I just got Pokemon: Soul Silver yesterday, so I’m nowhere near ready to write a full review of the game (but it’s exactly what you’d expect: a pretty Pokemon remake that easily captures your attention and lasts long enough to justify the purchase), but I can still address the plastic elephant in the room: the Pokewalker.

It’s been hyped ever since the Gold/Silver remakes were announced: each game would come with a pedometer/digital pet you could load with a Pokemon and take with you on walks to find items, catch Pokemon, and gain experience. It’s a neat idea that still sounds gimmicky as hell. The Pokewalker is indeed a gimmick, but it’s a surprisingly fun gimmick that genuinely rewards you in the game without completely breaking it.

Physically, the Pokewalker is basically a Pokemon-themed Tamagotchi. It’s a round plastic disc about two inches in diameter and half an inch thick, with a red and white faceplate that looks like a Pokeball with a screen. Its display/control scheme is predictably simple, consisting of a small, monochrome LCD screen and three buttons. You can carry the Pokewalker around in your pocket, dangling from a lanyard with the device’s lanyard holes, or clipped to your belt with the optional screw-on backplate clip.

Actually loading the Pokewalker is slightly inconvenient. You can’t access the device while you’re playing the game. Instead, you have to restart and access a separate menu from the title screen. Once you’ve selected your Pokemon (which have to reside in your storage computer, not your active group), you can send it to the Pokewalker. The DS card has a little IR emitter/receiver that lets it communicate with the Pokewalker; just point the Pokewalker at the DS, hit the middle button, and you can take your Pokemon out for walkies.

The Pokewalker counts your steps while it’s loaded with a Pokemon, and builds up “watts” while doing so. These watts can be used to search for Pokemon or items within the Pokewalker, or dumped into the game card to unlock additional routes… for getting different Pokemon and items. Pokemon and items are found through really simple search-random-bushes minigames, and aren’t particularly difficult or deep. When you’re done walking with your Pokemon, you send it back to the game card in the same way you took it out. It’ll bring with it any Pokemon you caught or items you found while walking, and if your walk was long enough it’ll also grow a level. You can also connect two players’ Pokewalkers to get a special gift.

Thanks to the multiple routes, Pokemon, and items, there’s a surprising amount of variety to be had in the Pokewalker. You only start with two routes, but you can open up over a dozen routes the more you walk and the more you play Pokemon. A handful of special routes can also be unlocked by fulfilling different requirements. This interplay between the game and the Pokewalker makes the device’s use feel rewarding without overpowering. Since each route has a specific selection of Pokemon and items, you can’t just build up your watts and spam-search to get everything in the game. Also, your Pokemon can only go up one level per walk, so you can’t powerlevel it by hopping on a treadmill or sticking it in a paint mixer.

The Pokewalker isn’t a game-changing feature that revolutionizes Pokemon, but it isn’t an empty, pointless gimmick, either. It’s a neat little gadget that adds an additional element to the game. It’s kind of fun, actually. Shallow as hell, but kind of fun.