Pokemon Pearl Version

"Snorlax use Rest! Snorlax use Sleep Talk! Snorlax used Sleep Talk! Snorlax used Sleep Talk! Snorlax used Rest! Snorlax is already asleep!"

Pokemon is back, and is pretty much better than it ever was. So many new things have been added to the game, and they all work. Better graphics, new Pokémon, and, most important to the new a game, A online community.

Gameplay - 8
Still the Pokemon you know and (most likely) love, with some new twists. The basics are still here. Get your first Pokemon, Catch some more, train them, beat all the gyms, catch the legendary, beat the Elite 4 etc. Things you have probably done so much that you can do it in your sleep. Obviously, Game Freak realized this, So there are some new elements to the game. Remember contests from Ruby and Sapphire? There back, with some new elements. Now, you have a dancing contest, and a dress-up contest. There OK, but not as good as last generations contests. Probably the best new feature is online play, and the GTS. GTS (Global Trading System) is kind of like E-Bay in a weird way. You put up an item (Pokemon is the GTS case), and can put up a buy it now. With the GTS, it is always a Buy It Now, so you always get the pokemon you want. Say you have a Rattata you want to trade for a Bidoof. The Rattata is put up on the GTS. When a trainer searches for a Rattata, your offer may appear asking for a Bidoof. You simply press A, find the Pokémon you are trading, and ALAKAZAM! You now have a wonderful Rattata. To make it more specific, you can change a level range. Maybe you want a level 100 Bidoof for a level 10 Rattata. You can do that, and a lot of times people trade you. The one downside to the GTS is the outrageous offers like, Level 1 Rattata for a level 100 Rattata. Now, there is also another way to trade. And you can battle too. Nintendo has brought back the wonderful Friend Codes, that everyone loves. If you have somebody's friend code registered, and they have you registered, you can trade and battle. This is a lot more efficient. During trades and battles, there is a voice chat option. This becomes very useful during trades. You can ask what someone would want for say there...um...Rattata. Maybe you have a level 25 Bidoof you would trade
for it. Its a very nice addition. And by that I don't mean the Rattata, I mean the online.

Story - 3
The same as every single Pokemon RPG ever. Some corporation (In this case Team Galactic) wants to rule the world/steal same legendary Pokemon, or something along those lines. You get a Pokemon, then your stuck in this mess. Then, you have to beat the corporation, catch the legendary and beat the Elite 4. Then your done. The Pokemon games were never that big on story anyways...

Graphics - 8
Another change from the normal Pokemon formula, is new 3D graphics. The Graphics don't matter much while your walking. But thats where the 3D graphics are. They are nice, but, its kind of a 3D Top down view, which means the only 3D you see is the trees and the buildings. Yet, the graphics are a big improvement to past games. Looking at them, you can't believe you used to play this, with small sprites and 2D graphics. The drawings of the Pokemon are good, as always. The new Pokemon look great. Be it the Fire Monkey Chimchar, or Penguin Piplup. It seems as if Game Freak will never run out of ideas. Other than that, there isn't much more to the graphics.

Sound - 5
The same annoying little medleys. The same ones that make everyone in the room ask me to turn down the volume. Which obviously means those little tunes are horrible. They loop over, and over, and over, and over... I frequently play with the volume turned down. There are also the Pokemon cries. They sound horrible. It sounds like the same cries from the Game Boy. You'd think the DS would have better sound quality. Well it doesn't. At least we moved beyond the whole town being the same color. But anyways, every single cry is unique. No cries are repeated, though some might sound the same. That would probably happen between an evolution line (Like Rattata and Raticate). If they were better quality, this score might just be a 6...

Replayability - 10
The Pokemon series has some of the biggest replayabiltiy of all games, period. You can train all your Pokemon or 'catch 'em all'. One of the reasons there is a lot of replayability is competitive battles. Online battles are one of the biggest features. You can train your Pokemon (EV Train to have more of a chance) and then battle. There are many clans and leagues for different styles of battling. So, my point is, there is a huge online community you probably didn't know about.

Buy Or Rent?
Buy, easily, because renting will not give you enough time to enjoy everything about the game. If your new to Pokemon, rent it, I assure you your gonna try and buy it from the place you rented it, as to not lose all your data.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/07