"THIS is the follow-up to Most Wanted?!"

HEY! Have I got a scoop for you! There's gonna be a classic Pokemon game for the Wii! Yeah, and it'll have ALL 493 Pokemon in it! You can pick ANY starter from ANY generation, too! THis is gonna be fun!!!

There's just one small catch: Whichever region's starter you pick, that's the ONLY region's Pokemon you can catch! What that means is if, for example, you pick Chikorita, you'll find Johto Pokemon - and ONLY Johto Pokemon - all over the place! Takes some of the fun out of it, huh? Guess what: That mechanic isn't the only thing wrong with this game.

If the above hypothetical Pokemon game mechanic was the only major thing wrong, this game still would be about a 6/10. But that's not all that's wrong with this so-called sequel. The game is so short and the challenge is WAY off. The first half of this game is a piece of cake, then you get to the last stage - POW! - You can't win!!! Few games have such a sudden kick-in-the-pants in the challenge department to warrant either stopping playing, starting over or buzzing other FAQ sites for cheat codes.

Another thing that is mondo frustrating is the Reward Card system. Some are super-easy (get busted once, lose once, defend your ground once, etc.), but some will drive you NUTS!!!! I mean, getting 250K points in a Drift event?! Particularly frustrating are the cards that require you to fill your garage with all of one of the three types of cars.....Yeah, good luck with that when repeating conquered events only pays $500!!! And you're gonna have to sell EVERY car that passes into your hands, which is BAD news for those who are lucky enough to get all three boss cars.

Speaking of the Drift events, don't get me started on them! They MUST have put the slipperiest substance known to Man or Beast onto the track when they heard you were coming. Let's see the BEST drifters in the world stay out of the wall during these events! Trying to win here is an exercise in futility. If you want enjoyable Drift events, go play Underground 2.

And the last in a list of VERY bad things about this game is the aforementioned Blubasaur-Charmander-Squirtle mechanic when it comes to picking a car. This fixes it so that acquiring all of the cars in any single pass of this game is nearly impossible. Picking either a tuner, an exotic or a muscle car dictates the kind of cars you'll unlock? It should ONLY DICTATE WHERE YOU START!!! And this is supposed to be a SEQUEL!? This BARELY qualifies as a game, let alone a sequel. I HOPE to God that the next NFS game is MUCH better than this pile of asphalt.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 05/03/07