Pokemon Crystal

The Short


Pros
- Improved version of Pokemon Gold/Silver
- Can finally play as a girl for the first time in a Pokemon game
- Can catch both legendaries from Gold/Silver
- Pokemon now animate when entering battle, which is a nice touch
- Several small aesthetic changes and the phone calls people give you are less stupid
- Has the best batch of available pokemon between the three games of this generation

Cons
- Essentially the exact same game as Gold/Silver

Yep, we're doing this again. 

Note: I will not be going over the basic mechanics of the Pokemon games in this review, as I have covered these mechanics extensively in my Pokemon Blue/Red review. Instead, all subsequent reviews will instead focus on the changes made to the formula in any particular iteration. 

The Long

Pokemon Crystal has a lot of fond memories for me. It actually was my brother's game that I essentially stole (since you can only have one save) since he had Silver anyway and I needed a pokemon game to play. I started playing it when my family went on a trip to London a considerable number of years ago, and I remember setting the internal clock (which changes the in-game night/day cycle) to London time because...I was in London. 

I then came home a week later and couldn't figure out how to change it, so my Pokemon Crystal game was always on London time. I'll just say the main character is a perpetual night owl and call it good, I guess. I certainly killed a lot of Hoothoots. 

Anyway, ever since the start there's been a sort of tradition with the Pokemon games, established by Pokemon Yellow. They'll release a pair of games (Red/Blue, Gold/Silver, Ruby/Sapphire, etc.), and then a year later they'll release the "definitive" version of these games (Yellow, Crystal, Emerald, etc.). These usually offer a few extras (like being able to get both of the legendary or starter pokemon as well as a few bonuses) and perform very minor balance and story changes to keep the games consistent.

This is the only "improved" game that I'll be reviewing (aside from Pokemon Yellow) seeing as most versions aside from Pokemon Yellow don't really offer much new that is worth noting. But I am reviewing Pokemon Crystal simply because of the time I spent with it and how significant it was in my personal history of Pokemon.

You can finally play as a girl!

The improvements between Gold/Silver and Crystal are minimum, but still make Crystal the better version. The biggest change is you can finally play as a girl for the first time in the series (a trend that continued ever since). This doesn't change anything but aesthetics, but it's a nice touch, and the girl doesn't look like a complete fashion failure like she does in all future Pokemon installments.

Not much different, but still cool. 

Another noticeable change is aesthetic: when pokemon enter a battle they have a little animation now rather than just standing there. Again, this was a nice touch, which they promptly axed for almost all future generations (why?). Yeah, they weren't great animations, but they were better than the guys just standing there, which apparently is what Nintendo liked better. 

There were a few balance changes (you can get fire pokemon earlier, which makes the game easier), but what really blew my mind was the fact you could get both legendary pokemon from Gold/Silver (Ho-Oh and Lugia) as well as all three of the legendary dogs in the same game. Much like Pokemon Yellow let you get every starter pokemon, Crystal breaks the rules and gives you all the best. You still can't get all the starters (and haven't been able to since Yellow), but hey...I'll take Ho-Oh over Cyndaquil any day. 

But in truth, this game isn't much different from Gold/Silver

Aside from that, not much is different. The story is changed a little, but since nobody ever cared about a story in a Pokemon game that probably doesn't matter. The phone calls people make to you are a little less stupid, but still have about a 50/50 split between useful/useless. They adjusted a few bosses and maps to make things better paced, but again...it's all simply very minor changes. The fact of the matter is, aside from cosmetic differences, Crystal is essentially a slightly better Gold/Silver, and that's only if you are interested in "catching them all."

Music is still great, though. 

This review might be redundant, but I really liked Pokemon Crystal, and was kind of bummed when they rereleased Gold and Silver as HeartGold and SoulSilver that they totally neglected to rerelease Crystal. I suppose even Nintendo knew it was redundant by that point, and they could only milk so much out of this franchise, but man...I really like Crystal. 

Anyway, it gets the same five out of five stars, yada yada yada. If you are looking to pick these games up and not as the DS re-releases, you should totally go for Pokemon Crystal. It's the best out of the three, and plus the cart is a cool light blue crystally color. 

Speaking of Super Nerds...yeah, I am one. Sigh. 

Pokemon Gold/Silver

Pokemon Gold/Silver Versions

The Short


Pros
- Adds 100 new pokemon to the mix, and an entire new region to explore
- Adds a day/night cycle that advances in real time, and changes which pokemon are available
- You can now breed pokemon. The implications of this are nuts.
- Can re-visit the entire region from the first game, three years later, and battle all the same gym leaders
- Ability to map items (such as the bicycle) to a button greatly speed up the game
- Two new elements, Dark and Steel, further mix up this elemental-based battler
- Finally adds an XP bar to the battle screen. HALLELUJAH.
- Pokemon now have individual "happiness," which can change how they evolve, react, etc.
- Split Special into Special Attack and Special Defense, which changes a lot of things up
- Improved graphics and the best soundtrack in the series
- Probably had the most significant changes out of any Pokemon generation

Cons
- Still has several of the same core gameplay niggles as the previous games
- Pokemon no longer follow you around like in Yellow
- Batteries on these karts usually only last 7 years, meaning if you get one now your odds of being able to save aren't great
- I can't think of anything else. This really might be a perfect game.

Back to Pokeland. And yes, Silver is the better version, you Gold tards. 

