I begged for this game when I was a kid, but *somehow* dad had the hindsight to figure up how absolutely annoying this would be to have me playing in the living room. He got me Paper Mario instead. Thanks Dad! Very informative video! I've been enjoying this series!
That’s pretty funny looking back now. And Paper Mario sold LESS copies than this. That’s craziness. I had somewhat of a similar experience with my older brother convincing me to get Super Metroid instead of some trash game I wanted that I probably would’ve hated.
Turning 28 next month, I think I was 6 or 7 when this game came out (haha, target audience right). Played a ton of this. Have so many good memories of this game. A lot of frustrating ones too lol
@@Paraspectre don't have words to describe it. very few games have given me the experience like the first two generations of pokemon had. mainline, stadium, hyp, the anime, they very much were lightning in a bottle. growing up in a very unstable house, pokemon helped keep me grounded and immersed in a world not so bad as the one at home. i got pokemon yellow on christmas of 99, and i actively played until the end of generation 4. i spent my entire early adulthood not giving it much of a second thought. (same with digimon, yugioh, wrestling) but i've been actively back into these hobbies/interests that meant so much to me 20 years ago, for almost 3 years now. i owe a big thanks to mdb and jrose, but also all of the other channels making good, genuine content like yours. videos like you guys make help me find the same kind of peace that my gameboy gave me. i started it off by saying i didn't have the words to describe it, and i still don't.. there isn't a word to describe the feeling 6 year old me had with these games. but hopefully how much this series means to me came across through my giant text wall. once again, thanks for making what you make. keep killing the content man
The image of that in my head is so funny. How did you deal with that? Did you speak slowly or try to speak with less of a welsh accent? AI not recognizing thick accents was still an issue when iphone first launched siri, i could only imagine how bad voice ai was 20 years ago
@@DavidLopez-rk6em badly lol I played it a lot though so managed to complete it somehow. I also had a lisp as a kid which made it worse 😅 I still do but it’s much better.
Ooof, I got this gifted to me by my Grandparents. It came with the pikachu N64 bundle that I got so that mightve have helped in sales. I lived in Costa Rica at the time and knew absolutely no english LOL. I was 6~7 and had fun, screaming Spanish at pikachu and eventually having him do the activities. Eventually I reached a point that required very specific english phrases and I just could not brute force it and gave up. Its still a very nostalgic game for me and had some great relaxing atmosphere!
Man I played this game so much as a child and honestly the better way to contextualize it is... more of a toy than a game. Kinda like some modern VR games being a thing you more.... exist in than play. Its the same concept here but instead of VR as the novelty its the 3s Also this stupid game had a custom N64 where the on light was Pikachu's feet so that's cute PPS loveing this retrospective, keep it up. There is so much more to Pokemon games than just the main series. those are kinda just the flagpoles for the rest of a generation of merch.
I recently stumbled onto your videos and I think I found one of my new favorite channels, these retrospectives remind of things I completely forgot about the games and are really well put together from start to finish
Was super-hyped to see this video show up in my feed. :D And you are of course very welcome Para! I'm glad to have been able to help out like this with my footage. :) Thanks for the credit, and for showing off the thumbnails of my videos too! I hired my good friend Fluffs to design the awesome art for them, so I'm happy that more people get to see their work. I didn't realize Ambrella made so many Pokemon spin-off games and that HY,P was their first effort! Dang, they did a good job for their first game...at least, I'd like to think so. :P Sure is a very odd first game to develop as a company either way! Honestly, this game really did have a poor premise on the voice recognition point. As you pointed out, it's meant towards kids...and yet, given how primitive voice recognition was back then, it also expected its speakers to be very clear and pronounce things correctly. Which, kids...probably won't always do. Oops. Well, I suppose it at least encourages them to improve their speaking skills...? It's honestly a miracle this whole system got translated to English, actually. The power of the early 2000's Pokemon craze I suppose! And yes, indeed. :( No Parasect here. Not even Paras! So few Pokemon, even just for Gen 1. Probably the least amount compared to any Pokemon game. It's a cute game if you're in the mood (and have the patience) for it, but it definitely has a very limited roster. I definitely think part of the reason I hold this game in nostalgia is because I did play it when I was much, much younger back in the day. I really enjoyed revisiting it to 100% it, but it's definitely a very strange, wonky game. Still wish there were more 'slice of life' small-scale Pokemon games like it though. I think HY,P's atmosphere is perhaps its best trait, and I feel that more chill Pokemon 'bonding' games which aren't just focused on battling would be neat to see. Honestly, I should have linked you some of the best moments of my playthrough. I'm sorry I didn't do that, I've been quite busy lately so I forgot. This game really has moments in it, sometimes BECAUSE the VRU is so bad. Pikachu's AI is also surprisingly complicated and he can have the weirdest moods or just interact with you in the strangest of ways. (Such as one moment when I pulled out a megaphone item by accident, he stole it from me, ATE IT WHOLE, then proceeded to get sick and mad. I don't even.) But yeah! Great video man. :) Look forward to more from the Paraspective later!
I thank you again for the use of your gameplay! I should’ve specified in the video, but the short intro I played was from ME trying to use an emulator. Even that didn’t work right. So your crisp gameplay was huge for this. And yeah, this franchise really does have a place for more chill games. Kinda surprised this wasn’t delved into more.
