Pokémon Friends

Hi! So I want to start this off by saying I love this game. The puzzles are unique and fun. The plushies are super adorable. The side missions are hilarious (still love the detective dude who wanted a Mimikyu plush so he could study what was underneath the disguise lol). But there’s one thing that’s been becoming more and more restrictive the longer I’ve been playing and it’s the 1 minute time limit you have to solve a group of puzzles. I understand why the time limit is there. It increases the difficulty. However, as you get higher in the challenge levels for some of those puzzles (looking at you - Stamp Box & Squirtle Garden & Release the Pokemon from the Box), the time limit begins to feel unreasonable. It’s becoming increasingly frustrating that I will be able to successfully solve these puzzles at these higher difficulties but because it took me 20 seconds to find that solution I don’t have time for the other rounds. Especially for the ones that require you to solve 5-6 rounds. Could we have an option in settings to disable this time limit? I think it’ll be conducive to promoting a longevity if players don’t feel like they’re being forced to choose between speed and actually learning how to solve the puzzle. I would prefer a “life” system where you can only make a certain amount of mistakes per puzzle before you fail and receive the same penalty that already exists for failing to complete in the time limit.

It’s a super cute game. The puzzles are cute and so are the plushies. I’m excited to see more design options for the room. On a minor note the only thing I would change is sometimes it feels a bit janky to place the plushies, especially since it’s in 3D and there’s actual dimension to the room. On a major issue is wow, the passes are a lot. I don’t mind that there’s limited puzzles, it makes it so you go a steady pace and don’t rush through the game immediately. But the adds are absurdly priced for what’s basically a puzzle minigame compilation. If you want the whole game it’s gone set you back at least $35 dollars and that’s with the bundle. Buying packs individually will set you back $40. While I can understand making something like lifting the limit cost money it’s upsetting to see that quite a few Pokemon and minigames are locked behind extra packs. I would understand the need for DLC maybe to make special variants of Pokemon plushies but immediately having pricey dlc locking 130 Pokemon and 40 puzzles is just kinda yucky. While I’m not sure how much yarn there is it seems you can only make 4 Pokemon with each. Which so far is pretty much just starters and popular Pokemon. I understand wanting to make money even off a simple app but pricey DLC to unlock basic Pokemon and minigames is just ugh. I would be fine with it if it was used just for maybe special variants of plushies and cosmetic changes like special room decor, but it’s not and it feels like a really greedy thing to do on launch. Either don’t lock away basic content or make it cheaper. Most people like the app, it’s really cute and fun. It seems like such a shame that this app will probably disappear within a year like many others because of something like this.

This is a very cute little puzzle game. You got my goat Sabeleye in there with his own minigame, you got a cute scorbunny minigame, a lot of fun stuff like that! After playing a batch of three mini games, you get some yarn, which you pop in a little machine to make cute plushies! On my first day, I got a scorbunny, charmander, psyduck, and a pikachu. But this game is what we in the biz call malnourished. You get one minigame A DAY. ONE. You can pay 10$ to get infinite minigames plays, which honestly doesn’t sound like that bad of a deal. You can even get more with little puzzle packs! But don’t expect a good free experience from this game. Only good if you aren’t paying if you’re a REALLY hardcore fan, and at that point, just drop the ten bucks. I give this game a “why was this announced at a Pokemon Presents”/6 out of 10.