Note: I will not be going over the basic mechanics of the Pokemon games in this review, as I have covered these mechanics extensively in my Pokemon Blue/Red review. Instead, all subsequent reviews will instead focus on the changes made to the formula in any particular iteration. 

The Long

Pokemon Gold/Silver is my favorite Pokemon generation. It's the generation where I really started to get into the games, the obsession of "catching them all" hitting full force. I sunk hours and hours into this game on my quest to become a Pokemon Master, and I can honestly say I'd do it again (if I still had a cartridge). Pokemon Silver is nostalgia city for me, so bear with me as I try to not gush too much about how much I freaking love this game. 

Pokemon Gold/Silver is technically the second "generation" of Pokemon games (Pokemon Yellow doesn't count because it was a spinoff of Blue/Red), and Nintendo knew they needed to up the ante. Pokemon was a massive phenomenon by this point, so something had to be done to keep fans intrigued while still keeping things relatively familiar. So what they did was essentially genius: added a ton of new stuff, all of which could both be either really simple or extremely complex based on how seriously you took it. It grabbed that idea from Pokemon Red/Blue that these games could be played by both kids and more serious gamers and blew it out of control. Seriously, pokemon breeding was just...well, I'll tell you.

Totodile. The greatest starter ever.

First off they revamped the entire adventure. Unlike Yellow, which was the same as Red/Blue but with Pikachu, Gold/Silver was a new quest set in a different land of Johto rather than the Kanto from the first games. It starts out relatively similar, with you being tasked to go off on an adventure to "Catch 'Em All!" for a Pokemon Professor, and he lets you pick from a set of three Pokemon of the fire, water, and grass variety (Cyndaquil, Totodile, or Chikorita). You again have a rival, though this time he's more like a punk red-headed thief rather than the professor's grandson. 

As a red-head, I'm offended. 

The adventure plays out pretty much exactly the same. You still have eight Gym leaders to beat up before taking on the Elite Four and finally the Champion, finally proving yourself as the Pokemon king. The crazy part is that after you beat the Champion (which is no easy thing; Drake's a powerhouse) the game actually lets you go back to Kanto from the first game and replay all their Gym leaders, a few of which have been replaced and all their pokemon buffed. You can then re-fight the Elite Four and Champion, who have also upgraded their pokemon, and even go battle Red, your main character from the Red/Blue games. Protip: He's a badass. 

Kid's game? The battle with Red is nuts. 

So you are essentially getting two games for the price of one here, which is awesome. But enough about that; that are the real changes? What is different between this and Red/Blue/Yellow that makes it worth your time?

Well, the first big thing is the Day/Night cycle. Now when you load up the game it asks for the current time, and the game will adjust accordingly. As you travel, as it becomes night in the real world, it'll become night in the game. The crazy part is that some Pokemon only come out at night, and many pokemon have different encounter rates based on whether you are hunting them in morning, evening, afternoon, night, etc. It also knows what day of the week it is, with certain events happening only on certain days. As you battle across the land you'll also add people to your phone book (another new feature), and sometimes trainers you've defeated will call you on certain days for a rematch.

Like having Pikachu following you around in Yellow, this adds a ton of immersion points for me. Yeah, nothing anybody says when they call is particularly interesting (though I thought my mom calling me was funny) and usually it's either straight business or total uselessness (I don't care that you just failed at catching a Caterpie! I have like ten of those already!) but it's still a good touch. The Day/Night thing is also totally awesome, because then I had to plan when I was playing the game. If I wanted a Hoothoot (an Owl pokemon, obviously) I'd have to stay up later and run though the forest at night to grab one. It was a really cool feature and helped make the game feel more "real."

I'm coming for ya, you stupid Hoothoot!

To compliment this new spin on pokemon hunting, they added 100 new pokemon, and two new elemental types: Dark and Steel. Dark and Steel were made for two balancing purposes: to make Psychic less totally invincible, and make Fighting actually useful. They also readjusted elemental weaknesses and strengths from the original fourteen, and it's been the same in every game ever since. The new pokemon were just as well designed as the first 150, if not more so. The 100 in this game are probably my favorites in the series in terms of design and just general awesomeness. As a bonus you could still catch all of the 150 from the first games, assuming you had both versions (Gold and Silver).

Adding these new elements bumped up the complexity even more. This is a lot to memorize!

Strategy in battles was also mixed up. Pokemon could now hold items, such as berries, that they would auto-use in times of danger without costing them a turn. They were all essentially single use if they were consumables, while items like the Exp Share, which helps with leveling up lower-level pokemon, weren't. You could give them items that powered up specific moves, but then you'd have to decide if that was better than having a healing item equipped. It added a ton of strategy, though it also mostly just made me pissed off when I thought I was about to win and my stupid opponent heals half his health back with a berry.

But all these pale in comparison to what is probably the deepest addition to the game, and the one that makes some people go totally nuts about Pokemon: the new breeding system.

Don't fall asleep, I'll be quick. 

I'm going to be brief. On the surface level this meant you could produce more pokemon, simple enough. The perk was that you could essentially get more of the rare ones (such as your starters) by breeding them and then hatching the produced egg (and since Dittos can breed with anything they suddenly became one of the most prized pokemon in the game). Legendaries couldn't breed, but since every pokemon had a gender if you got one of each (or one and a Ditto) you could finally replicate those rare pokemon.

And that isn't even the half of it. 