@@Paraspectre Of course! ^_^ And it's okay! I could tell you were trying to get some quiet audio for an intro. Yeah, it's a mess to even get stable, let alone stable to the point of the game where it demands use of the mic. I think it's basically because most N64 emulator creators don't even begin to consider making HYP stable for their programs, since it's unplayable anyways without the VRU. I'm still not even sure how I managed to trial and error the perfect settings with the perfect plugins and the perfect emulator version, lol. As for chill-vibe PKMN titles, maybe in the future if we're lucky. :) If they wanna make a 'chill and talk with your Pokemon' game these days, given how far voice recognition has come, I imagine it'd go a lot better.
Your description of Pikachu's moods and ai reminds me of that one PacMan adventure game where you control him by directing his attention to things rather than full direct control.
@@Shenaldrac Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures for SNES. :3 I liked that quirky game as well. Similar vibes, indeed! Including the frustration at many moments, hahaha. But it always stayed interesting too.
I remember this game. Rented it from Blockbuster and was really weirded out by how it played and what was expected of me. I'm not sure if I was just a dumb kid or the game did a poor job of explaining (maybe both!) but I didn't really understand what it wanted me to do and how to progress. Combine that with the finicky voice recognition and I didn't have a very good time with it, never rented it again. edit: Eh, I can think of worse people to have along with me at the DMV than Pikachu.
i remember getting this when was a kid, and couldnt read yet. i would just should gibberish into the microphone and get sooooo mad when pikachu didnt listen
I was 9 when this game came out and i remember taking sick in the third grad to stay home and play this game all day. What a waste of time that was, I wish I stayed in school haha
I feel like you can’t really review the game without playing it. And probably being a child. I thought it was great when I played it! It was cute and fun and I had so much fun finding secrets and mysteries and cooking and stuff.
That’s fair. But this series is less about a review and more about the history and time period it was released. If I were to properly review it, I’d certainly play it and change the focus of the video
As someone that was a 7-year-old when this came out, I fuckin' LOVED this game as a kid. It wasn't, like, my favorite, but it was definitely up there in games I enjoyed playing. Especially since it's surprisingly difficult for a small child. Pikachu didn't always like to listen and some of the scavenger hunts were pretty tough with the N64's primitive hardware
I'm really going to date myself here, but I got a copy of this game from Blockbuster when I was 6 years old and cried when my parents told me I had to return it. We never did, and I still have the game to this day. The little yellow piece on the mic wasn't included. Someone probably lost it. I spent hours fishing and playing all the mini games This game was honestly a big part of my childhood and while I recognize that it's a bad game that was just a gimmick to sell more accessories, it will always have a special place in my heart
I know right? It's super gimmicky and not particularly well designed mechanically, but there's just something about it. If you know, you know, I suppose. :) I think it's the fact that for all its faults, HYP really does manage a super-chill vibe and atmosphere. I love the locations, I love the chill mostly-combat-free adventuring. Most Pokemon games are all about the battles and huge amounts of exploration, but this game was just a kid exploring the wilds around his home. Small-scale slice-of-life stuff. Pokemon never did that before, and hasn't done that since... Well, except maybe with Pokemon Channel...? (I have yet to play it, but perhaps it is something I will record too!)
@@Paraspectre you should definitely check out the commercial for this game if you haven't seen it. I remember it from some Pokemon movie VHS tape. It's basically a talking bulldog complaining to the camera that the kid in the commercial spends more time talking to and playing with Pikachu than him.
Just gotta wait till that Magikarp evolves and *then* it'll be my favorite Water-type. I think I rented this all of once, dramatically screamed for him to Thundershock stuff on a "protect this thing from enemies" stage. Then I went back to renting Stadium.
I got this with the Pikachu N64, and I was well within the age range for the game, though speech issues meant I had extreme difficulty completing the game (still have the VRU, but the controller clamp died within a year and the microphone was eaten by my cat). I tried to go back to it last year, but quickly found out that it works best at a higher pitch and it can be tricked by plugging it into a computer and using pitch shifting software.
That's a clever trick! Indeed, it's meant for more higher pitches. I got lucky in my modern-day adult-age playthrough that I still have a wide vocal range.
Even though the gameplay is uninspired and urbane there's something charming about Hey You, Pikachu. I like how it simulated the Pokemon world where you could interact and befriend wild Pokemon without needing to catch and battle them. It just sounds like a pretty chill time. I also want to believe this game was responsible for later birthing one of the most absurdly hilarious Pokemon concepts: Pokemon Channel. I honestly can't wait for you to get to that one. XD
I need to still play and record Channel! It definitely shares vibes with HYP but I don't know how similar or different it'll be. But yeah man, same appeal here with HYP. :) It's a very 'slice of life' game, which is super unusual for the Pokemon franchise. Kinda vibes similar to something like Harvest Moon in environmental design and exploration.
@@Paraspectre Man, Harvest Moon 64 was really my jam too. :) I enjoy the farming aspects of that series too, but more than that, I just find certain games in that series to have such a good environment that I love to just walk around and relax in and watch the day pass by and turn to night. I guess I'm always looking for games that just let you chill in a somewhat-believable world. They're kinda hard to find these days.
Holy shit, the nostalgia from hearing “in the year 2000” from the Conan O’Brien show back when I wasn’t spoiled from streaming networks and could still watch TV
I played this game at my aunt's house a few years back. I quit after the third level since the game couldn't hear my say, "It is okay to call Magnemite." Needless to say, it was not fun. Do not play it if you want a fun time.
