Pokémon Moon - Nintendo 3DS

Fun game and came new nice and quick.

Easily the best pokemon game of recent years. Sure, I guess some of the earlier ones might seem better for the sake of nostalgia, but I honestly think this is probably the best yet. First, in recent years there have often been complaints about the pokemon being laim or uninspired, and I feel like this set has done a really good job of making a large number of really great pokemon. Sure, there are always a few that seem pointless, but its far less than in other games, in my opinion. I played through the games multiple times with entirely different teams because there were so many pokemon I wanted to try using. Second, the break with tradition with the gyms was a great change of pace. The prior formula was tried and true, but was so predictable, that even the nicest and coolest gyms were just okay. With the trials, every single one had me excited for what twist it would have. And boy did they have some great twists, its probably the first game that there were multiple times where I smiled or laughed out loud at something that happened during a trial. And speaking of laughing, Team Skull will forever be immortalized as my favorite villain team ever. Nothing can beat the nostalgic true evil of Team Rocket, or the ethical and moral designing around N from black and white, but this is the first team where I was excited every time I saw them, rather than exasperated that they were wasting more of my time. The jokes, the comedic timing, the music! Everything was done so well, that it will be hard to create a new villain in the next games that will be able to compare. Finally, and I think most importantly, the excellent cast of characters. Sure, I thought Hau was as lame and uninteresting as the next guy, but so many of the other characters were so well designed. The trial captains were dynamic and felt so much more alive than your average gym leader from the previous games. Kukui, for all his lame jokes, was more involved and excited to exist than any before, and it seemed like he had real motivation behind his work. And, of course, Lillie. For the first time ever in a pokemon game, I would purposefully go out of my way to talk with Lillie every time something happened, hoping for a new comment or dialogue. Whenever she popped up needing help, I didnt feel annoyed or tired, but I genuinely wanted to help her. Her character alone was worth the entire game in my opinion, and I desperately hope that they make a third game for this set just so that I can experience more of her story, considering there is still so much to tell. It seems like theyve set themselves up perfectly for a sequel, but we can never be sure just what Nintendo is thinking. All in all, I think it is no surprise that this is considered one of the best games of recent pokemon history, and it is definitely an adventure worth experiencing for anyone who considers themselves a pokemon fan.

Now I really wanted to give this game the full five stars, but I had some issues with it. First off, the package arrived neat and clean. Shipping was quick, game arrived new. It plays fine, it does everything you want it to. Now the reason I couldnt give it a full five stars. My first Pokemon game was Pokemon Blue back on my gameboy color. I know as the series gets older, they change things to keep it fresh. The last ones I played were Ruby and Black 2. I take a break every few years and then try the latest version. My issue with these new games, and perhaps they had this in X and Y, as I never touched those. It feels as if the game holds your hand way too much. The older games would just give you the starter you pick, and off you go. 3 Hours in and after I completed the first trial, I feel as if Im still in a tutorial and the game keeps telling me exactly where to go. I feel that the exploration has died down and the game has become more linear than it used to be. Im still having fun with it, I just feel like I need to have the training wheels taken off. If this is your first Pokemon game, I recommend it. If this isnt, Id still recommend it, just knowing you will feel as if youre in a tutorial for a few hours.

Feels short compared to ORAS or X/Y. They keep adding customization but then no matter what you do your character looks like a little moron. Most of the Alolan Pokemon variants are embarrassing. Its like they went with all the worst ideas the designers had. What if Dugtrio had long blonde hair? What if we made Meowth a gay stereotype? What if Persians head was like 3 times normal size? These are the questions that will be answered in Pokemon Sun/Moon. The difficulty spikes near the end of the game, meaning you have to grind for hours to be strong enough to beat bosses. Pokemon Bank doesnt yet support Sun/Moon so you wont be able to import any of your strong Pokemon to help with this until January 2017. All that aside, its still a Pokemon game. Its fun to run around trying to catch the ones you want. Its fun to battle other trainers, though it gets tedious as in all the games. The story is pretty meaningless as always. I will say theres been significant improvement to the music and graphics since X/Y/OR/AS. Some of the songs are even good, rather than just irritating. Its a bit disappointing that you have to ride whichever pokemon are handed to you as ride pokemon and cant use your own, and there are a few other things youll find lacking after a bit, but its still a decent Pokemon game.

I was skeptical when I picked up this game. I am a veteran of all the Pokemon games, from Red and Blue onward. I was disappointed in the direction that X and Y took the franchise, but GameFreak has gotten back onto the right path with this game. First: the gameplay changes. The gym challenge has been tossed and replaced with an island challenge, which combines traditional Pokemon battles with new mechanics that make each Island Trial unique. I wont spoil them here, but they were a breath of fresh air. Battles look great, the new battle screen has been redesigned for the better, and the movement is fluid. Second: the graphics. This game looks amazing. It as good as any 3DS game I have ever seen, and better in many ways. The animations are beautiful, the islands are gorgeous, and the new Pokemon look awesome. Third: the quality-of-life improvements. The PC in the Pokemon Center is easier than ever to use, the battle screen (as mentioned above) is the best its ever been, the backpack is better, HMs have been replaced with a new Poke-Ride feature that does the same thing but doesnt take up your moveslots, and there are a lot more variety of Pokemon early on than I am used to. Seriously, you can find over half of the Pokemon types by the end of the second route! Fourth: the story. This story is possibly (and probably) the best story of any Pokemon game to date. Its interesting, it flows well, it evokes emotional reactions in you, and it has several great surprises. Things I didnt like: The beginning tutorial takes a couple of hours to get through. As someone who has played these games for a long time, I felt like my hand was being held far too often at the beginning. And the number of cutscenes in the beginning of the game is ridiculous. It gets much better after that, but still, the first couple hours are a slog. Also, this game does not run great on the older 3DS models. It suffers from semi-frequent slowdowns in-battle. Even on the New 3DS models, there are occasional slowdowns in battles. Also, a lot of the new Pokemon in the game are slower than I am used to, which makes battles against old Pokemon a little frustrating. Overall, this is a worthy game to pick up. I had to knock off a star due to the game having some issues on older 3DS systems and the length of the beginning tutorial/cutscene spamfest. But other than that, it is an amazing game that I highly recommend to both fans of the series and anyone who wants to try out their first Pokemon game. It will not disappoint.

