A video game review written by: Lee Sonogan

GameCube (2004) Action, adventure

If you want an alternative to collecting badges in an RPG Pokémon game this one may be for you. Released in 2004 this video game has a stadium style battling similar to the Pokémon Stadium games that were on the Nintendo 64. With updated graphics, features, newer generations of Pokémon and most importantly it an interesting story. One new feature includes shadow Pokémon where you are able to catch them in mid battle from an other trainer.

Capturing shadow Pokémon is referred to as to snagging another trainers shadow Pokémon in an attempt to return a Pokémon back to normal or cure them. When shadow Pokémon go into a mode they can use shadow moves that can do a lot of damage. But there is a downside that it cannot level up until you return it to normal. It is a challenge to capture all available shadow Pokémon in the game and if you do, purify them all and beat MT. Battle you will be given a free Ho-Oh.

Every battle in this game is a double battle where you use two Pokémon at the same time. Making each battle more challenging and open to combination moves. Other than the main story there is plenty of more challenging battles in side quests. And each place where you can battle has an interesting soundtrack to each one. The boss battles have the most epic musical tracks in the video game.

I have played this video game three times in my life. It is a pleasant change of pace compared to other Pokémon video games and they should make more like it. Wanting a remake for years, I doubt it will happen for the Nintendo Switch anytime soon. These days Pokémon is making its money off Pokémon Go and not all of its focus goes into the handheld games anymore such as the new Pokémon Sword and Shield video games not having the National Pokedex. That is a different story all together, so as I said in the first paragraph I highly recommend this video game to anyone who has any interest in an interesting RPG Pokémon video game.

7.7/10

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