Pokemon inherit moves and stats based on who their parents are. If you just breed with a Ditto you don't get anything interesting, but many pokemon will breed with different pokemon than themselves, meaning you can mix element types. In a game that so heavily focuses on elemental moves, having an electric type that knows a water move can be game-changing. This is all stupidly complicated and I never got too deep into it, but just know that it's there, and it's nuts. 

Penny Arcade knows. 

Lots of little changes also make the game better. You finally have an XP bar that fills on the right for each pokemon after each battle, so you can follow as they level (yay!). You can map items to a button (like the bicycle) for instant use rather than having to dig through a menu to get to them. Menus are very similar to Red/Blue but seem to be streamlined in ways I can't put my finger on. It's all running in the same engine but looks cleaner overall, which is appreciated. 

Battle backdrops are still just white, but the Pokemon themselves look real good

Pokemon Gold/Silver was the first Pokemon game designed for a color system, and boy...they did a really good job. The first thing you get when you boot the game up is a full-color intro sequence that was totally awesome. In-game the graphics are excellent for a Game Boy Color game, with areas being vibrant and using the limited color pallet of the GBC to a full extent. The stars of the show are certainly the Pokemon, which all look unique and well colored, though the lack of any background in battles is a bit of a downer (though I have no idea how they would have pulled it off). They do well with using the limited real estate space of the GBC screen to pack everything on while still looking good, so there you go.

The music of Gold/Silver is my favorite in the entire series. Yeah, some songs in later versions might be up there, but nearly every song in this game is great. Like the graphics, they do well with using very little to do a whole lot. The battle songs are especially great, but the songs for the towns and routes also shine.

Plus, the final boss song is nuts. 

There's probably more that could be said about the changes in Pokemon Gold/Silver, but I think I've said enough already. The point is: if you like deep, turn-based JRPG battles and you haven't jumped on the Pokemon train, you are missing out in some of the best the business has to offer. Easy to pick up, almost impossible to master, Pokemon Gold/Silver was really where the series took off. I can't think of a better place to start (though the re-releases - SoulSilver and HeartGold on the DS - are very faithful representations with all the improvements that have been made since), and as it stands this is easily the best Game Boy Color game ever released.

If you have a GBA or GBC you are missing out if you don't have one of these games in your collection. Five out of five stars. 

Pokemon Yellow

The Short


Pros 
- Keeps the same, addicting gameplay found in its siblings, Pokemon Blue/Red
- Graphical improvements over its predecessor
- Follows the anime series by giving you a Pikachu to start, unlike any other game in the series
- Is the only game in the series where it is capable of getting all three starters of the generation without trades (Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur)
- Pikachu follows you around and can be talked to, and his mood influences certain aspects of the game
- Improved compatibility with the Game Boy Color
- Starting with an electric Pokemon makes the first portion of the game much harder, which I am totally fine with
- Some very small gameplay tweaks refine certain aspects from Blue/Red

Cons
- At its core, this is still Pokemon Blue/Red, with all the same problems as the first games
- Still no damned XP bar
- You can't catch any Pikachus or evolve the one you have into a Raichu
- Has a Pikachu's Beach minigame which is...just there
- Doesn't add any new pokemon at all
- Might be seen as just a money-maker, cashing in on the popularity of the anime at the time

The face that booted a franchise

Note: I will not be going over the basic mechanics of the Pokemon games in this review, as I have covered these mechanics extensively in my Pokemon Blue/Red review. Instead, all subsequent reviews will instead focus on the changes made to the formula in any particular iteration. 

The Long


It's 1999. Year of The Matrix. Year approaching Y2K. And absolutely the year of the Pokemon. Pokemon Red/Blue are selling like crazy, a start of a blockbuster franchise that can only be compared these days with something like the boom of the Angry Birds games. Nintendo still has a year before the next generation of Pokemon, Gold/Silver, will come out, and it needs to keep its fans happy. The Pokemon anime has taken off big in both the US and Japan, and so Nintendo hatches a plan.

Pokemon: Yellow Version (also known as Pokemon: Special Pikachu Version) is that plan. Taking Pokemon Red/Blue and retooling it so that it better fits with the plot of the anime, Nintendo pushes Pikachu to the forefront of the franchise as its now-easily recognizable mascot, and dedicates an entire game to him. So is this game - which is basically just Red/Blue reskinned - just a cheap cash-in on the anime?

No. In fact, I'd go so far to say it was superior to Red/Blue by a longshot.

Pikachu, catching some sick waves. 

The main difference between Yellow and Red/Blue happens at the very beginning. In Red/Blue, you get to choose which Pokemon you start with, a tradition that carries on into every other Pokemon game to date. You get a fire, water, or grass type pokemon, and your rival (whom you battle throughout the game) will pick whatever your weakness is. In Pokemon Yellow, however, you always start with a Pikachu, and your Rival always starts with an Eevee. It's worth noting that Eevee's are a unique pokemon in that they start with the Normal (aka neutral) type and can evolve into many different types depending on how you go about it (an electric, water, or fire type in Generation I). So your rival pretty much got a way better deal than you, getting a bum Pikachu.

Choices are for tools, anyway. 

This actually makes the game a bit harder, if only because the first gym is a Rock type, which is completely immune to electricity. Sure, electric pokemon and fire pokemon can be hard to find in the wild, but that doesn't mean you have to start with them. The bump in difficulty is actually greatly appreciated; I always thought the Pokemon games were too easy because they start you off with such accessible types. Start me off with something weird, like Psychic or Bug or Ghost or something. But they never do, except this game. So that's unique. 

Suck it, stupid Eevee. 

