Review: DETECTIVE PIKACHU RETURNS has fun gameplay with a predictable story

Nintendo recently released The Return of Detective Pikachu, developed by Creatures Inc, on Nintendo Switch. This is the long-awaited sequel to the fan-favorite game of 2016/2018 (Japan/Worldwide) Detective Pikachu for Nintendo 3DS. The game is available now in the Nintendo eShop and at your favorite retailers, including GameStop (affiliate link), now with an MSRP of $49.99.

In this cinematic adventure, tough-talking Detective Pikachu and his partner Tim embark on a journey full of mystery (and lots of coffee!) in search of Tim’s missing father, Harry. Along the way, the detective duo will work with other Pokémon to help solve cases throughout Ryme City, including following scents with Growlithe, shattering rocks with Darmanitan, and peering through walls with Luxray.

Why did Tim’s father disappear? And what’s causing the Pokémon-related incidents in Ryme City? Answer these and other questions by searching for clues, investigating scenes, and making deductions alongside personality-filled Detective Pikachu.

The Return of Detective Pikachu is a direct sequel to the original and is set two years after the 3DS title. This is where I reveal that I have never played the original Detective Pikachu game. I would highly recommend not to be like me. If you haven’t played Detective Pikachu first, find a way to do it. This in my opinion is one of the biggest flaws. I’m honestly surprised Nintendo didn’t port it Detective Pikachu to the Nintendo Switch. Between the film’s release in 2019 and the sequel coming out now, those are two prime windows to release a port. This is especially true now that the 3DS eShop has been shut down. Regardless, you can play The Return of Detective Pikachu without playing Detective Pikachu and getting much of the story, but I felt like on many occasions I felt like having that background information would be helpful.

For all The Return of Detective Pikachu, you play as Tim Goodman and the great detective Pikachu. You continue your journey to find out what happened to Tim’s father and Pikachu’s partner, Harry Goodman, and along the way you end up solving some other mysteries such as the theft of a precious jewel, discover the secrets of some ruins, find out who framed Pikachu and other innocent Pokémon in a series of crimes and more. It all culminates in the resolution of the ultimate Harry Goodman mystery. I’ll save my review of the main story for the end of this review as I’ll have to get into spoiler territory to do so.

From a graphic point of view I was honestly disappointed The Return of Detective Pikachu. To me it looks like a port of a 3DS game or maybe a Wii U title. The overall art style doesn’t really bother me, but it doesn’t look as good as other Switch titles. Even my wife, who almost never cares about graphics, commented that the game doesn’t look great. The plots are quite simple and given how much I enjoyed the Pokémon plots Scarlet AND Viola, I was disappointed that the Pokémon seemed painted in colors and patterns instead of having depth and life. The next one might be due to linguistic differences, but at least while playing in English, the gestures and lip movements don’t seem to align very well with what’s being said.

When it comes to audio, I think the best part about it is the music. The music team did a great job with the various tracks to convey the atmosphere. The voice acting in this game is hit or miss. Some of the voice actors do a decent job, but some seem to have really phoned it in.

The game for The Return of Detective Pikachu it’s quite simple. You walk around looking for clues and then make deductions based on the clues you’ve collected. She reminded me a lot Asso lawyer if you actually moved Phoenix Wright instead of using text boxes to move. The gameplay overall isn’t bad, although there were times when I figured something out before gathering all the clues and then had to go through all the steps that felt boring. If you consider that the intended audience is young children, I can forgive the boringness.

One of the best parts of the game though is the simple fact that you can ride certain Pokémon. Of course, the best use of this is in the first main mystery when you get to ride the Growlithe. This is perhaps the peak of gaming for many. It’s adorable. That said, there’s also Luxray, Pangoro, and Galarian Darmanitan, each providing aid in a different way to help you progress through the mystery. This in my opinion is a positive element and a point in favor of the game.

I guess it’s time to talk about the story. If you don’t want spoilers, know that that’s fine. It wasn’t anything fantastic in my opinion. Just scroll to the bottom to see my score.

Now that we’re in spoiler territory, let’s take the gloves off. If you have seen the 2019 film Detective Pikachu, you pretty much know how the story goes. The Pokémon are framed by the police so that they can be arrested and then used to study the effects of the control cubes so that the mad scientist can fuse with a powerful Psychic-type Pokémon (Deoxys in this case) so that the world can work as they think it should. Oh, and Detective Pikachu is actually Tim’s father, Harry, fused with Pikachu. I know there’s a decent chance this was planned from the start of the first game, but that’s because The Return of Detective Pikachu Taking seven years to launch after the initial 3DS game launch and four years after the movie, it feels a lot more like “copy my homework but change it up a bit.”

I like the idea that it was a controlled Ditto that framed all the innocent Pokemon. I also enjoyed the mini mysteries, including robbing the mansion and exploring the ruins. It’s just the way the big mystery ends that really disappointed me.

At the end of the day, if you’re a fan of Detective Pikachuyou will probably like it The Return of Detective Pikachu as long as you don’t mind a predictable plot. I was disappointed with the graphics and voice acting, but I appreciate the music. What do you think of this game?