There certainly have been a fair few games starring those famous Japanesse born Pocket monsters. The Pokémon phenomenon peaked in popularity around the turn of the millennium, and still retain a firm following today. The main titles have filled our gaming lives with hours upon hours of handheld RPG fun with there various coloured installments since 1996. Developers GameFreak are the proud creators of the wildly popular franchise, taking it on themselves to produce each of the main game titles. The problem comes from other developers who purchase the rights. Obviously there are some great uses of the franchise, allowing fans to deepen their relationship with the creatures, some note worthy examples, are the Pokémon anima TV series, the Pokémon Movies (which still going, now on there 14th installment) and the Pokémon Trading Cards (produced by Creatures Inc, who also own part of the rights to Pokémon along with GameFreak). But as we'll soon find out there are meny games that take the franchise and create some irrelevant and unnecessary games that do nothing to deepen the Pokémon universe, flesh out the story or even bare any resemblance to the main titles. Just remember that the main games are about a player who ensembles and levels up a team of creatures by battle others. Before we start, a quick note; weve had to let a few go, a top ten sounds better, but honorable mentions go to Pokémon Channel, Pokémon Puzzle Challenge and Pokémon Project Studio, you really did suck as games but just didnt make it onto the top ten, sorry guys. There are a few other sequels and prequels to the games on the list that basically do the same as the originals. Also a big shout out to Battle & Get! Pokémon Typing DS, to be fair, this one was only released in Japan but that doesnt make it any less hilarious As you can imagine it's about typing, it comings with a full keyboard add-on. The player must type the on screen letters fast enough as Pokémon bounce towards them. This title makes me feel sorry for everyone involved, at any stage: Without further ado, here it is WhatCulture's definitive run down of the Pokémon games that didnt need to be made: 10. PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure Ok so maybe even the main games are aimed at kids after all, but they are not simple or childish, at the core there is relatively complex RPG system. Yes, some Pokémon are cute and brightly coloured, but the generation that found them cool have grown up a little since the late 90s. So why is PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure, aimed at mentally challenged two years olds? The player controls Pikachu, the reluctant poster child for the Pokémon world, as he attempts to save the world. Pikachu has to travel about the place to find bits of a Sky Prism, because the badass that is Mew asked him to, not sure why Mew could do this himself, probably hungover or just lazy. But anyway if Pikachu fails the sky will fall in, so Pika has to do a bunch of mini-games with his Poké pals. The game makes out as though Pokémon are friendly critters that just want to have fun, but I know from the main games that they want nothing more than to smash each others brains in with rocks or peck an opponents eye out. Ive seen Pokémon electrocute each other unconscious, ive seen Pokémon nearly drown from a hydro blast, and here this game is trying to tell me that all they do is play around all day holding hands, no, just no, Ive seen to much to believe their lies. 9. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red/Blue Rescue Team In this one, the human character wakes up as a Pokémon (unlikely) and you go around town chatting to all the other pocket creatures. Apparently the rapture is coming so there are lots of natural disasters happening and the only viable form of employment is to start a rescue team, to earn rescue point (useful right?) buy completing jobs in dungeons, what? Who needed this game, who though; Ive just spent 50 hours of my life on Pokémon Ruby, I need more, but playing as a human was boring and so was completing a relatively logical story, I want to start a squad that deals with the aftermaths environmental catastrophes in a dungeon setting or something. This one is annoying, it does the same thing that happens in a lot of the extra content, it anthropomorphises Pokémon, it takes these creatures that arent even capable of saying anything other than their own name and it pretends they can run a society. It gives Pokémon names like Gerry, as you engage them in small talk, they run shops as if they are proficient in stock management. It's also greedy, not happy with being on just one console generation it straddles two, the Red version is for the Game Boy Advanced and the Blue version is for the DS, so if you do want to catch them all, you need to spend loads of money no new consoles. 8. Pokémon Stadium Watching your Pokemon battle it out in full 3D 64-bit glory sounded like a good idea on paper, but paper is a fallible thing. In reality a series of slow, repetitive, non-eventful, turn-based fights on your Nintendo 64, was disappointing at best. For some reason the developers didnt think it would be important to include any sort of story line, as if the fun in the main games come from just the battles, and all the rest of that stuff was irrelevant. Although the Pokémon looked great (by N64 standards) the stadiums and arenas where incredible bland and bleak. A battle starts with Poké Balls thrown into a large empty space, two Pokémon pop out and fight, with nothing else around them-- not exactly a feast for the eyes there Nintendo. There is a commentator who tries his hardest to inject some sort of excitement to the preceding but his voice and choice of words repeated over and over each battle become very annoying very quickly. The only potentially redeeming feature was the ability to transfer Pokémon from the Game Boy main games, but this was only in North America. The dream of seeing my beloved Poké-friends battle on a bigger screen sounded great, and Im sure it was, but for some reason those racists at Nintendo hate the europeans, with a passion, I assume. In much the same way that books are generally better than there film adaptations, it turns out that Pokémon battles are better left to the imagination. 