It could be "nearing release"

In mid-2019, Nintendo announced Detective Pikachu 2, a sequel to the Detective Pikachu game (which ended on an unresolved note)...and not a peep has been uttered since then. Let's look at the timeline of how everything Detective Pikachu-related has gone down.

The full timeline of the Detective Pikachu series

• February 2016: A three-chapter smaller version of the game is released in Japan titled "Birth of a New Duo," which is the first major appearance of the Detective Pikachu character.
• March 2018: The full version of Detective Pikachu is released worldwide on 3DS, with a nine-chapter storyline (and a giant accompanying amiibo).
• May 2019: The Detective Pikachu film debuts, and smashes video game box office records (a sequel game is subsequently announced for Switch).

So this new late-2022 update actually all boils down to a LinkedIn profile from Jonathan Murphy, who worked on the game at Creatures Inc (the studio that developed the first entry). As spotted by Famiboards user MetalLord, Murphy used the phrase "worked on one unannounced project and one nearing release, Detective Pikachu 2." Murphy ha??s since changed their LinkedIn profile to note that the game is "in development," removing a mention of "nearing rel??ease."

Honestly, this is pretty explosive info if it's actually correct, especially if Nintendo is aiming for a mid-2023 release to spice up the Nintendo Switch lineup. While the jury is out on how accurate this LinkedIn statement is, at the very least, Detective Pikachu 2 is still in development. Some of us want to know how the game ends (assuming it's no?t the same as the film)!

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Psyduck is the real star here

I can only imagine that Pokémon fans reacted to the news of a film adaptation for Detective Pikachu with a mix of skepticism and curiosity, with a bit of horror sprinkled in. Today, through the film's first trailer, Warner Bros. gave us a better picture of what to expect, which is an attempt at a photorealistic, furry electric mouse that happens to sound like Ryan Reynolds.

Lead actor Justice Smith (The Get Down) portrays&nb?sp;Tim Goodman, a young man who discovers a Pikachu (the voice of Reynolds) and acts as the one person who can understand his "Pika Pikas" as actual words. The two unlikely cohorts team up on an adventure to find Goodman's missing father, utilizing the apparent amazing detective abilities that this Pikachu inhabits. Expect other Pokémon like Psyduck, Jigglypuff, Charizard, and a host of other pocket monsters from all of the different generations of Pokémon to show up. And yes, they all have the same "realistic" look, with fur, scales, etc.

Anyway, did you see t?hat Ps?yduck? Like, just look at it.

The att??empts at realism in depicting these Pok&e??acute;mon is alarming. Take another look at the movie's version of Mr. Mime, who is already a creepy motherfucker in the games.

Freckles on its face, tiny little hairs on the top, and... dodgeball shoulders? Maybe it was lack of foresight on my part, I really did not expect this weird Garfield approach. There is a weird, specific textur??e to all of these Pokémon, and I've been seeing reactions split do??wn the middle about it.

I'm in the camp that's all for it. Seriously. Not to mention, I think the adventure vibe that the film's trailer is going for can really work. I'm also surprised, as a lifelong fan of the games, that the film is true to a lot of details, with? po?sters that reference many of the locales found in the game, and a much more comprehensive selection of Pokémon characters and cameos that I expected.

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu was directed by Rob Letterman (Goosebumps) and will star Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies), Ken Watanabe (the guy Hollywood always gets when you need a Japanese actor), and Rita Ora. The film is scheduled for release on May 10, 2019—until then, you can c??ontemplate about how in these trying times, we are all Jigglypuff right now.

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It brings you through the starter mission

Detective Pikachu was generally my cup of coffee despite its easy going d??ifficulty curve?, it just happened to squander a bit of its potential -- mostly in terms of the ongoing narrative.

You can see if it's your cup though by way of a demo version, which runs through the initial tutorial mission that helps you acclimate to both the clue hunting aspect of the game and Detective Pikachu's personality. It's available on 3DS right now, and the best part? Nintendo has confirmed that if you buy the full game your progr??ess will transfer (it's only around 30-45 minutes depending on how much you linger, but it's nice to not have to do it again).

From now through April 22 you'll get a download code for a Detective Pikachu theme if you pic?k the game -- Nintendo says to look at retail packages for ??the code or grab it on the eShop until that date. Although I was disappointed a bit there's still a lot to love, so maybe you'll dig it!

