From the New York Instances to Apple, each day puzzles have taken over our smartphones. However after I was youthful, I spent my moveable gaming time chasing down a unique craze: Pokémon. Now, the cuddly pocket monsters are looking for their place within the pattern kicked off by Wordle with Pokémon Mates, a brand new sport that was shadowdropped on cellular and Nintendo Swap in the present day simply earlier than its official announcement a couple of minutes later.
The catch? Like NYT Video games, it’s not precisely free, at the very least on Nintendo Swap. On cellular, you are able to do some mild play with out paying, however you’ll fairly rapidly be inspired to shell out for a extra full expertise.
The gameplay can also not precisely be what you count on. Whereas Wordle’s shareability helped result in its success, Pokémon Mates’ each day mind teasers usually are not the identical for everybody. (I checked throughout two totally different accounts, on two separate units, and whereas I bought the identical puzzle sorts, my precise mind teasers for the day have been totally different.) That sort of goes towards the each day puzzle concept for me, however to be honest, these puzzles aren’t precisely the type that may profit from a communal thriller.
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Whereas Wordle encourages gamers to gossip or complain about what the phrase of the day is perhaps, Mates’ puzzles have extra of a browser-game high quality to them. You’ll discover sliding tile puzzles, ice skating puzzles, and Pipe Dream-esque railroad constructing puzzles. They’re cute, however at the very least based mostly on my expertise, they don’t seem to be one thing that can stump an grownup for lengthy, and undoubtedly to not the purpose the place you’d really feel the necessity to discuss them on-line. Whereas I get that this in all probability makes them extra approachable to a youthful viewers, I do assume there was a possible for one thing extra collaborative and mysterious that may higher match the “each day problem” concept, particularly in the event you take the anime’s Who’s That Pokémon? segments into consideration.
As an alternative, that mini-game high quality to the puzzles right here has me pondering much less about Wordle and extra about old-school flash video games like Neopets. That comparability additionally ties into the sport’s different characteristic, which is gathering plushies.
Pokémon is all about “catching ‘em all,” and Pokémon Mates isn’t any totally different. However right here, moderately than catching reside critters, you’ll be hoarding Pokémon plushies. Every time you end a puzzle, you’ll earn some yarn, which you’ll be able to then convert right into a digital stuffed animal of a corresponding pocket monster and show right into a digital room. It’s a fairly strong system, because you’ll be capable of place your fluffy collectibles in full 3D house, and get furnishings to indicate off alongside them. Once more, kind of like the way you may adorn your Neohome again within the day.
What do you assume thus far?
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Whereas this method isn’t what I anticipated, there’s something to Pokémon Mates when taken much less as a Wordle competitor and extra as an old-school assortment of tiny, browser-game model mind teasers you possibly can chill out to. The sport has greater than 1,200 puzzles baked in by default, and even when they aren’t up to date recent each day like on different puzzle apps, it’ll take some time so that you can cycle by means of all of them.
That’s, at the very least in the event you keep on with enjoying the one set of about three puzzles that free customers get per day. For those who’re prepared to shell out, you may as well pay for a $10 “Primary Pack” to unlock limitless puzzles per day (or simply purchase the Swap model, which prices $10 however has limitless puzzles unlocked by default). The Primary Pack additionally provides additional puzzle sorts, and if that’s not sufficient, there’s additionally “Puzzle On” bundles for additional growth.
With all of the DLC added, which helps you to blast by means of the premade puzzles as you want, Pokémon Mates feels extra like a sport that may have been launched on cartridge through the DS’ life cycle, or one thing that may have been a companion web site for a real-life plushie through the toys-to-life craze. That’s possibly disappointing to of us who wished a extra communal, frequently up to date expertise like Wordle, nevertheless it’ll in all probability hit players with a sure kind of nostalgia proper within the feels.
