Pokemon is back! Leafgreen though easy is just plain fun for wasting away hours at work. Go Poke'ball!
To simplify my reveiw I'll break down the base of it so you can scope out what you want to know. Are you looking for a good story? How about entertaining graphics? Regardless of what your looking for you'll find it here!
Story: The story of the Poke'mon series is that of an age old one, you start out as a young quiet kid in your home town. You are eager to see the grand world and expirience the hardships that adults face. What better way then to talk to the oldest adult in the village? A trip to the Professor opens up an opprotunity for this eager kid to really bite down on the world and expirience first-hand what challenges trainers of Pokemon have to go through. You are granted one pokemon. . . .either the fire starting Poke'mon named Charmander, the leaf cutting Poke'mon named Bulbasaur, or the water spewing Poke'mon by the name of Squirtle. Choosing your starter is half the battle as you have a rival right next to your heels wanting whatever can quickly destroy your starter. So if you pick fire he picks water, if you pick water he picks grass and so on and so forth. You get into your first battle and are awarded 5 poke' balls and away you go!!!
What your decisions from then on in are yours alone. You can focus 100% on your starting making him or her the vangaurd or only ally, or "catch em all" as the catch phrases says and build a team to counter any type. Your main goal is to complete the Poke'mon encyclopedia known commonly as the "Poke'dex" but you as a trainer has other things on his mind. . . . becoming the greatest trainer of all time the "Poke'mon Master"
In order to achieve such a goal you will need to combat countless trainers ranging from ones who spot you in the open plains of the world you know as "Kanto", to profesional Gym leaders who specialize in one specific type, and finally landing you at the Elite 4 the top of the mountain in Poke'mon trainers. Unfortunatlly things go unaccording to plan when you meet up with the Poke'mon crime syndacate known as "Team Rocket" they capture and sell Poke'mon on the black market making millions in this world that only focuses around these little . . . .and big monsters.
All and all Pokemon will be sending you on an epic quest to find your perfect team and to find your perfect training method. . . .I give Poke'mon Leafgreen's story a 10 out of 10
Graphics: The graphics in the game are an exact copy of that of "Poke'mon Ruby/Poke'mon Saphire" which isn't a bad thing its enjoyable to see the towns from the old games given a breathe of fresh air into them and that makes exploring all the better
Sprites of trainers and of Poke'mon alike are high quality and are enjoyable to see your favorite Poke'mon or coolest looking trainer on screen so you can really get a sense of who your enemy is.
Graphics are great and even though they are the exact same as their previous 2nd cousin thats not neccesarilly a bad thing now is it? I give graphics for Poke'mon Leafgreen an 8.5 out of 10
Controls: Controls are simple easy and fast to learn perfect for any game. The D-pad moves your character, navigate the menu and allows you to choose moves of your pokemon and the start button brings up the menu. Select allows you to instantlly bring up your "Selected Key Item" you'll find yourself mostlly using this to bring up your Bike or even a fishing rod in some cases. A button confirms and B buttom cancels. Like I said. . . .simple right?
I give the controls a 10 out of 10 for making the controls so easy so it just makes it that much easier to get into the game.
Gameplay: Gameplay focuses on you capturing and raising small creatures called "Poke'mon" eventually these small creatures will evolve into feircer and bigger creatures but be warned . . . . . some of these creatures dont start small. . . . .
When raising your Poke'mon you are awarded EXP by defeating other Poke'mon it may be either a fellow trainer's or one in the wild. Trainer's Poke'mon of course give you much more EXP then those found in the wild.
As your Poke'mon level up their stats grow. The stats are broken down into Max HP, Atk, Def, Sp Atk, Sp Def, and Speed. Every Poke'mon grows differentlly so its up to you to break down each type and each Poke'mon to essemble the best of the best in order to beat everyone who stands in your way. Poke'mon do not only grow in stats but grow in moves as well. During certain levels a Poke'mon may learn a new, stronger move. Be warned though. . . .Poke'mon may only have up to 4 moves at one given time so map out your level planning ahead of time to avoid confusion and frustration.
Also a Poke'mon party may only consist of 6 of these "Pocket Monsters" so make sure you build your stradegy on a 6 man wrecking machine.
Gameplay is easy, strait foward and all and all fun and exciting when a Poke'mon you are working so hard on evolves. I give gameplay a 10 out of 10.
Difficulty: Sometimes a hard game is good to play. . . .it gives you a sense of acomplishment and feels you have truley earned what the game has given you. Poke'mon Leafgreen. . . . .falls short on this. You will find yourself with 2nd evolutions such as Wartortle, Charmeleon, and Ivysaur facing off against a trainer's 1st evolutions such as Pidgey, Rattata and Grimer. This can be frustrating at times seeing how the game presents to real chalenge having common trainers not using items like "Potions" to raise their Poke'mon from near KO status or even flinging a revive down to bring back one of their fallen friends. It makes you seem like "Am I the only trainer who knows about the "Poke'marts?!" In battle you'll normally find yourself starting out mapping out strategic moves like lowering your opponent's defense and then going in for a death blow, but when your Poke'mon grow and "evolve" you find yourself picking the same move over and over again. . . . .with no sense of gameplan. I usually find myself using Nidoking's Double Kick and then Cut followed up by a Poison Point and finally delivering a Horn Attack while imagining the battles from the show. . . .but alas these are just wishes since the game is all rock paper scizors and normally everyone just goes with Hyper Beam (not litterally).
The game gets jacked up in difficulty when you go face the Elite 4 constantlly bombarding you with heavy attacks like Toxic and Hyper Beam wearing your 6 closest compainions down.
Difficulty is the game's Achiles' heel. At times you wonder if the guys down at "Game Freak" are still targeting kids back in the early 90's . . . . .which is unfortunate, give us a chalenge we wanna KNOW that we're the best! I give the difficulty of Poke'mon Leafgreen a 5 out of 10
Sound: Music is perfect in my honest opinion I often find myself plugging in the headphones just to hear the "Road to Victory Road" song looped 1,000 times.
Poke'mon cries are also an important thing in the games but since no new ones have been introduced in Leafgreen then the cries are timeless it is still nice trying to decipher the name of the Poke'mon through the jumbled GAAAGAARRR (Incase if you were wondering. . . .that was Charizard lol j/k)
Sounds great and the music will keep you in the battle and scenery I give it a 9 out of 10
Alas we have come to the end of my reveiw of Poke'mon Leafgreen. . . . .the game will deliver if your looking for a quick escape from work or just need something to do in the long days of being bored. So all and all Poke'mon Leafgreen gets an 8.75 from this devil go out and buy it you'll find yourself immersed in the world that is Poke'mon.