Pokémon Sun - Nintendo 3DS

Yes, I know, why make a review this late? Isnt Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon already out. Well, I say better now than never and because I got this game rather late (Why? Not even I know as Im a die-hard Pokemon fan so maybe because I was a bit broke recently, I guess). Enough about me though, let me review this games strengths and drawbacks using a handy list! Lets start with the good: 1. New Pokemon!!! The Alohan versions of past Pokemon are very awesome. 2. The character you play as is very customizable. (Probably the most customizable character as of yet) 3. The graphics are amazing and better than any past Gameboy and DS Pokemon game before. 4. The plot is pretty epic. (All games have been story driven but still) 5. Features like the Exp. Share quickly raise your pokemons levels. (Very useful when training a barely caught pokemon you wanna put in your team) 6. Some new things are introduced like Z- moves, Poke Pelago, even easier connection with other players close and far. 7. Theres something called Ride pokemon which fuction as like helping you search for hidden items, surf, fly, run crazy fast, etc. This means you no longer have to teach your personal team any of those pesky HM moves. This gives you much more freedom to create a diverse and awesome team. Its unfortunate, but there are some bad stuff I didnt like. Here goes: 1. I dont like the layout of the this region. Its divided by 4 islands. The concept at first was cool but it got tiring fast. It makes it seem like all the towns, cities, and routes are squished in together and literally find yourself in circles. 2. Some Pokemon, items, and locations are very far off in the story. If you want a specific pokemon, item, or reach a place so you can evolve a specific pokemon, get one into your team, or need a item to evolve your pokemon, then tough luck because you have to play until you reach it which kinds sucks. (I wanted a Porygon and Type: Null but apparently you cant get them until AFTER the story... that sucks a lot...to say the least). 3. Wheres Super Training? I want it back ever so bad. Sure, the mini games in it were tedious but at least they increased your Pokemons stats. (Theres Hyper Traning but you can only do that if your Pokemon are in level 100.) 4. The game seems so short. Unlike other games like HeartGold/SoulSilver or Platinum which seem much longer. 5. So theres new Pokemon but there are few that catch my attention. (Other than the Alohan versions of previous Pokemon). 6. Since at least Gen 6, the games have become way too easy. As a seasoned Pokemon player, I dont like the hand holding the games are doing now. I wish they continued what they did in Gen 5, which had difficulty levels. 7. Lets talk about... Z - Moves. They are not nearly as cool as Mega evolution. Sure, the Z- Moves summon insanely powerful moves but its still disappointing compared to Mega Evolution. This games pretty much ignores Mega Evolution, which is a downer. The only bonus is that you watch as your character does a ridiculous dance like movement to unleash the Z-Moves. Its amusing. Ok, so this is the main stuff I liked and didnt like about Pokemon Sun. Yes, its still a good game I would keep in my collection and its replayable but some stuff was left out of previous games that made them unforgettable. The Z-moves just arent doing it for me. The island layout is not that amazing in my opinion. However, features like Ride Pokemon and other older features like the Exp. Share contribute to make this game pretty awesome. So overall, a good game that could of been a bit better but its still worth playing and enjoying the way it is.

This game took over my life for a solid week and thats totally okay (I actually bought a 3DS just for this game). I finished it with fifty hours of game play and I only wish I had slowed down to extend it. This is sooooo fun! My last Pokemon game (unfinished...) played was Black 2, so going from Black 2 to Sun was probably more eye opening for me than those who have played every game, but oh my gooooood. So worth it, it is just so fun. I love how customizable your trainers appearance is and just how different the game is compared to traditional Pokemon. I really hope Pokemon continues in this route for future games, because its an amazing one!

Overall its a pretty good game, though the story seems a bit short compared to others. The Generation V games seem to be the longest in the series in terms of time to complete, Black 1 & 2 and White 1 & 2, and in terms of scope and size of the map as well, although Generation IV Heartgold and SoulSilver probably come very close. Ive been playing Pokemon since Blue for the GBC. Its unfortunate Pokemon games in general do not carry over many features from previous games, Generation VIII games (Sun & Moon) dont have swarm battles, triple battles, and many other features from the Generation VI games. I dislike the fact Sun & Moon do not have the full National pokedex so you cant actually catch them all although the Pokemon bank does - I suspect this is a ploy to get more subscribers to that service, which is also excellent by the way. The graphics, controls, etc are all fantastic, cannot find a flaw with those at all, although the 3ds does appear to lag when there are double battles, although only slighlty - and I do have the New 3ds. The online features are pretty awesome, too. Wonder trading is still my favorite part of the new pokemon games, its almost as addictive as gambling.

