I know right? I’ve been waiting for a long time too. Pokémon after almost 15 years of franchise is still kicking, and boy is it kicking hard. This new instance of the Pokémon franchise will work as a reboot to all of us old school players and as an invitation to every new kid or grown up who joins this amazing world of pokémon! So if you’re eager to find out what’s new, jump in!

GRAPHICS:

The game received a major overhaul in here, the architecture and sprites don’t wander away so much from Soul Silver, Heart Gold but that’s not completely a bad thing.  Some new perspective when it comes to the panning, some world turning when entering a particular house or building adds up to the gaming style in general. However it’s been quite a while and many of these things could have been upgraded by now. The pokémon finally move while battling and in the Pokedex, it’s fun to watch and it adds a certain something to the game, make them feel more like actual creatures that could exist… in the game I mean. I would never like to see a couple of flying Gears in real life. The battle effects and animations are somewhat disappointing, not that they’re poorly done, but they sure are dated. It’s time to step it up in the graphics innovation department Game Freak.

Finally we're no longer kids! The Teenage era it's here!

SOUND:

The soundtrack and sound effects remain extremely basic. The music well…it’s ok, you know you get used to it, and eventually during fights you’ll probably turn the sound off unless you want to hear the same little annoying sounds over and over again during every fight. One major letdown for me was the sounds that the pokémon makes…I mean c’mon it’s been almost 15 years! Cut it out with the MIDI! I swear it, I was genuinely pissed when I found out about this, how hard can it be? They’ve upgraded so many things that I feel this one could have been done just as easily. That major letdown aside, all is right with the world.

STORY:

Forget it not! Pokémon games are RPGs and they behave as such. This time around the evild dudes are the Plasma Team, a group of pokémon fundamentalists that will try to release every pokémon on earth. Of course many of them will be corrupted while doing it so, and they actually use trained pokémon to steal your pokémons…to set them free…under their watch…Yeah I know it doesn’t make sense, but that’s why they’re the bad guys! They be crazy! However the story has a little more depth this time around, and it’s actually quite good and enjoyable, lasting over 40 hours without sidequests or grinding considered.

GAMEPLAY:

Here’s the true marvel of this game, nearly every aspect on this section has been improved. The combats are faster, the player to player interaction is AWESOME and basically the entire user interface is easier to access and navigate.

Let’s get onto the C-Gear, this new little gadget allows us to stay connected vía WI-FI constantly. It gives our DS’s a sort of Tag Mode that will instantly recognize people playing pokémon near you and will interact with them. No more union rooms, no more link cables, this is the real deal and it’s the way it should have been since day one.

About the combat, there’s a few novelties to mention. 3 vs 3 combat and 2vs2 wild pokémon battles adds something new to the mix, but that’s not all. The game is about one thing and one thing only, CATCH’EM ALL! And this game offers a truly unique opportunity for newcomers and old gamers alike. A whole new bunch of pokémons that will be ALL that you’ll be able to see until you finish with the whole game. That means, until you finish the game (story mode) you’ll not be able to see any of the 450+ older pokémons. This is actually a great concept, let me elaborate. In other generations I just didn’t care for newer pokémons, I went straight for my dream team that I had in the first gen and that was it. Now the game has changed, the new guys are all I have and I have to learn basically everything about a bunch of new creatures. This is exciting and it’s certainly alluring to new gamers that never played pokémon before!

OVERALL SCORE:

9

This is a great game that proves that after almost 15 years this franchise stays as strong as the first time and it still kicks ass. If you’re new to this universe and don’t even know what an EV is, still go and get this game, you wont regret it!