Post by Gilvan Blight on May 27, 2006 7:03:19 GMT -5
Okay I know most people don't belive it but the original Pokemon game for the gameboy was and still is a great game. It's a classic console rpg where you use monsters to fight instead of your characters. There are towns, shops, wander monsters, an cool xp system, dungeons, hidden treasure chests, a pretty good story etc. It's classic console rpg at it's finest with an annoying catch them all trading aspect thrown in.
Pokemon XD is the first true Pokemon adventure game for the gamecube, in full colour and 3d, using all of the gamecubes features, including hooking up to four gameboys for huge battle royals.
Quikly: it's pokemon, it's pretty, it's well done mostly, but man is it boring.
Summary: you are some young kid. You start in a research lab where you hear lots about Shadow Pokemon and purifying them. Soon in the Dr of the lab gets kidnappend and you need to find him. You go out in to the world searching for him with your trusty Pokemon Eevee. You explore new regions one at a time (a odd inventors house, then a town, then another town, then some moutain, etc). Everywhere you go there are people to challenge you to pokemon matches. Some for fun and some are just bullies or part of the evil team that stole the Dr. Some of these people use shadow pokemon, which shortly into the game you get the ability to steal from them. You then take these shadow pokemon and convert them to good "open their hearts". The chase for the doctor contines as you catch new shadow pokemon adding to your 'army' and collect other items and unlock new parts of the game. Unfortunately I didn't get very far as I lost interest, so thats about all I can tell you.
The Good: the graphics in general are passable. Very typically nintendo looking. Lots of bright colours, and it suits the games setting. The pokemon are well done and well animated, and look rather cute (this is a good think imo). The game is simple to learn the basics off. The story seemed pretty good as well, and did keep me interested in at least that aspect of the game. The shadow pokemon is an interesting addition to the series. The addition of tag team battles is pretty cool. It definately made things a bit more intersting having to control and battle two pokemon at once.
The Bad: Battles are either too easy or too hard. I had very few close matches. I either destroyed the enemy outright, or got beat down outright. It didn't seem much of a challenge, it was just you are tought enough, or you need to build up. Again I didn't play that far in so maybe this gets better as you get in. You don't get a choice of Pokemon to fight with for at least the first 6 or so hours of gameplay. You are stuck with Eevee and the shadow pokemon that come up. So this means you see the same guys fight every time for 6 or so hours. There was a distinct lack of overland movement and 'wandering' battles. One of the aspects that was good in the original, was the exploration of a new area and the chance to find a new type of pokemon as a wandering monster. I saw none of this in the time I played, I just jumed from zone to zone and had to talk to npcs to initiate battles.
The Ugly: I think Pokemon works on the gameboy since it's a handheld you pick up during spare time. It's not something you sit and play for a couple hours. The battle system is interested but gets really boring quickly. This game boils down to a set of planned battles with optional battles scattered throught the game. This means that at least 80% of your time is spent battling. This gets BORING. Really boring. Especially when you only get 4 pokemon to choose from and their abilities change so infrequently. Add to this the fact it's on the gamecube and everything is fully animated. This means that not only are the battles boring but they are longer then needed. You choose an attack and then have to watch your pokemon perform that attack. Then watch the enemy get hit or affected. All of this fully animated with poor sound. Heck you even have to wait a good 30seconds-1minute just for the battle arena to show up and the trainers to say their little intros and launch their pokemon. One more ugly. Why the heck do the pokemon sound like their gameboy compatiots. They all make sound, and that sound sounds like something from a gameboy colour (or older). Even my pika from the yellow edition could at least say PikaPika if I talked to him. This is a gameCUBE game, one of the systems with built in 5.1 pro logic II, and you couldn't make the Pokemon say their names, instead you get annoying sounds that sound more like you are loosing reception on your raido then any creature.
Overall: it's still pokemon, it looks kinda cool, the pokemon are cute as hell and well animated. If you like, no love the pokemon battle system, and there is nothing you would rather do then chose from 1 of four actions for your monster and watch what happens then you will love this. Otherwize I suggest skipping this one. For die hard Pokemon fans only. If you haven't tried the series out, you could rent this to see if you like it, but I strongly suggest picking up whatever edition is out on the Gameboy now, or just go pick up a copy of Red Blue or Yellow used. Their not as fancy but they are way better games.
