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Does Pokemon Battle Revolution have enough to stand on its own as its own game? Find out.
June 28, 2007 | 8:29 PM PSTPokemon Battle Revolution arrives as a landmark title of sorts for Wii. Not only is it the first Pokemon game for Nintendo’s “new-generation” home console, it’s the first online title for the platform in North America. Unfortunately, being the first online Wii title doesn’t mean you’re perfect or even up to par, as Nintendo’s lack of experience in the online development arena is pretty apparent when it comes to the title’s online mode.
Unfortunately, online play is a big part of what Pokemon Battle Revolution is all about. That said, the game does feature a single-player campaign mode. And, thankfully, even if you don’t have either of the DS Pokemon titles, Diamond or Pearl, you can still partake in the single-player “Colosseum” mode. The title’s developer, Genius Sonority, was considerate enough to include a small number of preset battle passes, which feature six different Pokemon you can use to jump into the game.
Out of the gate, the selection of battle passes is disappointingly low, and thus it’s not a whole lot of fun to play through the game using them. You don’t have a lot of options in regards to Pokemon or strategy if you rely on this route, and it’s honestly more fun if you use your own custom pass, which can be created using imported Pokemon from your copy of Diamond and Pearl. You can easily link up your DS and Wii, wirelessly, and transfer your kick-ass Pokemon team from your DS cartridge to your Wii. However, the presentation of the transfer process is a bit lackluster, as the game leaves you sitting with no indication of how much time remains before the transfer is complete.
Much of Battle Revolution’s presentation (menus, specifically) is subpar. The menus are unimaginative, and you’d think they were designed in the early 90s. Worst of all, the game assumes you’re a half-baked clown and forces you to sit through line after line of text any time you go into an unexplored menu. Do we really need a paragraph of text explaining what “Save” does? Nah, we think we’d be okay without it. Really.
Despite the fact that Battle Revolution assumes you’re stupid, there are other times where the game treats you like you should have been born with all knowledge of anything Pokemon. For example, when battling, there’s no way to see what your Pokemon’s attacks and moves do. Instead, you have to go on your own knowledge of the game, a guide or this magical thing called the Internet. This can be a huge problem for those who aren’t utterly obsessed with the Pokemon franchise and haven’t memorized every Pokemon move in the series.
Battle Revolution’s core gameplay won’t surprise Pokemon masters and or even less extreme fans, either. The game is all about battles. So, if you dig challenging your friends to Pokemon battles or duking it out with gender-confused NPCs, you’re going to feel right at home. Indeed, there’s simply no reason to battle in Diamond and Pearl when you can do so in Battle Revolution – the experience is simply more exciting on Wii, thanks to intuitive pointing controls.
However, if you find the four-move battle system lacks depth and lasting appeal in the handheld iterations of Pokemon, you won’t find solace in Battle Revolution. The battles work the same way they have for the last ten years.
The good news is you can play Pokemon Battle Revolution online using Nintendo Wii’s young online service. It is free, but unfortunately, it lacks options and feels years behind Xbox Live. There’s no way for you to communicate with other players, although after each game you have the option to add your opponent to your friends list. Sadly, there’s a lot of bad: the game uses archaic friends numbers instead of screen names, it has no online leaderboards and it doesn’t have any kind of post-game stats screen. If you are interested in a more simplistic, complexity-free online experience, however, you should be happy with what Revolution has to offer.
Four Pokemon battle it out
The included matchmaking-style “Battle with Someone” mode pairs you up with a random player, letting you almost immediately play online. We were surprised by this mode, considering this is the Wii’s first foray into the online world. Unfortunately, while some online matches are set up nearly instantly, others can take several minutes to get going – that is if the game doesn’t give you a connection error, boot you back to the menu screen and leave you to trudge all the way through each menu again to simply try to set up another online match.
For fans of the Pokemon franchise, Pokemon Battle Revolution is sure to offer a fair amount of entertainment value. However, unless you would check yourself off as a pretty big fan of Pokemon, Battle Revolution offers few incentives for the cost of admission. Compared to Pokemon Stadium on N64, it feels like a step backwards, as it feels less polished and lacks as many extras as its predecessor, which is now over five-years-old. Pokemon Battle Revolution would have made an awesome mode in a Pokemon game, but it doesn’t have quite enough to stand on its own as a full-fledged game, unfortunately.
