pikachu--I guess they had to make room for the TV shows. So you can't travel as much, and the areas you travel to are much smaller than the ones in Hey You Pikachu. (But it's OK.)

2. You can't talk to Pikachu, but it doesn't really detract from the game. (You can, however, pet him with the "C" stick, which I think is a nice touch.)

3. There aren't enough programs, but maybe they took up a lot of memory or something.

Pokemon Channel is most certainly worth owning, despite griping you're likely to see. Of course, it's not for everyone--some people would much rather see Pikachu get creamed by a Mack truck. But these people are well worth ignoring.
So in conclusion, this game would probably be very well-liked by younger Pokémon fans, and probably even older ones, so I'd suggest at least giving it a test drive.
If you like Pokemon, chances are you won't be disappointed.

This ones more of a service to pokemon loving kids.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: December 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The Gamecube has been out for two years and now we finally have a Pokemon game for it. Unfortunately this might not really be a game. Lets start with some details and what this game does right first. Apparently Prof. Oak has been hard at work on a television network for Pokemon (does the man have a life?). Now you've been chosen to test this network and see if it's any good. Right when the television is delivered guess who suddenly breaks into your house? If you said Pikachu you're unfortunately correct (more on that later). So now you and Pikachu (who is apparently allowed to break the law) are now tasked to watch this network and see how it works. Each channel has different Pokemon themed shows such as PNF (Pokemon News Flash), Shop n Squirtle, Pichu Bros Party Panic Anime, and Slowpokes weather report. There are more but they're neither interesting nor fun to watch. Let's start with the good. The graphics are okay, not heavily detailed, but they get the job done with the exception of some of the Pokemon models looking like they came from the N64 games. You can occasionally go outside and see different Pokemon, which is pretty cool. The shopping channel even sells bus passes which can take you to different areas to see different Pokemon. Now the bad and there are more of these than the good. If you hate Pikachu this WILL increase your hatred ten fold at least. He always wants to watch TV! It usually takes an act of congress to get him to go outside and see the different Pokemon, which is arguably the best part of this game. Now some of the shows are okay but noo he wants to watch all of them including crap like Smoochum exercising for five minutes. It's like babysitting some annoying child. After a few days of this you will try to get him run over by the bus (sadly you cannot). Now my biggest gripe: lack of interactivity to the point you question whether you have a DVD or a game. Everything here has you watching. Sure you get to click on things but after that you only get to see what Pikachu does with them (which if you don't like him anyway you won't want to see him roll around with a ball for example). As an interesting side note (and this is neither good nor bad) this game runs on real time like Animal Crossing. So if you're Gamecube's clock is set correctly and you turn this on at three PM it will be the same in the game. At first this intrigued me but it soon became clear that this feature is very limited here. For example there are no exact time specific events such as "Charmander only comes out from three to four in the afternoon". Instead it seems as though things are divided into three time sections each day: playing before noon, playing from noon to seven PM, and playing from seven PM to seven AM when the first section starts again. While simplistic it does keep the game from ending too quickly unless you mess with the clock. Each day when you save it unlocks things that when turned on in the proper time section the next day you can access. As stated before it isn't complex in the least but it does serve to stretch out what would be an otherwise short game. I know you're thinking I'm being too harsh on a game that's geared towards children right? Well it's because I know that tons of older Pokemon fans will pick this up and be disappointed. I almost did but thankfully I rented it first. Even at thirty dollars it's too much for what an older person would get out of it. However if you're a parent looking for good game for your pokemon-loving child this is actually a good choice. I could see a child enjoying it. Anyone over ten would be wise to wait until this can be picked up for at most half the price, I know I'm going to.

A bizarre game, but my sons like it a lot!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: August 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is hard to describe---it's not really a game, in a way. It's more like a Pokemon experience, where you do things with your pal Pokemons. One of the main parts of the game is watching TV with your pokemon---probably not something your kids really need more of, but it's pretty interactive TV---you can shop on the shopping channel, play along with a game show channel, view art you drew on an art channel, etc... The things you buy get delivered, after a day or so---so there is some real time aspects here. You can redecorate your room over and over with new wallpaper and toys, and you can collect cards with Pokemon on them. All in all, this game is about doing electronically things you could do in real life. I found it got old fast, but my sons really seem to enjoy it. They keep coming back to it over and over. I do like the slow pace---it's nice to have a non-frantic game for them to play. It also involves a fair amount of reading and some basic math skills. You even get to do a little art, and you can make any part of the main cartoon you watch into a coloring book. If your kids like Pokemon and are fairly young, I think this game might be a hit!

THIS GAME ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is the Ultimate Pokemon game! Those of you who enjoyed Hey You Pikachu!, Pokemon Channel is 50 times better!!! Watching TV with Pikachu, collecting Nice Cards, and interacting with all your fav pokemon. if u think it sounds boring, u r wrong! Every day since i got this game (the day it came out) I wake up a half hour early just to play it. I beat the main part of the game, but there's still much more to do. Maybe I don't make it sound so great, but it's an awesome game, especially for only $30. What a bargain.
Downsides:
-The main part of the game is easy to beat.
-Pikachu can be a pain when watching Shop 'N Squirtle
Other than that, this is a 5-star game, definitely buy it!

Pokemon Channel

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: December 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome! I have read lots of reviews on it and it looks really great. You are trying to get more things for your room as you go through 3d worlds and get news about whats happening! This game looks really challenging. You also can go on gameshows as you collect items for your room. You can also travel to different places for new information! This is a must get! It will be worth the money!

Umm... OK?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 13
Date: April 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

All ya do is watch Pikachu watch TV. Not fun. The people on TechTV's "X-Play" gave it a 1 out of 5. I agree wholeheartedly.

Great for little Pikachu fans

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

My newly turned 6 year old is a big fan of pokemon and especially pikachu. This is a great game for beginners to the gaming world. In the beginning, she was a little impatient as all pikachu wants to do is watch tv, but soon enoungh once you watch enough channels and send your report to professor oak pikachu will be able to go outside and explore and talk to other pokemon, play catch, etc.

Each time you talk to other pokemon and answer the quiz questions correctly you recieve that pokemon's trading card that you collect arrange in an album. Ask the other pokemon another question and you can earn extra pika points to buy items on the squirtle channel (similiar to home shopping network). My daughter loves this part and pikachu and/or your child can play with the items purchased which are delivered by mail. My daugter gets very excited when her package arrives in the mail delivered by a pokemon.

There are also art activities for your child with smeargles paint, pokemon mini's that can be played, etc. This is a great game for little ones and/or beginners to the game cube system.

For extreme Pokemaniacs or young Pokefans ONLY!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: September 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

(I'm actually 15, but I don't have an account on her so I'm using the kids review form. :/)

I was skeptical when I first heard all of the negitive reviews from this game. "It has NO INTERACTIVITY!" "All you do is watch TV!" I also heard good reviews, so I finally broke down and rented the game.

I actually enjoyed it. The Pichu-brother's anime was very cute, and I liked going around and visiting all the other Pokemon. (Especially going to see Charmander. ^^) I also liked to watch how you and your Pikachu's relationship grows. There's also a Poketrivia feature where the Pokemon will quiz you on questions based on the Pokedex entries of the Pokemon. And later on in the game, you can find a Pokemon Mini, though it wasn't too entertaining, in my opinion.

Younger Pokemon fans will definately like this, and extreme Pokemaniacs like myself are sure to enjoy it as well. However, even if you are a young Pokefan or an extreme Pokemaniac, I would highly recommend that you rent this game before you buy it! And if you do want to buy it, try and find it for a cheap price, because although it is entertaining(...).

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