June/July Live Magazine 2018

Generally, Tim follows instructions from
Pikachu to progress through the story.
These instructions range from soliciting
testimony to searching environments
for clues, including settings in a theme
park, laboratory, and cave among others.
Players use the bottom screen to interact
with Pikachu and present evidence in the
correct sequence. It should be noted that
the developers set their target on a younger
demographic than the mainline meaning
there are no game over screens and unlimited
attempts for solving cases (if at first you don’t
succeed). Additionally, there’s a fair amount
of backtracking which, while arguably genre
appropriate, doesn’t always avoid feeling like filler
content. Thankfully, brief action sequences aid the
narrative’s pacing. I only wished these sequences
amounted to something more than single button
quick time events. More interactive sequences
would have added considerable variety to the
proceedings. It is difficult to review Detective
Pikachu without emphasizing its high-quality
presentation. Detective Pikachu is continually
impressive and punches above its weight on
aging hardware. The textures appear sharp on
the small screen, which brings scenes to life.
Unfortunately, the developers’ ambitions prove too
much for the base Nintendo 3DS console. Minor
frame rate issues appear early on and become
particularly problematic in busier sections of the
final chapters. Overall, I am uncertain if the larger,
more populated environments were worth the
performance trade-off. It’s a shame it couldn’t shine
on stronger hardware where it might have reached
a more purchase-motivated audience, especially
considering the game’s conservative use of 3DSspecific
features and the popularity of the Nintendo
Switch.