Pokémon Sun - Nintendo 3DS

Pokemon is one of the highest selling, most preordered, and anticipated games for the 3DS. And for good reason (sort of). Despite the franchises age, the series seems to outsell itself with every new release. After 20 years, Game Freak has decided it might be time to shake up the formula beyond new pokemon and slight adjustments to type sets/moves. Some changes are welcomed (no HMs) while others are a bit of a head scratcher (can’t fish where you want.) I will give the game the benefit of the doubt as I am only wrapping up the second island, but most of my complaints are true issues throughout the game: 1. No 3D. Absolutely none present in the game. Unlike the previous games where 3D was limited to certain areas, this game has none at all. I have a problem with that considering I am playing this game on a 3DS. Clearly the hardware was too taxed as it is, so 3D was dumped to try and give the game a wider release. 2. This game should have been a New 3DS exclusive. The original 3DS is almost six years old and the New 3DS is almost 2 years old. There are currently only about 3 exclusive games to the New 3DS, this would have been a great opportunity to get people to move on to a new unit. I know I would have. As it is, the game supposedly runs “slightly better” on the new hardware, but that is debatable 3. The game runs poorly. Despite having released two other pokemon games for the system, Game Freak has yet to learn how to properly optimize the game. The game runs fine when walking around the world, but in battle things can get dicey. Totem battles, which happen after every trial, will make the game run slow. When the totem pokemon calls for an ally, it runs even slower. It took damn near 10 seconds from me pressing flame bite for the game to actually show the move on screen. Even single battles can cause the frame rate to dip. That is insane. How are there frame rate issues in a POKEMON GAME. This isn’t Tomb Raider or COD. 4. The game fools you into thinking it might be free roaming, but it is possibly more restricting than the original Red and Blue releases. There are trainers not letting you pass, barriers in the way, wild pokemon blocking you. All in an effort to make sure you follow this extremely linear path to the one place the game wants you to go. At least in Blue/Red you could skip gyms and come back if you wanted. 5. I feel like the probability of random battles has been raised. I can hardly walk through grass a few steps without been attacked. Maybe it is just me, but I am using more repels than ever in this game. I don’t know if it is a result in moving on a 3D plane rather than a grid, but I don’t remember having battles this much in ORAS, X/Y 6. People talk WAY too much. I understand dialog is going to happen, but this isn’t Metal Gear Solid with deep political intrigue and an engrossing story. Pokemon’s story is pretty straight forward, so why do I have to hear three different people talk and then move to another location just to have them talk some more? Even the random NPC characters have nothing interesting to say. I’m usually just trying to get the basic info and move on. Don’t drown me in exposition and unnecessary cut scenes. 7. The game is even easier than ever. A. Experience share is back, which makes leveling a joke. At least you can turn that off. B. NPCs will literally tell you where to go to next. No need to roam and maybe find something cool C. If that isn’t enough, the map will show you with a red circle D. If THAT isn’t good enough, the pokedex will TELL YOU WHERE TO GO YOU DUMMY DUM DUM E. The game tells you type advantages. God forbid you learn something F. People are constantly healing you or giving you free healing items. G. No trainer has more than 2-3 Pokemon. Not ace trainers, not trial trainers, not big Kahunas. You will steam roll everyone 8. I can’t fish where I want. Now you have to find special zones by the water to fish. You can’t just do it wherever, that wouldn’t make sense. 9. Your avatar’s stupid blank face. Every other character in the game can emote, but you are left with this stupid grin on your face that makes me want to punch him. If other people can raise their eyebrows, open their mouth, and make other expressions, why can’t I? 10. There is no audio options to raise or lower background noises and music. Maybe I just want to hear the music and no noise, or vice versa? Or just turn the music down a smidge in the mix from the battle sounds? You can’t. Most modern games give you this option but you can’t do it in pokemon. WHEW, Ok. So what do I like about this game? 1. Despite the terrible optimization and frame rate drop, I will admit the character models and environments are well made and LOOK nice. I am not condoning trading function for pretty polygons, but the art direction is quite nice. 2. I’m glad Game Freak tried to make a move in a slightly different direction with these games. Trial challenges are interesting and fun for the most part. It breaks up the monotony of the game. Granted they are not all that different from gyms, but different enough to give the old fans something fresh 3. You can move freely in all directions. No more grid based movement. I really hated this in the past two games. In the DS and gameboy days I could live with it, but when everything is fully 3d, but you still moved on a grid, that was awful. Great change. 4. No more HM slaves. Long gone is the need to have a pokemon’s move list be deluded with strength, cut, surf, etc. Now you open a menu and you can ride a pokemon past obstacles. It is a bit of a bummer that only one specific pokemon is flagged to be that specific HM (tauros for rock smash) for instance. So you can’t designate who you want. Not too big a deal 5. Pokemon refresh is a mini game of sorts where you can get rid of status ailments like poison with the touch screen. You select a brush or comb and touch the pokemon until they are healed. It is a nice inclusion as you are bound to get poisoned or paralyzed along your trip. 6. The new pokemon are perfectly fine. Haven’t run into anything yet and was disappointed with the design. They fit well with the old monsters. 7. The music is also fine. There is nothing there that will blow your mind – has a bit of a been there done that feel, but there isn’t anything in the soundtrack that will grate your ears. (trumpets) 8. There are other things to mess with like poke alego island and the festival plaza. Honestly I never really messed with these types of things much in the old games, but it is nice to have something separate from the main game to play quickly. So there you have it I guess. The game is a disappointment in my eyes. I think Game Freak will really hit it out of the park with their next release. Hopefully they move away from the old 3DS. This wobbly game will make me weary of future launch day purchases. Never thought that would be a problem with pokemon. I honestly would not recommend this game for the full price. Maybe at 30, anything lower than that and I would say go for it.

