In this month of March 2005, while the Game Boy is 1 years old, the Game Boy Color is 16 years old and the Game Boy Advance is 7 years old, Nintendo is releasing its fourth generation of portable console in Europe with the Nintendo DS. As usual, there will be everything, good, less good, probably very bad, but the excitement is such that in these very specific cases, we forgive almost everything. Pokemon dash is typically the kind of mundane game to which this absurd leniency could be applied. The difference between Pokemon dash and a game like Kuru Kuru Kururin, present at the launch of the GBA, comes from the fact that one is innovative (Kuru Kuru Kururin) and the other benefits from an innovative technology, but does not bring anything new (Pokemon dash). Relentlessly exploiting the Pokemon license and falling behind on the production of Mario Kart, Nintendo is releasing a mix of the two, a racing game with Pokemon.
He runs, he runs Pikachu…
The principle could not be simpler, take a handful of Pokémon, draw a map, place a few checkpoints there, and bingo, here you are with a hot game. To move forward, touch screen requires, you must slide your stylus in the direction you want to go. The faster you scrub, the faster your Pikachu goes. If the first races take place only on the road, you will then have to cross grass, forest, desert, ice, swamp, sea and lava. In order not to be slowed down too much by the typography of the terrain, "boosters" are placed everywhere and allow you to be at full speed regardless of the type of terrain you are on. Except for water, which needs to be crossed either on the back of Lokhlass (an aquatic Pokémon for those who don't know), or by flying, thanks to balloons. In each race, the goal is to be the first to go through all the checkpoints in a given order. You are then free to choose the best means, air, land or sea.
Rather nice on paper, Pokemon dash, suffers from a realization that we will qualify as sloppy. The lower screen serving as a playmat, the upper screen acts as a radar office, or as a map when you are in flight. Leaving the card permanently, however, would have been a better idea. Because, once in the race, nothing tells you the changes of terrain between one checkpoint and another. Conclusion, you find yourself lost in the middle of a forest looking for a balloon to fly away and if unfortunately you have not looked at the direction of the next checkpoint before your takeoff, you are still good for a good big mess. Frustrating as can be! The worst being undoubtedly to the credit of maritime navigation, the Lokhlass being so fast, that you constantly hit small islands, which has the effect of making you land on plots of land against your will and making you waste precious time. The multiplayer mode alleviates our disappointment somewhat, since in this case, everyone is in the same boat. However, it is necessary to have one cartridge per player, which immediately limits the chances of being able to play games with four or more.
The significant number of races and the possibility of creating your own circuits from a GBA cartridge will not change anything, Pokemon dash is simply unremarkable and therefore undoubtedly useless.
