Poll: So, Have You Tried Out Pokémon Friends On Switch Or Mobile Yet?

Not yet. I hope so soon.

This really does seem like a generic puzzle game they were afraid wouldn't sell without attaching a recognizable IP to it. Maybe I'm just being cynical, but pokémon hasn't really excited me much as of late.

Thanks for the reminder! Downloading it now on mobile.

I've done the daily puzzles every day since it came out and it's just too simple and for the price of the add ons (£34.99) it's just not worth it.

Take away the images of the Pokémon and this would be a £4.99 game on the eshop.

The game seems like a basic cash grab and should've been free from the start. The puzzles seem way to easy. I remember when Pokemon did actual spin-offs which were actually good compared to this.

This seems like it'd be mildly worth a look if it were just the $10 eShop purchase but the extra walled off content renders it an incredibly easy skip.

Where’s the option for “no, I forgot all about it when they said we had to pay for the switch version”?

I think I'm getting the Switch version soon! I'm really looking forward to it 😊!

I ended up buying it for Switch with the dlc. It definitely has more of a niche appeal, but for me I’ll get a lot of hours out of it. I like minigames and little puzzles, so it’s fun to play for a bit every day. Almost reminds me of brain age in that way.

The plush aspect and decorating rooms is a bonus too. What pokemon fan doesn’t enjoy collecting things, right? I’m having fun making different rooms themed around certain types and filling them with plushes.

$30-ish bucks for all the content of a puzzle game is worth it for me. It won’t be for everyone, but I’m glad they went this route instead of filling it with ads or a paid currency.

I think I’m good, personally. There are loads of other better puzzle games I could be playing and the Pokemon IP isn’t enough to change my mind

@ParrakerriRush

It is.

I got this for the Switch, no DLC, and while the puzzles are fairly simple, they are perfect for my 5 year old who has really taken to a wide variety of puzzle types as of late. She also loves pokemon plush too.

I'll do a few puzzles just to get some extra yarn for my daughter to get extra plush too. 🙂

There's so many amazing Spin-Off IPs The Pokémon Company sits on that'd make perfect budget digital titles for the Switch... and we got none of them. Instead we get low effort mobile games with more microtransactions options than Levels of gameplay. The only reason we got a sequel to Snap is because they couldn't think of a way to make it a mobile game.

Been playing it for 3-4 days and the puzzles are too easy. I thought they would be getting harder as you level up… but if this keeps up I will delete it within a week

No I haven’t picked it up yet since I bought Dave the diver and the DLC before the presents and I don’t have enough money for the switch version.

It's basically Big Brain Academy with a Pokémon skin.

But what's absurd is that this digital exclusive costs over AU$50 for the base game + optional expansions (and for such a basic, low-budget game).

A physical copy of Big Brain Academy on Switch cost me less than that!

I'll consider buying this if a complete physical release materialises, but I cannot justify spending AU$50 on this on either platform. Or they can lower the damn price.

For now, I'm sticking with the F2P mobile version, which is a nice little diversion, but I'm still a touch bitter about how they've handled this release.

Honestly never heard of it, but pokemon isnt really my thing.

I got the mobile version and am liking it. I was able to do three sets of puzzles today and had a lil bit of difficulty with it. The plushes are so cute though. Not sure if I will get the DLC but I’m enjoying it.

So, I actually think it’s a fun little daily thing to do on the Switch. I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it longer than a few weeks, but it’s kind of fun to poke into puzzles every day. I could do more since I bought it, but I’d rather make it last longer until I feel forced to buy DLC. I also don’t want to spoil the game for myself by beating everything in few days.

Have you tried out Pokémon Friends yet?

This question should also have a "No, not yet." option.

I'm unironically interested in trying it, but I haven't played either version, mostly because my Switch has been unused since, what? Late May? And my phone has run out of memory.

I have a five day streak going…. Blah!

@ParrakerriRush Like Pokemon Puzzle League. This is way too simplistic/easy and very overpriced.

I'm sure I could find more engaging and interesting puzzle games on the eShop or Play Store in less than a minute.

This is probably the most underwhelming thing I played in years. I don't often call something garbage but this is it.

Surprise-bought it for wife (she didn't watch the Direct), she loves this kind of stuff.

For anyone even vaguely interested:
The puzzles look stupidly easy... And they are... For a bit...

Then you reach Level 7+, and you start getting serious head scratchers.
If you had all the time in the world, they're not that hard, but since you're running out a clock: you're going to willfully flunk a question just so you can hope you get an easier one before the time runs out... You'll do this A LOT.

If I had to compare it to anything... It's like a mix of Big Brain Academy and Brain Age, but with Pokemon prizes.
Its puzzles are simple like Big Brain Academy, but progressively get genuinely difficult with every victory - and more like Brain Age: you actually feel your memory and puzzle solving skills improve as you play this daily.
And there's Pokemon plushies and furniture that you get to decorate your room*s* with - Kirby's Epic Yarn-style.

