4th Gen The Poketch

[Khoshi]

This nifty little gadget made its debut in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. You get it relatively early - in Jubilife City - after collecting 3 coupons from clowns within the city. It comes standard with a watch, calculator, pedometer and Pokemon list, with various other apps available throughout the Sinnoh region. From the Marking Map which makes the town map redundant and helps out with capturing Roaming Pokemon, to the Move Tester, which can help new players get accustomed to type effectiveness. The Poketch was a really versatile gadget with its array of applications to use, and showed us what the DS' bottom screen was capable of.

What did you think of the Poketch and its apps? Did you use it frequently? If not, why? What were your favourite apps for it?
Have fun discussing this device~

 

[She_Delphox]

What did you think of the Poketch and its apps?
I absolutely loved the Poketch, I think it was an awesome nifty little feature added to the Pokemon games, I still mis this thing :3 Adding different apps after you obtained a new badge, or from random NPC's, it was very fun to try collecting them all. Most of them were actually very useful, like step Counter, Happiness Ratings and Time :3

Did you use it frequently?
I always used the Poketch to watch time, make some notes when I felt like it and mainly when I used the Pokeradar.

What were your favourite apps for it?
#1 - that Pokemon Chain counter thingy when you used the Pokeradar. Man, this came in handy! Nowadays, we have to keep track of our chains on our own :(
#2 - Item Finder! :3
#3 - I used Step Counter a lot for hatching eggs or in Amity Square to find props and items :3
#4 - I used the Happiness Rating thingy a lot to measure the happiness of my Pokemon (especially handy for happiness-related-evolutions)
#5 - Match Maker for breeding was also a fun App

 

[Arlo]

Eh... I'm sort of ambivalent about the Poketch. A few of the apps are sort of useful, but most of them are just additional screens I have to click through in order to get from one to another. And I don't care too much for the stylus control, just because I don't normally play with a stylus, so it's something I have to go out of my way to do in order to accommodate the poketch. In the end, the only app that I use a fair amount is the itemfinder, and I find it to be sort of clunky. There are others that I might use a bit more if they were freely available, but since I have to slog through all the intervening screens on the way to whichever one I want, I rarely bother.

It was a decent enough thing at the time, but I don't think it was as well implemented as it might've been and it hasn't aged terribly well.

 

[Sheep]

I found a lot of the apps in the Poketch pointless but there were several that were quite handy like the breeding app, friendship measurer, and so on. o: The little drawing pad was really fun to use as well and as an artist I always found myself jumping over there trying to make pretty pictures, haha. Too bad that never worked out.. Pokemon history checker was another fun one to look at for curiosity's sake.

Makes me want to replay D/P/Pt.

 

[Yato]

I really enjoyed the concept of the Poketch, but I have to agree with those who said many of the features were pointless. I only used a few, namely the Dowsing Machine (I would tap that thing every freaking minute you have no idea), Friendship Checker, and Day Care Checker. I also really disliked how the Color Changer app. wasn't available until you showed someone in the Pal Park a Kecleon, which you could only show AFTER showing her a Snorlax. I disliked the green and wanted to change to either blue or purple ;; Complaints aside, I was glad when Platinum altered the Poketch so you could go to a previous app. rather than have to go through all the others just to get to it. Made it a lot less of a pain changing apps., plus you didn't have to remember what number was associated with what app. in case you accidentally went past it again.

 

[Pepperton]

Poketch made a huge impact on me when playing Pokemon Diamond. Nothing like it had ever been included in a Pokemon game, so it was brand new and all the features that came with it baffled me. Looking back, I'm not sure why I found it so otherworldly, but I simply couldn't get enough of it. The friendship checker was one of my favorite applications, and made me actually invest time into making my Pokemon's happiness go up, haha. Lovely gadget from the Sinnoh region, no doubt.

 

[Blueredemption]

I loved useing it! when I would breed pokemon for my friends the egg application was very useful, not to mention how may times I used the calculator for my math homework. I was hoping that they would bring back something similar in black/white but alas, they never did.

I remember having a quest to get all of the apps, the only one that evaded me was the one with the kecleon... I wasn't even sure what it did, but I wanted it sooo bad xD

 

[Hiatus]

It wasn't such a bad feature, to be honest. I didn't like it at first, but eventually got used to it, though. There were dozens of apps, with some being there to help you pass time, while others actual purposes, and would assist you on garnering info on your Pokémon. I personally loved the heart app; it would show how much your Pokémon likes you, which could be very useful when evolving the likes of Togepi, Chansey, Golbat, Woobat, Pichu, Cleffa, and so on. Daycare app was pretty useful, too; whenever you don't feel like visiting the place, you could always check that application to see how your Pokémon are doing. =)

 

[Hikamaru]

I liked the Poketch, the apps were fun to play with. My personal faves were the History Checker, Pedometer, Happiness Checker, Type Matcher, Day Care and the Digital Clock. It was also the first gadget to truly have different colors based on the player's gender, which sorta carried over to a few other things in later games such as the HG/SS Pokegear, and the Pokedexes in HG/SS and 5th Gen.

I also loved how Platinum's Poketch design had an extra button it that allowed you to go backwards between apps. That was pretty convenient in my opinion.

 

[Dreg]

I liked the Pokétch, there was a few apps from that, that seemed very useful. Here's what I think:

1. Pokemon Chain app: at least with this you can see what chain you are on. And, if it breaks, it still lets you know by the main pokemon disappearing.

2. Pokemon Status app: with this one I can see if any of my pachirisus with pickup has got any items.

3. Item Finder app: For finding hidden items when it's not gut instinct. Need I say more?

 

[Altairis]

I liked the step counter, breeding, memo, and itemfinder apps but rarely touched the rest of them. I liked how we had to go and get the apps from other people, and how they didn't just give us everything at the start. Made it seem more integrated and more part of the Sinnoh region.