Pokemon Omega Ruby

Sean Dibble & Josh Louis

Welcome back to the land of Hoenn, where the Pokémon roam free, the Gym Leaders are tough, and where your starting Pokémonwill stay on your team forever (because they are just that good). Nintendo’s latest installment of the Pokémon series, Pokémon OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire are remakes of the original Ruby and Sapphire from 2002. I got the opportunity to pick up OmegaRuby and play it a bit, and I’m nowhere near the end of the game, but I want to share my thoughts on the game so far.

Gameplay

Gameplay is what you would expect in a Pokémon game. You travel around the wonderful world of Hoenn, which you will come to know and love, battle other trainers with your favorite Pokémon, and catch ‘em all. In OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire you get arguably the best three starters you can get in any game: the wood gecko, Treecko; the blazing-hot Torchic (who you might recognize as the bonus gift in Pokémon X/Y); and the adorable mud fish, Mudkip. I haven’t really played a Pokémon game in between Red (though I did dabble in Y for a bit), and this whole experience was out of this world for me. I couldn’t get over the 3D graphics and all of the new Pokémon, most of whom I didn’t recognize.

This wasn't a bad thing, though. This actually got me addicted to the game within the first few hours. However, one thing that I don’t like about the gameplay is the Experience Share item. All of your Pokémon can gain experience from battling. Granted, you can turn this feature off in the Key Items section of the player’s bag, but I felt like it took away from the game, primarily the way in which one-on-one battles took place (like they did in Red).

Our good friend at SplashAttack.net, J, had some interesting remarks about the Experience Share, though. Apparently, it functions the same way that it did in X and Y. Back in the old days, the Experience Share was a hold item which you could give to a Pokémon who wasn’t participating in battle. This would award it 50 percent of the total experience gained without it actually seeing the battlefield. However, in X and Y, they changed the way that the item worked, awarding 100 percent of the experience gained to any Pokémon who participated in battle, while giving those in your party who didn’t participate 50 percent.

This, in theory, allows your Pokémon to gain much more experience and grow at an incredible rate without much effort. However, J also mentioned that his Pokémon were extraordinarily overleveled for a significant portion of the game (and he only used four of them!). I understand why the item is in the game, but it would have made the game far more challenging if they kept it the way it was as a hold item. I recommend that you play through the game with the Experience Share turned off to get the full gameplay experience (i.e. swearing at your 3DS when something goes wrong instead of OHKOing half of your opposition).

Other fun game mechanics include DexNav encounters, which allow you to see Pokémon hiding in the tall grass on the overworld. What’s more, you can even scan the Pokémon for details about it and then sneak up on it for a surprise encounter. These DexNav encounters feature Pokémon which have hidden abilities not normally found in ordinary gameplay, or with moves normally obtainable only through a lengthy breeding process. I love everything about it, and hope they put the feature in future games. The game flows very well, and before you know it you and your Pokémon have been playing for five hours when you only intended to play for one!

Graphics

Graphically, the game is sound. You simply can’t beat these graphics on a 3DS. Puddles splash when you walk through them, grass bends with the wind, and the tall grass sways as you sneak upon that unsuspecting Pokémon. As you look into the ocean or a pool waiting to catch that Magikarp, you can see your reflection and how handsome you are. The NPCs in 3D look good and you can tell that a lot of development went into building these character designs.

The bread and butter of the graphics, though, is the battling. Again, like I said, I have not played truly since Red version and in that one the Pokémon sprites never moved and were in 2D. The 3D movement of every move you choose to do in the battle is quite breathtaking, and kept me interested and wanting to keep playing.

Unfortunately, through all of its greatness, there are a few things that they took out of X/Y which I would have liked to see make a return. The roller skates for one, I wish they kept in (even if it’s primarily due to the European influence of the game), but this is made up for by the introduction of two bikes: the Mach Bike, which rides at a blistering speed, and the Acro Bike, which allows for wheelies, bunny-hops, and a more technical ride. Perhaps what I miss most about the games is the player customization in X/Y, where you could change everything about your character. Gender, hair, clothing; you name it, you could change it. Though this is a remake and it’s understandable why it wasn’t included, it’s still a disappointment.

Even with a couple of weaknesses, the game is solid and you can enjoy the Pokémon experience to its fullest. The mechanics are solid and much-improved with the separation of Physical/Special attacks (as first seen in Diamond and Pearl several years back). The graphics are top-notch, and the story is compelling and intriguing. What Nintendo has created this time around isn’t just a remake; it’s a work of art.

