Nintendo is the most noticeable con-artist the video game industry has ever seen. I would be hard pressed to find a company that can release the same games over and over again (sometimes with even no enhancements) but they still sell like crazy. I've bought the same games over and over again countless times, and even though I'm happy with such re-releases (the Classic NES Series has been treating me especially well) I really wish Nintendo would devote more energy to new games. But anyway, moving on. Nintendo was on to something that most developers only dream of achieving. Something so big, that if Sega had swooped up Creatures and Game Freak before Nintendo than they might still be making successful consoles to this day. I was a pretty big fan of the original Red, Blue, and Yellow versions, but I completely passed on the second wave of Pokemon games because Silver, Gold, and Crystal just didn't look too appealing to me. I was all over the first GBA incarnations of the game. When I heard that the original games were being remade I was pretty excited to see what would be added to the games. I must say that I'm a little disappointed now that I've played them, read on to find out why.

This review is for Pokemon Leaf Green Version, which is the version that I own. Of course, I wouldn't have bought this game unless I knew someone that was going to be buying the other version (in this case, I talked one of my roommates into it) because let's face it, Pokemon is eight times as fun when you have a friend who owns the other version because of all the trading and battling that is possible. Both versions come packed with the Gameboy Advance Wireless Adapter, which surprised me quite a bit. Basically this little device allows you to battle and trade minus the link cable that was required for the past Pokemon games. Though this connection is less stable than the wire connection, but this is forgiveable. I haven't yet tried testing out the distances apart at which two GBAs can connect, but I can tell you that it worked just fine for me and my friend when we were about 10 feet apart. This is certainly better than being crammed together by the short link cable.

Story
It's an accepted fact amongst Pokemon fans that the games certainly don't have the most epic of storylines. What I find particularly trying about this though is the fact that an anime series was made after these games, where the story that was already there was terrible anyway. With the Ruby and Sapphire versions it seemed that the developer was taking the plot more seriously, but instead of adding the same elements into Pokemon Leaf Green they opted to keep the game closer to it's original version. I still think that some differences in the storyline between the two versions would have been made for the better.

Basically in this game you assume the role of a beginner Pokemon trainer, who is known as Ash by default but you can name. The beginning of the game sees your character recieving his very first Pokemon. Luckily you get a choice between Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. Each of these has their strong points and weaknesses, but beginners would do best starting out with bulbasaur. Everyone who has ever played Pokemon knows of the rival character in each game, and just like in the original games, Gary is your character's rival. Your character must set out to gather the eight badges from Pokemon Gyms, and then must beat the elite four Pokemon trainers to become the best trainer in the world.

Gameplay
Pokemon is really much deeper than many people expect from the start. Pokemon Leaf Green is at heart the same monster collecting/battling adventure that the original games were, but with a mix of features borrowed from the Sapphire and Ruby versions of the game. The battles are still played out as they used to be, turn based combat against opponents, only there is much more diversity due to the enhancements Ruby and Sapphire brought to the table. Nobody can bash Pokemon for being to shallow, especially with the last four releases in the series. The problem I have with this release is the fact that it just doesn't feel like gameplay has evolved hardly at all from the last releases in the series, but the developer's decision was to keep it as close to the original as possible. Maybe I'm just bitter that this game doesn't offer as much as I was expecting.

At heart, this game is still the same adventure. You travel to all the same gyms as in the original, and visit the same locals which is slightly disappointing, because a trip to Hoenn or Johto would have made this game twice as fun as it is now. One thing I found particularly pleasant was seeing all the old Pokemon again, but taking advantage of the Gameboy Advances strength. The jump from Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow to this is a huge one. Though these original games were beyond anything I thought the Gameboy was capable of, I don't think I could ever go back to playing them after being restricted to the bland eight-bit graphics of the original games. Pokemon definitely benefits from being on more capable hardware.

As I mentioned earlier, at the start of the adventure you'll get the choice of three Pokemon. It really boils down to personal preference, and I find that each starter makes the main game feel unique. As the well known slogan, "Gotta Catch Em All" suggests, you won't be restricted to just one creature. You will catch other Pokemon in the adventure through little Poke Balls which you can buy at the store. You can't just encounter a wild Pokemon and capture it right away though, as you'll probably want to weaken the creature in question first, and even give it negative status effects to make it weaker so it won't be able to escape the grasp of your Poke ball. You can carry six Pokemon in your party at a time, and all the others that you catch will be stored in your PC along with items.

