Pokemon Platinum
Silly Rabbit, Pokemon is for kids. At least that’s what I thought. That was the reason I stayed away from the series for the last 12 years. Boy, was I missing out on a great series. Now I know the franchise has been grossly over saturated with the trading card game, a badly dubbed cartoon series, toys, and dozens of other mediocre video games, but Pokemon Platinum returns to its roots to deliver an old school RPG video game experience.
What is so brilliant about this game is its design. Few games have been so simple and complex at the same time. It is a game simple enough for my seven year old nephew to play, and complex enough for my 20-something hardcore gaming friends to produce a perfect Pokemon through strategic breeding and well thought out EV training.
The game starts out simple enough, you pick one of three starting Pokemon and you train and battle your way through the land of Sinnoh earning gym badges and thwarting Team Galactic’s evil schemes. Battles take place in the familiar turn based fashion and when you weaken a wild Pokemon enough, you can catch it and add it to your team. That’s when the depth kicks in. With 493 Pokemon to choose from to form a party of six and hundreds of moves for your Pokemon to choose from, the possible combinations are endless.
Fans of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl will be in familiar territory, but there is plenty of new content to keep them satisfied. If you have never played a Pokemon game, this is definitely the version to get.
The graphics are amongst the best on the system. There is no loading and it makes use of both screens. The controls are simple and the touch screen options are responsive and easy to use. The battle animations are simplistic but you’ll still find yourself teaching a mediocre move to a Pokemon just to see how it looks in battle.
What truly makes this game fun is the sheer amount of things you can do to amuse yourself. Of course you can battle and level your favorite Pokemon to level 100 in single and double battles, but there are many diversions too, such as growing berries, breeding, entering contests, making poffins, digging underground for treasure, collecting materials to decorate your Pokeballs, visiting the Wi-Fi Plaza and playing mini-games with people on-line, fishing, and exploring the large world with secret areas opening up at various stages in the game. In fact many of the activities can’t be truly enjoyed until you actually finish the game and obtain the National Pokedex. This opens up a very challenging battle arena that will suck several more hours out of your DS’s lifespan. Another brilliant game design. I can’t remember the last game played that I spent well over 50 hours playing after I beat it.
The only real gripe I have with this game is that it will absolutely drive a true completest like myself to utter madness. Nintendo makes it virtually impossible to “catch them all”. I mean I’ve thoroughly played through Pokemon LeafGreen, Emerald, and Pearl, then transferred all the Pokemon to Platinum, and I’ve completed dozens of trades over the Internet through the GTS system, and my Pokedex is stuck around the 400 number. I think it is silly to have event only Pokemon whereby I have to take my DS to a Toys R Us several miles away during a 2-3 hour period on a weekend just to download one little bastard. I absolutely do NOT advocate cheating or using cheat codes, but that seems to be the only way to get all 493 Pokemon.
That gripe aside this game has surprisingly entertained me for several hundred hours(I know, I know, I need to get a life) and I find it strangely addicting. I highly recommend it to fans of the series and newbies alike.
Loading ...
LuBu you said it dude and I’m so glad you did. The Pokemon games were where it was at! I admit being a loserish child I watched Pokemon for about a year and then realized…”No…I like the game better!”
It’s a shame it kept you from it for so long dude.
Nice article man. Very nicely explained.
You really make me want to jump on the Pokemon bandwagon. Thanks for the review.