What is really cool about this version, though, is the fact that (like the anime), your Pikachu won't stay in a pokeball. Instead it'll follow you around so long as its in your available roster, journeying with you to the ends of the earth if necessary. You can also talk to your Pikachu at any time and gauge his happiness, which can be used a specific locations to earn rewards or for specific plot...things.

I'd like to say how I think this is a really good idea for a second. The whole idea about Pokemon is you setting out on a journey of discovery and personal growth in an attempt to be the very best, like no one every was. Having a companion with you (who also fights for you) who has feelings and tags along is really neat. It helps sell the adventure more, because these monsters are no longer just guys that pop up in menus or in battle, they are actually there with you. I felt much more immersed in this game than I did with Red/Blue because it felt more real (if battling tons of Japanese monsters is "real"). It was an aesthetic changes that I totally agreed with.

They brought it back on HeartGold/SoulSilver (the DS remakes of Gold/Silver) and I really liked it there, too. Then they took it out for Black/White because Nintendo hates me.

Sad Pikachu is sad

There are a few other changes to keep the game more in line with the anime, and almost all of them are for the better. Specific gym leaders (Brock and Misty) have been changed to look like their anime counterparts. The regular Team Rocket grunts have been changed to Jessie and James from the show, including their full pokemon roster. But probably the best part is the fact that, like Ash from the series, you can get all three starter pokemon in this game without needing to trade. For those who don't know: another reason why picking your first pokemon is such a big deal is you can never get any of the others without trading; they just don't show up anywhere in the game. Pokemon Yellow has all three from Red/Blue, and most are fairly easy to get. So if you wanted a dream team of Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur, this is the game for you. 

Misty looks a little more like her anime counterpart, sans suspenders

The graphics have seen a slight improvement, and there has been one sound change. Pikachu, instead of making some random noise, instead does a very staticy "PIKA!" sound everytime he goes into battle. I can't decided if this is a good or a bad thing, but it's consistant with the source material, so I'll give it that I guess. The graphics, as stated, are generally the same, though it does look a lot better on a Game Boy Color than Red/Blue. Since it wasn't designed for the color system, the Game Boy Color has to sort of guess which colors go where, and it seems to do better on this game than the others. It still looks pretty bad, but at least Pikachu is consistently yellow. 

There are also a few minor changes made to the gameplay that aren't worth mentioning (like you can finally teach Charizard "Fly"), because as a whole it's still the same game as Red/Blue. No new pokemon have been added (though this one has probably the best mix of optional pokemon out of the trio), which is a bummer, and there has been no UI improvements. Yep, still have to go all the way into the menu to see your XP. How obnoxious.

Here's some more Pikachu surfing because, why not? 

As it stands, Pokemon Yellow is probably the best out of the original Generation I Pokemon games. While  it is obviously pandering to fans of the anime, the changes are all welcome ones, and all improve upon the original's solid formula. I still think having a Pikachu that actually follows you around was the main reason I liked this game so much, because I really felt like I was a Pokemon adventurer, much more than I had with Red/Blue. It might be stupid, I know, but this is one of my favorite versions of Pokemon, and if you are looking to revisit the first Generation on its original hardware, this is probably the one to do it with.

It still has the same issues as Blue/Red, but...come on. It's Pikachu. How could you say no?

Four out of five stars. 

Come, trusty Pikachu! Let us go forth and...wait, is that old guy dead?!

Pokemon Blue/Red

Pokemon Red/Blue Versions

The Short


Pros
- 150 Pokemon to capture and battle (no, not 151. You can't catch Mew without cheating. Trust me.)
- Surprisingly deep JRPG with a heavy emphasis on elemental weaknesses and attacks
- Hella tight music, even for the tinny GB speakers
- Hunting down and trading for every last Pokemon is addicting and fits that obsessive-compulsive need
- Idea of creating your own journey to become a Pokemon master is compelling, enough so that they reuse it for every future game in the franchise
- Creating the "perfect team" with the right combination of types and moves can consume your life

Cons
- Lack of an XP bar means you have to go to the menu to check levels every time
- Catching them all means having a friend with a GB and a link cable to trade, since the monsters are limited based on version
- HM moves can't be deleted except through a rather tedious process
- Lacks the depth of future games since it doesn't have breeding, day/night cycle, etc.
- A few cumbersome UI choices
- Game Boy Color doesn't really color it well
- Game really isn't that difficult until the very end
- Status effects are always stacked against you
- In the original version, Psychic Pokemon were virtually invincible
- Like all the games, Pokemon is a serious test to your level-grinding patience

The intro that started it all

The Long

You know what Pokemon is. Even if you've ever played it, even if you can't tell a Zubat from a Pidgy, and even if these new-fangled "pokemans" are clearly inferior to the original 150 you caught as a kid, everybody knows what Pokemon is. I'm pretty sure most people in this country can recognize a Pikachu on sight, have heard the phrase "Gotta Catch 'Em All," and know that in the Pokeworld a Gym is not a place you go to work out. Yu-Gi-Oh came and went, Digimon had a run and sort of faded, but Pokemon persists. And you can laugh or scoff all you want at this "kid's game," but there is clearly something here that has compelled literal generations of kids to play it. Think of it this way: Pokemon Red/Blue came out in 1998. That's fourteen years ago. That's long enough for someone to grow up, get married, have their own kid, and start teaching them to be a Pokemon master. That's insane. 