I think a TON of people got stuck there! The game basically tricks you at that point. It says, "Is it OK to call Magnemite?" ... "If you think it's OK, say sure. If not, say don't do that." It's confusing, and makes you think to say 'OK'...but that sounds similar to 'No', and that's what the VRU will hear. You want to say the word 'Sure' to make it work. :P It sucks. :P You gotta psyche profile the game to progress it. I still love it though.
@@averytubestudios True! That reminds me that I meant to record some high-quality rips of the music since nobody else online has. I really should do that.
@@Paraspectre Honestly, for the ending... ...Spoiler break just in case anybody cares... ...I think the devs took heavy inspiration from that early anime episode where Ash lets Pikachu go to live with other wild Pikachus. While rehashed, and we all know it wasn't gonna be permanent, it still is kinda an emotional scene. If you get invested in HYP and Pikachu's craziness and antics you do actually form some sort of bond, so seeing him leave is super-sad. :(
@@Paraspectre It's not. Modern tech means we can go into the game and find the exact word bank it uses. "PlayStation" is not a recognized word. If Pikachu Thunderbolts in response to the word, it's because the game is trying to parse a word it doesn't understand.
I was actually 6 by the time I finally got to play this game at a friend's house. I didn't get far into the game at all. I live in the south, and back then (and even now to a lesser extent) I had a southern accent, so when I tried to play this game, Pikachu had no idea what I was saying. I was so disappointed lol.
I bet there were a LOT of kids who were disappointed with this for a multitude of reasons. I get that registering accents would be difficult with how many ways to say words, but it still isolates a large number of people from getting to play it.
@@Paraspectre Agreed. It does suck how much that isolated people. I think the game was just too early for its own technology. It was cool what the devs were able to pull off for the time, but voice recognition just wasn't there as an advanced concept then. A little later on and this idea would have been far more all-inclusive.
i still have this game! i remember getting it for my birthday and playing it nonstop for weeks. i’m sad nintendo doesn’t really acknowledge this game, the music was by far the best part of the game haha.
I wonder how I would’ve felt about it if I played it back then. I was a teenager, so it probably wouldn’t have been for me then. But it’s cool to hear other people have nostalgia for it
As someone who was the right age when this came out? No, I can't say I *enjoyed* it. Certainly I sunk an ungodly amount of hours into shrieking at that Pikachu, but I can't say it was a good time lol.
Should have played literally any of the other things you can do in the game, they're actually fun. It's frustrating AF with the voice commands, but they're charming activities.
I was in the right age range for this when it came out(9 y/o), and I got it as a birthday gift. I think I beat it in just a couple days. Even for the "target audience" it was embarrassingly easy. I think 3-5 would have been a better age range than 6-12. 9 year olds know what a dang apple is lol. My friends and I had the most fun just trying to say bad words into it LOL. We figured out the voice recognition was mostly about the vowels/intonation so you could say almost anything and still get the "correct" response. I'd absolutely love to see a modern version though. Voice recognition technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. They could do a lot more with such a game nowadays and it'd sell like hotcakes
Excellent video, my friend! Your commentary makes this one for me - though I disagree with you on one thought: bringing Pikachu to the DMV would make the wait FAR more interesting. Almost everyone would put down their phones for a few moments while they tried to determine why a small child in a Pikachu outfit was tasing the staff to ensure quality customer service. Between hashtags, at least. And not in New York. And only if they get zapped, too (I put a comma there; I like grammar). And if they can politicize it. And if they can use it to build better hostilities. Yeah, you're right. It wouldn't really mean anything to bring Pikachu to the DMV. Anyway, keep up the great work!
It's really interesting going through all of the games they released for this franchise over the years. I remember reading about Hey You, Pikachu in a games magazine back before the US release, so when I was about 8 or 9. Back then I would have totally played the hell out of this. Unfortunately the game never released in Europe, probably cause they would have had to reprogram the VRU for every language they'd release it in, and honestly, German voice recognition would probably be even worse than the English and Japanese ones ended up being. But nice to finally see actual gameplay of that game after 22 years. xD
That’s pretty funny actually. And also interesting in that I think if parents were trying to show their 6 year old how to play this, deep voices wouldn’t register. Maybe it’s because Pikachu only befriends children 😟
@@Paraspectre Sad when you think about it, this could have been a 6 yr Olds best friend but since they got older, Pikachu slowly grew apart as the kid became an adult 😢
Huh... I have a very, and I mean VERY vague recollection about this game. By game I mean it's box. Pretty sure I was 9 and my next door neighbor had it on his shelf. Funny thing about that, he didn't have a N64. Turns out his grandparents bought it during the craze and thought he'd enjoy it. XD
That’s amazing. Although I too have some James Bond games that I don’t own the system for. But it’s funny that they didn’t realize your friend couldn’t play it 😅
@@Paraspectre Yeah, I actually have a few Rose console cartridges' for games I never played. Can't even find any gameplay on them. Which is sad since my Aunt, the person who gave them to me, said they were fun when she still had the system. Kind of a bummer, but the art looks cool. :D
Problem is that thanksgiving is so far removed from any actual purpose, that making a song for it would be very difficult. The holiday wasn't even celebrated in the same day for most of the US for the longest time. And if you try to go the pilgrim route with the song, you run the risk of being called racist etc.
