Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness

"What does XD stand for exactly? I must've missed something..."

Seriously what does XD stand for? Xtreme Darkness? Nontheless this is Pokemon XD, a sequel to Pokemon Colosseum. It's an RPG in which you manage many various Pokemon and aim to save the world from an evil threat. Is it fun? Kinda.

STORY
One day a yacht was sailing the open seas when a giant Pokemon flew overhead. It was Lugia, only it seemed to be a tad different. It was purple, angry, and it used it's massive energy to lift the damn boat out of the water. Seems some troublemakers are up to no good. They also start some trouble with a boy. You play as this boy, an aspiring Pokemon trainer who lives at this laboratory somewhere. The same people behind the Yacht heist barge in and steal the head professor. You go on a quest to bring him back and stop the evildoers from turning Pokemon into heartless shadow types. Yay. Aside from the Dark Lugia....wasn't this the storyline of Colosseum?

GRAPHICS
The graphics are very beautiful I will admit. I love the character designs. Every character has this odd quirky look to them, whether they're muscle-bound idiots or Ulala wannabes, they all look awesome. The environments are so creative and stunning to look at I was shocked. Seriously the locations are breathtaking! It's still got a cartoony feel but the architecture of the buildings and stuff were incredible. I was really impressed there, especially considering the game has no load times.

SOUND
The audio however suffers the same fate as poor Colosseum. No voice overs in the game at all. All of the story is told through lots of reading. In this day and age that's bad. The game has generic music that isn't catchy. Bad again. The Pokémon still sound like robots, unlike their TV show counterparts. Bad yet again! So it doesn't sound that great. It's not horrible but personally it should've been a lot better.

GAMEPLAY
And how does the game feel? Like deja-vu. I swear I already played this game.
It's exactly like Pokemon Colosseum. The gameplay stayed the same, the graphics are the same, the storyline might as well be the same too. This should've well been an expansion pack because there is nothing different or interesting about this game other than how it looks. And it looks exactly like Colosseum except the buildings and stuff look amazing now. Big whoop.

All you do in this game is train and fight, while catching Pokemon from other trainers. You visit towns, buy items, raise Pokemon, battle other trainers, and level up and blah blah blah it's an RPG okay? And if you've played a Pokemon game before you know what to expect. One thing I hated about this game which I always hated in Colosseum and still do here, is the Shadow Pokemon concept. Basically the bad guys have turned these animals into jerks and they're the only ones you can capture and raise on your own. If you miss that Pokemon and fail to capture it, too bad it's gone forever.

The game is ridiculously boring. There's just too much reading to do and the battles are frustratingly slow. Every move the Pokemon take, lasts 5 or more seconds. Sending out the Pokemon takes 15 seconds alone. And watching the other trainer adds another 10 or so too. That's half a minute gone just for the opening of the battle! Nothing has a quick pace in this game. The animations and stuff are all taken from Colosseum too...even the main character's walk. Hell even his hair style's the same too! He still looks like the same guy.

The story isn't interesting enough to care about, especially since it feels exactly like Colosseum. You're first Pokemon is Eevee. The same type of Pokemon that you're first two were in Colosseum. Come on Nintendo where's the creativity! A big crime of the game? If you want to level up you're Pokemon, tough luck. The only fights you get are with trainers and they only fight you once. There are no wild random battles in the game at all. Good call, something every RPG needs. That's sarcasm by the way. This game is dull. And I'm sorry but with nothing that sets it apart from the first game it's not interesting at all.

IN THE END...
It's really Pokemon Colosseum 2, and because they haven't improved or fixed any of the problems, it's not a good sequel. It's an unnecessary expansion pack that does nothing for the franchise at all. And if you haven't played Colosseum, give it a rental I guess. But even still the pacing is too slow and the game is boring because of it. Sorry, but it's true.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/06