As someone who experienced Pokemon from start to finish (I was 12 when the phenomenon came crashing over to U.S. shores), I have no shame in saying I think these are all fantastic games. I never got so deep as to the whole breeding/secret stats thing of the later versions, but I did "Catch 'Em All" with the first two generations (never to happen again), have played every single generation and several spinoff games, and even watched the first two seasons of the anime. Yeah. I can sing the entire first-season Pokemon anime theme song by heart, even now. I'll admit that aspect of all this is a little sad. 

TO CATCH THEM IS MY REAL TEST, TO TRAIN THEM IS MY CAUSE

Anyway, the point is that I love the crap out of Pokemon, even though I'm twenty-six and married and should probably be doing something better with my time. If you've ever been on the fence or just thought they were stupid kids games (the franchising of it and marketing it as such probably didn't help that interpretation much), then guess what. I'm here to convince you otherwise. 

So enough of me rambling and let's get on with this review. 

Let the battle begin

Pokemon starts off simple. You are a young boy living in Pallet Town, and whenever boys (and I assume girls) reach a certain age they are set off on an adventure to become a Pokemon trainer. It's a sort of "rite of passage" thing into adulthood, I'm assuming, because after that they either become a Pokemon master, or just a normal like...shopkeeper. It's actually an interesting analogy about pursuing your dreams, because everybody leaves Pallet Town thinking they'll be champion, while your journey is filled with people who have essentially given up. Since it's an open world, you can technically give up at any time and just wander around normally, but if you want to be the best it's a lot of work and a lot of failure. I'm probably digging to deep into this, since there's really no actual story to speak of, but since the goal of it is to allow a player to write their own Pokemon journey, that's mine.

The essential goal is to beat a set of eight Gym leaders (bosses) along the way, then go kill the Elite Four and the Champion in one final blow. The first eight can poise a slight problem if your team isn't great, but the game gets mad hard once you hit the Elite Four, which adds a chunk of gameplay. That's basically the goal of Pokemon. Simple, but I'm fine with that. 

JRK is well on his way to being a Pokemon Master

You are given a choice between three starters: a fire-elemental type (Charmander), a water-elemental type (Squirtle) and a grass-elemental type (Bulbasaur). They might as well had called them "Hard, Medium, Easy" respectively, since that's essentially how it works, though once you get in the second half of the game it becomes kind of a moot point. 

So you pick your Pokemon, grab your balls (Pokeballs) and your journey begins. There's a bit where you have to overthrow a corrupt Pokemon gang called Team Rocket, but the story is pretty much 1. Get stronger and 2. Beat up everybody who so much as glances in your direction. Simple stuff.

Charmander, bringing 'da heat

How to accomplish both 1 and 2 above requires you to catch more Pokemon. You can have as many as you want total, but you are limited to only having six on your team. Pokemon are also assigned a unique element, which each has their own specific weaknesses. Simple ones are that fire is weak to water (meaning the Charmander above is screwed if the Squirtle knows Water Gun), while others get more complex (Psychic is weak to Bug, Strength is weak to Psychic, etc.). The basic elements of this first version are Normal, Fire, Fighting, Water, Flying, Grass, Poison, Electric, Ground, Psychic, Ice, Bug, Ghost, and Dragon. Knowing and mastering these strengths and weaknesses is probably the biggest key point in the game, and being able to actively attack and defend against any of these types requires you to have a perfect team. Pokemon can also have hybrid types (for example, Charizard is a Fire/Flying), with a main type and a side type. These weaknesses can stack and so can strengths (so since both fire and rock take 2x damage from water, a fire/rock Pokemon would take 4x), meaning you have to be very careful in who you pick and who you send out.

You also aren't limited to just your own elemental powers, since moves themselves are assigned elements as well. Your Pokemon often stay reasonably within their assigned class type when they learn moves via leveling up, but you can acquire special items (TMs) that teach moves that can mix things up. Some of the most valuable Pokemon (the dragons), are awesome because you can teach them from a massive pool of elemental type moves. Unlike the Pokemon, however, moves can't have multiple types. 

Seriously, it's a lot to remember. 

And then the clincher: you can only have four moves at a time, and if you forget a move it's gone forever (except if you fulfil a very specific set of requirements and for just one Pokemon). So when you are making your team of awesome, you have to be careful to not screw it up. This can be a big pain because of the UI; you don't know what moves do or even what element they are (though you can guess what "Fire Blast"'s element is) until after you either actually learn it or look it up online. This can mean you could seriously mess up your Pokemon if you forgot an essential move. You can fix this most of the time by catching another one (if it is a catchable type) and fixing it later, but it still is an annoyance.

You also have to choose whether to evolve your Pokemon (which makes them tougher but they learn moves slower), or leave him where he is (where he stays weaker but can learn better moves at a faster rate)

So how do you form this Poke-team? You gotta go out there and catch them! While the battle mechanics of Pokemon can be extremely complex, the actual system themselves is traditional turn-based JRPG. You wander around in tall grass (or get spotted by another trainer) to start a battle. Once in it, you take turns attacking based on the various Pokemon's speed stat (and there are, of course, moves that buff or debuff). You can also spend a turn to take a Pokemon back and send another one out, earning the newcomer a free hit from the enemy. After you've beat the everloving crap out of the other guy (but not enough to kill him, just barely), you can throw a Pokeball and pray (holding Down+B also helps). If you are lucky, you catch the wild Pokemon and he becomes yours FOREVER. If you fail, you can keep throwing with the hope that you'll get it, while the wild Pokemon gets a free hit on your guy every time you fail. 

