Nintendo has revealed yet another spin-off in the Pokemon series, and from what we know so far, this is certainly shaping up to be a strange one. Pokemon Channel will be a 'communication' game, and can be best likened to Hey You, Pikachu! (without the voice recognition). Players have to help the Pokemon television station, which has lost various segments of their shows. With some help from Pikachu, you'll collect these lost clips and return them to the station. Players will need to communicate with Pikachu by providing advice, perhaps by telling it to search in bushes or shake trees. The current screens seem to take place in a field where you can interact with not only Pikachu, but other Pokemon as well.

In addition to interacting with Pikachu, you'll be able to gain access to animated clips with DVD quality picture, including previously unreleased clips featuring the Pichu Bros. from the short movie "Pikachu and Pichu" in the third feature film. You'll also have access to other television programs including an interactive quiz show, a news channel, and a shopping channel -- but how these last two channels will fit in with the rest of the game is anyone's guess. Maybe you'll earn Poke Money or, even better, have access to Pikachu's Poke Money credit card and run it into irreversible debt. Just like in actual shopping channels!

Just like in all Cable TV shows, you'll get to see washed-up characters who've only appeared once in the TV series, never to appear again. While it's not likely that you'll see the heavily-sedated Professor Ivy, players are bound to see some of their favourite monsters. Naturally, this includes Smeargle, one of the more bizarre Pokemon characters (it has a paintbrush for a tail). You'll be able to colour various still scenes from television programs with a paint tool similar to Mario Paint. Smeargle will then display your work in its art gallery.

In addition to this, players can also collect 3-D Pokemon "NiceCard" lenticulars and play a virtual version of the failed pocket hardware, Pokemon Mini. Hopefully the English version will include the games that were only released in Japan, such as Pokemon Tetris and Togepi Tumble as well as the four initial games. Certain games for the Pokemon Mini required you to shake the unit to play, so how they'll emulate this will be interesting to see.

Pokemon Channel is shaping up to be the most bizarre idea that the Pokemon license has been used with since Pokemon Snap. Like Pokemon Snap, it certainly looks as though it will be entertaining to younger kids. And some older Pokemon fans will get a kick out of it too -- the inclusion of Smeargle seems to guarantee that. Hopefully it won't follow the trend of the previous Pokemon spin-off games, which seemed to be fairly short.