Pokemon Battle Revolution

Metachronos overall score = 5.7 / 10

Positive
- First online game for the wii in the U.S
- Extensive use of DS connectivity

Negative
- Actual gameplay is quickly repetitive
- Battles aren't presented very dynamically
- Online support is bare-bones
- Not as much to do if you don't have Pokemon Diamond or Pearl for the DS

Pokemon Battle Revolution is the latest in a series that started with Pokemon Stadium on the Nintendo 64. Essentially, it is a single piece of the Pokemon experience--the actual Pokemon fights--that has been brought to the Wii and polished up to a high shine. The thing about Pokemon Battle Revolution is that, without any greater context of a grand adventure, Pokemon fights are kind of boring. Furthermore, the game's connectivity with Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for the DS ends up being a crutch. If you haven't already made the investment of time and money into one of those games, there's not much to get out of Pokemon Battle Revolution.



Even if you can take advantage of the game's DS connectivity, the underlying problem is that all of the glimmer of seeing Pokemon duke it out on your TV doesn't make up for the fact that the battles just aren't that involving. You pick which of your Pokemon you'll bring into battle, and you pick one of their four attacks. Then you sit back and watch as the Pokemon pummel each other. In the core Pokemon games, the repetitive nature of the battles is compensated for by the fact that it's a means to an end: Your Pokemon grow stronger, you capture new Pokemon, and the story progresses. In Pokemon Battle Revolution, the battles are an end unto themselves. What is perhaps most disappointing about Pokemon Battle Revolution is its half-hearted job of making the fights look exciting. The Pokemon themselves, the trainers, and the colosseums all look good, if a bit aliased, but there's just no drama to the action. The game manages to make watching the trainers throw out the pokeballs look exciting, and some of the attacks have a good amount of flash. However, there are also a number of really plain-looking attacks, and those are the ones that you seem to see repeatedly. Most of all, the way the trainers interact the Pokemon in the ring just looks stagy and stiff, as if they're all just going through the motions. It's also worth noting that there's a ridiculous play-by-play announcer who goes from accidentally amusing to repetitive and grating within the first hour. Thankfully, he can be muted. Because Pokemon Battle Revolution incorporates the DS into the action and introduces online play to the Wii in the US, it should be more exciting. But when you get down to it, the action itself is straightforward and single-minded to a fault. This may be a forgivable shortcoming if the very idea of seeing the Pokemon you've spent hours and hours training in Diamond or Pearl is enough to get you excited, but for everyone else, it's even less appealing than a real Pokemon game.

graphics look good for once

it was a ds release, the series i mean