Pokemon Battle Revolution (Wii)

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You can also import any Pokemon you've captured in Diamond or Pearl into the colosseum mode, where you'll get to make yourself a trainer from a few basic models and fight your way through a series of different colosseums. You will earn money from your victories that can then be used to buy new clothing and baubles for your trainers. You can also purchase mystery gifts that can be transferred back into Diamond or Pearl, though that's the extent of the flow of information back to the DS. If you don't have Diamond or Pearl, your options in Pokemon Battle Revolution are more limited. All of the DS connectivity stuff is obviously of no use. In the colosseum mode, you can't build your own trainer from the ground up; instead you have to choose a prefab trainer who comes with a set group of Pokemon. You can still play dress up with the trainer that you choose, but you're stuck with whatever Pokemon come with that trainer. You'll eventually gain access to other trainers with whom you can trade, but it still feels limited.

Even if you can take advantage of the game's DS connectivity, the underlying problem is that all of the glimmer of seeing Pokemon duke it out on your TV doesn't make up for the fact that the battles just aren't that involving. You pick which of your Pokemon you'll bring into battle, and you pick one of their four attacks. Then you sit back and watch as the Pokemon pummel each other. In the core Pokemon games, the repetitive nature of the battles is compensated for by the fact that it's a means to an end: Your Pokemon grow stronger, you capture new Pokemon, and the story progresses. In Pokemon Battle Revolution, the battles are an end unto themselves.

What is perhaps most disappointing about Pokemon Battle Revolution is its half-hearted job of making the fights look exciting. The Pokemon themselves, the trainers, and the colosseums all look good, if a bit aliased, but there's just no drama to the action. The game manages to make watching the trainers throw out the pokeballs look exciting, and some of the attacks have a good amount of flash. However, there are also a number of really plain-looking attacks, and those are the ones that you seem to see repeatedly. Most of all, the way the trainers interact the Pokemon in the ring just looks stagy and stiff, as if they're all just going through the motions. It's also worth noting that there's a ridiculous play-by-play announcer who goes from accidentally amusing to repetitive and grating within the first hour. Thankfully, he can be muted.

Because Pokemon Battle Revolution incorporates the DS into the action and introduces online play to the Wii in the US, it should be more exciting. But when you get down to it, the action itself is straightforward and single-minded to a fault. This may be a forgivable shortcoming if the very idea of seeing the Pokemon you've spent hours and hours training in Diamond or Pearl is enough to get you excited, but for everyone else, it's even less appealing than a real Pokemon game.

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