When Nintendo announced Meowth's Party, the game world was abuzz with speculation that it'd be the GameCube's first full-fledged Pokemon game. Well, it's not what I was expecting, but that doesn't mean Pokemon Channel's a bad game. On the contrary, it's one of the best value-priced games for the holidays and it's a must buy for Pokemon fans.

Pokemon Channel is a "Hey You, Pikachu" hybrid of sorts. Professor Oak is busy trying to create television programs for Pokemon and he's asked you to watch TV with your Pikachu and report your findings back to him. You don't actually compile data. Instead, you're required to watch programs and he saves your game, so consider saving the same as reporting. There are over 18 channels that are unlocked throughout the game and they vary in their level of interactivity. Smoochum Shape-up and the Ranking Channel need to be watched, but you can't do anything with them. However, there's much fun to be had with Quiz Wobbuffet, Odd One Out and Eggzamination, channels where correct guesses on Pokemon trivia and simple games of chance can earn you Poke, which can then be used to buy stuff on my favorite channel, Shop 'N Squirtle. A home shopping network, you can buy tons of Pokemon collectibles such as new televisions, binders for Nice Cards, posters, wallpaper, dolls and mini games that are delivered to your back door by Delibird.

The items as well as the new channels are time unlocked. Professor Oak will inform you that new channels will be available, but not until the following morning. By building anticipation, Pokemon Channel becomes a daily routine but not for long. After watching the day's programs, going exploring and collecting things there's not much to do except color (more on that later) making it easier to play the game in short half hour to an hour blocks per day.

Pikachu, as usual if you're a fan, is adorable and fun to be around. At first it doesn't understand television, but as you watch more programs together it wont be long before it's getting excited over Shop 'N Squirtle purchases, changing channels and watching TV by itself. The experience is quite amusing since it reacts to certain moments accordingly, so if the Pichu Bros. are sad in their anime, Pikachu will lower its head. When Smoochum exercises on her show, Pikachu will mimic those fat-burning moves.

When you're not watching TV you can play games with Pikachu and take part in activities, such as playing catch, building a snowman and growing plants. Most of the time is spent watching Pikachu walk around, but it goes a long way in bonding with it. As you'll hopefully discover, Pikachu loves attention.

There are a ton of things to collect in Pokemon Channel that had me playing the game long after I watched all of the programs. Shop 'N Squirtle became somewhat of an obsession because I wanted everything. In addition to posters and dolls of your favorite Pokemon, he also sells Pokemon Minis, small Game Boy-like handhelds that play cartridges. There are six games to collect and they aren't complex but they're a nice time waster. There are also different minis you can buy, so if you're tired of your old one, you can exchange it.

If you want to take a break from shopping, there are bus passes that will take you and Pikachu to three separate locations: Cobalt Coast, Viridian Forest and Mt. Snowfall. There, you'll be able to take part in various activities, meet wild Pokemon and answer trivia for Nice cards. Each Pokemon will ask you and Pikachu a question and if you guess correctly you'll win a special card featuring that Pokemon. There are well over 50 cards and there are three types:

Single Nice Card: A holographic image of Pokemon. They're not too flashy and you normally receive these when you order a pack of five cards from Squirtle.

Motion Nice Card: Watch the Pokemon move when you tilt the card in different directions.

Platinum Nice Card: Not only are these cards animated, they feature the sound the corresponding Pokemon makes!

As your collection grows, Professor Oak will give you binders for storing cards and you can sort them alphabetically for easy reference. However, if you want to collect them all you'll have to play the game during the day and the night since some Pokemon only appear at certain times.

There are certainly a lot of channels and unlockables to keep you busy. However, Pokemon Channel's best feature is the Smeargle Paint. It allows you to freeze any frame in the included 25-minute Pichu Bros. anime (and later on any channel) and color it using a limited paint supply, and while you can't achieve the same level of quality as the game art, hours upon hours can be spent coloring pictures. It's definitely a cool feature for those of you who've been waiting for a next-gen Mario Paint and it considerately bumps up the game's replay value. When you're finished, you can either hang the painting in your room or auction it for Poke.

Nintendo's packed this budget title full of great stuff and it shines. Even the graphics and the music are well done, colorful and sharp images that don't clip that are complemented by music that always puts a smile on my face. However, Pokemon Channel isn't perfect. On the downside, I wish there were more channels, places to go and things to interact with, but they're minor gripes when the price of the game's taken into account. The only major annoyance is the sounds made while painting. Each item makes a distinct sound and they are THE WORST I've ever heard in a game. How bad are they? Imagine holding down a crayon and hearing something like, BLOOP, BLOOP, BLOOP, BLOOP, BLOOP, BLOOP over and over. It drives me nuts. This is the first game I've muted because I couldn't stand the sounds.

The only reason I can think of as to why you'd hate Pokemon Channel is because you despise Pokemon, and that's a shame because it's a phenomenal budget title and a perfect stocking stuffer. You can spend hours collecting stuff and chillin with Pikachu, but it may take years to color everything, making this the closest we're going to get to a Mario Paint this console generation. Definitely check it out, and if you have reservations, think about this; when was the last time Nintendo released a brand new (console) first party game for $30? Buy it.