- Publisher: Nintendo , The Pokemon Company
- Release Date: Oct 6, 2023
Buy Now
| Buy on |
|
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
-
Oct 11, 2023Apart from reading, walking around, pushing together clues that are already next to each other and sometimes completing a quick-time event that you can't lose (!), nothing happens in Detective Pikachu Returns. Part 2 now provides new partners, for example Fukano now supports you with his sniffing nose. But that doesn't change the untapped potential and doesn't take the game to a new level. Even the story is so boring and predictable that I don't want to repeat it here. The game doesn't expect anything from you, but you have to continue it again by pressing a button. In this respect, the film of the same name gives you a much better experience - and significantly cheaper. All that remains is the Pokémon skin and charm: instead of crooks, you chase Pokémon like Mewtwo. Instead of interviewing witnesses, you take the statements of Pokémon. Yes, super cute, but so is every other Pokémon game. No case is particularly memorable. Or to put it another way: If Sherlock Holmes ever runs out of narcotics, he can also play this for five minutes.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
-
Oct 6, 2023The new entry of Detective Pikachu is far from being a great game, and it shows again that Pokémon has to reconsider the quality of the series.
-
Oct 10, 2023Detective Pikachu Returns isn’t setting up a sequel, and while I’m glad to have some closure, I am sad to leave Ryme City. Sometimes I get tired of sending Pokémon out for battle to knock each other out, and I just want to go on adventures with Pikachu by my side. Detective Pikachu Returns is imperfect, but lets me revisit the Pokémon world I’d most like to live in. I hope, even if this is the end of Tim and Pikachu’s story, it’s not the end of The Pokémon Company doing interesting, off-the-wall adventure games that can look at this universe in fresh ways.
-
Oct 4, 2023Detective Pikachu Returns is a welcome deviation from the mainline Pokémon games, thanks to its charming story and characters. It’s also a rare chance to see what life is like for Pokémon themselves, beyond the series’ focus on trainers, gym leaders, and professors of pocket monster studies. For the younger Pokémon fan with a thirst for solving mysteries, it’s easy to recommend. For longtime Pokémon fans, it’s simply a pleasant change of pace — and a big dose of Pokémon personality.
-
Oct 4, 2023It doesn’t feel entirely fair to compare Detective Pikachu Returns to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which are much bigger, more complex games that have a lot more going on in the background (we’re not supposed to be able to phase through). But when you compare this new game to something like New Pokémon Snap, it’s impossible not to feel like Creatures absolutely dropped the ball or at least didn’t capitalize on a prime opportunity to take the Detective Pikachu chunk of the Pokémon franchise to its next level.