Look, we've all been there: You've got a few minutes to kill and you want to spend it forging a bond of friendship with a pet that shoots lightning out of its face by making it knock out other animals, but there just isn't a patch of tall grass or a poorly lit, bat-infested cave nearby to give you the opportunity, so you have to spend a chunk of your day not interacting with Pokémon. There's got to be a better way!

And now, there will be: Pokémon Dream Radar, an upcoming game for Nintendo 3DS that puts Pokémon into whatever environment you're in, and then lets you blast them with lasers.


The idea behind Dream Radar is pretty awesome, in that it uses the 3DS's camera to put a Pokémon into whatever room you're in. The effect is an augmented reality game that shows what appears to be a cloud monster with a Sam Elliot moustache wearing what appears to be a strapless bikini top hanging out in your living room, in the middle of a restaurant, or -- if you're one of those lucky souls that can pass off a 3DS as a PDA -- floating over the table during a business meeting.

Seriously, imagine this thing floating over your boss's head while you zap it with laser beams...


...and suddenly, quarterly reports become a lot more interesting.

I'm definitely someone who's of the opinion that the real world would be a lot better if there were more Bulbasaurs hanging out -- the current number, at least around here, stands at a truly unacceptable zero -- but I will say that I'm a little concerned about the idea at the core of Dream Radar presents. If the premise here is that Pokémon are always floating around your house and you just can't see them without using the 3DS camera, then things get a little weird.

A Snorlax or two would be fine, but I'm a little uncomfortable with the insinuation that there could be a balloon that abducts children or a floating ghost sobbing over its human face creeping into my house from the edge of consciousness and the only way to deal with it is to buy a DS and blast them with imaginary lasers. That's putting me in a pretty awkward position.

Then again, the Pokémon that you capture with Dream Radar can be imported into Pokémon Black and White 2, meaning that it's this generation's equivalent of the Pokéwalker, but without all the hassle of having to actually move around. That is a pretty key selling point.

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