Pros. Graphics and sound have been greatly improved ! But if you are using an older model of the 3ds then the frame rate drops a little during battles . On the other hand the *new* 3DS handles things pretty well, you wont notice the frame drop as much. HMs are a thing of the past! No longer will we required to have HM slaves on adventure team! We can now page Ride Pokemon ! Need a bolder smashed out of the way? Summon Touros! Need to go for a swim? Summon Lapras or Sharpedo ! Need to fly? Summon Charizard! The only downside is that these are rental pokemon . You cant use your own . They also seem to be shiny locked as well. Kurts Apricorn Pokeballs have returned ! For the trainers out there who have dreamed of having 5th, 6th and now 7th gen pokemon in this special balls REJOYCE ! Love Ball Sylveon is a thing now! Moon Ball Rockruff is a thing! Keep in mind that Apricorn trees are not in game but you can find these special balls through out the game. Trainer Customization is back and better then ever ! First off! After 20 years we can finally take the damn hat off! YES ! There are more hairstyles for both boys and girls ! Girl trainers get to wear make up. White colored clothes can be dyed whatever color you want! Breeding mechanics have gotten an upgrade ! Male and Genderless Pokemon can now pass down their pokeballs if they are bred with Ditto ! Before it was females only ! The Day Care was replaced by the The Nursery . Pokemon will not level up and auto forget moves that you are trying to breed down . Because they dont level up in the Nursery its hella cheaper to boot! These games are more story driven then any other pokemon game! There a few flaws I do NOT like but Ill just have to deal with. GTS . Game Freak still has NOT figured out how to block people from asking for unreasonable trades. Like Caterpie for Arceus , for example . Not much backwards compatibility with 6th gen games . Theres NO way to trade directly between 6th and 7th gen games without Pokémon Bank . I myself and many others have tested this. Theres NO way to battle players who have 6th gen games either . But in the end , despite the flaws I still think these are solid games .

Pokemon Moon is, in my experience, a surprisingly disappointing game. From the beginning island with the first trial I was shocked, repeatedly, at how easy they decided to make this game. Dont be mistaken: I am fully aware that Pokemon games have never been difficult, but this one takes it to a new level altogether. Cons: *Too many freebies early on and continuing throughout *Processes slowly in some parts due to console limitations *Limited fishing areas *No challenge whatsoever *No horde battles (Honey is essentially useless) *Has a marker that shows you where to go *Too many scenes *A legendary battle right after the last Pokemon League battle and quite a bit of scenes *Easily the most idiotic Team in any game. *The story was slightly lacking *S.O.S. can get annoying early on *Horrible designs for some Pokemon *New addition to battles sometimes shows effectiveness of each attack before you make it *The Pokedex nonsense after catching new Pokemon gets time consuming. *Move reminder teaches all moves a Pokemon can learn by leveling, above and below current level When I say, too many freebies, I mean it. You start off with more than 10 times the amount of money in past games, plus Pokeballs and Potions. Then you get Great Balls, Ultra Balls, Revives, and the EXP Share, all before the first trial. Not to mention more money (over 10,000) for catching a few Pokemon. And then there are the extra areas for racking up more easy items and cash that require little to no actual work: interacting with 6 easily found Pokemon on a beach (20,000 daily for 30 seconds of work), buildings that give daily free items, which include Master Balls and Big Nuggets, and a variety of possible items if you develop a specific island in Poké Pelago. I learned, after the fact, that you can repeat the battle with the legendary that comes after the Pokemon League, assuming you didnt catch it. If you care about the nature and IVs, and havent gone online to find out that fact, youre faced with quite the dilemma, so I count it as a con. I add the move reminder in there because it just makes things too easy. Takes away some of the challenge of breeding if you can get egg moves so simply. Pros: *Riding Pokemon is an interesting concept *Festival Plaza makes for a decent change of pace *A few new Pokemon designs are cool *Being able to get both major legends without another player losing giving up theirs *Hyper Training allows max IV stats without the breeding headache *Being able to see a Pokemons nature right after catching it Hyper training is arguably the best thing for competitive players that this update has. The training doesnt change the Pokemon in a sense that can be bred to future Pokemon, but the IV boost works for battling. Meaning you can essentially cut IV breeding from your agenda so long as youve got a Bottle Cap or two.

This game is definitely harder than the past games. First off, you cant EV train as easily as you could in Pokemon X/Y and Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. I was upset that they took that away. I was a big fan of that feature. However, a big positive for this game was the addition of the Ride Pokemon feature, which basically was their substitution of HMs in the game. As we all know, it can be a pain in the butt to have to carry around pokemon in your party that are your HM buffs, because you dont want to have to teach the HM moves to your team that you use in-game, so this feature was nice. Although, I must say, while the Stoutland Search feature is pretty fun, it can a bit tedious at times because it makes you go kinda slow while youre searching. Something else that I noticed about the game is the addition of strategy to the NPCs. Before, it was pretty easy to overtake a gym (something that this game substituted with Island Challenges) if you understood basic type match-ups, but now the opponents have more complex strategies. After having participated in a few Battle Tree (equivalent of the Battle Maison in past games, where you earn BP, battle points, to get special items or TMs, similar to competitive battling structure) battles and having watched a few online, they are definitely harder. A side note on breeding in the game - there isnt an infinite loop anymore, where before you could just put a dime underneath the control stick and bike around in circles to hatch eggs, there isnt in this game. I saw a video on YouTube by Verlisify where someone found something similar, and while it works, it takes forever. Ill just mention that while there are some new pokemon added in this generation, it seems that they didnt add that many. However, many of them are fun, and while I am not a competitive pokemon player myself, Ive heard that there are some great ones that were added. Overall, the game is fun. Definitely glad I got it. Harder than past games, but thats also what makes it exciting. If youre looking for a challenge, Id recommend this game. If youre looking for a slower-pace, easier pokemon game, Id recommend Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire.

