Part 36: Side Note 02: Online Only Features Are Bullshit

Side Course 02: Online Only Features Are Bullshit



Wi-Fi Plaza

Ready to go over all the cool stuff we can't do anymore? Yeah, same... The Wi-Fi Plaza is some pretty impressive stuff, a successor to the Joyful Game Corner and predecessor to the Festival Plaza, it let you join one of 5 rooms with up to 20 random people for 30 minutes to participate in minigames, check out other players, and use Tap Toys. First, let's go over the different rooms.

There were 4 general rooms you could end up in, each based on a type, Grass, Fire, Water and Electric, though the only differences are the looks of the room and the floats you ride out on when the time limit is up. There was also a secret Mew themed room that was easier to get to during certain times and let you stay longer. Yes that's the best video quality I could find, this shit is not well documented!!! (There is better quality footage for other plaza rooms as well as minigames).

Anyway, when you enter the plaza, you get a random Tap Toy that you can, uh, tap, and have a neat effect for you and others nearby. You could upgrade them by winning in minigames and give them bigger and stronger effects. Uh, that's it, you'll notice this plaza is just a bit of fun, it doesn't actually reward you with anything. You can swap Tap Toys with those you talk to, and there's a fair few chat options, giving you all sorts of info of the person, in real time! Wow!

Wi-Fi Plaza Minigame



Let's move onto the main meat, the minigames. They're pretty simple touch screen based, with a short time limit and can be played with up to 4 people. Swalot Plop just has you throw berries into the open mouth, getting points that increase the more you do in a row. It's easier to just rapid fire all the time in the hope something lands, there's no penalty. Towards the end, it enters Hyper Mode, where it speeds up, opens and closes its mouth and triples the points you get.



Mime Jr. Top is a trickier one, you spin the ball in the opposite direction to the balancing Mime Jr. to keep it on the ball as it moves left to right. The longer you keep it on, the more clapping occurs, with spotlights and fireworks popping up the longer you keep it up. You can tell at a glance what the other players are doing, especially if they fall off!



Finally, Wobbuffet Pop is the only team minigame, where everyone helps pump up a Wobbuffet balloon by pumping down with the stylus. Wynaut will bounce around in a circle to land on your air pockets and eat them, and your progress is tracked by how many balloons you pop, from blue, to yellow, to red. The other minigames upgrade the winner's Tap Toy, while this one upgrades everyone's Tap Toy if they do well enough.

Wi-Fi Plaza Parade

There's a few small things to note otherwise, you get asked your favourite type when entering, up to two choices, or none at all, which you can see when you interact with people. You can also answer basic surveys and make footprint paint tracks on a large board on the right of the plaza in real time with everyone else! But once the plaza's time is up, you can either leave quickly, or you can ride out on various Pokemon floats depending on the room type.

And that's it! Absolutely nothing of consequence, but if you have a fun time, then it's all worth it! It's a shame that there's plenty of features I'll be going over like this and not being able to experience it firsthand, even as a little mini update. But that's what happens when servers shut down and the fleeting online world fades away. F.