"Ah, yes, Pokemon Channel. The pokemon anomaly."

Pokemon Channel... A game about watching TV... Sounds crap.

Those were my thoughts when I saw this game on the shelf. Unfortunately, I live in England, and, thus, the only way of getting Jirachi, that oh so elusive steel and psychic pokemon was to buy Pokemon Channel. So I decided to rent it. And, after playing it for a few days, I can honestly say I have rather enjoyed the experience.

After inserting the disc into my GameCube, I was told I had not enough memory on my 251 Memory Card, so I booted it up again, deleted some old saves, loaded it up again and was asked to change my GameCube's time, as it wasn't correct. So, I shut it down, changed the date and reloaded. Then, finally, I loaded the game, ready to play yet another Pokemon spin-off.

The graphics were decent, not so bad, but some of the models looked like they had been taken off the N64 Pokemon Stadium games. The items, such as the dolls, were nicely done, and you could see all the stitches and buttons. The locations, although small and far and few apart were varied and had lots of Pokemon to meet and two or three areas to explore.

The story was simple but effective, and was as follows. Prof. Oak is making a channel for Pokemon and humans and he wants you to be the test audience. So, you have to watch all the channels and report (read: save your game) when you've watched them. No evil ShinRa corporation, no impending apocalypse, just 'watch the TV'.

The controls were simple and easy to use: R and L to change channels, Z to turn the TV off and a point and click interface for everything else. The game itself is easy and fun to play, with simply watching the TV.

There are many different channels, ranging from interesting to sheep jumping over a fence. For example, one channel allows to buy things using your TV and have them delivered the following day, another allows you to watch an egg hatch for twelve hours. No, really. There's a few quiz shows which allow you to earn money for the shopping channel, which can be quite challenging for the non-pokemaniac. Oh, and the full-length pokemon anime, which is aired through five days, in five parts in around five minute long segments, including the Meowth's Party song, immortalised in the animutation flash movie 'Meowth's Evil Circus'.

There is also the 'Nice Cards' to collect, which you get by answering quiz questions presented by the pokemon you meet outside. There are also rare pokemon which you find out about with the PNF (Pokemon News Flash) channel, a news channel, which is a nice touch.

Pikachu's reactions while watching TV are funny to watch, and can be very annoying when Pikachu attempts to change the channel when you're on something like the shopping channel when an item you want is being sold.

Of course, for some people, the only reason they'll play it is to get Jirachi, and he doesn't disappoint. He is a truly awesome pokemon with the right EVs and a good move set.

The sound in the anime is excellent, DVD quality and the pokemon cries are terrific and true to the show, but they can get annoying when you watch them on TV and that's all they say (They are subtitled, of course).

The replay value is okay, as there is lots to do and it's hard to collect all the Nice Cards and there are many different TVs, dolls and Pokemon Mini games to buy, and it'll take at least six days to finish the main 'story' arch (provided you don't set the GameCube clock forwards).

If you want something new and fresh, buy it. After all, it's only £20.

8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/04