Pokemon XD is the first true Pokemon adventure game for the gamecube, in full colour and 3d, using all of the gamecubes features, including hooking up to four gameboys for huge battle royals.
Quikly: it's pokemon, it's pretty, it's well done mostly, but man is it boring.
Summary: you are some young kid. You start in a research lab where you hear lots about Shadow Pokemon and purifying them. Soon in the Dr of the lab gets kidnappend and you need to find him. You go out in to the world searching for him with your trusty Pokemon Eevee. You explore new regions one at a time (a odd inventors house, then a town, then another town, then some moutain, etc). Everywhere you go there are people to challenge you to pokemon matches. Some for fun and some are just bullies or part of the evil team that stole the Dr. Some of these people use shadow pokemon, which shortly into the game you get the ability to steal from them. You then take these shadow pokemon and convert them to good "open their hearts". The chase for the doctor contines as you catch new shadow pokemon adding to your 'army' and collect other items and unlock new parts of the game. Unfortunately I didn't get very far as I lost interest, so thats about all I can tell you.
The Good: the graphics in general are passable. Very typically nintendo looking. Lots of bright colours, and it suits the games setting. The pokemon are well done and well animated, and look rather cute (this is a good think imo). The game is simple to learn the basics off. The story seemed pretty good as well, and did keep me interested in at least that aspect of the game. The shadow pokemon is an interesting addition to the series. The addition of tag team battles is pretty cool. It definately made things a bit more intersting having to control and battle two pokemon at once.
The Bad: Battles are either too easy or too hard. I had very few close matches. I either destroyed the enemy outright, or got beat down outright. It didn't seem much of a challenge, it was just you are tought enough, or you need to build up. Again I didn't play that far in so maybe this gets better as you get in. You don't get a choice of Pokemon to fight with for at least the first 6 or so hours of gameplay. You are stuck with Eevee and the shadow pokemon that come up. So this means you see the same guys fight every time for 6 or so hours. There was a distinct lack of overland movement and 'wandering' battles. One of the aspects that was good in the original, was the exploration of a new area and the chance to find a new type of pokemon as a wandering monster. I saw none of this in the time I played, I just jumed from zone to zone and had to talk to npcs to initiate battles.
The Ugly: I think Pokemon works on the gameboy since it's a handheld you pick up during spare time. It's not something you sit and play for a couple hours. The battle system is interested but gets really boring quickly. This game boils down to a set of planned battles with optional battles scattered throught the game. This means that at least 80% of your time is spent battling. This gets BORING. Really boring. Especially when you only get 4 pokemon to choose from and their abilities change so infrequently. Add to this the fact it's on the gamecube and everything is fully animated. This means that not only are the battles boring but they are longer then needed. You choose an attack and then have to watch your pokemon perform that attack. Then watch the enemy get hit or affected. All of this fully animated with poor sound. Heck you even have to wait a good 30seconds-1minute just for the battle arena to show up and the trainers to say their little intros and launch their pokemon. One more ugly. Why the heck do the pokemon sound like their gameboy compatiots. They all make sound, and that sound sounds like something from a gameboy colour (or older). Even my pika from the yellow edition could at least say PikaPika if I talked to him. This is a gameCUBE game, one of the systems with built in 5.1 pro logic II, and you couldn't make the Pokemon say their names, instead you get annoying sounds that sound more like you are loosing reception on your raido then any creature.
Overall: it's still pokemon, it looks kinda cool, the pokemon are cute as hell and well animated. If you like, no love the pokemon battle system, and there is nothing you would rather do then chose from 1 of four actions for your monster and watch what happens then you will love this. Otherwize I suggest skipping this one. For die hard Pokemon fans only. If you haven't tried the series out, you could rent this to see if you like it, but I strongly suggest picking up whatever edition is out on the Gameboy now, or just go pick up a copy of Red Blue or Yellow used. Their not as fancy but they are way better games.