Free special demo version of the Detective ?Pikachu game! [Nintendo]

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Late to the party!

Welp, thanks to Amazon being a bit late with my copy of the game and other unforeseen events in my personal life eating up most of my time, I didn't get to play much of Pikachu's latest adventure until late last week. However, I managed to finally sit down, set up my recording gear, and play through Detective Pikachu in tw?o sittings so I could deliver this latest vi??deo!

That said, I absolutely do not recommend playing this game to near completion in two sittings. This game feels like something you'd play a single chapter of and then maybe play again later or the next day. My first session with Detective Pikachu was a little over seven hours in length and it was mind-numbing. For those of you who are playing or have played the game, I'm curious if anyone else felt like chapter fou?r was moving in slow motion... because it sure as hell was for me.

Worse yet, I already figured out who the culprit was a good half an hour before that chapter ended. For added context, I went into Detective Pikachu completely blind. I didn't watch any trailers, I didn't check up on any gameplay of it, nor did I watch any other reviews of it. I had almost no idea what to expect and I can't help but feel disappointed by the end of it. I think the only redeeming thing for me in Detective Pikachu was Pikachu himself as every other element of this game felt bo??ne dry to me.

Big props to Kaiji Tang, though -- the English voice actor for Detective Pikachu ab??solutely nailed the performance and was perhaps the sole reason for me to keep playing. Here's hoping the upcoming movie and future games in this series up the ante, because man, I don't know if I can sit through another game similar to this one.

Bu??t, maybe I'm alone on that opinion, what do you think?

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Get on the case with the little yellow critter

Nintendo have released a short e-book detailing an early adventure for Detective Pikachu, set before the events of the recent 3DS release. Episode 0 can be downloaded on? Apple iBook and Amazon Kindle.

The short story features the grumpy super-sleuth hot on the tail of a culprit who committed a seri?es of murders, leaving all t??he corpses without eyes messed up fellow Pokemon Eevee's back garden. The s?imple tale is 25 pages long, perfect for bed-time storytelling or skiving off to the toilet at work. It acts as a basic prelude to the events of the newly-released game.

Detective Pikachu - Episode 0: Eevee's Case can be downloaded from Amazon for your iOS or Kindle device now. Enjoy!

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A bolt of brilliance?

When I first saw the concept for Detective Pikachu, I was in. Although the idea of a? talking Pikachu who solves crimes with a young boy named Tim raised some eyebrows I dug the Sherlock look on the ol' rat, and since many Pokemon have talked at this point by way of the series and its various films (Entei, Meowth, Mewtwo, Slowking, and many more) it wasn't that much of a stretch.

By the time the curtains closed on the game I didn't walk away all that impressed -- but I defi??nitely want to see more of Detective Pikachu in the flesh.

Detective Pikachu (3DS)
Developer: Creatures
Publisher: Nintendo, The Pokemon Company
Released: February 3, 2016 (JP), March 23, 2018 (US)
MSRP: $39.99

It might be hard to tell from all of the promotional material, but Detective Pikachu is very much an old school adventure game. You'll grab items to use in various (very light) ??situations, solve (very simple) logic puzzles, and chat with the inhabitants of sequential small sandboxes. The hook is intriguing both from a macro and micro standpoint. There's this huge conspiratorial mystery inv??olving Tim's missing father, which leads him into the family business of de??tective work, and a more homely setup of only Tim being able to understand a talking crime-solving Pikachu.

The former doesn't deliver, but the latter is something I never knew I wanted until I heard his voice for the first time. This hard boiled and sarcastic take on Pikachu is fantastic, as he's equal parts cute and insufferable in th?e best sort of way. There's gobs of vocal work too, much more? than I thought there's be, and the team strikes a good balance throughout even for normally throwaway characters. The engine is doing some heavy lifting on the 3DS, and after getting over the notion that a lot of the NPCs look like straight-up Disney characters, I went with it.

That cheery veneer doesn't really translate to the sometimes rote gameplay. Even in the later missions you're going to be spending a lot of time quizzing NPCs for specific keywords, going ??back to another NPC after collecting said keyword, and repeating the process. While the voicework's script has some pep to it the text is generally droll -- so while you don't have to worry about hardcore retro pixel-hunting madness, the scale tips t??oo heavily on the other side of the equation.