Somebody actually figured out the math for this. Freaking insane.  

Which brings me to a big complaint (and one that continue throughout the series): catching Pokemon is both exciting and immensely frustrating. Yes, you can buy better Pokeballs that have a better chance of catching. Yes, there are moves that drop an enemy HP to 1 (though False Swipe wasn't introduced until Generation II, so it isn't in this game) and not 0, which is ideal for catching. But missing ten Pokeballs in a row or accidentally hitting an rare Pokemon down to 0 so the battle ends instead of giving you a chance to catch it is infuriating. Considering it's trying to take regular RPG mechanics of "dealing damage" and applying a requirement of precision from them is really obnoxious. 

If you win the battle, every Pokemon who participated gets an equal cut of the XP (which makes a viable strategy to put your low-level Pokemon first, swap him out at the start of the battle for a good one, and then the two share the final XP). Another pain in the butt for the Red/Blue generation is the lack of an XP bar in battle. It gives you the numbers, sure, but in order to actually see how much XP you need to a next level you have to go through the menu to the specific Pokemon to check. It's an annoyance that was fixed in Gold/Silver, but it still really hurts replaying this game again now, in 2012.

Choose wisely. 

The level grinding also gets pretty insane. Since each Pokemon has to level individually, and Pokemon you catch are usually weaker than your current party of six, every time you get a new Pokemon you are signing up for another 10-20 minute grindfest to get him up to par. Again, this can be done via the swap trick (or the Exp Share item in later versions), but it's still tedious. There are also Pokemon that become completely obsolete by the end of the game (read: all Bug Pokemon), so if you heavily invested in them once they hit level ~30 you'll realize they...kind of suck now. Time to catch a new one, I guess. 

Luckily the Pokemon get stronger as you go along, meaning it isn't that bad, but expect to spend a lot of time running back and forth in tall grass as you level grind your Squirtle up to a Wartortle. 

Pikachu has lost some weight since this first game

Another major annoyance is the HMs. Now, in order to make sure you don't just run out and get mutilated by some Lv 40 Ponyta from the start of the game, Pokemon gates your progress with the Gyms. After you beat the Gyms you are given a move (for example, "Cut"), which you can teach any number of Pokemon an unlimited amount of times, and it lets you interact with it in the real world (in this case, cutting specific trees that block your path). I wish they'd do more with having your Pokemon interact with the real world other than just doing these prescribed things, but that isn't my complaint. 

My complaint is once you learn an HM you are stuck with it forever. You can't delete or replace it from your four-move roster. So if you learn Cut (which is a pretty crappy move later on) with your main guy, you just have a wasted slot for every battle forever. Why couldn't they have gated it with, I dunno, an item? They could have given me an ax and I wouldn't have had to ruin my Pokemon. There are ways around it (getting a junk Pokemon to learn all the HM moves), but that's wasting a whole slot from your party of Six to just get around the damn world. As a bonus, these things come back after you leave the screen, meaning you can't just run to every rock, tree, etc. in the world and blow it up once, you still have to haul your crappy HM Mule/Slave around. It's stupid and extremely annoying, and they still haven't changed it. 

Get spotted by a trainer and you'll be locked into a fight. 

Graphically, Pokemon is a mixed bag. The Pokemon themselves look great, well drawn and their moves also look decent. The world itself is a bit bland, but it's a Game Boy game so I'm willing to cut it some slack. The menus are pretty much just tons of text to navigate, which isn't aesthetically pleasing at all, and they can be extremely cumbersome to navigate (especially since you have to go them to to check your XP GAH).

The music is awesome, even coming out of tinny Game Boy speakers. You'll learn to loathe the battle song, but each city and route sports their own catchy tunes, and they all provide both good background noise and an excellent, memorable tune.

The start of a journey

How does one actually rate the game that started a massive phenomenon that is (more or less) still going fourteen years later? Well, when I started reviewing games I decided to review them based on how I fell now, not on how I felt at the time. At the time this game was freaking incredible, a JRPG introduction for kids that had an insane amount of depth hidden beneath it's simple exterior. Nintendo has improved on (or made slight improvements on, anyway) this formula over the years, and after burning through every Generation I can safely say that this game hasn't aged particularly well. The cumbersome gameplay and UI issues really hold it back, and while those of us with nostalgia will be willing to overlook these flaws, the rose-tinted glasses can only go so far. 

This game was also remade on the GBA with the improvements that had been implemented in the years since its original release, and that version is easily the superior one. Pokemon Blue (my version, screw you Red people) will always hold a special place in my heart for what it is, but considering just how many Pokemon games you have to choose from currently, I can't recommend the original Game Boy game as a jumping off point for this generation of gamers. 

Three out of five stars. Though if we were going off my rose-tinted memories, there wouldn't be enough stars in the world. 

Week in Review for 2/25/2012 - Pokemon Week

Welcome back, dear reader, and hopefully you survived the horror that was "horror week." We got 10 creepy games reviewed, bumping our game total up to 77 overall. Of course I still have more to review, but we'll see if they pop up during later events.

I'm enjoying sticking to a theme every week, and in celebration to the announcement of the direct sequels to Pokemon Black/White coming out on the DS later this year, I'm going to declare this Pokemon week! I'm going to review every Pokemon generation, and even a few of the odd-balls (such as Crystal or Platinum). But that's not all! I'm also planning on doing all the spin-off games I've played (Pokemon Pinball, anyone?) which should provide some quality content. And before you ask: yes, I've played Hey You, Pikachu! So just keep that in mind.

