Pokemon Soul Silver & Heart Gold
25 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Video Game Reviews, Video Game Reviews March 2010 Tags: DS, mggsound, music, nintendo, review, RPG, video game, video game music archive, virtual console
Some time ago, many of us were giddy/happy/whatever you want to call it whenever we heard that the second-gen games Gold, Silver, and Crystal were being remade, in HGSS. About the 12th, some of us got our imports and began playing our games. I’ll just get to rating everything:
STORY: 5/10. This is the one area where the game falls short. The storyline really doesn’t differ much from any other main series Pokemon game. The storyline, in a nutshell, is basically a 10-year-old is entrusted with a Pokedex, and is asked by a professor to help complete it, but later on asks him to challenge the Pokemon league. So you end up getting 8 gym badges, thwart an evil organization, and challenge the Elite 4 and become the Champion of the region. This is basically standard fare for each Pokemon game, which personally does not stand out, hence the low score in this area.
GRAPHICS: 9/10. The graphics here are nothing really special, but they fit with the game perfectly. Buildings are now 3D, which may or may not be well-received by some. I see it as being nothing horrible though. The sprites have been improved fairly well since GSC, as one could easily notice. There is one feature that they added in that stands out though: your first Pokemon in your party will follow you around. This is certainly not a bad feature, and it’s hilarious when you have something like a Wailord or Magikarp following you(although Wailord, being 44′ long, gets scaled down sadly 
). There also is the weather and day/nighttime effects, which adds into it. The graphics here just work.
GAMEPLAY: 10/10. If you’ve played any Pokemon games before this one, you’ll know just how the game works, but if you don’t, here is the gameplay in a nutshell: You capture Pokemon to raise them to battle and complete your Pokedex. You also challenge the Pokemon League by challenging 8 gyms and the Elite 4. You basically fight trainers, level up your Pokemon, stop an evil organization, and become Champion of a region. The thing here, is that the gameplay just works. The game is an RPG at heart, but does it just fine. Even after completing the storyline, there is still a lot to do, like trading, completing your Pokedex, etc. etc. You can also explore the various regions of the game, such as caves and such. There are also other things to do, like try your hand at gambling at the game corner. Or if you’re interested in building stronger Pokemon, you could breed for better ones.
CONTROLS: 10/10. I have absolutely no complaints here, and even in this area, they’ve improved it majorly. The same basic controls are still here, such as the D-pad to move, A button to interact, B-button to run, Start/X-button to pause and save your game/use items, etc. Even in this area, they’ve made use of the DS’ two screens. For one, they moved the menu down onto the bottom screen, where everything is just a tap away, so you don’t have to hit the X button or Start button. This was definitely a smart move on Game Freak’s part. Another notable change is the Running Shoes are now toggle-able through a button on the bottom screen, saving many B buttons around the world from being constantly pressed in. By extension, you could “register” a key item, like a bicycle, for use with the Y button, and there’s even a button on the bottom screen for that.
MUSIC: 9/10. Game Freak really changed things here, by remixing a lot of old tracks from the old games of GSC. Anyone who played the old games will notice that the tracks and sounds are similar, but yet different at the same time. A lot of it is catchy too, and doesn’t sound bad to the ears either. The cries of the Pokemon aren’t horrible, but they’re nothing special. And in a major bit of fanservice, Game Freak added in a key item that lets you listen to the old 8- or 16-bit tracks from GSC itself. This is majorly awesome overall, and the sounds are nothing horrible either. Overall there isn’t much to say here, except that it just works.
DIFFICULTY: 8/10. The difficulty, in brief, is fairly good for this game. Most trainers seem under-leveled to you, even if you train a full party. However, the real challenge here lies in the Gym Leaders, where some of their Pokemon are very tough to beat, or very powerful at the level you are. Some Pokemon can be hell to beat, but difficulty here is subjective, and the first time around, some actually gave me problems, simply because I wasn’t prepared.Overall, I can’t say much here.
REPLAY VALUE: 10/10. There is a LOT to do in this game, and I mean a lot. After clearing the storyline, which could easily be in excess of 20-30 hours, there is even more to do, such as challenge the Battle Frontier, work on completing your Pokedex through trading and evolving your Pokemon, or simply level up to level 100. Also available is the concept of competitive battling, which is easily a huge part of the game for those with WiFi. Alternatively, you can start over with a new starter Pokemon, and try your hand with it. Either way, there is enough here to keep you busy for a long, long time.
This easily worth the import/buy. This game is a lot longer than others out there now anyway, and this game will keep you interested/busy for a long time. As a last bit of random musing, the game might seem to be a children’s game, but anyone can enjoy it.
Triforce-News Final Score 85.0%
