If you’re like millions of gamers worldwide, you have had some form of interaction with Pokemon. Either you’ve played the game in one of its many, many iterations, watched the show, seen the movie, or seen the toys in stores. Few people don’t know who or what Pikachu is (and know what I mean when I say WHO or WHAT Pikachu is) and given that the generation that almost grew up on Pokemon is at an age where we can begin passing it down to our kids, it’s only expected that the mobile gaming market would have the beloved franchise show up eventually.
Developers The Pokemon Company have brought to us Camp Pokemon, a game for iOS 7 or later that’s geared towards the younger crowd, namely from ages roughly 6 to 8 where kids are set out on an island packed with Pokemon-themed games and activities. And given that this is the second Pokemon game from The Pokemon Company with mobiles in mind, the first being the Pokemon Trading Card Game Online, it stands as proof that Pokemon is a viable platform for mobile gaming and one that could easily be popular for a large group of people again.
On the island, kids will find a selection of mini-games geared at advancing their knowledge of Pokemon as a whole, all set to a cheerful soundtrack and some cute graphics that are very reminiscent of some of the classics that we all know and love from the Nintendo 64 days.
Some of the mini-games include;
- Poke ball Practice, where kids can practice their throwing skills by tossing poke balls at crossing cutouts of Pokemon. Enough hits and they knock the cutout down, earning points and rewards that will eventually help them unlock different environments to practice in.
- A quiz that helps kids practice their knowledge of the evolutions of Pokemon by looking at the progression of Pokemon in an evolution chain and picking out which one is missing.
- By using a telescope, kids can search through various environments and find different Pokemon. By spotting them, they can earn that Pokémon’s pin to store in their Pin Book, a feature that is very similar to one of my favorite Pokemon games, Pokemon Snap!
- Your cabin stores all your Rewards and Pins, and lets you see your Photo Book of imported pictures that you can customize with sprites of your favorite Pokemon.
Several other minigames and locations exist, but many need to be unlocked as you go in classic Pokemon fashion.
Keep in mind, this is a game geared towards younger children and will likely not live up to any standards or expectations the more hardcore players may have. But if you are looking to get your young child into Pokemon without basically tossing them into the deep end, Camp Pokemon is really the way to go. And the Free price tag can’t be beat. My youngest son loves it and, as expected is a huge Pikachu fan, so watching him get excited as when he spotted Pikachu for the first time through the telescope was all I needed to get behind this game completely.
