Pokemon Battle Revolution (Wii)

Pros: Graphics are decent

Cons: Earbleeding sound effects, horrible Wi-fi connection, everything else

Summary: Pokemon Battle Revolution was a highly anticipated title that was supposed to be a very fun game, the first on the Wii to feature Wi-fi connection, allowing players to battle their critters across the world. However, this quick cash-out is nothing remotely close to a revolution, in fact it could be the death of the Pokemon Stadium series itself.

Overview

The creators of Pokemon Battle Revolution must've went to a dump, pulled out whatever they could find, slap "Pokemon" on it and call it a game. Naturally, it sold like mad, with unsuspecting Pokemaniacs running for the nearest Best-Buy, ready for the biggest, boldest, baddest new game on the block. However, this game has extremely limited Wi-fi, a horrible single-player quest, and a very stale soundtrack. It's actually sad to see what Nintendo shouldacouldawoulda done with this game.

1/10

Design

Pokemon Battle Revolution is like most of the previous Pokemon Stadium series installments: beat trainers, unlock new areas, final showdown, you win. But while previous titles gave you a full on RPG Pokemon experience, this one is solely battling. If you don't have Pokemon Diamond or Pearl for the DS, you just might as well throw the game away right now.

You see, if you don't have Diamond or Pearl, you can't send your buffed-up critters onto this game. Instead, the game supplies you with rental passes that have preloaded Pokemon for you. Now this wouldn't be a problem, but you can't change the Pokemon on your pass, level up and evolve them, or get new passes. You are stuck with weak unevolved Pokemon and they expect you to have fun. What morons.

The visuals for this game are pretty good. Swampert looks just like we'd expect, the Pokeball throwing animations look fluid, and when a Pikachu attacks with Thunderbolt you can really see the effort they put in. However, the rottten effects animations don't make much sense, and distract from the overall look. If an attack misses, then instead of showing a real animation of an attack missing, it skips to a picture of the Pokemon with a text box saying the attack missed. In Pokemon Stadium 2000, it would show an animation of a Pokemon performing an attack an missing. Not a big problem, but it's those little problems that spell L-A-Z-Y D-E-V-E-L-O-P-E-R.

Another big problem is the soundtrack for the game. Oddly enough, Nintendo thinks that pounding on an electric keyboard mixed in with unfitting orchestra instruments sounds like music. The announcer in this game is another big annoyance. He says the same things over and over again, and yes, while it does create some realism, it sounds very phony and interrupting. It ruins the whole effect of an epic battle when you hear his voice yell, "Massive damage!"

1/10

Gameplay

The gameplay in this game is like traditional Pokemon games. Select an attack to perform to inflict damage on another players Pokemon. Once all the Pokemon on one side have fainted, a trainer wins the battle. However, this game ruins a concept as simple as that. Instead of battling with full 6 on 6 battles, you are dwindled down to 3-3. Bleh. Another great concept ruined.

Wi-fi was the most talked about feature of this game. Now, instead of tedious friend codes, you could battle randomly with opponents across the world. But the Wi-fi is ruined by many things. One is that I've had some battles take that up to 10 minutes to load, only to give me an error message, and some that take only 10 seconds to find an opponent. Speaking of errors, this game has a lot. Usually, it happens when searching for opponents. Sometimes, it's when you're actually battling, as rare as it would seem.

And I'm talking about if you could actually find someone to battle in the first place. Usually, you battle some weak rental pass team that I mentioned before. Sometimes, you battle a team of powerful Legendary Pokemon, which often very overpowered and cheap. On very rare occasions you'll get a good battle. Why can't they have a lobby to select your opponent from, or a leaderboard? I played 15 battles online, and I only got 1 battle that was decently difficult. That works out to only 6.6 percent of my battles were spent actually having a competion.

1/10

Final note

Pokemon Battle Revolution is a horrible excuse for a game. It makes Action 52 look like Super Mario Galaxy

Buy or Rent: Avoid. Avoid this game at all costs, and don't fall into the same trap as I did.

Overall: 1/10