• Year: 2009
• Genre: Role-playing Game
• Rated: E

Genres

• All
• Action
• FPS
• Platformer
• First-person Shooter
• Third-person Shooter
• Action-Adventure
• Role-playing Game
• Platfomer

Pokémon Platinum Version

Reviewer: Sam

I haven’t played a Pokémon game since the yellow edition way back on my Gameboy Pocket. My first ever was Pokémon Red, once again played on my Gameboy Pocket every day after school, while watching the Pokémon tv show of course. The good old days...but now we are miles away from those early days. That’s what made me worried about how much I’d enjoy the game because from what I’ve seen of the new versions of the tv series it has completely changed and has no appeal to me, or maybe it was always that way and now I’m just old enough to see it as the silly show it always was. Let’s pretend it’s the former. Anyway, the point is that this game did not disappoint one bit. It stays true to the parts of the game that made the original so addicting in the first place, but has been updated with new pokémon, adventures, and more to the gameplay than simply raise your Pokémon, battle, catch more and then battle some more.

I don’t pretend there isn’t a lot of stopping and fighting wild pokémon every few feet, but that’s what you expect when you play a Pokémon game. The gym owner battles are fun and only remotely frustrating with their special moves that you don’t get to have. You have all the familiar game mechanics, but polished and refined and streamlined into a fun interesting next chapter in the long line of Pokémon games. There is the added flare to the game of having a second screen to allow more features and better controls to be shown on screen without covering up the visuals shown on the top screen.

Now, I know that there are two other versions that already came out on the DS and used the unique control scheme to the same advantage, but they really learned to use it to its full advantage in this edition. You are given gadgets on the lower screen when walking around that allow you to do different tasks without having to open up extra screen, thus causing you to have to stop moving to check things like, the health of your pokémon, the time, ping for hidden items, check the friendship status between you and your pokémon, and even a step counter and a calculator.

These features are built upon in combat with large buttons that allow you to see clearly all attacks, items to use, pokémon to switch out and you can even check stats on you pokémon before making a switch easily on the lower screen. A nice touch I haven’t found in some other games on the DS is the ability to access the buttons on the lower screen by using the physical buttons on the DS. This is nice in certain environments where either there is a risk of losing the stylus or where holding the DS with one hand just doesn’t feel safe enough, like near water. Plus, I just don’t always want to be holding onto the stylus or getting it out and putting it away for every battle.

Overall I give the game a 4, because the music, story, and visuals are great and true to the style of the Pokémon franchise, but without being too much of a rehash of the same old thing. Since, it isn’t doing anything new and creative I can’t give it a full 5 points.

One thing I didn’t mention, mainly because I didn’t spend much time with it yet is the multiplayer using wifi. You can add friends, battle them, trade, and have competitions with them or other people playing anywhere online. Nice touch and adds some incentive to keep playing.