We were spoiled enough that we managed to get both eventually. I really enjoyed this game for a good stint, but I don’t think I ever completely finished it... I would have been about 9 when I played it I think, so presumably I lost interest?
Granted, you are always going to have problems with accents and voice recognition software - unless you target a language that has so few speakers that there are no dialects. And even that last part is not as easy as it sounds, as there are languages out there with less than 10,000 speakers that STILL have two or three dialects. For example (pulled from Wikipedia), the imperative (command) form of "Look!" in Standard (i.e. Tokyo) Japanese is "Miro!", but other dialects would use "Miyo!", "Mii!" or "Mire!". And that's just a single word example for a whole class of words, much less all of the other differences.
Yeah there really is no win there. They just had to pick a select target audience for this game and have it work for their way of speaking. Yet it still sold that many copies. Because PIKACHU I guess 😅
Tbh for me the gen 2 games still some of my least favorites of them all. Big factor probaly is it is the ONLY gen i absolutly have NO nostalgia for in the first place
The most generous thing I can say about this game is that it was ahead of its time. The most factual thing I can say is that I played it less than ten times. God I hated this game.
@@Paraspectre the most frustrating part of the game wasn't even in the main game. There was no punishment for pikachu screwing up besides wasting time. The worst part was the quiz minigame. It asked me to identify pokemon. I was reasonably good at this game. I could score 8/10 consistently. The only problem was that *I* was not allowed to play the quiz game. Pikachu played the quiz game. In any game, a minigame is meant to represent a break from the core gameplay loop. Here, it represented frustration incarnate. The absolute number of times I would be scored 4/10 because the game did not register my correct answer, or it registered my answer but pikachu either got it wrong, or rushed and pressed the wrong button. The number of times I shouted at my television screen "that's not what I said!" That fucking quiz game is what prompted me to get the game returned. It was clearly busted and I was having zero fun.
I legit had one of my worst cries ever after pikachu leaves, I mean I was happy when he returned, but man there were dark times for a bit.
I begged for this game when I was a kid, but *somehow* dad had the hindsight to figure up how absolutely annoying this would be to have me playing in the living room. He got me Paper Mario instead. Thanks Dad!
Very informative video! I've been enjoying this series!
You received the superior game.
That’s pretty funny looking back now. And Paper Mario sold LESS copies than this. That’s craziness. I had somewhat of a similar experience with my older brother convincing me to get Super Metroid instead of some trash game I wanted that I probably would’ve hated.
@@Paraspectre Probably some janky Jaleco garbage with some sick-ass box art on it. LOL Your older brother knew what was up.
Turning 28 next month, I think I was 6 or 7 when this game came out (haha, target audience right). Played a ton of this. Have so many good memories of this game. A lot of frustrating ones too lol
Did you feel immersed in the world at 6?
@@Paraspectre don't have words to describe it. very few games have given me the experience like the first two generations of pokemon had. mainline, stadium, hyp, the anime, they very much were lightning in a bottle. growing up in a very unstable house, pokemon helped keep me grounded and immersed in a world not so bad as the one at home. i got pokemon yellow on christmas of 99, and i actively played until the end of generation 4. i spent my entire early adulthood not giving it much of a second thought. (same with digimon, yugioh, wrestling) but i've been actively back into these hobbies/interests that meant so much to me 20 years ago, for almost 3 years now. i owe a big thanks to mdb and jrose, but also all of the other channels making good, genuine content like yours. videos like you guys make help me find the same kind of peace that my gameboy gave me.
i started it off by saying i didn't have the words to describe it, and i still don't.. there isn't a word to describe the feeling 6 year old me had with these games. but hopefully how much this series means to me came across through my giant text wall.
once again, thanks for making what you make.
keep killing the content man
I'm welsh with a thick accent. My parents got me this from America when I was a kid and it would barely understand me lol.
Pikachu be like… never been to Wales 🤷♀️
The image of that in my head is so funny. How did you deal with that? Did you speak slowly or try to speak with less of a welsh accent? AI not recognizing thick accents was still an issue when iphone first launched siri, i could only imagine how bad voice ai was 20 years ago
@@DavidLopez-rk6em badly lol I played it a lot though so managed to complete it somehow. I also had a lisp as a kid which made it worse 😅 I still do but it’s much better.
Same but I had an Irish accent and this game made me so angry lmao
Still have the mic and game. Played a lot of this, even though I had no idea what was happening for most of it.
Ooof, I got this gifted to me by my Grandparents. It came with the pikachu N64 bundle that I got so that mightve have helped in sales. I lived in Costa Rica at the time and knew absolutely no english LOL. I was 6~7 and had fun, screaming Spanish at pikachu and eventually having him do the activities.
Eventually I reached a point that required very specific english phrases and I just could not brute force it and gave up. Its still a very nostalgic game for me and had some great relaxing atmosphere!
Man I played this game so much as a child and honestly the better way to contextualize it is... more of a toy than a game. Kinda like some modern VR games being a thing you more.... exist in than play. Its the same concept here but instead of VR as the novelty its the 3s
Also this stupid game had a custom N64 where the on light was Pikachu's feet
so that's cute
PPS loveing this retrospective, keep it up. There is so much more to Pokemon games than just the main series. those are kinda just the flagpoles for the rest of a generation of merch.