Don't worry about getting locked out of the game with this difficulty though:
The longer you take to complete puzzles, and the more you fail at them, your rank score will drop - which will drop you down to a lower rank if you drop enough in points. You'll then bounce back up the faster you solve puzzles and completing sets. This will ricochet you between two difficulty ranks over and over again until you're sharp enough to maintain a Level 9 Rank (which are still difficult enough to exercise your brain even if you master this).

Also, they didn't make it too apparent in the trailers, but you basically can only do so much in a day. Without limiting yourself (you can set yourself to only do a certain number of puzzles a day, if you cared to turn on that option), you can play the puzzles infinitely and earn an infinite amount of plushies because of it... But the missions you get to give plushies to townspeople? Those are limited by days (full 24 hours after you complete a mission, you may get 1 to 4 people with requests). And those missions earn you furniture, as well as unlock more characters with different requests.

It's simple and basic, but if you wanted a daily set of puzzles to keep your mind sharp, with the incentive of Pokemon plushies (complete with a Plush Dex) and designing rooms: this is a genuinely solid tool for it.

What I find most interesting is seeing how different wife and I's scores are... There are puzzles that I've mastered and didn't find too much trouble rising in rank, yet wifey can barely maintain a Level 6 with a couple of those.
And there are puzzles that I'm miserable with even in the Level 6 range, yet wifey holds a Level 9 with a couple of them consistently.
Goes to show the puzzles are targeting different parts of the brain.

Overall? The $9.99 price is a solid price for the game if this is all you need/want it for.
.... The DLC, though? Haven't bought them yet, but they do seem a tad on the expensive side for what they're offering... But I suppose it's targeting those who NEED more Pokemon plushies and puzzles to add to the mix...
... Wifey is certainly eager to get the DLC. She's just waiting to complete her current plushie Dex first, since adding those new plushies will affect the chance rate of getting certain plushies...
So the DLC certainly has its audience.

Felt the need to leave our little review of the game here since I feel like the Direct did an awful job at showing the merits of the game.

I have Apple Arcade included with my One sub. I'm drowning in this kind of crap.

I'm waiting for a sale. Not worth the current price whatsoever to me.

Plus, day 1 DLC is a red, greedy flag to me.

The 66% and 77% for both No options respectively on the poll (both numbers subject to change but still pretty high) should tell you everything you need to know.

I bought it on Switch 2
simply cause the game isn't available on mobile in my country (The Netherlands)

and from what I heard, the Switch version is a lot more user friendly

Nope, it looks really boring from the trailer so haven’t given it any thought after the showcase until now.

The poll question asks whether we've tried it 'yet', but the poll doesn't allow me to vote 'Not yet, but I am interested'.

Immeasurable. Ruined.

I gave it a shot on Switch and while I'm not going to front like it's a incredible experience, I do think it's gotten more flak than it deserves. It's a great game for kids and the difficulty does ramp up a nice bit to where even adults will have to think (though it takes a while to get there). The Pokémon theming is better in some parts than others, and most of the puzzles are pretty generic, but again, I think it works well for its target audience of kids and needs to be considered from that perspective.

This is the kind of pricing that gives me a perverse respect for Chinese appstore gamedevs making this exact thing with Pimkachu for like a single 99c purchase

Where is, “I haven’t bought it yet but I’m kind of interested”?

@Waluigi451 Nice! I’ve been considering getting the full game. The puzzles remind me of Professor Layton puzzles. 😊

I love it. It's Pokemon Brain Age. It takes a long time to get tricky since it's a kids game, but it does get tricky. It feels like a long lost DS game and I hope it gets more content. The plushes are adorable and very detailed.

The gacha mechanics are great for people like me who get addicted easily and are susceptible to the gacha business model. A $10 game with pricey but optional DLC is far preferable to extracting thousands of dollars from whales. It's a shame, they screwed up the marketing and made the game seem a LOT greedier than it actually is.

I've just looked into Pokemon Friends to confirm my dissapointments and it seems they are correct. I think my biggest gripe with this is how poor the TPC's spin-offs are now. I love Mystery Dungeon and Ranger (Which I would love with the Mouse Mode), but now a spin-off with day-one DLC payments and is just a boring puzzle game? The content are actual bare-bones right now with only basic puzzles. I'm not sure which is worse, the Switch 2 Welcome Tour or Pokemon Friends.

@DwaynesGames same. Like a cross between Layton and Warioware minigames haha

Played for about 10 minutes, very bored, uninstalled. Probably good for young children.

I'd rather just wait for the upcoming Professor Layton game.

Nope. Nor do I care.
It's really the one thing that does not appeal to me when it comes to nintendo stuff, I'm just not a pokemon guy.

No, I'm never touching this. It doesn't look appealing at all to me

No i did not yet tried it, because this game (Mobile version) is not available in my country (the Netherlands)