I like this idea. It gives you a place to put your Pokemon, and it's not that expensive so...

Not sure I understand the criticism in your review. Yes, if you do not have Diamond/Pearl this title is pretty much worthless, but for someone who does have D/P and has logged 275 hours on it, Ranch is absolutely essential.

The big problem in D/P is that you cannot possibly "catch them all" and store them all at the same time. There isn't enough space. The 18 boxes, which hold 30 Pokemon a piece, plus 6 in the players party allow for only 546 Pokemon on the cart accessible to the player. There are 493 Pokemon to catch, and once you add in the multiples, such as 28 forms of Unown, 3 forms of Burmy, 4 forms of Deoxys, 25 Ditto of different natures, shiny Pokemon, etc, the whole thing becomes a mess as you approach 600 different Pokemon. You can quickly fill all 18 boxes yet not even have seen ~300 Pokemon, much less caught 200. Breeders who keep three or four boxes of Ditto have been dealing with the storage problem in the Pokemon games for several years, long before D/P.

Ranch adds 1000 more storage slots, effectively tripling the storage capacity. Of course there's nothing much else to do, that's not it's intent.

For the D/P fans that have been NEEDING this, $10 is a bargain.

Oh, wow; you mean you can transfer back AND forth? I assumed it was only 1-way. Maybe I will have to look at this again... especially for getting rid of the Ditto and Unown, and all the completed pokemon lines. cause seriously, thats a lot of pokemon. I could have room to breed again!

I forgot 1000 points = $10, I thought it meant $1. =(

Is this game even worth $10?

Sounds like an interesting game.

Yes. You can transfer back and forth, but only for Pokemon that match the Trainer ID of the D/P card that sent the critter to the ranch. E.g., you cannot unload everything from D/P to the Ranch, start a new game, then copy everything back over. However, you can transfer things that are traded at the ranch. You can get Phione, Mew, and some others at the ranch and move them over to D/P. You can also get new items at the ranch and send those over if held by a Pokemon that you move back.

You'll receive quests and such from the rancher directing you to find new Pokemon in D/P that are not currently in your Pokedex, and if you catch them and send them over, you'll get rewards. As the ranch grows, there are new parts of D/P that are unlocked, ultimately rewarding you with a Mew for your 1000th Pokemon on the ranch once you hit 999.

According to Bulbapedia, Hayley (the rancher) will offer for trade from the following on occassion:

Pikachu, Vulpix, Ponyta, Lickitung, Tangela, Eevee, Aerodactyl, Yanma, Miltank, Shroomish, Wailmer, Wynaut, Staravia, Combee, Pachirisu, Shellos, Buneary, Croagunk, Finneon, Snover

All of these will have something unique, either a TM move, Egg move, or something else that makes them 'special' like an event Pokemon. Hayley will trade Phione (Grass Knot, Rain Dance, Rest, Surf) for a Leafeon once you have 250 Pokemon on the ranch, and Mew (Synthesis, Return, Hypnosis, Teleport) at 999. Hayley's Pokemon are in the event Cherish Balls, not the standard Pokeballs.

The thing is, is that they are advertising it as a game.  If people fire up their wii's to see what's on the shop channel and see My Pokemon Ranch, they are going to think it's a game, not a storage slot.  Even the video on the Nintendo channel makes it look like a game.  

 So if they are going to try and pass it off as a game, I'm going to review it as such.  It just seems like a cheap trick to get people to see a Pokemon title, and think that it might be a fun game...