If by some miracle I run out of Pokemon games before the year ends, I have a few more up my sleeve. Mario 2 (NES) has been in the backburner of requests, as well as Saints Row the Third (which I played religiously this last week), so those might pop up.

RPG week after Pokemon week? Maybe. Mass Effect 3 comes out soon, and that's technically an RPG. We'll see.

Here are these weeks' games, with scores!

Alan Wake - 3 / 5 Stars
Saw - 2 / 5 Stars
Clock Tower: The First Fear - 4 / 5 Stars
Dead Space 2 - 5 / 5 Stars
Plants vs Zombies - 5 / 5 Stars
Silent Hill 2 - 5 / 5 Stars
Silent Hill 3 - 5 / 5 Stars
Silent Hill Homecoming - 2 / 5 Stars
Condemned: Criminal Origins - 3 / 5 Stars
The Darkness II - 3 / 5 Stars

Expect some pocket monster mayhem this week! See you there!

The Darkness II

The Short


Pros
- Same violent, dark, comic book adventure of the original
- New cell-shaded graphics look very good overall
- "Quad wielding" the tentacles and guns is much more responsive than The Darkness
- The world between life and death is better realized/less weird than the first game
- Upgrade tree allows for tons of customization
- Darkling management has been improved to have just one "always on" Darkling
- Four-player co-op multiplayer in the vein of Left 4 Dead
- One of the most fast paced, responsive, visceral shooter I've ever played

Cons
- Takes much of what made the first game great and abandons it for a corredor shooter
- Completely linear; all the open, breathing world elements have been removed
- Default setting to show "score" after killing enemies is annoying, but it can be turned off
- Swearing is gratuitous to the point of absurd
- Bosses are uninspired
- Brian Bloom is not Italian, and his fake accent as Jackie slips frequently
- Story's ending is unsatisfying, corny, and doesn't offer much closure
- Probably one of the most violent, gory games I've ever played, which can turn a lot of people off
- While The Darkness in spirit, it loses the core of what made the first game such a cult classic

The Darkness is back, and more violent than ever. 

The Long


The Darkness was a game that came out of left field, and saw most of its success in the years post-release. A bizarre mixture of comic book supernatural powers, the Italian mob, shooters, and an open-world game, The Darkness didn't do any of these things particularly exceptional, but ended up being much more than the sum of its parts. It is rare that games like these see any sort of sequel at all, considering how it only sold moderately well despite both critical and fan acclaim. When I heard The Darkness II was coming out I was super excited, despite the game being made by a new developer. We were getting more Jackie and Mike Patton as The Darkness, which I was certainly ready for. The graphical shift and improved controls looked fantastic, the game violent and still heavily story-driven.

Now, five years later, we finally can continue Jackie Estacado's dark adventure. So is it a worthy successor?

I guess somebody watched Alien a few time before designing these executions

The Darkness II sees a massive improvement over The Darkness in terms of both controls and what you are able to do with the Darkness powers. In the first game, you only had essentially four Darkness powers, and only one could be equipped at a time. They were all cool but sometimes felt like you were limited considering you were supposed to be essentially a demi-god. Well, The Darkness II addresses this head on.

They coined it "quad-wielding," which might be a little much but is fairly accurate. You can duel-wield guns, with the usual left trigger firing the left gun and right trigger the right. Then you have your Darkness powers. To put it poetically, "I've got mah left one for grabbin' and my right one for slashin'." Left-shoulder does everything with grabs and tosses (be it objects in the environment, doors that need to be ripped out, or even people to be grabbed and executed), and right-shoulder does a slash (defaults to left-right, but can be done up-down with a flick of the right stick). 

And sometimes they work together to brutally murder people. 

It's a system that quickly becomes second nature, and also frees up the control pad. You then have a standard reload and jump button (X and A), and the last two face buttons are set to rechargable powers (a gun-boost and an area stun). It might be tricky at first, but before long you'll be grabbing people while shooting another one, and slashing at a third before executing the guy you picked up a while ago. The game also has a clear indicator for what and who can be grabbed, which is nice.

You are considerably more powerful in this game, to the point of absurdity. In the first game you still took out tons of dudes (mostly thanks to Black Hole, which has been changed to a random pick-up during the standard heart-eating affair) but felt at least a little vulnerable. In this game you really really feel like a god. If you stagger an enemy you'll get a grab, and if you grab them you can always insta-kill them. Insta kills also can net you health, ammo, or a shield, as an added bonus. Two or three hits with the right slash can knock enemies into the air and completely obliterate them, and be upgraded to do area smashes. It's insane how quickly you burn through standard grunts, grabbing everything from chairs to car doors to long poles to tear people to pieces. 

Multitasking quickly becomes second nature, and the versatility makes nearly every encounter a blast. 

These improvements are paired with an new upgrade system. Killing enemies, eating hearts, shooting out lights, or pretty much anything productive earns you dark essence, which you can spend on upgrading your Darkness powers, guns, and just about everything else. Many of these abilities are quite cool, such as eating a heart temporarily putting blades on your tentacles, to full body armor for when you are standing in the dark.

There is a downside, though. By default, killing enemies pops out the "name" of how you killed them, paired with a "score" (the soul essence you burned). It reminds me a lot of Bulletstorm, but in that game it made sense in the context of the story. In The Darkness II it just seems stupid, like a bunch of words and numbers just showing up to accompany every kill. Luckily you can turn this off, which I highly suggest doing before you even start up the game.

