Pokémon Moon - Nintendo 3DS

I bought this for my 15 year old son and he loves playing it. He says its very interesting and it keeps his attention. The only thing he complained about was that because it is Moon the clock on the game is set 12 hour a head so if it is actually day time the game itself is at night. It would seem cool, but he says that it makes it difficult to see whats going on in the game. Thats why I give it 4 stars.

Huge changes to the pokemon formula since Pokemon X & Y, no longer as its strictly battle and collecting focused (although still present) as they added variety of mechanics to switch things up a bit and to bring more variety in gameplay. Changes include: 1. No HMs No longer do you have to carry around a HM slave (s). This has bothered me in the past games as I have to restrict 1 or 2 slots out of my party of 6 to help traverse certain areas of the world. In the place of HMs there are Poké Rides where you can ride pokemon interacting with them on the world map, some you may not be able to access until youve completed mission within the game. 2. Is it super effective? No longer do you have to look up guides online (unless its your first encounter) to tell if a move is super effective or not very effective against the pokemon youre up against. After you battle a pokemon once, the game will tell you what moves is super effective or not in the battle menu once you encounter the same pokemon the second time. 3. No Traditional Gyms No longer do you have to battle your way through gym after gym to prove youre the best out of brute force. There are 4 islands in the game, each of which are controlled by 4 Island Kahunas To get to them you have to get pass Trail Captains and Todum Pokemon Trail captain will give you quizzes, side quests to complete, and/or fight in traditional battles Todum Pokemon. Basically typical pokemon you find the wild, but significantly stronger and have grunts that help them battle. 4. Rotom Pokédex Typical pokedex, but with a face and personality attached to it. 5. Alola Forms Basically different forms of pokemon you seen in previous generations. Either its there physical form that is different and/or the pokemons typing 6. Z-Moves With a Z-Ring and a Z-Crystal you can use a pokemons ultimate move once per battle. Its not like Mega Evolutions where it stays constant 7. QR Scanner. You can now scan QR codes to get event pokemon 8. Battle Royal A 4 player free-for-all where the battle ends after all of ones pokemon trainers faints. They tally the win-losses of each trainer and the one with best stats at the end wins 9. Hyper Training. Once a pokemon reaches level 100, they can go through hyper training which can improve a Pokemons IV 10. Poké Pelago Your PC Box now has functionality to it. Its like a day care sort of thing, instead of just depositing your pokemon, you can passively train them in the PC or have them search for items 11. Festival Plaza. An online mode where you can battle other trainers and trade with them. You get festial coins for each interaction which you can spend on clothes, shop or upgrade your pokemons stats. Theres also missions you can undertake to get more coins. 12. Night and Day phase, New Pokemon Pokemon Sun goes the traditional time route while Moon does the opposite. In Pokemon Moon if youre playing in the daytime, the game will consider it night time in-game. Some events also play out differently like different Totum Pokemon on the same island/trail In traditional Pokemon fashion you can only get some pokemon in each version so trading is required either with a friend or if you own both versions. Also some pokemon evolve differently in each version now. Id say some of overall models of new pokemon are better looking than the last batch in previous iterations of the pokemon series. 13. Auto Run Your run is as fast as a bike now, and it has unlimited use. You can now move in all directions instead of the traditional 4 and it feels very fluid 14. No Rod Fishing is now dedicated to specific regions in the world. You cannot fish wherever you want anymore. 15. Photo Taking You can now take Photos of pokemon in the wild. 16. Team Skull and Aether Foundation Team Skull is the new antagonist group like Team Rocket, but they have a new style to them as they try act gangster-ish with their animated hand gesters/movements. They have more personality and have a darker tone to their backstory and mission. Aether Foundation is the opposite of Team Skull as their mission is to cure injured and hurt pokemon. The group is also conducting research on the Ultra Beast (Pokemon) which is a good mystery story in and of itself. 17. Graphical Upgrade Game looks better than the last, although there are some pixelation around the edges still. Models look more realistic than before, and the battle animations are more visually impressive. There are some framerate issues on 2v2 battles for some reason, but then again I own the launch 3DS. You may not have the issue if you own the New 3DS? Its a turn-based system so it doesnt really matter much in terms of gameplay, but the slow down is noticeable 18. Pokemon Refresh Similar to Pokemon amie but with more grooming options -Returning mechanics: Pokebank return, you can now transfer all your pokemon to Sun and Moon Clothing Options: Although more options are available, it still feel very limited. Mega Evolutions return, but none for new pokemon from what ive discovered Overall, love the changes to the traditional formula as it gives the Pokemon Series a nice refresh and is more streamline to play.

The ones that left a negative review probably didnt even know the big changes Pokemon Sun and Moon were going to make, so dont listen to them! This game is so fun to play, I played it for the whole day and never got bored. Although, I really bought this game because I thought Mega Evolutions were still there, and I wanted to build a Mega Audino team (Didnt have ORAS). They didnt state that there were no longer Mega Evolutions, but they did state other changes. Wish there was still Mega evolutions! Otherwise, this game is awesome! Still looking for an audino ;)

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.