As an original Pokemon player, Ive grown and experienced it all. And while itll be easy to simply say Sun and Moon have completely departed from the series and created something revolutionary and new like Nintendo has tried to market this generation as, that simply is not the case. Yes things feel fresh up to a point; there are no gyms, no established Elite Four, and a few other minor differences, but at the core of it you still are going from city to city challenging trainers to battles. This is what Pokemon is at its core. You can call it Island Challenges if you want, but they are still Gym battles. The biggest inclusion are the Z Moves which function as a last ditch super power up move. We see this in many games, but not yet in Pokemon, at least not until this year. Pokemon Sun and Moon are great games that are great games because it follows the traditional formula which made Pokemon a household name. All they did was simply tweak the names and paths you go through and that is how it feels fresh. Game Freak has had a successful track record and this generation continues it.

Im gonna get some hate for this... I got this game recently and the last one I had played was Y and I LOVE that game. It was a big grand adventure and it had a lot going for it. This feels like theyre trying to do the same thing but something was irking me about it. It feels like less an adventure and more that youre at camp. You have camp counselors wholl open up paths after you do your trial/activity and proceed to the next challenge. The main female main characters eyes are big and soulless which really isnt helped by the way she reacts to things, or doesnt more accurately. Thats the thing, everyone expresses so well in this game, all the NPCs are rendered really well and nicely but then theres your souless self just standing there :) going for the ride. Never expressing herself, which maybe wouldnt be so bad if everyone else wasnt so expressive. Team Skull is probably the most amusing of the teams Ive seen in my Pokemon run (Red/Blue, Silver, Y) and the supporting characters with you are a bit ...weird to me. Maybe Im just missing something with them. But every cutscene with them felt the same after a while. Get in the bag and Im not mad that I lost for the 10th time. I like characters and their plots more than anything in RPGs, it can even make up for a bad story but Im just finding this adventure to be way more toned back and lacking in the adventure part and I just cant get on with it. It feels like Im being treated like a child while in previous adventures they treated you like you were rapidly earning respect. That you were of age and went out to do what you wanted vs a guided tour. The gameplay also feels slow, with the effects turned on in battle theres so many redundant things being done, even in the field even with the text at MAX speed. You found a berry! You got a berry! Wait, theres more here you found another berry! Theres separate text boxes for each of these, every time, and its the theme of the game, wasting your time with redundant, obvious text every step of the way. Only made worse by unskippable jingles every time. Im playing 7th Dragon 3 Code VFD and everything is fast and snappy. Hit a guy, hes confused, they have an effect and a short text blurb that flies on screen to tell you whats going on if the effect wasnt apparent, all effects are listed so they dont have to remind you EVERY TURN. The game is so slow and its all things that other RPGs understood how to speed up ages ago so I can only assume they did this to pad the game out and it just isnt for me. Its just burnt me out real fast and Im sorry to say Im selling this game. Its such a shame, the game looks great, characters express themselves like youd see in Mega Man Legends, youve never had such a great view into the pokemon games. But theres so many things gone wrong in the game for me I just cant stick it out. I swear Pokemon Y wasnt this tedious...Yes Im sure it dragged its feet in some ways but I dont remember it being this tedious.

I had been waiting for this game for SO LONG. It was worth it to pre-order because: 1) I got it shipped to me the day it came out and 2) it was at a discounted price!! What more could you want?? I absolutely wouldve paid $400 for this game. I wouldve given Nintendo my soul. For the months leading up to it, I would show my friends and family the new trailers by shoving my phone in their faces and waiting for a reaction. Pokémon has been a part of my life for over 14 years and I couldnt live on if they stopped making games. I couldnt. You may laugh, you may scoff, but I am as serious as Sirius (Black). I also chose Moon because its so much cooler and less basic than Sun. In Moon, the clock is 12 different from the real world so its DARK WHEN ITS LIGHT AND LIGHT WHEN ITS DARK IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. Alright, thanks for reading. Or not reading. Either way, have a fantabulotistic day.

Great addition to the Pokemon family. This game has innovated on several fronts compared to the library of pokemon games. For example, for the first time ever, there are no badges, instead your character undergoes trials. This is refreshing after having played 20 years worth of pokemon games. Next, one major annoyance, especially in the last game, was the use of moves such as surf and fly to have in-game, out of battle effects. The problem was that these moves took up a valuable slot for battles. Pokemon has innovated, and de-coupled the moves needed, from your pokemon. So you can fly whenever you want, and not have to have a pokemon with fly in your group. Finally, this game has a very interesting story/plot. Overall, the game feels very fresh and fun.

Somewhat of a different feeling from past Pokemon games. Its well made and compares to the others in features and length, but it tries to tell a heartfelt story with more character development than past entries in the series. The new slew of Pokemon is similar to past additions. Nothing too exciting. Its hard to innovate at this point. But they take advantage of the region it is set in to introduce the legendaries in an engaging and meaningful way. It was hard to put this down and I beat it in the same week/end that it was released, which is always a good sign. Well worth it. I got Blue the day it came out and to this day Im still happy with the handheld releases for this series.