A welcome addition to the Pokemon family, and a wonderful revamp of the original Gold and Silver versions, HeartGold and SoulSilver bring back memories of older players and draw in newer players all at once.

ESRB: E (for Everyone)
Genre:RPG
Number of Players: One
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: March 14, 2010

BUY

First of all, I should say that I grew up playing the first and second generation of Pokemon games, including the original versions of Gold, Silver, and Crystal. I remember being a little kid in middle school talking about what gym I just beat or asking if they wanted to trade their ponyta for my magikarp. Playing HeartGold and SoulSilver brought back a lot of fond memories of playing the original versions as well as gave me some of the nice additions that have been added to the series since then.

The menus are amazing. Normally people don’t talk about the menus of a game, but considering that these games are for the DS, you expect some sense of quality or ease. If you’re not shy about using the touch screen, then getting to your pokemon or your bag (or even that pesky pokegear) is simple because all of your icons are in a box on the touch screen. Once in the bag, there’s a row of icons for each of the different pockets that you can just tap. Instead of having to scroll down through long lists of items, your items are organized into pages that you can navigate by touching the arrows at the bottom of the screen.

The graphics have come leaps and bounds from the good old days of Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow, but it’s not necessary a bad thing. The animated pokemon sprites in combat are pretty cute if nothing else. Being able to see a clear wave and ripple in the water when you surf or getting to see the waterfalls actually look like they’re crashing down is wonderful. Even though the trainer and NPC sprites are tiny, there’s a surprising amount of detail to them. One of the biggest moments of this is in SoulSilver when the Kimono Girls do their dance and Lugia comes down. Seeing a full, big sprite of the pokemon you wait the whole first half of the game to catch hovering above the water is actually really cool, especially if you’re a big geek like myself.

So I guess I should talk a little bit about the story. It’s the same basic thing. Your neighborhood professor needs assistance and calls upon you to help them, they give you a pokemon, you complete the errand, and then, finally, they see some spark in you that leads them to believe that you’re destined for awesomeness and send you away to take the Pokemon League challenge (but don’t forget to tell your mom!). I’m not saying it’s a bad story, but after so many games, the first hour or so of playing gets simple and repetitive.

Anyone who played the original Gold/Silver should remember the Kimono Girls. They were the 5 Eevee trainers that you had to beat in order to get the item you needed for that game’s legendary bird. They play a much bigger part in the new games. You can’t even fight them until you have all 8 badges, and even then, they are a complicated bunch. I’ll tell you now, the first trainer uses Umbreon and the second uses Espeon, so plan your team order accordingly. If you lead with the wrong type, this series of 5 trainers is harder than most of the gym battles you’ve faced so far.

Another awesome thing about these games is the gym redesign. The gyms are now redesigned and pose greater challenges. I’m very much a puzzle fan, so I enjoyed figuring these out. For a young kid that doesn’t understand complex situations quite yet, these are still simple enough for them to figure out, while older, more experienced players will enjoy the slight challenge they still hold. It’s a comfort to know that some things don’t change between installments of a favorite game series.

After you go through and completely own the first 8 gyms and capture or defeat Lugia or Ho-oh, you get to take on the Elite 4 and Pokemon Champion. These trainers are some of the hardest you will face in the entire game, but that’s mostly because you don’t get to go to a Pokemon Center between trainers. Of course, if you’re like me, you’ll have a huge stockpile of elixirs, max potions, max revives, and status removing items, so that’s not so much of a problem.

Once you beat the Elite 4 and claim your place in the hall of fame, the game doesn’t end like it has in most other installments. You get to go to Kanto and test your skills against the original 8 gym leaders. There’s some other challenges and adventures you get to have, one of which is the opportunity to capture whichever legendary bird you didn’t get after your 8th badge. And, of course, once you beat the 16th gym leader, Professor Oak will open the path to Mt. Silver where you can face the ultimate trainer (other than yourself, of course), Red. Red’s party is all between level 65 and 85, so he is the hardest, most skilled trainer in the entire game.

A feature that was unique to Pokemon Yellow has been brought back. When you are either walking or using the running shoes, the first pokemon in your party will follow you. You can turn around and talk to whatever pokemon it is. Sometimes they will hold an item, and sometimes they’ll make funny faces or other actions. You can’t turn this off as far as I could tell (and I tried!), but if you ride your bike, it won’t follow you. Another thing is in the 8th gym it won’t follow you, but that’s because the helpful guide says that the floor is unstable.

The addition of the pokewalker is definitely something worth noting. Not only is it good encouragement for kids to get outside and play, the fact that the device can connect to others and allow a new kind of socialization is a lot of fun. I know quite a few people that have them at my school, and we link ours up every day just for the item or watts that we get. You can send any pokemon in your box to your pokewalker to take it with you. As you walk, you get watts, which can either be transferred back to the game card to unlock new routes, used for the dowsing machine to find items, or to use as a pokemon radar to find and capture pokemon. I can only imagine how many kids are out there feeling like future trainers while in school or playing with their friends. Personally, I love my pokewalker for the pedometer so I know just how much I walk every day.

I really loved these games as a kid, and I still love them now. For any pokemon fan from the original game days, this is pretty much a must-have. If you have a preteen kid that wants to get into the series, this is also a really good start. The easiness of the menus make things so simple, but the game itself is still just as classic and complex as ever. I’d definitely say it’s worth it to add this spiffy game to your collection. So as far as my vote goes, I say go and buy this even if it’s for a quick trip down memory lane.

Review product was provided by Nintendo, and does not affect the outcome of this review.