7. Pokemon Link Its a kind decision to exclude Pokémon Pinball from the list, on the grounds that every game franchise ever, has a pinball game somewhere: Sonic Pinball Party, Kirby's Pinball Land and The Pinball of the Dead to name a few. What could not be excused is Pokemon Link or Pokemon Trozei, for the DS, if you are from anywhere in the world outside of Europe. If you havent played this one, dont worry, its nothing to do with Pokémon, and thats just the problem. This Tetris style puzzler could have used any sort of branding, but went for our friends the Pokémon. This isnt the worst game of the list but it certainly is irrelevant to the Pokémon world. In this title the player must force Pokémon on top of each other, tightly packing them together like battery farmed chickens, with total disregard for Poké-rights and well being. I am a supporter and campaigner for free range Pokémon, which is why this game makes me sick. So I get that there are lots of Pokémon and that can lend its self well to a join the blocks puzzle game, but apart from that there is no reason for this Pokémon abuse. 6. Pokémon Rumble In the WiiWare title Pokémon Rumble you play as a toy Pokémon, wait --why would I want to play as a toy Pokemon, as if Pokemon are real in the first place. The toy Pokémon look and behave just as a real one would. I guess this is just a half hearted attempt to convince parents that there it isnt really a violent game. The main Pokémon series is a strategic minefield in which the player must carefully balance his selection of Pokémon against the opponents abilities, leveling up and evolving, in order to make it through the tricky RPG gameplay. In Pokémon Rumble all you need to do it button mash your way through linear environments to get to the next trampoline thing. Playing as a Pokémon you attack anything that standing in you way on your quest to... ummm ...well, be a better Pokémon. The game plays as mindless fun similar to the popular Smash TV, that is to say popular in the early 1990s and is laughable simple by todays standards. 5. Pokemon Snap A popular title at the time of its release, with many of us excited to see Pokémon for the first time in 3D on a home console. The game promised a full 3D world populated by all of favorite Pokémon, just waiting to be explored, and it delivered this, kinda. The was set in a 3D island with Pokémon bouncing around but who wants to play what is essentially an on-rails shooter, in which you can only shoot in the photographic sense. Ok game, you want me to take pictures of Pokemon with my camera...why? I could shoot them with a gun, they are not real, Pokémon Hunter would have been awesome. Cameras in games have always been a weird idea for me, cameras capture something from the real world in a way that enhances it, so you can say stuff like I was there or doesnt it look pretty.A picture is worth a thousand world, but what the hell is a picture of a Pokémon in a game supposed to tell me. So that I can have convosations like this: Let me see you photos bro, aww thats a sweet jiggly puff pic. The game was made up of 6 different levels, or courses, each one a different environment, allowing for a variety of Pokémon to be immortalised in film. As the photographer you where able to throw apples at the unsuspecting wild animals, either to attract them or to hit them in there silly Poké heads, the closes thing to fun in the whole game. 4. Pokémon Trading Card Game There where a few points during my school years when it was perfectly acceptable to approach a few pupil that you may have never met and greet them with the phrase What you got?. A simple and direct question that skips over the niceties, designed to let the other child know that you wished to view their collection. This phrase was applied (to a kid growing up in Reading) to Football trading cards of 1996, followed by POGs 1997 and my beloved Pokémon trading cards circa 2000. The last big fad that I engaged in at school, I still proudly keep my card collection, in the hope that someday, someone rich big shot will pay real money for a tattered shiny Riachu or Blastios. The joy of trading cards came from the social intersection and the ability to barter your way to a better deck. The physical nature of the cards themselves, the joy of ownership as a child. The ability to improve your collection and show others, battling friends with your new shinys. Why then did anyone decide to make this past time (that already is based on characters from a game) back into a game. Unless you were one of those weird home-school kids or you just didnt have any friends, there is no excise for this game. If you couldnt afford cards, how could you afford a game worth way more than I ever spent on the cards? If you want to play a Pokémon game, play the main series, a critically acclaimed RPG masterpiece, not a digital card game more sad than crying yourself to sleep on a friday night. 