All in all, I believe this is a game I will be playing for a long time to come, and I hope all of you will do the same. If you want to battle me in the future, just leave a comment on our Facebook page with your 3DS friend code and we can make it happen. I might not be the best battler, but I’m willing to accept challenges. I am also open to trading with you guys, so go out and enjoy the Hoenn region and all it has to offer.

PS: GOTTA CATCH THEM ALL (queue old theme music}

Good:

- Top notch graphics that will leave you breathless

- Greatly improved battle mechanics which streamline gameplay

- Story that will keep you at the edge of your seat

- Amazing starter Pokémon make for a great experience

Bad:

- No character customization

- Experience share leads to overleveled Pokémon, but this is easily remedied by turning it off

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10

New Super Mario Bros. 2

By: Robert Murphy

In an effort to make my purchase of a 3DS more worth my while I have started playing more handheld games and ever since I was a kid I have loved the Mario games and so I picked up New Super Mario Bros. 2. The little Italian plumber is still hopping his way through big platform levels, all in an effort to save Princess Peach from Bowser and his evil spawn. As many of you already know there have been a large number of changes to the game and this new addition to the series brings a few more to enjoy, along with new levels and new challenges.

The classic appeal of jumping through levels as one of my favorite childhood icons returns as levels continue to be evenly balanced and enjoyable to jump your way through for the surprisingly acrobatic yet pudgy Italian plumber. Levels in the Mushroom Kingdom are colorful and comical as always and classic enemies return to the screen such as koopas and grumpy goombas, who dance along to the catchy tunes accompanying the game play. Also the return of classic Mario power ups are back to help you along the way such as the flame flower, red mushroom and raccoon feather, along with newer power ups like the mini and mega mushrooms. World progression is also a similar setup to what we’ve seen in the past where each world has a final castle along with a smaller castle or a ghost house which come with a large amount of secrets and different passageways to trip you up. Then there’s also the different hidden ways to complete levels that open up different paths in certain levels, leading to other levels to play through, leaving all the things we loved from the past Mario games and the new ones as well.    

My initial excitement to buy a new Mario game to play eventually was dashed though much to my surprise, I didn’t get the old tingly feeling I use to get when playing a Mario game. New Super Mario Bros. 2 seemed to detract focus from playing the game in favor of collecting the iconic golden coins we’ve seen throughout the series. It’s not so much a bad thing but the game seems like it desperately wants you to collect all the coins you can but yet I still didn’t find it all that important. Also riddling levels with a ridiculous amount of ways to collect coins gives players an almost infinite amount of lives and removes a level of challenge to the game. Players now are also given the ability to turn blocks into golden coins through the golden flower power up which allows you to turn most anything into gold to the point where you could dive into a pile of them like Scrooge McDuck. Mario players are also accustomed to the brown blocks that can be hit multiple times to earn coins, well now if hit these blocks with good precision, the block turns gold and can be worn by Mario earning a golden stream of coins as you progress through the level for a short time. And finally we have the appearance of golden rings which unlike the red rings that spawn red coins, the golden rings turn enemies gold and earn you even more coins. So yeah, coins, REALLY big deal this time around.

Another unfortunate aspect to the game is the difficulty of the game itself, Mario has always been an enjoyable kid’s game and over the years the difficulty has been lowered and lowered and this time around that fact is even more present. It is doubtful that you’ll ever run out of lives in New Super Mario Bros. 2 in failing levels but what makes things worse is that if you do manage to fail a level a few times you are rewarded rather than punished. Failing a level a couple of times will get you the white Tanooki Suit which basically turns Mario into an invincible white raccoon that can not only not be hurt by anything in his path but can also fly a lot easier and can build it up a lot quicker too. The only thing that can stop you in the Tanooki Suit is falling in lava, falling in the purple acid and just plain falling in a hole. Even bosses can’t hurt you when you’re in this form, in a test to see just how powerful it was I failed the Bowser castle a few times and tested it out, Bowser was beat just by touching him in the Tanooki Suit which was just sad.

 As for other features there is co-op multiplayer which is fun, but is not anything new either for the game, it basically lets you play with friends or online through levels in the game together much like on the Wii and Wii U. And then we have Coin Rush Mode has a which can be played alone or against players online and is a competitive mode where you challenge one another across three randomly selected levels to see who can collect the most coins. This adds a little bit more of a lasting appeal to the game but not much and also adds a little bit of a challenging element for players as well.

In short, all the major appeals of a Mario game are here still in New Super Mario Bros. 2 but as far as a challenging game goes, you may want to try somewhere else. The game will barely take you a few hours to get through and a few more to find the hidden routes and the three large golden coins hidden throughout each level. Also with the massive amount of coins and the ability to get the Tanooki Suit for each level makes any semblance of a challenge disappears. But as I said before, all the appeal of the Mario universe is still here for players to enjoy and it is a fun game while it lasts, I just wish it lasted longer.

