Pokemon Box: Ruby and Sapphire

"Fails on almost every level at being useful."

Pokemon Box. The idea, when people first heard of it, was a simple yet novel and useful one. Store your Pokemon on a 'Cube memory card and organise them. Simple. So, surely it had to work, right?

Well... no. It doesn't. In fact, this could be one of the most useless ideas that I've ever seen leave the stables of Nintendo for a VERY LONG TIME.

OK. The whole reason this title fails is because it is not only limited, but nigh-on featureless and bland. Not to mention it will take up the ENTIRE bundled Memory Card.

I can't whinge about graphics. Or sound. But heres the lowdown on what you CAN do in Pokemon Box.

First up is the Storage System. 1000 spaces for heavy pokefreaks. Now, I dunno about anyone else but... I tend to find the storage boxes in Ruby/Sapphire more than adequate to begin with. The only real usage that Pokemon Box has is that you get given eggs of common pokemon, only with moves they wouldn't normally know. Which defeats the point a little (A pichu with surf? Nice to see the quirky fellow back but, umm, WHY?). These eggs merely feel like a consolation prize at the end of the day. However, with Fire Red/Leaf Green around the corner and also compatible with this utility, it might be made better use of.

The second and final feature is to play Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire on your TV without a GB-Player. Nintendo sadly underestimated most of it's customers who actually HAVE a GBPlayer though and neglected to add any support for that into this title. Meaning, if you bought a GBPlayer because you don't often lug your GBA around (or couldn't afford one and a 40-notes GBPlayer seemed a good deal) you'll need to connect the GBA via Link Cable. Even worse, saving this way is terribly painful, slow and forced. It's just really, REALLY bad and I'm not sure Nintendo meant it to be that way...

Overall, no. It's not a game. There is no point in pretending it is. But nor is it a utility that many will be using - and if at all, not for a good while. It is so limited, so restricted and so basic that I can barely understand what possessed the good people over at Nintendo HQ to think this would ever be taken seriously! More features would not have been beyond Nintendo for this title, but instead we get MORE SPACE to fill up, and you'll get tired of it. Fast.

On the positive side, it DOES come with a memory card which is worth 4000 stars (Europe)/$19. But don't waste it on this pathetic piece of software. It'll hit home after 30 minutes that this is a poorly executed utility, and the odds are the vast majority who don't eat, sleep and breathe Pokemon will sling the game into it's case and forget all about it.

And even when Fire Red/Leaf Green are released... my guess is most will just opt for direct trading without all this Pokemon Box nonsense. A great idea in theory by Nintendo, just left to rot after a half-hearted effort and not enough to really make it any kind of use...

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/04