That custom Pikachu N64 was the dorkiest-looking non-bootleg games console ever, and I loved it. :P Never owned it, sadly.
That’s true. It’s like a toy on a Nintendo 64 cartridge. That probably helps your experience if you view it as less of a “game”
I recently stumbled onto your videos and I think I found one of my new favorite channels, these retrospectives remind of things I completely forgot about the games and are really well put together from start to finish
I’m glad you’re checking them out! I always think the time period for each release is very important.
Was super-hyped to see this video show up in my feed. :D And you are of course very welcome Para! I'm glad to have been able to help out like this with my footage. :) Thanks for the credit, and for showing off the thumbnails of my videos too! I hired my good friend Fluffs to design the awesome art for them, so I'm happy that more people get to see their work.
I didn't realize Ambrella made so many Pokemon spin-off games and that HY,P was their first effort! Dang, they did a good job for their first game...at least, I'd like to think so. :P Sure is a very odd first game to develop as a company either way!
Honestly, this game really did have a poor premise on the voice recognition point. As you pointed out, it's meant towards kids...and yet, given how primitive voice recognition was back then, it also expected its speakers to be very clear and pronounce things correctly. Which, kids...probably won't always do. Oops. Well, I suppose it at least encourages them to improve their speaking skills...? It's honestly a miracle this whole system got translated to English, actually. The power of the early 2000's Pokemon craze I suppose!
And yes, indeed. :( No Parasect here. Not even Paras! So few Pokemon, even just for Gen 1. Probably the least amount compared to any Pokemon game. It's a cute game if you're in the mood (and have the patience) for it, but it definitely has a very limited roster.
I definitely think part of the reason I hold this game in nostalgia is because I did play it when I was much, much younger back in the day. I really enjoyed revisiting it to 100% it, but it's definitely a very strange, wonky game. Still wish there were more 'slice of life' small-scale Pokemon games like it though. I think HY,P's atmosphere is perhaps its best trait, and I feel that more chill Pokemon 'bonding' games which aren't just focused on battling would be neat to see.
Honestly, I should have linked you some of the best moments of my playthrough. I'm sorry I didn't do that, I've been quite busy lately so I forgot. This game really has moments in it, sometimes BECAUSE the VRU is so bad. Pikachu's AI is also surprisingly complicated and he can have the weirdest moods or just interact with you in the strangest of ways. (Such as one moment when I pulled out a megaphone item by accident, he stole it from me, ATE IT WHOLE, then proceeded to get sick and mad. I don't even.)
But yeah! Great video man. :) Look forward to more from the Paraspective later!
I thank you again for the use of your gameplay! I should’ve specified in the video, but the short intro I played was from ME trying to use an emulator. Even that didn’t work right. So your crisp gameplay was huge for this.
And yeah, this franchise really does have a place for more chill games. Kinda surprised this wasn’t delved into more.
@@Paraspectre Of course! ^_^ And it's okay! I could tell you were trying to get some quiet audio for an intro. Yeah, it's a mess to even get stable, let alone stable to the point of the game where it demands use of the mic. I think it's basically because most N64 emulator creators don't even begin to consider making HYP stable for their programs, since it's unplayable anyways without the VRU. I'm still not even sure how I managed to trial and error the perfect settings with the perfect plugins and the perfect emulator version, lol.
As for chill-vibe PKMN titles, maybe in the future if we're lucky. :) If they wanna make a 'chill and talk with your Pokemon' game these days, given how far voice recognition has come, I imagine it'd go a lot better.
Your description of Pikachu's moods and ai reminds me of that one PacMan adventure game where you control him by directing his attention to things rather than full direct control.
@@Shenaldrac Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures for SNES. :3 I liked that quirky game as well. Similar vibes, indeed! Including the frustration at many moments, hahaha. But it always stayed interesting too.
I remember this game. Rented it from Blockbuster and was really weirded out by how it played and what was expected of me. I'm not sure if I was just a dumb kid or the game did a poor job of explaining (maybe both!) but I didn't really understand what it wanted me to do and how to progress. Combine that with the finicky voice recognition and I didn't have a very good time with it, never rented it again.
edit: Eh, I can think of worse people to have along with me at the DMV than Pikachu.
It’s funny that a game meant for small kids is still a hard sell for them. I’m sure not many had the patience for this
i remember getting this when was a kid, and couldnt read yet. i would just should gibberish into the microphone and get sooooo mad when pikachu didnt listen
I was 9 when this game came out and i remember taking sick in the third grad to stay home and play this game all day. What a waste of time that was, I wish I stayed in school haha
I feel like you can’t really review the game without playing it. And probably being a child. I thought it was great when I played it! It was cute and fun and I had so much fun finding secrets and mysteries and cooking and stuff.
That’s fair. But this series is less about a review and more about the history and time period it was released. If I were to properly review it, I’d certainly play it and change the focus of the video
The game is definitely for kids, but clearly a more “sophisticated” virtual pet than the others
6 year old me would’ve loved it
That special edition Pikachu N64 was pretty awesome
Yeah I didn’t mention this but I remember it being kind of a big thing
o/ Glad to see another video from you!
Bro i just hatched a Paras, and named him Paraspectre, i just had to.
