Poké Ball Plus is Pure Childhood Joy!

The Poké Ball plus sure looks the part! (Credit: Nintendo)

I’ve been obsessed with Pokémon for as long as I can remember and 2018 marks the first time Nintendo have released a full Pokémon RPG on a home console, ‘Let’s Go Pikachu!’ and ‘Let’s Go Eevee!’.

These games use similar catching mechanics to the wildly popular ‘Pokémon Go’, much to the dread of many veteran fans. Alongside the release of these games, Nintendo have produced the Poké Ball Plus and it’s the greatest piece of pointless hardware I own.

Sure, the Poké Ball Plus retails at a cool £44.99 on Amazon, which is a lot for a controller-pedometer hybrid that only really works with one game. This is made even worse by the fact that the games themselves fo for a maximum of £42.99 on Amazon.

So why would I recommend a hugely limited controller? Especially when the Nintendo Switch joy-cons work perfectly fine and come bundled in with the console? Because of the smile it brings to my face. The Poké Ball Plus is an obvious gimmick aimed at long-time fans of the franchise who can afford to splash out. The Poké Ball Plus rumbles, lights up and even makes noises. It can be used as a pedometer to train up your Pokémon in the real world. But that’s about it.

Is the Poké Ball Plus a great controller? No. Could it be useful in any other game right now? No. Does it make me smile every time I use it to throw a Poké Ball in game? Yes, absolutely. Oh, and it’s the only current way to get Mew. So that’s nice too.