Unfortunately, online play is a big part of what Pokemon Battle Revolution is all about. That said, the game does feature a single-player campaign mode. And, thankfully, even if you don’t have either of the DS Pokemon titles, Diamond or Pearl, you can still partake in the single-player “Colosseum” mode. The title’s developer, Genius Sonority, was considerate enough to include a small number of preset battle passes, which feature six different Pokemon you can use to jump into the game.
Out of the gate, the selection of battle passes is disappointingly low, and thus it’s not a whole lot of fun to play through the game using them. You don’t have a lot of options in regards to Pokemon or strategy if you rely on this route, and it’s honestly more fun if you use your own custom pass, which can be created using imported Pokemon from your copy of Diamond and Pearl. You can easily link up your DS and Wii, wirelessly, and transfer your kick-ass Pokemon team from your DS cartridge to your Wii. However, the presentation of the transfer process is a bit lackluster, as the game leaves you sitting with no indication of how much time remains before the transfer is complete.
Much of Battle Revolution’s presentation (menus, specifically) is subpar. The menus are unimaginative, and you’d think they were designed in the early 90s. Worst of all, the game assumes you’re a half-baked clown and forces you to sit through line after line of text any time you go into an unexplored menu. Do we really need a paragraph of text explaining what “Save” does? Nah, we think we’d be okay without it. Really.
Despite the fact that Battle Revolution assumes you’re stupid, there are other times where the game treats you like you should have been born with all knowledge of anything Pokemon. For example, when battling, there’s no way to see what your Pokemon’s attacks and moves do. Instead, you have to go on your own knowledge of the game, a guide or this magical thing called the Internet. This can be a huge problem for those who aren’t utterly obsessed with the Pokemon franchise and haven’t memorized every Pokemon move in the series.
Battle Revolution’s core gameplay won’t surprise Pokemon masters and or even less extreme fans, either. The game is all about battles. So, if you dig challenging your friends to Pokemon battles or duking it out with gender-confused NPCs, you’re going to feel right at home. Indeed, there’s simply no reason to battle in Diamond and Pearl when you can do so in Battle Revolution – the experience is simply more exciting on Wii, thanks to intuitive pointing controls.
However, if you find the four-move battle system lacks depth and lasting appeal in the handheld iterations of Pokemon, you won’t find solace in Battle Revolution. The battles work the same way they have for the last ten years.
The good news is you can play Pokemon Battle Revolution online using Nintendo Wii’s young online service. It is free, but unfortunately, it lacks options and feels years behind Xbox Live. There’s no way for you to communicate with other players, although after each game you have the option to add your opponent to your friends list. Sadly, there’s a lot of bad: the game uses archaic friends numbers instead of screen names, it has no online leaderboards and it doesn’t have any kind of post-game stats screen. If you are interested in a more simplistic, complexity-free online experience, however, you should be happy with what Revolution has to offer.
Four Pokemon battle it out
The included matchmaking-style “Battle with Someone” mode pairs you up with a random player, letting you almost immediately play online. We were surprised by this mode, considering this is the Wii’s first foray into the online world. Unfortunately, while some online matches are set up nearly instantly, others can take several minutes to get going – that is if the game doesn’t give you a connection error, boot you back to the menu screen and leave you to trudge all the way through each menu again to simply try to set up another online match.
For fans of the Pokemon franchise, Pokemon Battle Revolution is sure to offer a fair amount of entertainment value. However, unless you would check yourself off as a pretty big fan of Pokemon, Battle Revolution offers few incentives for the cost of admission. Compared to Pokemon Stadium on N64, it feels like a step backwards, as it feels less polished and lacks as many extras as its predecessor, which is now over five-years-old. Pokemon Battle Revolution would have made an awesome mode in a Pokemon game, but it doesn’t have quite enough to stand on its own as a full-fledged game, unfortunately.
February 8, 2010