3. Hey You, Pikachu! Ever wanted to talk to Pikachu? No? Well nows your chance! Hey You, Pikachu is perhaps not the best idea in the first place and it is also poorly implemented, the resulted is a truly terrible game. If you consider that voice recognition technology today is still and little unreliable at best, this game from over 10 years ago for the Nintendo 64 (one of only two games for the system that attempted to you voice recognition, the other being a Japanese train simulator called Densha de Go! 64) was a mess of shouting and frustration as you try in vein to get the microphone to understand anything you say. As the game gives you the ability to talk to a creature that can only reply with his own name; conversations go as follows: Me: Pikachu quick we need to save the world, team rocket are trying to capture and enslave your friends Pikachu: Pikachu! Me: ...Ok, is that a yes? we better hurry Pikachu: Pika Me: Yes, yes thats your name, but right now there are more important things than you or me, lets go pokemon: Piiiiiika! Me: What is wrong with you? Your fellow Pokemon are in trouble and all you do it turn your head in that cute way! Pikachu: PiiiiiiKaaaaaa! Me: ... Pikachu: Piiii... Me: Fuuuuu! Just shut up!!! 2. Pokémon Dash This one is a good example of a franchise sneaking into genres where its not welcome, this is a Pokémon racing game. As if the idea of racing the creatures rather that forcing you Pokémon to fight doesnt sound bad enough, the way in which you race them is by frantically motioning in the desired direction on your DSs touch screen, as if your Nintendogs on heat...really have a look yourself here. Also surely some Pokémon are faster than others, I would just choose Ninjask or Jolteon and win every race, unfortunately you are limited to only play as the small rat Pokémon with average speed that is Pikachu. The game doesnt even try to make a good effort of creating a half decent Pokémon racer. Heavily relying on parents or just silly kids that dont use game reviews, to notice the colourful Poké cover art. The game is a top-down racer, a genre not popular since the days of the Emiga, it abuses the touch screen of the DS and only takes about three hours to complete... everything. 1. My Pokémon Ranch Do you remember when you first played Pokemon, back in the 90s when you beat that first gym leader and thought Some day, I wanna own a ranch and have all my beloved Pokemon walk around peacefully and aimlessly... No? Me neither, no-one did. The idea is that you upload your Pokémon from Diamond and Pearl, then they get to live on a farm on your Wii as they are rendered in Mii-style 3D. The Pokémon can walk about and interact with the creepy dead-eyed version of yourself known as a Mii. There isnt much else to do, you cant fight or level up your Pokémon, you can take photographs of them (same crap different game) and print them out on your computer. This is barely a game, there is nothing to do apart from look at your Pokémon and be happy. Developed by Tokyo based Ambrella who are also responsible for such titles as Hey You, Pikachu, Pokémon Dash and Pokémon Rum..ble... woah! wait a sec, these guys made four our of this top ten! Its as if they were created solely to make poor quality and irrelevant Pokémon spin-offs, its a conspiracy! The guys at GameFreak should go round there and sort this out, a big of violence can be a good thing sometimes. My Pokémon Range is a Wiiware title available for download for just 700wii points or which ever fake money Nintendo use to trick you that you arnt really spend your hard earned cash. I strongly advise everyone in the world, including the most hardcore Pokémon fan to avoid this game. It really has nothing to do with the original titles, much like most of this list, appart from the name and the characters. Anyway, this has been an emotional journey, lets end on a picture of Ash and Pikachu from the animate series looking happy:
There certainly have been a fair few games starring those famous Japanesse born Pocket monsters. The Pokémon phenomenon peaked in popularity around the turn of the millennium, and still retain a firm following today. The main titles have filled our gaming lives with hours upon hours of handheld RPG fun with there various coloured installments since 1996. Developers GameFreak are the proud creators of the wildly popular franchise, taking it on themselves to produce each of the main game titles. The problem comes from other developers who purchase the rights. Obviously there are some great uses of the franchise, allowing fans to deepen their relationship with the creatures, some note worthy examples, are the Pokémon anima TV series, the Pokémon Movies (which still going, now on there 14th installment) and the Pokémon Trading Cards (produced by Creatures Inc, who also own part of the rights to Pokémon along with GameFreak). But as we'll soon find out there are meny games that take the franchise and create some irrelevant and unnecessary games that do nothing to deepen the Pokémon universe, flesh out the story or even bare any resemblance to the main titles. Just remember that the main games are about a player who ensembles and levels up a team of creatures by battle others. Before we start, a quick note; weve had to let a few go, a top ten sounds better, but honorable mentions go to Pokémon Channel, Pokémon Puzzle Challenge and Pokémon Project Studio, you really did suck as games but just didnt make it onto the top ten, sorry guys. There are a few other sequels and prequels to the games on the list that basically do the same as the originals. Also a big shout out to Battle & Get! Pokémon Typing DS, to be fair, this one was only released in Japan but that doesnt make it any less hilarious As you can imagine it's about typing, it comings with a full keyboard add-on. The player must type the on screen letters fast enough as Pokémon bounce towards them. This title makes me feel sorry for everyone involved, at any stage: Without further ado, here it is WhatCulture's definitive run down of the Pokémon games that didnt need to be made: 10. PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure Ok so maybe even the main games are aimed at kids after all, but they are not simple or childish, at the core there is relatively complex RPG system. Yes, some Pokémon are cute and brightly coloured, but the generation that found them cool have grown up a little since the late 90s. So why is PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure, aimed at mentally challenged two years olds? The player controls Pikachu, the reluctant poster child for the Pokémon world, as he attempts to save the world. Pikachu has to travel about the place to find bits of a Sky Prism, because the badass that is Mew asked him to, not sure why Mew could do this himself, probably hungover or just lazy. But anyway if Pikachu fails the sky will fall in, so Pika has to do a bunch of mini-games with his Poké pals. 
