saraab's Full Review: Pokemon: Battle Revolution for Nintendo Wii
Nintendo's latest console Pokemon game allows you to take your Pokemon game to the next level with Pokemon Battle Revolution. The main premise of this game is to battle Pokemon against other trainers, stadium leaders and other people over the internet.
Now folks this Wii game is strictly about battling Pokemon, there is no RPG or story mode as in previous Pokemon Console games and this game will not give your children any exercise. There are also no mini games in this game as with previous Pokemon titles.
For those that are clueless a Pokemon battle is where 2 users pit their Pokemon against each other in attempt to see which Pokemon is the strongest. The loser is the person who has had all their Pokemon faint and the winner is the person left with Pokemon still standing. The Pokemon battle using moves they have learned in the Pokemon D/P DS games. The battles are all turn based which means the user selects a move from the list of 4 moves and the Pokemon then executes that move. This whole game revolves around battling and there is basically nothing else to do in it.
The first thing you do is pick a control scheme, there are a variety of ways you can control the game but my favorite is the sideways control method where you hold the Wiimote like a standard controller and use the directional pad and the 1 and 2 buttons to control the game.
Then you pick either Colosseum Mode or Battle mode. Colosseum mode is the main game whereas battle mode is where you battle with your friends. In order to battle with friends you will need at least one friend with a Nintendo DS and a copy of Pokemon Diamond or Pearl. Unfortunately these are luxuries that I do not possess so this review will focus mainly on the Colosseum or main game mode.
This game basically requires a copy of Pokemon Diamond or Pearl and a Nintendo DS console. Without it as in previous Pokemon titles you will be confined to rental Pokemon and there is very little that can be done with rental Pokemon, and you will find the game extremely difficult to play because rental Pokemon are very weak. Rental Pokemon are pre-determined Pokemon contained in the game for those who don't have Pokemon Diamond or Pearl and a Nintendo DS. I wouldn't recommend buying this game unless you have a DS, and a previously played copy of Pokemon Diamond or Pearl with at least some battle-trained Pokemon ready on it. It also helps to have some knowledge of the Pokemon games when playing this.
The next thing you will probably want to do is upload your Pokemon from your Diamond or Pearl game. This is a very simple process, you just go to storage and follow the options from there. The game copies the entire contents of your save file from Pokemon D/P so that you can choose which Pokemon you want to battle with. I would advise preparing a team for battle before doing this and attaching any items you want to use to the Pokemon, as you won't be able to do this once your data is uploaded. If you make changes to your team or play D/P some more just re-upload and it does the same thing again, so it essentially updates your game save. This method works really well and I have had no problems with it yet. There are some other things to do in-between these steps but these are the main things.
Next you have to create a pass to use in battle. This is where you select your Pokemon that you will be using to battle and then put them on a trainer's card so that you can have easy access to them every time you want to battle. If you chose your team before uploading your data this step will be a breeze. You will start out with only a few basic pass designs but as you play the game you will unlock more designs. You can make more than 1 pass so feel free to set up as many teams as you are able to for battling. You can also collect battle passes from players you meet online and from your friends. Your friends can also bring battle passes from their Pokemon Battle Revolution game over to yours by saving the passes to the Wii remote then bringing the remote over to your house to battle.
The battle mode takes you into the many colosseums available for battle. I won't go into too much detail here as I don't want the review to contain spoilers but there are a variety of different colosseums with different rules available for battle. Once you beat a colosseum you will unlock more colosseums. The difficulty of the battles will increase as you unlock more colosseum's. They also throw a few unexpected twists into the mix here as far as the rules of each colosseum are concerned.
The Nintendo WFC mode is where you go if you want to battle random players or your friends online. The previous mode I discussed allows you to battle only people that come over to your house with Nintendo DS systems and copies of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. This part of the game requires you to have your Nintendo Wii hooked up to the internet. The options here are fairly limited, as its pretty much a level 50 competition. You can choose single battle or double battle. If you choose single battle it will be a 3 vs 3 battle, if you choose double battle it will be a 4 vs 4 battle. A double battle is when you send out 2 Pokemon at the same time and they battle as a sort of team. A single battle is when its just one Pokemon against one Pokemon. If you bring Pokemon that are above or below level 50 the game will automatically raise or lower the level so that everything is even. The Pokemon will keep the same moves they know. Thank goodness they fixed this from previous games as it was very hard to get a team to level 50 or 100 for battling, now you don't have to worry about that. There are difficultly levels that appear to be tied to how far you get in the main game, however there is no win or loss record so you cannot brag to your friends about how many online battles you have won. This is nice for beginners though because then if you lose a lot you don't have to worry. I would also suggest taking advantage of this mode early in the game, I know its tempting to go out there and beat every colosseum before you try this but your rank will be so high that you will never win since online battles are so much more difficult than the main game. Once you go up a rank you cannot go down. This is probably the best part of Pokemon Battle Revolution.
You can of course, also battle your friends online if they have a copy of this game. To do this you will need to enter a friend code. This friend code consists of numbers and letters and is separate from your Wii system code. You must exchange friend codes with the person you wish to battle then the BOTH of you must enter the code, or else it will not work. There are no confirmation messages or anything, if both parties do not enter the code then you won't be able to battle. This is probably the most cumbersome part of the online experience, and a part that I purposely don't even bother with when I can use the random battle mode just the same. There are more options available if you choose to battle a friend.
Next is the shop. This is where you buy various items for use/transfer to Pokemon Battle Revolution and where you buy clothing items to dress up your character. Each time you win a colosseum you earn battle points or BP. You have to beat the whole colosseum to earn BP and there are no BP given out for online battle wins. You can accumulate BP and use them to buy items to transfer to D/P or use them to dress up your character. Only certain items are usable on certain characters so be careful what you are purchasing. You will unlock more items and clothing items to purchase as you play and beat colosseums in the game. You can also get a select few special Pokemon here when clearing certain parts of the game or purchasing them from the shop after they are unlocked.
Profile mode is where you enter things such as phrases, your birthday, name and location for use on the back of your battle pass. You can enter custom phrases but these are only used if you battle your friends or in the colosseums. Otherwise pre-set character phrases are used. The same information will be displayed on each battle pass you create.
Finally there is the save mode, this is where you save your game. Not much else to say here other than if you don't save your game, your data will be lost and you will have to start out all over again.
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