As someone that was a 7-year-old when this came out, I fuckin' LOVED this game as a kid. It wasn't, like, my favorite, but it was definitely up there in games I enjoyed playing. Especially since it's surprisingly difficult for a small child. Pikachu didn't always like to listen and some of the scavenger hunts were pretty tough with the N64's primitive hardware
I guess if Pikachu listened every time, there wouldn’t be much of a challenge? But I guess “challenge” isn’t really the point
I'm really going to date myself here, but I got a copy of this game from Blockbuster when I was 6 years old and cried when my parents told me I had to return it. We never did, and I still have the game to this day. The little yellow piece on the mic wasn't included. Someone probably lost it. I spent hours fishing and playing all the mini games This game was honestly a big part of my childhood and while I recognize that it's a bad game that was just a gimmick to sell more accessories, it will always have a special place in my heart
I know right? It's super gimmicky and not particularly well designed mechanically, but there's just something about it. If you know, you know, I suppose. :) I think it's the fact that for all its faults, HYP really does manage a super-chill vibe and atmosphere. I love the locations, I love the chill mostly-combat-free adventuring. Most Pokemon games are all about the battles and huge amounts of exploration, but this game was just a kid exploring the wilds around his home. Small-scale slice-of-life stuff. Pokemon never did that before, and hasn't done that since... Well, except maybe with Pokemon Channel...? (I have yet to play it, but perhaps it is something I will record too!)
These are the stories I like to hear. As I said, I enjoy thinking of sarcastic remarks to the boxes and gameplay, but I also embrace nostalgia ☺️
Ah, Blockbuster. Those were the days.
@@Paraspectre you should definitely check out the commercial for this game if you haven't seen it. I remember it from some Pokemon movie VHS tape. It's basically a talking bulldog complaining to the camera that the kid in the commercial spends more time talking to and playing with Pikachu than him.
Imagine a microphone game outselling THPS... Oh wait... 😂
Just gotta wait till that Magikarp evolves and *then* it'll be my favorite Water-type. I think I rented this all of once, dramatically screamed for him to Thundershock stuff on a "protect this thing from enemies" stage. Then I went back to renting Stadium.
I got this with the Pikachu N64, and I was well within the age range for the game, though speech issues meant I had extreme difficulty completing the game (still have the VRU, but the controller clamp died within a year and the microphone was eaten by my cat). I tried to go back to it last year, but quickly found out that it works best at a higher pitch and it can be tricked by plugging it into a computer and using pitch shifting software.
That's a clever trick! Indeed, it's meant for more higher pitches. I got lucky in my modern-day adult-age playthrough that I still have a wide vocal range.
This is awesome. It’s so funny to me the steps you have to go through to play this game properly.
Even though the gameplay is uninspired and urbane there's something charming about Hey You, Pikachu. I like how it simulated the Pokemon world where you could interact and befriend wild Pokemon without needing to catch and battle them. It just sounds like a pretty chill time. I also want to believe this game was responsible for later birthing one of the most absurdly hilarious Pokemon concepts: Pokemon Channel. I honestly can't wait for you to get to that one. XD
Urbane?
I need to still play and record Channel! It definitely shares vibes with HYP but I don't know how similar or different it'll be.
But yeah man, same appeal here with HYP. :) It's a very 'slice of life' game, which is super unusual for the Pokemon franchise. Kinda vibes similar to something like Harvest Moon in environmental design and exploration.
“Chill” seems to be the best description of this game. It was around this time when I was really into Harvest Moon 64, so I get it ☺️
@@Paraspectre Man, Harvest Moon 64 was really my jam too. :) I enjoy the farming aspects of that series too, but more than that, I just find certain games in that series to have such a good environment that I love to just walk around and relax in and watch the day pass by and turn to night.
I guess I'm always looking for games that just let you chill in a somewhat-believable world. They're kinda hard to find these days.
@@CharemTheShadox My friends and I played that so much back then. We each had our own wife too. I chose Karen before Karen was uncool.
We love paraspectre and his wholesome videos!
I DO consistently bully a couple card game children, but thank you! 😅
Holy shit, the nostalgia from hearing “in the year 2000” from the Conan O’Brien show back when I wasn’t spoiled from streaming networks and could still watch TV
I played this game at my aunt's house a few years back. I quit after the third level since the game couldn't hear my say, "It is okay to call Magnemite." Needless to say, it was not fun. Do not play it if you want a fun time.
I think a TON of people got stuck there! The game basically tricks you at that point.
It says, "Is it OK to call Magnemite?" ... "If you think it's OK, say sure. If not, say don't do that." It's confusing, and makes you think to say 'OK'...but that sounds similar to 'No', and that's what the VRU will hear. You want to say the word 'Sure' to make it work. :P
It sucks. :P You gotta psyche profile the game to progress it. I still love it though.
That line really has some dramatic potential too
@@CharemTheShadox I never knew that. Strange. The music was really good though. That's the only thing I'll praise this game for.
@@averytubestudios True! That reminds me that I meant to record some high-quality rips of the music since nobody else online has. I really should do that.
The ending was very depressing though
Of HYP? I know the scene you're talking about...but at least that's not the 'true end'. :)
I still know nothing about the ending. I can imagine how it goes though.
@@Paraspectre Honestly, for the ending...
...Spoiler break just in case anybody cares...
