Pokémon Moon - Nintendo 3DS

This game is probably one of my favorite Pokemon games. I love the story line that is more involved than many of its predecessors. It actually makes me feel like Im getting my moneys worth out of the game! The pokemon are just as cute in this one. I usually find in many Pokemon games that I go for the same old team in each one, but this one I ventured out and tried different pokemon. The festival plaza is one of my favorite things about this game, as well as Poke Pelago. I seriously could see myself playing this game even after I beat the main story line this time.

Ive been apart of the Pokemon world for the last 20 somthing years since Red on the gameboy color came out and I have to first say that this is a nice different flavor to the run of the mill pokemon games although following the fundamentals of the games things have changed no gym battles but Island leaders as well with the ability to fly, surf and rock smash no longer holding a party pokemon down is fantastic. I highly recommend this game to all pokemon fans because its a breath of fresh air to the franchise. Although I suggest ultra moon or sun because this games the outdated ones like black and white where to blk/wht 2.

Having played through the Pokemon series, flaws and all, I can say the added features here make this one of the best Pokemon Ive ever played. While the story mostly follows the traditional formula (Collect, Train, Unlock New Areas, Beat the Bad Team, and become the Champion), it does it in a way that finally makes the game feel like its not working against you. Probably the best feature added to this game (and possibly the best addition to the entire series) is the removal of HMs. Instead of having to find the one or two HMs that can be viable on an actual member of your team and having to load as many as possible onto an HM slave (Thank you for your years of service Golduck!), you are now given what becomes effectively a summon ability. At certain progress points through the game, you get access to different Pokemon that function as ridable HMs. A Charizard will help you fly. A Tauros will smash rocks in your path and allow you to dramatically improve your run speed (very helpful with egg hatching). It means your team can be 6 Pokemon that you choose, not 5 plus one just for HMs. The key drawback I found for this game was the hard push to expand the Poison type. While it is nice to see some old faces rejuvenated (looking at you Muk), the sheer number of additional Poison types makes this game feel like youre exploring the poison islands. While I realize this is likely a response to help tone down the power of the Fairy type, which was a response to tone down the Dragon type, it feels a bit heavy handed. Granted, Poison types have been underrepresented for most of the history of Pokemon, but I think they could have been a bit more creative in their execution. Other than that complaint, I think the overall execution of the game was fantastic, as were some of the new additions to the roster. One other nitpick is that there is no National Dex, even after completing the game. Not the biggest deal, but a good FYI. You can see many other reviews that can tell you about the different areas and features, so by all means check those if you;re curious. What it boils down to is if youre remotely interested in Pokemon, you should play this game!

PROS: At first, I really did not like the Alolan theme, thinking that it was cheesey, but I see it was made in good taste and actually appreciate the immersion the game makers have established. If youre a player that loves the fine details of the game, and recognizes the effort game developers put into making every aspect interesting, this is the right game for you. Its chock full of great fun minigames, pretty good customization, and a lot of quality of life improvements. I havent loved a Pokemon game this much since Pokemon Ruby-Sapphire! CONS: The only con is that a lot of the male character customization is limited and seem low effort, especially compared to that of the female characters! I wish the devs would focus more on male-player customization-- or at least provided a way to change player gender. Men like a diversified look and occasionally don long hair too, I promise.