Good:

- Still a charming and enjoyable game and addition to the Mario series

- Levels are still evenly made and in the world of platformers there aren’t many better

- Coin Rush Mode adds a few more hours of fun and some replay value to the game

Bad:

- The Tanooki Suit isn’t a good addition to the game and removes any challenge you may find in playing the game

- The game is overall very short and won’t take more than a day

- The focus on coin collecting was overall irrelevant and hurts the game rather than adding to it

Scully Rating: 7.0 out of 10

Pokémon X and Y

By: Robert Murphy

Hey everybody, I’ve got to tell you all since my departure from the handheld world and the Pokémon games of my youth, I have missed battling against trainers, leveling my favorite Pokémon and being able to travel around at age 14 to fight evil corporations. So I joined a few friends, went out and bought a Nintendo 3DS and bought the latest foray into the Pokémon franchise, Pokémon X and boy I have to tell you I just about let out a tear at how much I loved the game from the moment I turned it on. The game comes to life right from the get go, whether you are using the 3D function or not, you can’t help but get lost in the amazing new frontier of the Kalos Region. The new region comes with all new gym leaders, new Pokémon to catch and train, new challenges and so much to see and do you won’t want to put it down, I know I didn’t.

The core concept of the game is obviously the same but  we receive it in a whole new way, you still have to go through the opening sequence that you have been doing for the past fifteen years but luckily it is sped up and much more enjoyable. This is also good to keep though because of new players coming into the world of Pokémon as well as the fact that the game is supposed to appeal to a young audience but hey we were here first kids. Players now though go through choosing their character in a new way that includes character customization, you can now choose from various types of boy and girl models but it doesn’t end there, you can also cut and change your hair style and clothing in various spots in the game too. And so almost immediately the game breaks the mold from older Pokémon titles and brings out something new.

Pokémon X and Y are the first fully 3D Pokémon game to come out to the market and has pulled no punches in that regard whether we are talking about the amazing battles or the breathe taking scenery, you feel that the full use of the 3D mechanic is used to great detail. Your Pokémon truly come to life right on the screen as flying Pokémon will slightly hover on the screen, Pokémon that use tail attacks will actually turn and use their tails and there are even special moves that act out a brief but highly enjoyable cut scene (Brave Bird one of my favorites.) There are also vast and amazing structures spread throughout Kalos Region, giant castles with grass mazes in the back, unique and puzzle driven gyms that are designed based off of what kind of gym leader you are facing up against and many more structures to see and explore. Also little details impressed me quite a bit such as Pokémon centers having a screen above them showing your Pokémon that you’re healing and also the doing away of having a separate Poke-Mart to travel to for supplies, it’s now all in one building for greater convenience.

Moving on to the new features in the game though we are introduced to new forms of evolution in the game that allows you to take your Pokémon to an even higher level than before. That’s right, let’s take for instance Charizard who is a Pokémon that is fully evolved and can go through no further evolutions, well now he can. Through the use of in game items that you will gain during your play through you can evolve Charizard and various other specific Pokémon to a new form, altering his appearance, stats and abilities. Although this can only be done on select Pokémon as I said, it is still an incredible new function to Pokémon battles and how they’re played out. Your Pokemon will turn back though once a battle has ended and it returns to its former look and stats and can be activated again once you enter another battle, luckily this doesn’t take up a battle phase or it wouldn’t be as enjoyable to use.

The games also take advantage of the 3DS’s online capabilities where you can play, share, and communicate with your friends or meet new people who are playing and training hard just like you. Naturally you can enter into quick battles with people as well as trade Pokémon through the Player Search System that once connected to the internet shows a vast amount of other players from around the world. Some new features include sharing your own personal videos that show of the Pokémon you have gained along the way and traits about yourself. Another feature is the ability to share O-powers with other players which are items that can be used to boost stats of a Pokémon much like X-Accuracy and other items from the game.

As I said before I took a step away from hand held games and hadn’t picked up a Pokémon for some time and I was glad to come back when I did for Pokémon X and Y. The game is absolutely fantastic in every regard for me, not only are the environments visual stunning but the Pokémon and all their traits are as well. We are not only introduced to a whole new generation of Pokémon but the game also includes many of the other Pokémon that we have come to know throughout the years and it’s amazing to see the transition from all those years ago when I first started on Pokémon Blue.

Good:

-New character customization

-New Mega Evolutions that add a twist on some of the Pokémon we knew

-Enjoyable online interaction

-Visual stunning world that carries over to the Pokémon

Bad:

- What will come from the next Pokémon?

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10