...I think the devs took heavy inspiration from that early anime episode where Ash lets Pikachu go to live with other wild Pikachus. While rehashed, and we all know it wasn't gonna be permanent, it still is kinda an emotional scene. If you get invested in HYP and Pikachu's craziness and antics you do actually form some sort of bond, so seeing him leave is super-sad. :(
@@Paraspectre it's more intriguing in the ending
Pokemon channel is way better
My family was responsible for 4 copies of it, 3 of which were greatly loved
It's a reason why magikarp and oddish have been 2 of my favorites for so long (loved electrocuting oddish)
Love your channel dude! Stuff like this makes me want to do my own retrospectives and fact videos on Pokemon! Expand the channel i have etc.
Back in the day when this released it was pretty cool. A bit finicky, but fun and I remember it fondly.
There was a urban legend that if you said "PlayStation" the pikachu would use thunderbolt
Haha I heard that too. Never did find out if that was true or not
Played it, it happened sometimes. Didn't seem to be 100% tho
@@Paraspectre It's not. Modern tech means we can go into the game and find the exact word bank it uses. "PlayStation" is not a recognized word. If Pikachu Thunderbolts in response to the word, it's because the game is trying to parse a word it doesn't understand.
4:12 is my new favorite clip of the series hahahahaha
I was actually 6 by the time I finally got to play this game at a friend's house. I didn't get far into the game at all. I live in the south, and back then (and even now to a lesser extent) I had a southern accent, so when I tried to play this game, Pikachu had no idea what I was saying. I was so disappointed lol.
Don't feel too bad! Pikachu rarely knows what anybody is saying. :P
I bet there were a LOT of kids who were disappointed with this for a multitude of reasons. I get that registering accents would be difficult with how many ways to say words, but it still isolates a large number of people from getting to play it.
@@Paraspectre Agreed. It does suck how much that isolated people.
I think the game was just too early for its own technology. It was cool what the devs were able to pull off for the time, but voice recognition just wasn't there as an advanced concept then. A little later on and this idea would have been far more all-inclusive.
i still have this game! i remember getting it for my birthday and playing it nonstop for weeks. i’m sad nintendo doesn’t really acknowledge this game, the music was by far the best part of the game haha.
I remember playing this as a kid. It was one of my favorites despite the frustration. I liked the fishing segments. The treasure hunting was fun too.
I wonder how I would’ve felt about it if I played it back then. I was a teenager, so it probably wouldn’t have been for me then. But it’s cool to hear other people have nostalgia for it
As someone who was the right age when this came out? No, I can't say I *enjoyed* it. Certainly I sunk an ungodly amount of hours into shrieking at that Pikachu, but I can't say it was a good time lol.
Love the 8bit hey you cover for the end of this video lol
Maybe it will inspire someone to write Hey You (Pikachu)
Laughed pretty hard at the Pikachu at the DMV for some reason 😂
I still have the original limited edition Hey You, Pikachu N64 counsel.
That’s the one thing I forgot to mention. I never had one myself but it’s a pretty cool looking console
@@Paraspectre there should be one on display at Nintendo NYC, last time I was there.
Should have played literally any of the other things you can do in the game, they're actually fun. It's frustrating AF with the voice commands, but they're charming activities.
Well, the person I used game footage from 100%ed the game so I just used a few clips to get the idea of it. But yeah, it’s ALL there on his channel
I was in the right age range for this when it came out(9 y/o), and I got it as a birthday gift. I think I beat it in just a couple days. Even for the "target audience" it was embarrassingly easy. I think 3-5 would have been a better age range than 6-12. 9 year olds know what a dang apple is lol.
My friends and I had the most fun just trying to say bad words into it LOL. We figured out the voice recognition was mostly about the vowels/intonation so you could say almost anything and still get the "correct" response.
I'd absolutely love to see a modern version though. Voice recognition technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. They could do a lot more with such a game nowadays and it'd sell like hotcakes
Yeah it’s weird that this was a thing during that time period. Nowadays, I could see it being a cheap download on the Switch shop or something
Excellent video, my friend! Your commentary makes this one for me - though I disagree with you on one thought: bringing Pikachu to the DMV would make the wait FAR more interesting. Almost everyone would put down their phones for a few moments while they tried to determine why a small child in a Pikachu outfit was tasing the staff to ensure quality customer service.
Between hashtags, at least.
And not in New York.
And only if they get zapped, too (I put a comma there; I like grammar).
And if they can politicize it.
And if they can use it to build better hostilities.
Yeah, you're right. It wouldn't really mean anything to bring Pikachu to the DMV. Anyway, keep up the great work!
It's really interesting going through all of the games they released for this franchise over the years.
I remember reading about Hey You, Pikachu in a games magazine back before the US release, so when I was about 8 or 9. Back then I would have totally played the hell out of this. Unfortunately the game never released in Europe, probably cause they would have had to reprogram the VRU for every language they'd release it in, and honestly, German voice recognition would probably be even worse than the English and Japanese ones ended up being. But nice to finally see actual gameplay of that game after 22 years. xD
It would’ve been cool to see some gameplay of this in other languages too. Pikachu wants to flex its multilingual skills.
