Pokémon Moon - Nintendo 3DS

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.

Game Freak needed to release a new Pokemon game to reinvigorate the series, and Pokemon Moon is that game. Ive been fan since the beginning so I was a little skeptical about the change up from gym leaders to island hoping, but the experience is still 100% Pokemon adventure. The graphics a step in the right direction with fully a animated protagonists and NPCs as opposed the classic big headed sprites of previous games. Keeping with clothing customization from Pokemon X/Y was a smart move as well, especially now that you can see the details much more. I can keep describing how great it is but you really need to experience it for yourself. Again, its not your typical 8 gym, catch legendary, then fight the elite four adventure, but it is definitely worth your time.

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.

I havent played a pokemon game since Pokemon Crystal. Thats a LOOONG time ago. I was hesitant on grabbing the next release of Pokemon, but I was curious to see how much it has changed and whatnot. Thankfully, not all full 700+ pokemon is required to capture to complete the Alola Pokedex and Im thankful for that feature. Im also glad that I dont need to be overwhelmed by other generations of Pokemon (at least not yet) when versing others. All in all, it was a wonderful experience that I do not regret spending my time and money on. Cant wait to hear about the Nintendo Switch announcement for pokemon!

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.

One of the best games in the series to date. Ive played since gen one, I have to say that the characters and writing in sun and moon is amazing. The closest would be gen 5, but that was more story driven than character in my opinion. The designs may take some getting used to, but after a month even the ones I didnt like originally have grown on me. The only complaints may be that the beginning of the game is rather dialogue heavy, so for kids that dont like reading or even others, it may come off as tedious. Other than that, the post-game is rather small and similar to X and Y/ORAS.

Great game, my daughter went through it in no time

To start, I didnt play black/white, but if you count those out this is my least favorite in the series. The biggest downfall of this game were all the cutscenes. After beating the Elite Four and becoming the champion there seemed to be twenty minutes of cutscenes and credits that didnt have much break in between. I did however like a lot of the new Pokemon and the alternative versions of classic Pokemon. Z moves were okay, but seeing as you can only use them once in battle on one poke, it was a waste of a held item on multiple Pokemon. I really enjoyed the in battle benefits of having strong affection with you Pokemon. They kept the ability to customize your character like X/Y which was sadly missed in the ruby/sapphire remakes. The new characters werent great for the most part. Professor Kukui and Gladion were good, but I didnt care for Hau and hated Lillie. Most the story seemed focused around helping Lillie do things instead of focusing on your Pokemon journey. At first team skull was annoying, but ended up being funny after awhile once you get over the initial ridiculousness. Overall I thought the game was just okay. At parts I did enjoy it, but for the most part it felt pretty tedious. Now that the main story line is complete, I think Ill like it more. So far end game things like helping the police has been pretty good.

I never thought I would rate one of the core Pokemon games anything below 5 stars, but I was a bit disappointed with this generation. The game itself is certainly playable, but I cannot get over the fact that I miss going to Gyms so much. The Pokemon available are sort of cool, but some of the special things that you have to do to catch them are pretty annoying. Overall, I felt like it was a bit of a step down from OR/AS, but hey, they tried something new. I guess there is always that possibility when you try something different.

The best pokemon game I have played in several years. I have been a fan for 15 years and with the change to 3D I have not had a good time with it. X and Y was not that fun, while omega ruby and alpha sapphire I found to be a poor remake of the original, but I found Both Sun and Moon to be a refreshing new take to pokemon. It has it`s changes true and It has a rather slow start which to a series veteran was very annoying, but in the end I think it was a new and great change addition to the series.