When you play Pokemon Battle Revolution, you'll soon realise that your options are very limited. In the N64 version of the game, there were tournaments, mini-games and a variety of other features to keep you busy for a while, but in this outing, it's all about the battles. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, given that battles are the focus of the franchise and the most important part of the game, but some may be quite disappointed that there isn't much else here to keep you occupied. You will have the ability to transfer over your favourite Pokemon from the DS versions of the game onto the Wii so that you can battle a number of AI opponents as well as take your Pokemon online to battle against other trainers around the world.
"LEGENDARY."
If you don't own a DS and a copy of Diamond or Pearl, you're going to be hard-pressed to find anything of value on this disc. You can get a 'Pass' that is a pre-made selection of 6 Pokemon which you can battle with. You have no choice as to which Pokemon you want to use, so it's very limiting to say the least. If you don't own Diamond or Pearl, do yourself a favour and leave this one on the shelf, because it's just not worth it.
Transferring your Pokemon over from the DS to the Wii is a fairly easy process that will take a couple of minutes, and once they're on your Wii profile, you can use them in battles with the AI or with other Pokemon Battle Revolution players worldwide. The most exciting part about the game, and the main appeal of the older versions, is seeing your little hand-held Pokemon in a big 3D world for the first time. It's cool to see your Pokemon that you spent so long training on the DS brought to life in a colourful and shiny 3D setting such as this. You can then take them into Colosseum mode, which will show you a few different areas, each with some AI trainers that you can battle and defeat. When you are victorious, you earn some points which can be spent on items which you can handily transfer over to your DS cartridge for future use, or buy some clothing items and accessories to give your trainer a unique look for when you play online.
They must have broken their copy of Super Mario Galaxy.
And that's about it for the offline modes of play. You can go back and repeat battles of trainers you have previously defeated, but apart from getting a few points to get some items, there is no real end goal and no real accomplishment for completing the mode. Battles are fun just like they are on the DS of course, but apart from getting a 3D revamp, there's not much more to the single player experience. So, time to head online then. Unfortunately, online play is a fairly lacklustre experience too. You can battle with friends or get paired randomly with an opponent for some online battles with your selected Pokemon, but even then, that's all there is to it. There are no leaderboards or statistics on how you've been battling and there is nothing to gain from battles apart from the thrill of victory, so unless you're a Pokemaniac (and we know some of you are), there is very little purpose to playing competitively online.
Controlling the game can be done in a variety of ways using the Wii remote, including being able to point at the attacks you wish to use on screen or turning the remote on its side for a more traditional feel. If both players are using a Nintendo DS, they can actually use the touch screen just like they would when playing Diamond or Pearl which we found was the most effective way to battle, but it's strangely absent in the single player and online modes of the game. The game is easy to control and intuitive to use for the most part (especially if you pay attention to the way-too-often tutorials helping you out) but given that it's just some glorified battle sequences, most players will already be very familiar with what battle strategies to use in the Pokemon universe.
This is about as exciting as it gets.
The visuals of the game is where it's time to shine, and in terms of bringing these little creatures to life on a grand scale, Nintendo have done a very good job here. The attacks are usually fairly impressive to look at, although at times some of the reactions of the Pokemon are a little bit awkward. Getting knocked out is weird as well - whenever your Pokemon gets downed, it will return to its stationary position first before the camera cuts to a different angle of the Pokemon falling to the ground. It would have made more sense that if it's knocked out, it would stay knocked out after the last attack, rather than recovering only to faint moments later. Everything does have a certain polish about it though, and seeing the Pokemon brought to life is fun, if not a bit of a novelty.
Given that there is so much that is interesting about the world of Pokemon, it's extremely frustrating that there isn't more in this package than what is available. Battles in 3D are a fun novelty for a while and playing online with your Wii is cool, sure, but in terms of gameplay there is nothing really on offer here that is any different from Diamond or Pearl on the DS. It feels like instead of really putting a solid effort into the game and making it accessible to a wide audience like the old Pokemon Stadium games, Nintendo have gone for the quick cash-in on the popularity of the franchise and have delivered a severely hollow experience. We like Pokemon, we really do, but given that this game is available at full price and offers nothing of true value to the Pokemon universe, it's extremely difficult to recommend unless you're a die-hard Pokemaniac.
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