Pokémon SoulSilver (Nintendo DS) - Review by Trent

Introduction

The second generation of Pokemon was something special, lots of ideas where in the game which should have been carried on from it. Such as the multiple regions, interesting storylines and "good" looking Pokemon, it's what any fan wants- but is it comparable to the newer generations of Pokemon? Or should Nintendo go back to the drawing board and stop rehashing what has already been done?

Gameplay

Pokemon is a story about a little boy or girl (depending on what you pick) who is too young to go outside of their village unless accompanied by a Pokemon. As well as having no father and easily acceptable to what others say around them. One day you decide to go over and see local Pokemon professor, who gives you one of his trusted rare Pokemon, after doing an errand for him, everything goes wrong which sets a chain of events which will keep you glued to the game until the end.

The turn based game which involves collection "Pocket Monsters" and battling them in various gyms around the world until you become the best hasn't changed since it the original. It is quite easy to enjoy and pick up regardless of your age.

A game ahead of its time perfected by a few advancements which have been made over the series life time has added another one to the mix, the Poke Walker is a pedometer which allows you to rack up steps which convert to watts which you can then use to "buy" items or Pokemon.

Controls

The game controls pretty much the same as all renditions of Pokemon. The D-pad controls the character and A pretty much acts as the action button. There are a few other buttons which work for other applications as well, and the game is more centred to the touch screen then before. Now you can use your thumb to click on icons on the touch screen. This gives a much more user-friendly aspect to the games.

Graphics

Gone are the simple and interesting sprites of the Game Boy Color games- instead replaced with the latest in high tech Pokemon graphics. The retro charm might be gone, but now so much more can be achieved and shown on the screen. Each town is essentially another world now, with a different style of buildings, graphics and animations to go with it- it looks really remarkable.

Sound

Sound and Music is one of those things any fan old and new would want to congratulate Nintendo on. Nintendo has decided the tunes in the original games needed some remixes and life into them- so that's how the games music was born. Magical tunes which stretch the imagination of a midi ever so far.

But at the same time, the ancient feelings which gamers had from the past are not left behind- as unlockable is something which is so magical it makes me giddy just thinking about it. Accessible is an item which allows the player to listen to the original tunes, that's right you can listen to the original old school, retro midi tunes when you run around catching Pokemon and eating bugs- the only shame is it's a little too late in the terms of accessibility for the item.

Otherwise when it comes down to it, the tunes are very typical of a Pokemon game, as well as sounds which the previous games have used are thrown in. Overall the imagination and design when it comes to the music and other sounds in the game is quite deep.

Dual screen

Has been reimagined from even what Nintendo has set out to achieve with the previous Nintendo DS recantations of Pokemon. The touch screen has been fully converted into the start menu and other functions and any button which is on the screen is quite easily touchable with the thumb, it's much more redefined then what was in the other DS games.

Final comments

A remake of what is arguably the best generation of Pokemon is no laughing matter. Nintendo has refined many of the parts of the original as well as updating the look to give it something which appeals and looks pretty much the same alongside any of the bigger releases of Pokemon this generation.

Pro: Even though it's a remake of an old game, it proves that it's one of the best and is still a quite enjoyable experience with lots of refined parts to make it even more special then before.
Con: Shows that after 4 generations the style used in Pokemon might need a nick start to make it something fresh and interesting in the future.
Final score: 9.5

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