It's a lot of fixed situational stuff, like distracting an NPC who's scaring off a witness, that sort of thing. Some of it works logically, some doesn't, and in those moments you'll feel the burn of gating. Maddeningly there's moments where you're right next to a conspicuous item that you know is going to be important, but you can't pick it up yet because the game doesn't want you?? to. Still, like Pikachu's in-game "bolts of brilliance," nailing a solve is always satisfying, especiall??y when you're gifted with a cute cutscene reward.

A few cases are lighthearted fare like errand running, and several are Scooby-Doo esque whodunnits (complete with a satisfying "meddling kids" rant at the end, and now I just worked myself up and want a good Scooby Doo game). QTEs, the bane of some folk's existence manage to stow away here, but as always I am a dirty defender of them if used tastefully (which they are here). Just as an aside, the giant $30 amiibo unlocks little animations -- sometimes 10 second clips -- that serve no purpose a?nd are just cute that you can come across on your own.

Although I never got to the point of wanting to put the game down (the main cast is too darn charming for that), Detective Pikachu limits itself to a fault. Areas could stand to be more open and I could have used a lot less plot buildup and a lot mo??????????????????????????re payoff. Things start to get interesting around chapter seven (of nine), and leaving it on a major unresolved cliffhanger is an act of cruelty.

I want to see a lot more of Detective Pikachu despite my misgivings with his 3DS debut. I hope the next game is a little more fleshed out and doesn't tease us so heavily; but developer Creatures was able to build the skeleton of a low key adventure ro??mp.

_{[This review is based on a retail version of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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I still wish Danny DeVito was Pikachu

I haven't been following the development of Detective Pikachu too closely, and for good reason; I want to be ??utterly surprised when ??I play it for the first time.

That's not to say that I won't catch the occasional clip, and as we enter the roughly one month 'til launch mark, seeing a few familiar faces isn't such a bad thing. Detective Pikachu charges you with "cracking the case of the rampaging Pokemon" in Ryme City, and you'll evidently battle, dance, a?nd befriend a handful of classic Pokemon.

If you're going in blind I would avoid the belo??w video for spoilery appearances, but otherwise it doesn't give too much away!

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The faces still crack me up

With all the commotion over who would voice Pikachu in the Detective Pikachu movie, I had forgotten there was a 3DS game that only saw a release in Japan. It's rushing back to me now, though. Ah yes.

Based on a recent PEGI listing for Detective Pikachu, it would seem the mystery-solving 3DS title is moving toward a release in Europe (and the rest of the world). The ratings board has a placeholder launch date, so the timing is still up in? the air, but the 3DS will stick around for a while yet.

If you've never really paid much attention to Detective Pikachu, just skip to any old spot in this playthrough of the first case and hear the iconic Pokémon chat away. It's...surprising.

I'll ?be curious to see how the localization goes for this one.

Serebii.net [Twitter]

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I signed it, so should you

Sairith Aramor has started a petition to get Nintendo of America to hire Hollywood superstar Danny DeVito to voice the English localization of the recently announced Detective Pikachu. 

"There are a number of us that feel as though Danny DeVito would be a prime fi??t for the voice acting role of the Detective Pikachu," states the petition. "We want to make this happen."

I think we can all agree that this is the most important petition to have ever been started by Nintendo fans, and perhaps of all time. As of the time of writing, it is nearing 8,000 signatures and that number increases each time I refresh the page. Nintendo hiring DeVito would surely make up for all of its changes during the localization of Fire Emblem Fates, as well as the lack of information about upcoming surefire hit Metroid Prime: Federation Force. 

Sign the petition. Share it. Make this viral. Vote DeVito 2016!

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'Birth of a New Partnership'

We knew some sort of Detective Pikachu game was coming at some point, but now we have final confirmation. It's called Birth of a New Partnership, and it's due for a February 3, 2016 release date on the 3DS eShop in Japan, at a 1,500 yen pricepoint. According to a translator for Serebii, the ??game is 6400 blocks, a single-player only affair, and contains no online features.

If you were to give it a quick glance, it looks like Pikachu is examining a dead kid at a cri?me scene at 0:20. After repeated viewings I realized the kid escaped his fate. But why was the kid lying on the street in the middle of the night? This might be one sick game, folks.

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