Pocoyo Racing (Nintendo DS)

Pocoyo Racing
Wasn't this supposed to be released for the Nintendo 3DS instead?
Genre(s): Kart-racing Rating(s): PEGI: 3 USK: 0 Platform(s): Nintendo DS Release: September 22, 2011 Developer(s): Zinkia Entertainment Publisher(s): Zinkia Entertainment Country: Spain Series: Pocoyo Predecessor: Hello Pocoyo! Successor: Pocoyo Circuits (cancelled) Pocoyo Party

Pocoyo Racing is a kart-racing game developed and published by Zinkia Entertainment for the Wii and Nintendo DS in 2011. This article will only focus on the Nintendo DS version.

Bad Qualities

1. The main problem with the game is that it was released EIGHT months after the Nintendo 3DS already came out in Europe, and the DS was already dying out in popularity before the game was even released, meaning that it should have been released for the former console instead.
2. Horrendous looking graphics and character models that look akin to a game released for the Atari Jaguar. Even its predecessor, Hello Pocoyo had better graphics than this, and that game was released in 2008 for the same console, made by the same developers. Most 3D games on the console look rather unpleasant anyway due to the hardware limitations, with the exception of Super Mario 64 DS.
3. Poor sounding audio. It's like the developers just heavily compressed it in order for it to fit on the DS, but it just ends up sounding bad as a result. Even games that were released before it had better sounding audio, including its predecessor.
4. Only 12 characters, with the aliens taking up 1/4 of the roster. However this can be somewhat justified as the show did not have a lot of characters at the time up until Season 4 where more characters were introduced, and Baby Bird isn't a playable character despite literally appearing in the cutscenes.
5. It lacks in content, as there are only 12 tracks divided into 3 worlds.
6. All of the karts feel the same. It is unknown if they actually have different stats or not due to there being no way to check their stats, unlike in most racing games.
7. The game is very short. Can simply be beaten in less than 3 hours.
8. Like its Wii counterpart, the story mode can get really repetitive, as there are only three types of challenges for all 10 levels.
   • Championship: You race on the same track over and over again until you or another racer reaches 24 stars.
   • Time Trial: You race alone on a certain track twice. The first time, you do it alone, and the second time, you race against your ghost. The latter is somewhat pointless as you still win regardless if you beat your ghost or not.
   • Balloon Bursting: Pop all of the balloons in order to get either a gold, silver, or bronze medal.
9. The render distance is somewhat poor, again due to the hardware limitations.
10. Like the Wii version, it constantly suffers from framerate drops when you're doing a Championship or Grand Prix, despite there being a less amount of players on the track.
11. In order to 100% the entire game, you have to play the story mode three times on all three profiles, and play all 12 tracks 20 times each just to unlock all of the picture cards, which is one of, if not the most tedious way to 100% complete a game on the Nintendo DS.

Good Qualities

1. Despite all of the problems listed above (such as the graphics and framerate drops), the game can still be enjoyable.
2. It is at least faithful to the television show that it is based on.
3. Good animation in the cutscenes, as its the same animation from the show its based on.
4. If the game had just been released for the 3DS instead, it would be a lot better.

Reception

The game received "mixed or average" reception from players. On GameFAQs, it has a 3/5 rating. While some consider it to be a decent kart-racer for young children, others criticized it for its lack of depth compared to other kart racers, repetitiveness, and limited appeal to older audiences, unlike most racing games.

Trivia

• A sequel, titled Pocoyo Circuits was going to be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360, but was cancelled.
• The game was initially planned to be released in the US alongside its Wii counterpart, being published by SouthPeak Games, but due to licensing issues with Zinkia, it was canceled.

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