What's wild is that I own this game and the VRU yet I can't play it cuz my voice is too deep 😔
Oh wow, maybe that's why Pikachu understood me even less when I got angry and deep-voiced-growly with him not listening. :')
That’s pretty funny actually. And also interesting in that I think if parents were trying to show their 6 year old how to play this, deep voices wouldn’t register. Maybe it’s because Pikachu only befriends children 😟
@@Paraspectre Sad when you think about it, this could have been a 6 yr Olds best friend but since they got older, Pikachu slowly grew apart as the kid became an adult 😢
great vid paraspectre, since i dont have a choice and have to do it 10:01 ITS APPLE
Another vid and another banger in theme with the game. Thought you could sneak in Hey you in the outro hehe
Huh... I have a very, and I mean VERY vague recollection about this game. By game I mean it's box. Pretty sure I was 9 and my next door neighbor had it on his shelf. Funny thing about that, he didn't have a N64. Turns out his grandparents bought it during the craze and thought he'd enjoy it. XD
That’s amazing. Although I too have some James Bond games that I don’t own the system for. But it’s funny that they didn’t realize your friend couldn’t play it 😅
@@Paraspectre Yeah, I actually have a few Rose console cartridges' for games I never played. Can't even find any gameplay on them. Which is sad since my Aunt, the person who gave them to me, said they were fun when she still had the system. Kind of a bummer, but the art looks cool. :D
On the subject of thanksgiving, I wish there was a thanksgiving song
I had a friend try to argue that “Turkey in the Straw” was a Thanksgiving song.
Problem is that thanksgiving is so far removed from any actual purpose, that making a song for it would be very difficult. The holiday wasn't even celebrated in the same day for most of the US for the longest time. And if you try to go the pilgrim route with the song, you run the risk of being called racist etc.
I don’t want to name names but Nicole Westbrook immediately comes to mind. I wonder who that is…
@@Paraspectre turkey, turkey, mashed potatoes, potatoes
excited for the next episode, i am a big fan of puzzle league and this version is very cute!!
I have yet to play it so I’m looking forward to checking it out!
Do you remember when I left a comment saying Gen 1 had no bad Pokemon games? Yeah. I forgot about this one. Oops.
Haha yeah, the reception was iffy at best
Am I in a alternate reality?
I was one of the kids that begged their parents for this game 🤦🏽 wish I had gotten majorss mask that year
...I love HY,P for numerous reasons but even I must admit that Majora's would have been a better pick, haha.
My brother got Majora’s Mask that year instead, so I was one of the lucky ones 😅
We were spoiled enough that we managed to get both eventually. I really enjoyed this game for a good stint, but I don’t think I ever completely finished it... I would have been about 9 when I played it I think, so presumably I lost interest?
The exclamation score goes the other way in english what a weird choice.
Yeah I guess it’s just Hey You Pikachumicrophone
Oh man i forgot about the gen 2 puzzle challenge 😆
Anyone else notice that they added the trademark to every name at 9:35.
I didn’t notice that but that’s kinda funny
@@Paraspectre what's even better is that they left it off of the Pikachu in the game's title.
It's really strange that the Pokemon logo isn't on the cover. Is it the only Pokemon game like that?
I believe it is! This is also something I noticed. It’s its own separate series I guess.
@@Paraspectre so good
@@Paraspectre I think it's because it doesn't have the word Pokemon in the title. It's just Hey You Pikachu.
@@Paraspectre Just like how Super Mario Kart is a Super Mario Game but Mario Kart 8 isn't. So I guess Hey You, Pikachu! isn't a Pokemon game.
Throw. Beach. Ball.
And then Pikachu just eats it and gets sick instead. :)
Apple.
i said such vile things to him 😂
Granted, you are always going to have problems with accents and voice recognition software - unless you target a language that has so few speakers that there are no dialects. And even that last part is not as easy as it sounds, as there are languages out there with less than 10,000 speakers that STILL have two or three dialects.
For example (pulled from Wikipedia), the imperative (command) form of "Look!" in Standard (i.e. Tokyo) Japanese is "Miro!", but other dialects would use "Miyo!", "Mii!" or "Mire!". And that's just a single word example for a whole class of words, much less all of the other differences.
Yeah there really is no win there. They just had to pick a select target audience for this game and have it work for their way of speaking. Yet it still sold that many copies. Because PIKACHU I guess 😅
Hey you, Pikachu! 😆
Oh snap
It's probably for the better that you haven't played the game. It's mostly a frustrating test of patience.
I can experience it from afar 😅
Poor southern kids uwu
Tbh for me the gen 2 games still some of my least favorites of them all.
Big factor probaly is it is the ONLY gen i absolutly have NO nostalgia for in the first place
That plays a HUGE part in it for sure. I’ll get to them, but I was not into Pokémon during the Gens 3 and 4 releases so I get it
Haha who wants to be friends with Magikarp really
The most generous thing I can say about this game is that it was ahead of its time. The most factual thing I can say is that I played it less than ten times.
God I hated this game.
Oh, shit, I didn't predict you being older than me.
Haha yeah it really doesn’t seem to have much…replayability to it
@@Paraspectre the most frustrating part of the game wasn't even in the main game. There was no punishment for pikachu screwing up besides wasting time.
The worst part was the quiz minigame. It asked me to identify pokemon. I was reasonably good at this game. I could score 8/10 consistently. The only problem was that *I* was not allowed to play the quiz game. Pikachu played the quiz game.
In any game, a minigame is meant to represent a break from the core gameplay loop. Here, it represented frustration incarnate. The absolute number of times I would be scored 4/10 because the game did not register my correct answer, or it registered my answer but pikachu either got it wrong, or rushed and pressed the wrong button. The number of times I shouted at my television screen "that's not what I said!"
That fucking quiz game is what prompted me to get the game returned. It was clearly busted and I was having zero fun.