Review: Pokémon Friends

Pokémon Friends is a small puzzle collection that wears its mobile roots on its sleeve. The premise is simple: solve short, bite-sized puzzles to earn yarn, feed that yarn into a “Plush-O-Matic,” and collect cute Pokémon plush to place in little dioramas.

It’s cheerful, harmless and clearly aimed at a younger audience or the very casual player, at least for the first few hours as the difficulty ramps up on later levels.

Graphics are tidy rather than showy. The presentation leans into soft, colourful art and large, readable User interface, exactly the sort of thing that reads well on a phone or handheld. There’s nothing in the way of technical fireworks, but the aesthetic fits the game’s gentle pace, and character sprites and plush designs are often cute.

The rotating set of quick minigames test basic logic, spatial reasoning and pattern recognition. A lot of the puzzles work well because they’re short and repeatable; some of the more Pokémon-specific minigames (where you control a critter or use a type-themed gimmick) feel better integrated than the purely abstract challenges.

The problem is that the systems have a bias for touch controls and while playing docked with a controller is fine for clearing puzzles, you’ll lose a few seconds here and there and certain interface bits come across a little clumsy.

I downloaded the game on my phone and tablet to compare it to the Switch version. It just feels right on mobile so it’s hard to shake off the idea that I’m playing an inferior version on the Nintendo Switch, in spite the content being cheaper on the Nintendo Switch.

The game stumbles when it comes to value for money and it’s an unnecessarily complicated upgrade path. The Switch “Basic Pack” ships with 30 puzzles, 70 craftable plush and 11 yarn types. It’s R209 on the South African eshop. Additional packs can be purchased but it significantly increases the price.

If you’re a hardcore Pokémon collector or you play on handheld a lot, there’s comfort and charm here.

For me, the experience is small, repetitive and hard to justify as I didn’t care as much for the plush concept and my six-year-old wasn’t too interested and mostly just humoured me. I don’t blame him as he is busy playing Astrobot and Donkey Kong Bananza so it’s hard to appreciate when he is eating like a king.