| Consumer Advice |
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Destined to invade the playgrounds,
baseball cards and Pogs will have to make way for Pokémon. Younger players will love trading
and fighting their Pokémon with others. 3D mavens who relish their textures and polygons
will not so easily go back to simplistic 8-bit graphics, but that's their lost. The remaining
"old-school" gamers will enjoy all the innocent fun and nostalgia. Just make sure you know at least
two other players with whom you can trade with because the game is designed so that certain
Pokémon are unattainable without trading. And finally, don't be surprised at the amount of
time you'll find yourself devoting to this addictive little cart! |
The video game industry's answer to the Tamagotchi craze, Pokémon plays like most traditional RPGs with one notable exception. Rather
than wiping out endless hordes of monsters for fortune, glory, and (of course) experience
points, Pokémon encourages captivity over annihilation. So much so, that collecting,
trading, and training the stubborn little pocket monsters make up the heart of the game.
Theoretically, it sounds like a perverse electronic version of the Beanie Babies/Furby viral culture that has
swept the nation. But in practice, the game proves to have more substance and legs than
your average passing fad. Tapping into the object-collecting proclivity of our inner-child,
Pokémon (while not designed by Shigeru Miyamoto)
is a Miyamoto-esque experience in the truest sense.
I was totally engrossed in the complex dynamics of the Pokémon microcosm. While the
game on the outside is visually primitive (sporting 8-bit sprite-based graphics), the gameplay
inside is fully realized and rich in depth. There is an endless amount of specifics to be
learned and remembered about the 150-plus Pokémon and the world in which they reside.
Fortunately, the game's intelligent execution doesn't allow too much to be thrown at the
player at once. The adventure proceeds progressively, allowing the player to naturally absorb
the game in its entirety. What stands out most about the design is the amount of freedom and
customization given to the user. It allows players to essentially fight, train, and develop
favored Pokémon while discarding and trading others. This is what makes the game truly
engrossing. Pokémon stands as a testament to those who believe in gameplay over
graphics; a 2D oasis in a 3D desert of video games.
- Published June 24, 1999
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