The new Pokemon types (steel, dark) introduced in the Silver and Gold Pokemon games have returned for the remakes of the original. This makes the adventure feel slightly different, namely because of the fact that magnemites are now weak against fire, but beyond that you won't see to many implementations of these types in the Pokemon in this game, well at first anyway. Later on you'll be given the chance to capture pokemon from the Johto region of the world, but sadly enough you won't be able to travel to Johto which would have been an excellent feature for this game. I'm a little worried that Nintendo may choose to release remakes of Pokemon Silver and Gold, which would seem like a total waste at this time because you can already get these Pokemon through Pokemon Colliseum, Fire Red, and Leaf Green.

One of the main reasons I got this game was because of the thought of beginning my game through the original adventure by trading with Ruby and Sapphire to start out this game with my favorite Pokemon Torchic. Sadly enough, this is not possible because of trading restrictions. Basically you cannot trade with the past Pokemon GBA games, or use your file on Pokemon Colliseum until you have gone through a side quest, and you must have the international Pokedex which lists every Pokemon. What this means is that the Pokedex will include all Pokemon entries from the original games, Gold, Silver, and Ruby/Sapphire. By the time I was able to trade I didn't even feel like it anymore, and this is in my opinion a major blow to Fire Red and Leaf Green.

So what else has been brought over from the past games? Double battles make their triumphant return to the series from the last two games, but they are much less common than in the past two Pokemon games. Weather effects also are included, but again these aren't common either, in fact you'll have to use special moves to summon them in battle to really help you out. These are still helpful, but only under certain conditions. They also benefit your opponent, and so it's best to memorize the strong and weak points of the weather effects in battle before you use them because you could end up messing yourself up pretty bad if you're not careful.

The enemy's artificial intelligence has gotten much better. The opponents are now more difficult, and for the first time I found myself having troubles on the original Elite Four. I found that the opponents focus more on using useful moves than in the past, and this has led to my demise more than once from underestimating them. One other aspect of the game is the fact that the new moves have been carried over from the past games. Charmander will now learn Wing Attack (once evolved) and Metal Claw on his own, which balances out this Pokemon quite a bit more. This also balances out the other Pokemon more, whereas the balance of power was off queue in the original titles. This is really what makes these two games worth playing, to see all of the new stuff, and to gain the older Pokemon to trade with your Ruby/Sapphire games. One of the main draws of Pokemon has always been it's multiplayer trading and battling, and this title is no different. You can still do all that good stuff, only it's easier given the inclusion of the wireless adapter. I would have paid $30 for this alone, so it was a very nice inclusion in this package.

Graphics, Sound, and Control
The graphics in this game are pretty much identical to what was found in Ruby and Sapphire, which by no means is a bad thing. There have been a few added graphical effects, such as a picture profile of an area appearing on screen as you enter them, but besides that I can't find too much that has changed besides the scenery. While it does have the bright colors, and detailed environments like in Ruby and Sapphire, this game stays faithful to the original three Pokemon game's art styles. I just wish battles had a little more flair to them than just a white background and the two Pokemon.

The music also stays faithful to the original, with pretty much all of the songs being remade versions of the original's. This basically means that the blips and bleeps are now higher quality. I do wish that Nintendo had put more quality into the audio, because quite frankly I'm a bit tired of the blipping noises and would prefer orchestrated music. The songs are still catchy, and the Pokemon make all of the same noises that they used to. My personal favorite song in the game is the gym leader battle theme.

Control is simple as it ever was, and is self explanatory. Nintendo has implemented a new help feature that's brought up by pressing the R button. The menus are easy to navigate, with the basic cancel and accept buttons implemented. Each of your Pokemon can have four special moves on the menu, and so it's necessary to choose which ones you'll keep and which ones you'll delete. With the menus you can access any bit of information you may need about your Pokemon, including all stats, abilities, and even their natures.

Overall Recommendation
If you're a beginner to the Pokemon world than by all means, this should be your first stop. If you have some Pokemon experience with the original games, but haven't yet played any of the GBA Pokemon games yet than I recommend temporarily passing this one up in favor of the superior Ruby and Sapphire versions.

Overall Rating: 8.5

Recommended: Yes