Reviews

Best of the Best

Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver offer the best Pokemon experiences ever. They combine the most popular Pokemon games of all time, Pokemon Gold and Silver from the original Game Boy, with the best bits of the subsequent Pokemon games over the years. If you're a Pokefan, that's all you need to know but here are the details anyway.

Collect, challenge, battle

Being a beefed up version of the original Gold and Silver, long time Pokemon players will be familiar with the "Catch ‘em all" quest to become the best Pokemon trainer ever and the journeying, collecting, challenging and battling that comes with it. The Gold and Silver stories are recreated exactly: You get to choose your first Pokemon, either a Cyndaquil (fire) Totodile (water) or Chikorita (grass) type, before setting off on your quest to take on the leaders of eight Pokemon gyms and eventually the Elite Four to establish yourself at the very top.

But HeartGold and SoulSilver build upon the originals with a range of enhancements big and small and it's these additions that propel the newest versions into the realms of the DS elite. Take for example the entirely ascetic ability to have one of your Pokemon follow you around as you navigate the game world. It's little more than a nice touch but it's one that contributes to a much more substantial, complete gaming experience overall.

Much more significant is your brand new Pokegear, an upgrade from the Poketch in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. The Pokegear is like a smartphone, you can collect cards from the places you visit which provide you with apps for your phone. You can also collect the phone numbers of the people you meet and if you beat them in battle they could call you at any time to demand a rematch.

Pokewalk this way

The biggest addition in your Pokemon pack is the Pokewalker, which is an actual real-world gizmo that comes bundled with HeartGold and SoulSilver. It's basically a pedometer; carry it around and it will count your steps and convert them into Watts, which can be used to unlock mini-games. The clever bit is that you can transfer your Pokemon to your Pokewalker and every step you take contributes to their evolution.

Because HeartGold and SoulSilver are remakes of Gold and Silver, you're given a campaign to take on and beat the eight gym leaders and Elite Four from the originals. But it doesn't stop there; you can then go on to the Kanto region from Red and Blue to become the number one trainer there as well. In fact, the HeartGold and SoulSilver story is only ‘over' when you have defeated Red (Ash) himself and even then there are still 492 Pokemon out there to fill up your Pokedex with. All in all it provides you with hours and hours of gameplay and a world you can get totally lost in.

And if you do manage to collect enough Pokemon to break your Pokdex, you still have to train them up enough so that you can compete in Wifi battles with your friends, or there's the wealth of special arenas that have been collected from all the previous Pokemon games where you can capture rarer Pokemon and take part in new battles.

Pokegoodness Gracious!

The basic story and game engine are exactly the same as the original Gold and Silver, and considering they were released moons ago on the Game Boy you might feel that Pokemon games should have evolved at least a little bit by now. But there's so much Pokegoodness here that HeartGold and SoulSilver is bursting at the seams. That's what makes this the ultimate Pokemon experience, even though veterans will have seen it all before.

GAME's Verdict

• The best bits of every Pokemon game since Gold and Silver.
• You get your very own Pokewalker.
• Possibly hundreds of hours of gameplay.

• No real changes to a pretty old game engine.
• No original story.
• Is there such thing as too much all at once?

Review by: Tom 'Pika' Pakinkis
Version Tested: DS
Review Published: 24.03.10