.jpg)
This is a big week for gaming, perhaps even moreso than last week. Yeah, yeah, I know last week saw the release of the Best DS Game Evar? and about a half-dozen other worthy games, but this week gives us GDC (with Satoru Iwata keynote on the horizon!)... and a new Pokemon title.
I'm not sure everyone would agree that GDC is the more important thing in this particular time frame. People don't just play Pokemon so much as eat, sleep, and breathe it. Pokemon Platinum is shipping loaded with a lot of new content specifically designed to cater to the set that obsesses over breeding, IVs, and EVs.
The Pokemon "chaser" games have always begged the question of whether or not there's any point in picking them up if you've already played the initial releases in that generation, or if they're only worth it to folks new to the series. Since Platinum is shipping with the Battle Frontier and a lot of other stuff intended for veteran players, it instead begs the question of whether or not it's worth trudging through the main game all over again.
The answer, of course, lies behind the cut in the look we're going to take at the game's first four reviews. They're all glowing, as you'd expect for any first-party Nintendo game, though the 88% the game currently sits at isn't even close to dethroning Chinatown Wars as Best DS Game Evar. What's interesting about the best of them is that they reveal a plethora of new tweaks and changes to the basics of Diamond & Pearl that Nintendo didn't mention and certainly didn't market.
The review I'll consider high score - and honestly the best of the Pokemon Platinum reviews currently available in basically any format - is GamePro's detailed, two-page blowout. The score is a none-too-surprising 4.5 out of 5, but the text is loaded with discussion of alterations from Diamond & Pearl to Platinum that really convey how different the game really feels to play. The gold standard for good reviewing, in my mind, is the ability to convey how playing game really feels, and McKinley Noble is in rare form as he breaks down how the game's battles have been almost entirely redesigned.
For a pseudo-sequel, Platinum boasts an impressive amount of new things to see -- more than most Pokemon fans may be expecting from this game. Everything in Platinum, from the environments and music to the animations of battle sprites has been altered, and it should be apparent even to the average player that the world looks and feels different. One of the major changes I've enjoyed in Platinum is that Gym Leaders and Gym Trainers only have Pokemon of their assigned type, while Pokemon trainers' lineups around the Sinnoh region have been switched around, ensuring that I'd be unlikely to run into too many familiar battles.
The as-seen-on-eBay Hardcore Gamer Magazine also turns in a 4.5 out of 5 score, but review text that's really uninformative compared to the other reviews we'll be looking at. It does emphasize the game's length as a positive, though, while all of the other reviews tend to use words like "excruciating" to describe it. As far as that goes, HGM's review seems to have a better feel for what your average DS gamer and Pokefan is likely interested in: one cheap game they can play for the rest of the year.
At $34.99 the game is a real bargain. The story mode boasts anywhere from 25-50+ hours of game play depending on the player’s dedication to the “gotta catch ’em all” philosophy. Even without an overly obsessive personality there are plenty of features to stretch out the longevity of the game. A robust multiplayer battle and trading system allows players worldwide to interact with each other in both competitive and friendly ways.
IGN awards the game an 8.8 out of 10, just below Editor's Choice status, and primarily seems pleased with the additions to the online multiplayer that the HGM review mentions. What IGN's Craig Harris is not pleased with is the much-hyped Distortion World, which Nintendo was so proud of they slapped its existence on the box as a selling point. The text here becomes so incredibly negative and hostile, in fact, that I'm kind of surprised the game didn't score lower. Perhaps Nintendo just made a serious mistake when they decided to focus almost all of the pre-release hype on Distortion World.
We'll leave out the specifics of why the new area exists, but essentially the Distortion World is a extra set of puzzles that are needed to be solved before players can move onto the final gym battle. It's an area that's entirely in 3D where players will walk on the walls and ceiling, even surf up a waterfall to get from place to place. To be honest it feels a little clunky, and that can be a testament to somewhat weak visuals used in the Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum experience. It almost feels like the developers wanted to prove that Pokemon DS has been using a 3D engine all along, so it hacked up a world that goes all topsy-turvy. It does its job and creates a unique set of challenges, but it comes off a bit sloppy and low quality, especially compared to what's already available on the system. DS games have been pulling off more impressive 3D even before the original 2007 Pokemon release, and in 2009 it's even harder not to think that the visuals, both in battle and out, are dated.
The low score is unsurprisingly from Game Informer, who awarded it an 8.5 out of 10 in the April issue. Given Game Informer's usual disdain for turn-basedRPGs, games with 2D sprite graphics, kid's games, and portable games in general, this score is basically a miracle. (Consider that Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is given a 6/10 on the next page, and Henry Hatsworth merits a 7/10 on the page previous!) Bryan Vore is complimentary of Platinum's many changes, but also quick to point out that all but the biggest Pokefanatics probably won't notice them.
I placed Pokemon Platinum next to Diamond playing on another DS and was surprised at the slight changes. Your playable characters now sport more wintry outfits. A bumbling investigator bumps into you from time to time, and the game shows you more things rather than simply telling you. For example, there's less "Your best friend just came through here and said to meet up at the next gym" and more "Hey, pal, I'll see you at the gym." But if I hadn't done the side-by-side comparison I probably wouldn't have noticed small tweaks on a game I hadn't played for over a year.
So there you have it! Pokemon Platinum? Sounds like money well-spent if you either skipped over Diamond & Pearl but feel curious now, or if you're an insanely obsessed Pokemon net battle die hard who spends hundreds of hours breeding the most ueber monsters possible. Who Platinum isn't for appears to be Diamond & Pearl players who've already seen it and lost that obsessive-compulsive itch to grind your monsters up for hours on end, which may well apply to older gamers who've already been through the Pokemon gauntlet in previous generations.
