Game Review: Pokemon X & Y

Platform: Nintendo 3DS / Nintendo 2DS THIS GAME DOES NOT WORK WITH EXISTING DS CONSOLES

Price Range: £32.95 - £39.99

Age Rating: PEGI 7 ( Cartoon Violence Apparently -__- )

Genre: Adventure

Design:

Now every year since I can remember they have bought out a Pokemon game, i'll be honest some of them have totally sucked, some of them have been remakes to try and boost profits and some of them have been truly awesome, now which one will Pokemon X & Y fall in to?

The game style is essentially the same as it has been for so many years now move to a new town with your mother ( still no father figure present at home ) get your first Pokemon from a choice of three, go out and catch a shit load of Pokemon and become a master, it's nice to see them sticking with tradition however they have made a few tweaks so that is doesn't feel like groundhog day like the other games were starting to, I think at one point I could of recited Prof Oak's speech at the beginning that's how bad it was getting.

The game is still made by Game Freak so they know what we want to see when it comes to a Pokemon game and if I'm honest they haven't disappointed.

Gameplay:

I Love It! That may be a strong comment but seriously I really haven't found a serious gameplay flaw in this game yet, it's smooth, it looks great and as for the sounds.. well i'll touch on those in a little while. Players find themselves thrown in to a 3D world of adventure and action from the word 'Go' but I will just warn you the first half an hour or so is very much a tutorial, however it is very open so seasoned players can easily catch six Pokemon before the game has even shown you how to Paralyz a Pidgey. New to the game is character customisation where you can change what your on screen character is wearing, it's a nice little touch but nothing really deep just more a visual drop more than anything. Two other new points are 'Pokemon Amie' where you can play with your Pokemon in stunning 3D ( seriously it feels like they're real it's weird) and 'Super Training' where you take part in mini games against giant balloon versions of Pokemon to increase each Pokemon's stats, it's pretty handy if you think your Snorlax could be faster but for competitions I can just see players Super Training for days on end before the event but nevertheless it is in there and it works.

Battles have had a massive revamp more in the visual department than anything else, the controls are still the same however now when you go in to your Pokemon list you have the option to 'Restore' them if they are hurt or have a status problem, which will save time rummaging through that seemingly endless bag of yours.

Presentation:

Now I'm going to be really picky here because honestly it is a very well presented game, Pokemon in 3D is an idea I wish someone had thought of ages ago... OH WAIT I DID ( reference to a previous blog post last year ) HOWEVER I feel slightly let down that they have been rather lazy in the fact that they have stuck with the same crappy Pokemon sounds that they have used for the last god knows how many years, the only Pokemon that says their actual name when they jump out the ball is Pikachu and it sounds decent so why they couldn't do that with the rest of them I don't know, I would like them to consider it for future versions though.

Other than the terrible sounds everything else is presented very well cities come alive thanks to the new 3D look to it and battle scenes actually take in to account of what is around you for example if you are in a city you stand on the cobble stones of the pavement, if you're in a forest you stand in a grassy clearing, it's a nice touch that makes it feel much more realistic which let's be honest we all would love our own Pokemon ;)

Battle scenes and moves look much better now that they aren't displayed in the horrible past pixelated versions that haunted previous titles it looks fresh and new and that's what I love about it.

Summary:

Overall a truly awesome game which to be honest Pokemon games usually are, a great game for kids because of the whole adventure aspect but also great for fans such as myself to get stuck in to the new generation of Pokemon but also some old favourites too.

Ratings:

Design: 9.0

Gameplay: 9.4

Presentation: 8.6

Overall: 9.0