Ive been a fan since Gen 1, but its fun to see what new features / changes they make every generation. Pros: The graphics seem to have moved entirely away from the old everythings a grid format. Makes the world seem newer. I also like that they brought back character customization / fashion stuff. Though this will show up in the cons section, I do like the call for help mechanic. It shakes up the battle system and makes it feel a bit more organic. And it can help with the leveling. My favorite feature, though, is the removal of the HMs and bike and replacing them with the pokémon ride system. You now get to ride around on various pokémon to accomplish the same results without having to carry an HM slave with you or wasting move slots on your team members. Cons: Theres a lot of tutorial-ism in the game. Though I do sometimes like how the map has a marker showing you where to go (and this certainly makes putting the game down and picking it up later more doable), the game sometimes bashes you over the head with reminders of what youve gotta do next or (in one case) are in the progress of doing. Then again, it does seem like games are generally moving in that direction. My only other complaint is the one mentioned above: call for help. While it shakes things up and makes things feel more organic and all that, it can be tedious as hell. As in the pokémon can chain call for help and do so on the same turn you murder their friend, making it impossible to catch the pokémon or end the battle without retreating or AoE moves.

The game is definitely a low point for the Pokemon franchise. Dont get me wrong, I LOVE mega-evolution and Z-moves, I think the Alolan forms are 100% wonderful, I think Team Skull are the best antagonists since team rocket, and the Ultra Beasts are cool. I love so much in this game, but I still consider it basically unplayable. The core gameplay mechanic appears to be a mini game where you try to escape from conversations with random characters that you dont care about by pressing A as rapidly as you can. This mini game is repeated over and over again. I put 400 hours into White 2, another 200 into Y (which had similar problems as this one, but not as bad), and at least 100 into Omega Ruby (which despite the time I spent was far superior to X&Y), but I havent been able to make myself finish this one. Aside from my issues with the random cutscenes and monologues that the game is filled with, the actual game is very very easy. It feels like no trainer has even 3 pokemon in their party, and there are random people offering to heal you every ten feet. Dungeons (such as they are) are very short and nearly completely linear.

This is quite possibly the best game to come out of the series since some of the originals. The story has some stumbles but overall has some rather interesting twists. The difficulty of the old games, while not back, is certainly looking to make a comeback as this is the most difficulty Ive had since my original Gold playthrough and Whitneys infamous Miltank. The PokePelago and removal of HM for Ride Pokemon are certainly welcome additions to the series and serve as a nice point to aid new players while giving veterans something to come back for (pelago) and fixing an issue many have had for years (Ride). Overall the game is technically well made, with only VERY obvious slowdown when in double or Totem battles due to the sprites on screen (though Ive heard this is better, but not gone, with the NEW 3DS models I cant confirm as I only own a regular XL). I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking to get into the games or a veteran looking to come back, I certainly enjoyed the 33 hours I put in just beating the storyline.

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.

As a longtime pokemon fan, this purchase was a no-brainer for me. For this installment I chose to not look at any spoilers of the game beforehand, so these are my thoughts while playing through: New Pokemon: Any game with new pokemon usually guarantees a thumbs up from me. Im less of a fan of remakes because I played through the originals so many times as a kid. The new pokemon this time around were all really great and I felt like a kid again seeing them all for the first time. I also really liked the addition of alolan forms for some of the original 151 pokemon, but there were only ~15 of those total (including some evolutions), which was kind of disappointing. Another great thing is that there are plenty of new legendaries / special pokemon to catch, which I felt was lacking in X/Y. Z Moves: Instead of mega-evolution, this game introduces z-moves. They are essentially a once-per-battle super move that you can use by attaching an item to your pokemon. Honestly, I prefer mega evolutions. It breathed new life into some pokemon by changing abilities and appearance. Z-moves are kind of boring... Trial battles instead of gyms: Trials replaced gyms in this installment. This was a super cool new addition in my opinion. A lot of people are unsure how they feel about the change, but I thought trials were great. They are very similar to gym battles in terms of progression through battles/ puzzles to be solved, but the advent of totem pokemon, enemies calling for help during battle, and increased stats made them more challenging and satisfying. Extra features: In terms of extra features, this game did a good job. Replacing hidden machines with pokemon riding was a great idea, it really makes you feel more involved and saves your teams move slots. Pokemon refresh and poke-pelagio are also fun little mini games that offer benefits during the main game. Festival plaza is basically more cumbersome way to connect to the internet/ interact with others, but it adds minigames and shops that can be fun as well. Lastly, breeding for competitive play is easier and quicker than ever, which is always appreciated by those getting into online play for the first time. Overall, I really enjoyed (and am still enjoying) the game! I would recommend it to any pokemon fan new or old, and even as an introduction to the series, as the game itself isnt too hard and there is a huge variety of pokemon to catch! The game has a few ways to increase or decrease difficulty, such as the exp share and constant stream of rare candies, which is great for easing new players in, or for veterans who want more of a challenge.

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.