Hey You, Pikachu!

No! The invasion is upon us! Pocket Monsters Stadium was merely the first drop in the deluge of N64 Pocket Monsters – or Pokémon, for us round-eyed devils – games as Nintendo spreads its Japan-conquering spawn around the world. The next installment of the pant-beast adventures is Pikachu Genki Dechu, which means something along the lines of “Pikachu's feeling fine.” Although it is in essence a glorified Tamagotchi, Pikachu Genki Dechu comes complete with an extra gadget that makes gameplay a little... different.

Remember the Microphone Pak, which we reported on last year from the Space World show in Tokyo? It's finally materialised, as a pack-in with Pikachu Genki Dechu, in much the same way as the Rumble Pak and the 64GB were with Starfox and Pocket Monsters Stadium. Once you don the headset with its fetching yellow foam mike, you can explore the world of the Pocket Monsters and natter away to them.

Pikachu Genki Dechu isn't really a game in the way most people expect, as there's no real objective – it's more of a virtual pet sort of thang. While players can interact with Pikachu and his pals 'physically' through the controller (there are all kinds of puzzles and subgames to play) the main method of communication is verbal. Obviously it helps if you know some Japanese, since at the moment PGD is aimed solely at the N64's home market, but with Pokémon currently being a bit hit in the States a Western version is almost inevitable. Tell Pikachu that he's cute and he'll smile and play games with you, tell him he's an idiot and he'll run off in a sulk.

Pikachu isn't the only Pocket Monster in the game – other creatures are lurking in the landscape. In what seems to be a cut-down version of Pocket Monsters Snap (a photo-safari game originally planned for the 64DD) the locals can be photographed, and other subgames include Pokémon identity parades and even a fishing sim. Wonder if it's as good as Zelda's?

Pikachu Genki Dechu is due out in Japan before the end of the year. As soon as we can bag one of the little blighters, we'll be interrogating it to see just how much it does understand!

Hey you! Yes, I'm talking to you! Voice recognition on the N64! What do you reckon? Bit cool, eh? We thought so too. Shame the only thing you get to talk to is an insufferably cute, diminutive yellow monster. Ah well, you can't have everything...

Hey You, Pikachu! was the talk of the office (no pun intended) when we first heard about it. An N64 game with voice recognition? How cool would that be? Initial outings on the Japanese version proved strangely unsatisfying, mainly because our mastery of Japanese is... er, crap. The rumor at the time was that due to translation problems, there wouldn't be an English language version available. That turned out to be half-right, because although Nintendo UK have stated that a European conversion is almost certainly a 'no-no', an American translation has just recently materialized across the pond.

You Talkin' To Me?

Before you could say 'I demand a recount!' we were off down to our friendly local import emporium and – while the hard-working shopkeeper was busy on the phone – made off with a copy of the game, post haste! (Note: we obviously gave it back afterwards, because remember kids: stealing is wrong!) Safely back in the 64 MAGAZINE games area, we connected everything up, switched on our Nintendo and tried out our best American accents out on the diminutive Pokémon who (eventually) shyly came forward to meet us.

Hey You, Pikachu! stars – you're not going to be overly surprised to learn – the most famous Pokémon of them all, Pikachu. The story behind the game (gotta have a story you know) is that Professor Oak, the Pokémon bloke from the cartoon, is working on a new way of communicating with Pokémon and you've volunteered to help him out. The obvious flaw in this plot line is that in every Pokémon cartoon, comic and movie the little collectible creatures seem to be able to understand anything that is said to them, without the need for any special devices, but hey – what can you do?

All Right, Listen Up!

Our story begins therefore in your house with your mum (well not your mum, obviously – just someone who pretends to be your mum in the game) waking you up and reminding you that you're supposed to be helping the Professor today. A quick fade-to-black later and you're in the Viridian forest, face to face with a wild Pikachu! Under the Professor's instruction, you then get to have a brief chat with the friendly fellow, before returning home to bed – days in Pokémon country apparently being rather shorter than they are in most other parts of the world. Perhaps the Pokémon all live near the planet's pole or something?

Anyway, over the course of the next few 'days', and under the watchful eye of Professor Oak, you get to know Pikachu and to earn his confidence. This is done by chatting to him and playing some simple – for want of a better word – games until he grows so attached to you that he moves into your bedroom (and that's without even being engaged first, let alone married! Pokémon these days, I don't know...) Once Pikachu has moved in you are then free to roam around the surrounding areas pretty much at will and try out a variety of the aforementioned games, which range from fishing to taking part in a Spanish-style piñata party.

It's Good To Talk...

So... nothing particularly special so far, right? Except of course that your method of interaction with Pikachu in this game is rather special. The gameplay revolves around the use of a special N64 peripheral, the VRU, or Voice Recognition Unit. This plugs into port four on your console and connects to a microphone which, in turn, clips neatly onto your N64 controller. With everything correctly assembled, the Z button becomes your PTT key (that's Push-To-Talk, just in case you're not up on the latest radio jargon). Press Z, speak clearly into the microphone... and a speech bubble is fired at Pikachu, letting him hear your words and respond to them!

