GamePro Arcade

Prepare for Trouble

My Pok�mon Ranch is nothing like the Gameboy and Nintendo DS Pok�mon games, and it bears little resemblance to previous spinoffs like Pok�mon XD and Pok�mon Colosseum. There's very little gameplay in My Pok�mon Ranch at all, actually. The experience largely involves transferring Pok�mon from your Nintendo DS Pok�mon Diamond or Pok�mon Pearl Pok�dex and watching them frolic around as low-polygon Wii models at your Wii Pok�mon ranch.

And...well, that's pretty much it. My Pok�mon Ranch otherwise serves mostly as an extension to Pok�mon Diamond or Pearl's gameplay. Hayley, the ranch's owner, will occasionally issue Pok�mon bounties, and will reward you with items and Pok�mon trades upon successfully finding, capturing, and transferring wanted Pok�mon. Transferring more Pok�mon to the ranch also raises the farm's level, allowing you to store more Pok�mon and earn additional bonuses at the beginning of each new gameplay day.

So why would you want to do any of this? Well, if you transfer 1,000 Pok�mon to My Pok�mon Ranch, Hayley rewards you with a Mew, an incredibly rare Pok�mon that is otherwise impossible to encounter or catch in recent Pok�mon games. This factor alone will likely sell My Pok�mon Ranch to millions of obsessed Pok�fans worldwide.

Otherwise, there's not much point to My Pok�mon Ranch, especially if you don't own a copy of Diamond or Pearl. If you lack both games, Hayley will still bring new Pok�mon to the ranch every day, but this alone does not provide enough reason to keep playing past the first day.

Surrender Now, or Prepare to Fight

As it turns out, though, you can still enjoy My Pok�mon Ranch with only a base level of experience with the series, or if you have a friend or roommate willing to transfer his or her Pok�mon to your ranch. Gameplay starts off slow, with only a select few Pok�mon allowed on your ranch at a time, but as the farm levels up (after a mandatory and somewhat frustrating 24-hour "construction" period each day), the game soon springs to life.

Despite its lack of gameplay, My Pok�mon Ranch is strangely relaxing to watch, especially when you throw some of your own Miis into the mix. It's fun to watch Miis of your friends and family be generally ill-at-ease around your often angry and combative Pok�mon, and you can't tell me that watching a Stunky fart all over a Mii version of Dr. Robotnik is anything less than the most hilarious thing of all time.

You can also march your Pok�mon in a parade, make them play with toys that are delivered daily, take and send pictures through the Wii message board, and visit your friends' ranches, among other things. My Pok�mon Ranch is a surprisingly compelling exercise in Pok�mon-watching; it's just that you aren't in control of very much of it. The almost total lack of interaction makes the title difficult to recommend to many audiences, but if you need to fill out your Pok�dex and enjoy watching cute creatures fart on each other, My Pok�mon Ranch might be worth a look.
-Daniel Cowan