Pokemon Sun and Moon are both fantastic games! Theres not enough that can be said about it. I came into Pokemon Moon as someone who knew of the series and enjoyed the card game when i was younger, but hadnt played any of the previous installments of the video game. So this was brand new for me, but i was able to pick it up very quickly and had a blast playing through the game. Replay value is another thing that this game has tons of. After completing the main story, there are post game missions to be completed and of course the goal of capturing all the pokemon in your pokedex. Overall its a great game and I highly recommend either version to anyone who is a pokemon fan or a fan of rpg games in general.

Pokémon Sun is really fun to play!

Packaged like new. Delivery was super fast. Cartridge is clean and worked without issue. Stoked to game out!

Its good.. lengthy story that took me several days at a few hours a day to complete. (I do take the time to soft reset for correct legends and such). Has some post game pokes to hunt down per usual. But meta game folks will not be happy about post game leveling. They have a feature in the game that allows you to boost IVs with the very rare bottle caps.. at level 100. Ok, great- evens the playing field a bit for people like me who put in the effort to actually raise and train battle-ready Pokemon (other people just cheat battle Pokemon into the game using hack/coding programs). Or not... Because the leveling is old school, where you get less experience as you level up. For example, if you KO a level 50 Pokemon, youll get less and less experience for that same Pokemon as you level. Theres no battle Maison. No restaurants. Lengthy Elite 4 battles with cutscenes... Theres literally no way to train them up to 100 without spending countless hours beating the elite 4 over and over, with only 3 or 4 Pokemon in your party (for higher exp share spread) and the one lucky egg you get. Irritating. To say the least. And Im certainly not soft resetting on tough-to-catch Tapu Koko one more freaking time after finally getting the right nature and hidden power ice. No way. So Ill need to fix his IVs a bit.. how do I get him to level 100? Painstaking HOURS of repetition. Ugh.

I was very disappointed with Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, but Im still a Pokémon fan so I HAD to order this game. Im happy to say the bad taste went away completely! I feel really excited when I play this game, discovering new Pokémon and forms! The story is interesting and the characters are all likeable so far. The new mechanics are great and well implemented. I LOVE to ride Tauros, I thought I was gonna miss my bike but hell no! Also the trials are entertaining, I dont miss gym leaders at all. One in particular made me laugh a lot. Also you get to see Pokédex descriptions everytime you get a new Pokémon, either from capturing, evolving or trading, which is great. Some of the descriptions are pretty cool or even creepy! I only wish we had Pokémon Bank already, my dear friends from previous games are waiting for me there. If youre a Pokémon fan, youll LOVE this game!

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.

This is hands-down one of the best Pokemon game Ive played, and the story is arguably one of the better ones of the series. There are a few caveats which keeps it from being 100 but its definitely worth the time of day to experience. Please note that at the time of this review, the access to the rest of the pokemon not available to the Alola region hasnt been patched in yet. PROs: + Better narrative +One of the better designed worlds in the series + The characters in the game are a lot of fun + You can run from the start! Also, Pokemon you ride makes covering distances a lot easier, even in the water later on into the game. + Its Pokemons return to challenging gameplay. Youll have a really bad time doing a Nuzlocke in this game. + The music will give Black & White, and Diamond and Pearl a run for their money. Arguably the highlight of this series. + The battle interface has been streamlined a bit for ease of use. + There are more battle boxes, so you dont necessarily have to constantly edit your team when the usual 2 is used up. + The PC box has been streamlined. Moving items and organizing your pokemon within the box is easier. + Team Skull are one of the most endearing villains in the series. + Breeding Pokemon are a lot easier, and there are visual cues as to when an egg is ready. + The Z moves are a welcome addition to the series. CONs: - Catching rare Pokemon in the water is a horrible experience - The game has one of the longest openings in a Pokemon game. Cutscenes will be very jarring for the first few moments into the game until you eventually get used to it. - NEBBY, GET IN THE BAG! - Festival Plaza, this games online hub, makes it an even more tedious journey to just battle someone online. It takes a lot more button presses/ clicks than usual. Its a step down from the X&Ys more convenient interface. - The Zygarde Core quest is infuriating. Its definitely a worse version of the megastone quest from X&Y - Acquiring megastones in this game requires you to go through the one of most tedious post-game challenges. To make matters worse, theyre also the most expensive.

Its Pokémon. The goods: new monsters, fashion stuff is back, HMs are replaced by actually riding Pokémon (no wasted moves, no HM slave, and you get near animations), the pokepelago is a great little side feature that lets you get items, beef up states, increase happiness, etc.; you can also beef up a Pokémon’s IV stars (for combat, not breeding). The downsides: team Skull is the worst team yet, imo, more dumb than menacing; the world isn’t as compelling to explore as in X/Y; most importantly, no national dex.

Ive been playing since Red and Blue and Sun/Moon truly stand out as one of the bests in the series. Music is themeatic and colorful, the story is unique and refreshing, and visually the game is a solid improvement from X and Y. A lot of the improvements like ditching HMs, labeling move effectiveness, and the ability to raise IVs are small but greatly remove the annoyances of previous titles. Bringing back clothing customization from X and Y is great and the large amount of options make the experince as a whole much more unique. Z moves feel a lot less broken (Mostly) than a lot of the Mega Evolutions, and add another great element to competitive battles. Game Freak knows its fans and Sun and Moon never feel like a deviation of what has made Pokemon consistently a fun experience for both veterans and newcomers alike.