The new batch of enemies do well to counter your newfound prowess

The game isn't a cakewalk, though it is easier than the first one, even on the hardest difficulty. The enemies you are fighting in this game are aware of your Darkness powers and weakness to light, and they plan accordingly. You have characters carrying around high-beam lights to cause your Darkness powers to wane, flash-bang grenades, enemies with shields, and teleporting enemies that can't be grabbed as easily as others. The teleporting enemies are super-obnoxious and can take a while to kill, but the rest provide a good foil to your powers and keep you from just ripping through everything without difficulty. 

I also really dig the new, improved graphics. A lot of people complained because the new graphics were "comic booky" cell-shaded rather than the plastic, "realistic" look of the first game. I think it looks fantastic, especially the use of vibrant colors frequently. It is a sharp contrast with flash effects, and I think it looks fantastic. Aside from some small niggles (what happend to Jackie's hair? It looks like a plastic wig!), the graphics are game.

The same can't be said for the voice acting. Jackie was replaced with Brian Bloom. Now, Brian Bloom is a great voice actor, one of the best. But he isn't Italian, and this sort of gruff, dark, world-weary character isn't his usual gig. His accent sounds fake at best, slips frequently, and just doesn't match the caliber of the original actor. It's fine, but inconsistant. The rest of the voice cast is very good, so as a whole I can't complain too much.

Bladed-tentacle looks awesome.

Despite this being a very solid game, there is one major problem I had with it: it's a linear, corredor shooter. You simply go from point A to point B, killing everybody along the way, and then often fight a lame boss after a few chapters. Sometimes you are dropped off at your mansion for a bit of "open worldly" elements that essentially boil down to walking around and talking to people before going to the next mission. There are also no such thing as side-missions, no side jobs to complete, no side-stories, nothing of that sort. You have a single goal, and you move forward to accomplish it. While the open-world elements from The Darkness were hardly the best open-world bits from any game, they made it unique and cool. Cutting them makes this feel less like the first game and more like a Call of Duty with tentacles. 

The story is also considerably weaker this time around. It tries its damndest to invoke the emotional resonance that stuck with fans of the first game (the "Jenny" scene from the first game is probably one of the most shocking in any game I can think of), and the new enemies are technically more imposing than Uncle Paulie from the first game, but as a whole it hardly stuck with me nearly as much as The Darkness had. Perhaps the linearity made my investment in the world less, or perhaps the fact that we are no longer dealing with the origins of the Darkness makes it less interesting, or perhaps because the ending is so completely stupid and predicable but still lame I'm just left thinking that something went wrong here. I'm not looking for a particularly deep experience, but it seems like the creators of this sequel played The Darkness, figured out most of what made it good, but missed the part where it was all the little things that resonated. Picking and choosing these bits (story and gameplay) works to a point, but it makes it less special and more generic. 

The loading screen monologue segments are back, and they fit in better with the story chronologically

The game also has a new multiplayer mode which is neat in concept, but a little bland in execution. Essentially a ton of co-op missions, you can get up to four friends ala Left 4 Dead style and blast your way through a bunch of dudes and shoot out some lights to win. You play as four characters that apparently have been touched by the Darkness but don't have its full power, meaning it isn't nearly as fun as the main game but I suppose they had to do that for balance. The missions themselves tend to be of the "clear out this area of bad guys" variety, over and over again, which is fun for the first bit but gets boring quite quickly. The four characters are unique and have their own skill trees, which is nice, but this diversion probably won't last you very long before you get bored of it.

Which is actually pretty bad, because the single-player story is short. I beat it in a single afternoon, from 1:00 - 5:00 pm. You do get a New Game + mode, which is awesome, so I started it over again on the hardest difficulty for a second run, which will probably add me another five odd hours, counting what I spend in the multiplayer. But considering you can beat this game and be done with it in four hours, as a value proposition this is pretty bad. The Darkness was 10-20 hours long and the majority of those hours were fun. The Darkness II is four, and it's a total thrill-ride the entire time, but it still seems to end just when the momentum is picking up.

The Darkness II isn't a bad sequel, just an uninspired one. 

The Darkness II is not a bad game. It just isn't a real sequel to 2007's The Darkness. Most of what made the first game unique and special has been stripped away, and while what it has been replaced with is excellent, it lacks a soul. The four to five hours you'll spend slicing, grabbing, ripping, and shooting your way through hundreds of enemies is an absolute blast, and I couldn't recommend it more. But it's over too soon, the multiplayer offering is mediocre at best, and for those invested in the characters and the world won't find much here to grab a hold of. The Darkness II is an insane, awesome game. It just couldn't live up to the magic of its predecessor. 

I still really suggest picking it up if you liked the first game and enjoy shooters, or if you simply like extremely fast paced, visceral shooters that try something new while still being familiar. It's certainly some of the funnest four hours I've spent in the past several months, I just wish there was more to it (both content-wise and design-wise). If you can grab it for $20-30 and like the first game, you should grab this for sure. However, I really think everybody should rent it. I got it for free for one day from a Redbox promotion, and got my fill of it in a single weekend. 

When weighing both its flaws and improvements, I'm thinking a three out of five is a fair rating for The Darkness II. I don't like it as much as the first game, but it's a different kind of like, regardless. If you are a shooter fan or a Darkness fan, this should be a no brainer.

Besides, Mike Patton's voice acting is still awesome as The Darkness, so you could get it just for that. 

"Jackie..."