When Detective Pikachu hit the 3DS in 2016, we’d never seen anything quite like it in the vast collection of Pokemon games. Its casual whodunit story was an easy solve, but it was cute, colorful, and most importantly, different. And yet, now that Detective Pikachu and his tiny herringbone hat have returned, it doesn’t feel as exciting as its predecessor. In fact, there’s a lot about the mystery solving that’s arguably a step backwards. It’s somehow easier than the first one, which makes a lot of the moment-to-moment play feel long-winded and a bit frustrating, especially if you’re more than 10 years old. It’s still a pleasing, colorful, sweet adventure, and the story comes to a mostly satisfying conclusion of the Detective Pikachu saga, but its greatest mystery is what went on behind the scenes that resulted in some of these baffling decisions in the story and mechanics.
Since it’s been a good while, it was wise for this sequel to be written so that you didn’t need to play the first Detective Pikachu (or seen the movie, for that matter) to hop into Returns – Pikachu recaps the first game in the very beginning with his trusty cup of coffee by his side. The world is still feeling the effects of the events from the first game, where Tim Goodman and the titular detective helped stop the spread of R, a drug that caused Pokemon to go berserk. However, things seem to be ramping up again in Ryme City, where Pokemon are once again acting strangely and a mystery is brewing in the background as you solve other cases. Plus, there’s the matter of figuring out what happened to Tim’s father and Pikachu’s partner, Harry.
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