Reviews

Much like the first original Pokemon titles for Gameboy Advance were followed up by remakes of classics, so the same has happened with the DS. Pokemon SoulSilver (and HeartGold) gives players another chance (or in some cases, first chance) to explore the land of Johto, first seen in Pokemon Silver and Gold for the Gameboy Color.

Once again, your male or female lead travels the land, collecting, trading and battling the famous pocket monsters in the hope of maybe one day catching them all, and becoming the greatest trainer that ever lived, blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. It's the same basic story that we see in every single game, right down to eventually facing off against the Elite Four trainers. Originality has never really been a strong point with this franchise, yet it still generally sells by the bucketload.

Part of the reason for the success is the fact that it still possesses simplistic, yet highly addictive game-play. It's very much RPG-lite, with your monsters levelling up as you go, but no complex controls or combos to have to remember, plus generally minimal dialogue. With each game, there's generally a new audience experiencing the series for the first time, so it's most likely best to keep things simple. In this instance however, it also seems as though Nintendo are banking on original players of Gold and Silver revisiting their youth, and in that sense, they can also slot back in with relative ease.

Where SoulSilver and its partner game improve over Diamond, Pearl and Platinum are in the use of the touch screen controls. Whereas the last games saw the screen wasted for the most part, in these instances it's in constant use. The main action takes place on the top screen, while the bottom screen is your easily accessible touch menu. You can save your game, check the Pokedex, and view your items amongst other options. Meanwhile, when battling your monsters, you can quickly tap a move, or one of the options to use an item, switch character or run away.

At the same time, if you'd prefer to keep the stylus firmly wedged into its slot, all controls can also be accessed via the buttons on the DS, all of which are explained on the screen. It's a decent compromise for those who would rather play the game in a more traditional manner, without having to worry about switching between control methods (the D-Pad, A and B are mandatory buttons for movement, conversation and moving between certain screens). However, given that the two Zelda games have shown how to successfully implement full stylus-based control, perhaps it's time that Game Freak stepped up to the plate and truly moved the series into a new generation.