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 hesitant to pick up Sun and Moon after the massive disappointment that was X and Y, especially after seeing that they suffered from one of the exact same issues--very few new pokemon with the new generation. Some might say that there are too many pokemon already, but I disagree. Were especially lacking in pokemon of the new Fairy type, and Sun and Moon did very little to remedy that. But I pre-ordered the game despite my misgivings, and honestly? I wasnt disappointed. It definitely has a few rough edges, but overall this was well worth my time and money. Lets start with the worst aspect, the graphics. Namely, the models of the pokemon themselves. Now, I have a degree in 3D Animation, I have some idea of whats going on regarding the models and Im sure thats exasperating my issues. But holy crap Game Freak, your models look like bootleg plastic toys crapped out of a low quality 3D Printer. Throw some texture maps onto your models, the 3DS can handle it, even with the crappy shader. Please just. A texture map, a specularity map, something! The models are physically painful to watch for me, moving like stiff jointed action figures and looking like a four year olds idea of color theory slapped on a pokemon shape. A pokemon that particularly suffers from this is Dhelmise, which is an anchor+ship wheel with seaweed clinging to it. The seaweed looks like green paint and takes an otherwise cool design and makes it hard to handle having the thing on the screen. The world-map models however are beautiful, and the in-game cutscenes are beautifully rendered with the only flaw being the unnerving never-ending stare plastered on the player characters face. A less severe flaw: With the move to Generation 7 it seems that we have lost Super Training and the foot in the door it brought to the competitive world of the series. While the Super Training Minigame wasnt the best thing, it was a way for players to interact with their team on a level besides shouting orders at them. Now for the redeeming qualities: Bugs: While no pokemon game is free from its share of glitches, unlike X and Y, Sun and Moon dont drag the frame-rate down on my old 3DS when Im in a battle. This is an A+++++ improvement. Plot: Easily the best plot since Pokemon Black and Pokemon White, the story is easy to follow and kid-friendly, but just intense and thought provoking enough to engage the older players as well. The biggest problem is how hand-holdy and railroady the game is, assuming that the player must be a two year old who must be spoonfed everything to be able to understand it and know where to go. Per usual and despite all requests otherwise, Game Freak has still not put in a way to skip the tutorial if youve already played. Post-Game: It exists! And is actually quite fun, and brings back a surprising cameo character. Welcome back from Emerald! Neutral things: The Poke Pelago- its a fun gimmick and nifty idea that I hope they expand on in the future, but theres a very very large disparity between resource availability and things available. While trying to build your islands you are constantly hurting for Poke Beans [the special currency for this section of the game] which are also used in Pokemon Refresh, the replacement of Pokemon Amie. This means you often have to choose between bonding with your pokemon, or spending the beans to make it marginally easier to get more beans. Pokemon Refresh is fun and cute, but with the lack of resources it quickly becomes exhausting, and unlike in Pokemon Amie, there arent even minigames you can play to increase your Pokebean stock! Money scarcity- Ive been playing pokemon games for as long as I can remember. I have beaten and owned literally every main series game, and most of the side games, and I have NEVER had the issues with keeping a healthy supply of pokeyen that I had in Moon. An Amulet Coin or a special promotional pokemon with the special move Happy Hour is literally required to have anything resembling a healthy supply of pokeyen. New designs- Are painfully hit or miss. Of the ~70 new pokemon+formes introduced, I like maybe 30 of the designs, and the rest I honestly wish I could throw into a lava pit. I dont have a single one that Im just neutral on. Im hoping the series continues in this direction, but seeing what Ive seen for Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, I dont have very high expectations.

Fun game and came new nice and quick.

Not too much water eh IGN? Basically GameFreak took all of our hopes and dreams for Pokemon and put them into this game. It is the biggest leap in terms of quality between any generation of Pokemon. Weve gone to a more 3D view point with moving camera angles. We got rid of the gyms and put in trials instead (Thank goodness!), and we have a wonderful new setting. The new Pokemon are a lot of fun, plus we have all the familiar faces as well. The menus have been improved and streamlined - which is a HUGE plus. One could consider it a minor improvement yet it makes the usability and functionality so much easier, especially in battle. Also, having the weakness indicators when battling familiar Pokemon is fun too. Though I would have liked if this didnt come up until you captured the type you are fighting. In other words, not showing how your moves affect the opponent unless you have previous captured one of the same and entered it fully into the Pokedex. But small nitpick there. Its truly as near perfect as a Pokemon game can be and is what I consider one of the best games of 2016. I actually enjoy this more than FF15.

Ive played pokemon games for almost 10 years now and I can safely say, this may be one of the weakest in the series. They focused way too much on story and wouldnt let go of your hand, basically played the game for you and didnt open many possibilities for exploration compared to previous titles. Story is kind of mediocre, I didnt pay too much attention later on because I just wasnt interested. Lots of filler in there to make the story last longer too. Its a great game for kids who are new to the series I suppose or new to the pokemon games in general but for someone whos played a lot of pokemon, its not like the games previously but it doesnt change my view. Nontheless, I dont hate it, I dont like it. Its average. You cant go wrong with it, youll enjoy playing it anyway.

Who remembers the blue, red version ?? Who remembers teleporting next to some cave and walking up 3 steps , left 4 steps , down 5 steps to catch mew ??? Sadly I am no longer playing Pokémon but I bought this for my nephew. Im sure this new generation or Pokémon are cool but nobody beats the old Pokémon with ash , brock & misty. Sorry just a 90s baby here. Anyway, nephew loved this game. So 5 stars from me. Im glad my nephew is getting close to the same experience I had growing up lol