Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness

"The concept of calling a game XD amuses me"

A few years ago, a little known company called Genius Sonority teamed up with a well known gaming company called Nintendo to produce a controversial game called Pokemon Colosseum. A the game was quite good. And now, they have made the second game in the series. Pokemon XD.

The game is set in the Land of Colosseum, Orre, but is set 5 years after the events of the original. You take the place of a boy and his Eevee as the travel the world together to rid the region of the new threat.

For fans of the old game, you will not be disappointed with the storyline. All of the old landmarks from Colosseum make a sparkling new appearance and there are now even more Pokemon to catch.

One of the pet peeves of fans of Colosseum was that there were not many Pokemon available. However, in this game, there are five more. Within the first half hour, I had caught a Teddiursa, a Ledyba and a Poochyena and there are about 40 more to catch. Also, for Pokedex completing freaks, there are 4 Pokemon in this version to whet your appetite. Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres are all catchable but the exclusive Pokemon from this version is Lugia.

Graphics: 10/10

You will find no blockiness here. The landscapes look just as polished as they did in the original with extra special effort being given to the attack animations. Once you watch an Ember or an Aeroblast attack, you'll realise what I'm talking about.

Sound: 9/10

The sounds in this are brilliant. The Battle music tunes are brilliant remixes of the originals and the sound effects from attacks are awesome as well. Some of the tunes can get repetitive and I personally wish that the Pokemon talked as they do in the cartoon series rather than emit a series of digitised squeaks.

Gameplay: 10/10

This is a bog-standard RPG, just like it's predecessors and this may not appeal to everyone, but the controls are simple, easy to master and the concept is original.

Replayability: 8/10

With over 40 Pokemon in game, there is an infinite amount of team combinations to experiment with. Add to that 50 event battles, the fact that every battler in the game can be challenged an infinite number of times and the multiplayer modes. There are also three different Mount Battles, each of which containing 100 trainers means that you will be playing this game for a long time.

Pros:

-Great Graphics
-Purification can be done earlier now.
-Far more Pokemon
-Entrancing Storyline
-Brilliant Soundtrack.

Cons:

-So many extras and sidequests makes the game very long
-Pokemon cries sound unreal
-You can't put it down. You may go hungry.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/05