Gamers logo

Top 10 Worst Pokémon Games

Long gone are the days of Pokémon Red and Blue.

By WatchMojoPublished 5 years ago 5 min read
Like

Sometimes, catching them all just isn't worth it. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we're counting down our picks for the "Top 10 Worst Pokémon Games."

For this list, we're looking at Pokémon games that weren't experiences the fans were looking for. Despite Ashley’s dislike for Pokémon: Let’s Go over on MojoPlays, it doesn’t make the list this time because there’s others in the WatchMojo office that liked the game.

My Pokémon Ranch serves as nothing more than an interactive storage box for you to transfer Pokémon from Diamond & Pearl. You watch your Mii interact with your Pokémon or visit your friends’ ranches. The whole point was to help fill out your Pokédex quicker for the aforementioned games. But if you don’t own Diamond or Pearl, you’re going to spend A LOT of time grinding, as you only get one new Pokémon per day. There’s really not much here, and the fact that this cost about 10 bucks makes it rather insulting.

The Pokémon Rumble games aren’t exactly terrible, but they certainly aren’t for everybody, let alone hardcore Pokémon fans. It’s an action beat ‘em up series that features basic combat and simple controls. However, Blast was proof that the spin-off series is quickly becoming tiresome. The combat is incredibly tedious, and despite having tons of Pokémon to collect, there still isn’t enough content to keep us busy. All you do is enter a level, bring the smackdown, repeat. With the series only being two years old at this point, it was disappointing to see a promising spin-off not even try to be innovative with its design.

We understand that this something you can get for free, but Pokédex 3D Pro quickly becomes nothing more than a waste of storage space. All you do is scroll through a catalog of Pokémon, look at 3D models, and read facts and stats about them. That’s it, and it feels like there could have been more potential to be had here. Heck, it would have been awesome to see simulated battles between certain Pokémon to educate players on how different Pokémon can be effective in battle. Instead, it just wants to show off the smooth renders of the little monsters. If you’ve downloaded it before, you most likely forgot about it.

Two years after the mediocre Pokémon Rumble Blast, the Wii U was graced with the appalling presence of Pokémon Rumble U. Once again, we were left with entering a level, bringing the smackdown, and repeating the process. While this would be the first game to utilize the Wii U’s NFC component, there wasn’t really a point in buying them as they would simply give you whatever Pokémon you bought. As for the game itself, it proved to be just tedious as the last game, boring beyond all reason, and utterly forgettable.

The Pokémon Stadium games, as well as Colloseum & Gale of Darkness, demonstrated that the franchise can deliver stellar experiences on home consoles just as it can on handhelds. So, when Pokémon Battle Revolution released on the Wii, it was a tremendous letdown. The game lacked a story mode, and the visuals were severely unimpressive. To make things more confusing was how Battle Revolution tried to heavily incorporate connectivity with Pokémon Diamond & Pearl. So, if you didn’t have a DS or either of those games, you weren’t left with a lot of content. This wouldn’t be the only overpriced Pokémon title.

A Pokémon racing game sounds great on paper, but the one time the franchise attempted it, the game tripped and fell flat on its face. The game’s first strike, is that it’s a racing game where you can only play as Pikachu, despite the franchises vast cast. The second strike is its terrible touch screen-only control scheme, that shows just how messy the races truly are. You’ll frequently find yourself wondering where the next checkpoint is in the race, only to end up losing your lead a few moments later. The experience quickly becomes frustrating, and soon enough, you'll end up quitting. In hindsight, we would have settled for another kart racer.

In Pokémon Dream Radar, players use the 3DS’s camera to break apart Dream Clouds in order to find and capture Pokémon. Yeah, even by Pokémon's standards, this concept doesn’t make much sense. Zap clouds so you can zap Pokémon? Ignoring the bizarre idea, Dream Radar isn’t just a bad Pokémon game; it’s one of the worst 3DS titles to date. Even for three dollars, it isn’t worth the amount of boredom and fatigue that quickly sets in. Besides, there’s already an augmented reality game that came with your 3DS for FREE: Face Raiders, remember?

The Pokémon franchise has seen some decent puzzle games. However, this free to play title is not one of those. Players must match at least three Pokémon to pull off of various combos and increase their score and capture Pokémon. Unfortunately, you'll quickly feel cheated out of moves, and it’s reliance on micro-transactions and wait timers make the game irritating. Levels will quickly become difficult, and you'll end up having to grind for more experience points early on. It's tedious, it's boring, and it does almost nothing to set itself apart from other match-three puzzle games.

One of the selling points of Hey You, Pikachu! is that you could talk to Pikachu. If only it was as enjoyable as it sounds. Using the microphone packaged with the game, players must command Pikachu to do different things, such as fishing or collecting food... or yelling obscenities at your screen because the rat won’t listen! Yes, the game’s main attraction is its biggest flaw! If you somehow managed to beat the game (and you must be a VERY patient person for doing so), your special reward is an extensive cutscene of Pikachu just wandering around. What a monumental waste of time.

Can we even call this a game…? Pokémon Channel isn't what you may think it is. No, you're not running your own TV network for Pokémon and it's not even an adventure game. Your job is to sit there and watch TV with Pikachu, and nothing else. You can watch episodes of the anime or some of the awkward skits like Meowth doing news reports and Slowpoke’s weather forecast. There's just nothing for players to do, which makes its so hard to justify its $50 price tag! Seriously, it's baffling…

feature
Like

About the Creator

WatchMojo

Bringing you new top 10s every day. Subscribe today on Youtube.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.