Way back in the 90s when I wrote game reviews for The Dallas Morning News, I got to see first hand how Nintendo was going to market Pokémon in the US, and I knew it would be big.  So I called my editor and requested that I cover anything Pokémon related, and for a few years he kept that promise.  I like to say that Pokémon helped pay my way through college.  Anyway, not only did I get to review and cover everything Pokémon related, but also any rip-offs and copies riding the coattails of its popularity.  This included things like DigiMon, Monster Rancher, etc.  EvoMon on Nintendo Switch reminds me of some of those knock-offs, and it even looks and feels like something that would’ve been on the Game Boy Color or NEO GEO Pocket Color, two handhelds out at the time!  In EvoMon, you’ll play mini-games to train and evolve your monsters so they can battle others and you can win badges!

On the main ‘farm’ screen, you’ll see the monster you’re currently raising.  Here you can feed it food you’ve bought, and clean up after its poop.  Press the R button to go to your room and view and decorate it, as well as see any awards you’ve won.  When you want to train your monster, press the L button and you’ll see a selection of mini-games you can play.  These mini-games remind me of early mobile phone titles, or something you’d see in an 80s arcade or WarioWare title.  One of the games plays just like Doodle Jump, for instance.  Getting high scores on these games will earn you experience points, and sometimes hidden coins, too.  When you have enough experience, you can evolve your monster up to two times!

From the farm screen, you can press the B button to pull up a map to travel to different locations.  Talk to people and get hints in the Evosquare.  Buy food and eggs at the Evoshop.  Go fishing and play a super hard mini-game to try and catch fish for food and money.  Go on an Expedition and guide your monster through single screen mazes where you can collect items and beat a boss via another mini-game.  Battle other monsters by playing mini-games at the Arena.  And when you’re monster is defeated, go to the Evolab to freeze it so you can do things like combine it with other frozen monsters to make new eggs for you to hatch and raise.

I have two main problems with this game.  One is that the menu interface is clumsy and fiddly.  For instance, in order to clean up poop, you have to press the Y button to highlight the scooper icon, and then press the A button to use it.  And that’s one of the more simpler functions. Also the text is way too small especially in handheld mode and sometimes they do things like put white text on a yellow background, making it worse.   The other problem I had is that some of the mini-games are way too hard!  I couldn’t even get past the second stage in the arena!  But if you’re feeling nostalgic for old school virtual pet battle simulators, you may want to try this one out anyway.

Kid Factor:

EvoMon is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence.  You can ram into and shoot fireballs at cartoony pixel monsters, but that’s it.  Reading skill is a must and younger players may find the mini-games too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews