Pokemon Platinum

Game: Pokemon Platinum
Developer: Game Freak
Platform: Nintendo DS
Release Year: 2008
Stephen's Rating: 8/10

Pokemon Platinum is the director's cut/extended edition of Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl in the same way that Pokemon Emerald was the extended version of Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire.

Basic Plot

The game is set on the island of Sinnoh. As with all Pokemon games the player takes on the role of a young Pokemon trainer who leaves home to explore the world. The story focuses around the activities of Team Galactic as well as three legendary Pokemon, Dialga, Palkia, and new to Pokemon Platinum, Giratina.

Gameplay

The game plays out much like the previous incarnations of the game with some minor tweaks. It's a third person adventure game for the most part where players capture, train up, and battle a series of pocket monsters or Pokemon.

There are three main views within the game. The world view is top down and allows you to see your character and move throughout Sinnoh. Battle view is pseudo 3D (sort of) and occurs whenever you enter a Pokemon battle. There is also an extensive menu system for viewing and manipulating the items you have in your possession.

Some new feature were added which were not present in Pokemon Pearl and Pokemon Diamond such as a multiplayer wifi section called the Wifi Plaza in which up to 20 players from around the world could compete in a series of minigames.

Positives

This was easily the best Pokemon game I've ever played. The story and characters were less grating than usual, but it was the gameplay which really made it stand out.

When I play a game I play for keeps. I want to master it, to be an unstoppable force of power. In order to do that I looked into advanced techniques like EV training and breeding. The game fully supported my desire to do this in lots of ways. Firstly, there were plots all over Sinnoh where you could plant berries. You could come back in 1-2 days and collect them. Some berries were very useful. In particular, some berries could lower a Pokemon's stats by 10 points. This helped when EV training a Pokemon because you could lower unwanted stats to focus on the ones you do want. Secondly, there was an item called the VS. Seeker which you could use around NPC Pokemon Trainers you'd already battled. There was a chance when you used the item they would spring to life and re-battle you (often with Pokemon of a higher level than your initial encounter). This was exceptionally useful in levelling or EV training as Pokemon owned by a trainer garner much better experience than wild ones and you get money for winning the battle on top of it.

There were also a whole raft of extra features which allows you to catch almost every Pokemon in the game (except event Pokemon). All and all it was a very well balanced game which made life easy and efficient. The menu systems were intuitive too, which was a major flaw in Pokemon Heart Gold.

Negatives

I bought this game over a year after its release and as a result I missed out on all of the wifi events and therefore about half a dozen event/legendary Pokemon that can't be obtained any other way except trading. It was pretty disappointing considering I paid just as much for the game as the people who bought it on its release date. I think Nintendo need to change the way they do events - so that everyone who buys a new copy of the game gets the chance to obtain all the event Pokemon that come with it.

This game only allows WEP authentication while connecting to wifi. This was... very annoying as almost every wifi network on the planet had been updated to WPA or WPA2. Every time I wanted to check for an event or access the wifi to trade I had to change my router settings. This was extra frustratring because I have a Nintendo DSi which has WPA capability but only if the game supports it.

Memorable Moments

Just outside about the second or third town I had a lucky break. I came upon a wild shiny Shinx (an electric type). Instead of the usual blue colouring he was golden... I was pretty much shaking with nervousness but I managed to not critical hit him and catch him, and I used him as my primary Pokemon for the remainder of the game. I have now transferred him to my Pokemon Black game. I ended up catching a shiny Roselia later on but that is pretty much the worst Pokemon in the game.