Obviously you can't just chat about any old thing, though. The game – and therefore Pikachu – only recognises a limited range of specific words and phrases, some of which are listed in the manual, others you pick up as you play through the game. Whenever explanatory text is displayed on-screen, the phrases which Pikachu is (allegedly) able to understand are highlighted in red, and thus you know to note them all down. By learning these phrases, the idea is basically to 'get on' with Pikachu, coaxing and cajoling him through the variety of sub-games.

Is There Anybody There?

So... the big question then: how does all this come together? Well at first, the game is rather fun. The initial few stages are basically a series of special tutorials which educate you on how to use the VRU and how to deal with Pikachu. It's rather good fun to speak instructions and have Pikachu respond to them, and the various tasks that the little yellow chap has to perform are fairly novel and entertaining for a while. But (there's always a 'but'), there's a problem.

The first of these is the speech recognition. To be frank: it's not actually very good. Okay, so it's fair to say that this is an American game and therefore the VRU is presumably calibrated for an American accent and American pronunciation. That said though, Americans in general do still speak English (of a sort) and so it's reasonable to assume that providing you speak clearly and don't have a broad Glaswegian accent then anyone speaking English should be able to make themselves understood at least part of the time.

It would be understandable of course, and perfectly reasonable, if certain words which sounded similar were mistaken for one another by the game. So saying 'Yellow' instead of 'Hello' for instance. Or 'Clock' instead of 'Drop'. However, it's not really much good when you say 'Naff off you annoying little yellow thing' and the game responds as if you've said: 'you're so cute'. Russell (resident Pokémon authority) had a bash at the game and – being the person he is – he thought he'd try out a few of the more popular expletives and the result was rather disappointing. Basically, whatever he said to Pikachu, the creature responded as if Russell had said whatever it was that the creature had been expecting to hear. So if Pikachu was expecting us to say 'hello', then no matter what we said he'd smile and wave and say 'hello' (or the Pikachu equivalent) back.

In fact the more we played with the game, the more it seemed to be that the gameplay was set up so that in many places where you're expected to say something, more often than not there is only really one response that you can give, and whatever you say, Pikachu reacts as though you've said it. Even when you're in a situation where there are a range of things to say – like on the Field Trip sub-game for example where you're supposed to help Pikachu find various items in a field ('field' trip, geddit?) it doesn't really seem to matter what you say. Pikachu just roams around and pretty much does his own thing anyway.

I Can't Hear You!

After a while this begins to get a little frustrating. The vocabulary that Pikachu (supposedly) understands is very limited and the games that you get to play with him are ultra-simplistic and ultimately not all that satisfying. They're obviously aimed at younger children, but that doesn't excuse them from being dull and – once you've tried them once or twice – fairly repetitive. Graphically too, the game is a little disappointing. While Pikachu himself is fairly well animated and the game is nice and colourful, there are lots of graphical touches which are badly implemented. When Pikachu is eating something for example – he takes two small bites and then the whole object just disappears. You can't help but feel when you look at the graphics and consider the gameplay that the vast majority of the work involved in this game went into developing and programming the VRU, and how Pikachu responds to it.

It certainly seems that the rest of the game was pretty much an afterthought. The result is a title that is essentially a novelty. Presumably if gamers are young enough that they don't mind the simplicity of the sub-games and the fairly basic animation on everything except Pikachu, then they'll doubtless love the fact that they can communicate – even to a limited extent – with the cuddly little monster. Anybody older though, unless they have a real love of all things Pokémon and can thus look beyond the numerous negative aspects of the gameplay, is going to find that this a bit of fun for a while, and then ultimately it just gets boring. This is probably going to be a bit of a let-down for most N64 Pokémon fans, but then at least it means we're not missing out on the PAL conversion of a fantastic N64 game, just a rather novel one. If you've got an American N64, then our advice is to try and borrow this game from somewhere because it's well worth giving it a bit of a bash – if only for the experience of being able swear at Pikachu and then have him wave cheerfully at you in response. It's not, however, really worth stumping up the cash for your own copy.

What if you had your very own Pikachu to talk to? What would you say? Nintendo's going to give you that chance this holiday season. In Hey You, Pikachu! you get your very own Pika-pal to talk to and go on special missions with. Whether it's gathering food for a hungry Bulbasaur, helping out a group of Caterpies and their Butterfree friend, or just going for a walk, you've gotta keep Pikachu happy and entertained.

Have you ever wanted to truly play with an on-screen Pikachu? Well despite the fact that you may need psychiatric help now you can with Hey You, Pikachu! This may not be a title to catch everyone's attention but this is the first N64 game to use voice recognition. Yes that's right, by using the microphone that comes with the game you can talk to your very own Pikachu!

This ultimate advancement in cyberpet technology allows you to help Pikachu fish, cook, search for treasure and many other things. Other Pokemon such as Bulbasaur, Caterpie, Charmander and Squirtle are also in the game for Pikachu to interact with. Do well and you can earn friendship points but annoy Pikachu and he could run off! Hey You, Pikachu! hasn't been confirmed for a UK release yet but is due out in the US around Christmas time.

First Impressions

This game gives you the chance to shout at Pikachu - what more could any sane gamer want? Coming with its own microphone attachment and voice recognition software the technical marvel behind the game is quite amazing! In reality it's not quite as interactive as you might think, especially as the version on show at E3 was Japanese, so Pikachu spent most of his time just looking at us blankly! We're sure it will thrill Pokemon fans all across the UK though - if it ever comes out over here!