I love this game! It was easy to finish to say the least. I could have finished it within two days, but I extended it to three days. Though, Im only giving it a four stars because of that along with some of the Pokemon didnt thrill me, though, I did enjoy the story-line and to say the least, Lillie was my favorite. She had the better story-line according to my book, but overall, it was a game that I was happy to have bought when it was on sale. Thanks Nintendo!

Ill start by saying Ive been playing pokemon games since red, blue and yellow and am a diehard fan of the series. There are a few things I really like about this game, but overall it is pretty mediocre. Pros : - the ride pager system is awesome. I love not having to lug around HM slaves - you can finally customize your characters appearance. There arent a huge amount of options but I still enjoyed it - rare pokemon are actually rare. I spent about 2 days fishing before I was able to catch a dratini. - lots of breeding system improvements. The breeder no longer levels your pokemon, so no worries about them ruining your prize fighter. And now that natures have hidden effects aside from stat changes I can actually hatch eggs in minutes. Its pretty great - this one could be a pro or a con, but now after you fight a pokemon once the game will tell you which attacks are effective or not. Its convenient but honestly learning your type advantages is such a major part of battling its like having training wheels on. There were times I liked it but overall it felt very handicapped to me. Cons: - I have no idea why so many reviews on here praise the storyline. It is so bland and boring. It basically amounts to my mom is mean help me un-brainwash her. Its probably fine for the younger audience, but for pokemons 20 something fans I doubt many will enjoy it. - WAY. Too. Many. Cutscenes. I seriously wanted to throw my ds the first 2 hours of the game. You cant go more than 5 steps without being stopped for very meaningless chatter. (Lets go eat this masala! Omg this island is great!) - the characters are extremely topical and boring. I was not invested in a single one, I only wanted their conversations to be as short as possible so I could go back to exploring. The pokemon thieves in this game, team skull, are so cringey. Im embarrassed everytime one shows up throwing their arms around. - rival game is weak. I know this isnt the first game to do this but I still hate it. Your rival is super friendly and kind, and to make matters worse he actually picks the starter pokemon that is weak against yours. I miss the days where your rival talked smack and gave you a run for your money. You know, like an actual rival and not some nice kid you routinely smack down in battle - the totem pokemon trials are very odd and make no sense. Im sure they added them to fit the tropical theme but they were so easy and weird. I wouldve much preferred the classic gym courses. - I wouldve been more okay with the map if all the locations werent given such silly names. They all run together for me and I have to Google a buildings location everytime I need to visit one because its very difficult to tell the difference from one city to another - the E4 members are all Kahunas that youve already encountered with the exception of one girl with no explanation of how she managed to get lumped together with the rest. It felt very random and lazy - this is probably my biggest complaint as it basically renders the game unplayable post championship. There is no good way to level your pokemon after the E4. While they have the battle tree you have to defeat red or blue before entering, and unless you just wanna grind E4 over and over and sit through all that cutscenes you literally have no way to level up aside from grinding random encounters. Its pretty unbearable Overall, 2.5/5

Ive been a poke-fan since childhood. Ive looked forward to all the new GB-DS-3DS games over the years. This particular game, although awesome, leaves me saddened. There are no Pokemon Gyms! No League! The storyline seems like a combination of Pokemon Ranger & Yo-Kai Watch. Which isnt necessarily a bad thing, its just very different, more childish! Moves now have super effective, not effective, etc description on them, which dumbs it down a little, and it makes sense if theyre trying to reach a much younger audience (5-8 y.o). I know my 6 y.o loves that it tells him which moves work best! Not to mention the dramatic change in appearance in Pokemon like Rattata & Grimer! I do like the game, and will always be a Poké-Fan, I guess I just dont deal with change all too well :P!

Im only giving this game 4 stars because of one downside to the gameplay that really annoys me; the wild Pokemon being able to call for help from other wild Pokemon. It is the single more annoying thing in this game! Every time I wanted to catch the Pokemon if I didnt have it, the damn thing would call for help and then Id have to get rid of the second one before trying to catch the first one. But right after I do get rid of the second one, the first one would call for help AGAIN. One Pokemon did it up to 5 times in a row! Another sort of downfall; and this one Ive seen a lot of in reviews is that there is far too much story to gameplay. Its like watching a pixleized mini movie with SOME gameplay sprinkled in. Not even X/Y, Omega Ruby was like that. There was a leveled amount of gameplay to story in them. But Sun? Mostly reading dialogue and going here or there to get into MORE story. If you like having a lot of story, buy the game; if not, then dont buy the game. Its really that simple. I may still get Moon at some point but I actually stopped playing when I got to the final Kahuna the chick with the Clydesdale like Pokemon because my Pokemon are freaking weak against her.