What do you get when you remake the best Pokemon game ever? Pokemon SoulSilver (and Pokemon HeartGold).
As I stated before, Pokemon SoulSilver is a remake of the classic Pokemon Silver game for the GameBoy Color. The story, setting, and starter Pokemon in both are the same. In fact, it's almost like you're playing Pokemon Silver, but with a boost in graphics. Is there any bad changes? No. All of the changes to the game are welcomed. The biggest change you will notice right off the battle with the game is that the Pokemon that is first in your party follows you around as you walk through out the world. When was the last time we saw this? Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, but with only a few select Pokemon. Before that it was Pokemon Yellow, but only with your Pikachu. It's always nice to see how your Pokemon feel about you and it helps with raising that friendship level a bit faster. There are other changes which I will talk about later in this review.
So, if you've been living under a rock for the last twelve years and don't know how to play a Pokemon game, that's sad, but OK. Pokemon games, speaking only about the main stream ones, are some of the easiest role-playing games ever to play on the face of the Earth. When you start the game you are given a creature called a Pokemon. You get to pick between three different types of Pokemon, fire, water, and grass. Your mission: capture all of the other Pokemon, complete the Pokedex, get all sixteen badges, defeat the Elite Four and give Red a nice butt whopping. That's all there really is to do in Pokemon SoulSilver. Don't worry, you're not in it alone. There is another guy that wants to be a Pokemon Master too. Of course he's the bad boy on the block and treats his Pokemon poorly. You can show him up and beat him down in some battles along the way as you collect your badges and work on your team.
What is that? You have no idea how to battle? Man, you must have been under a rock. Battling is simple. If you are fighting a wild Pokemon, then it's your team verse it. You can have up to six Pokemon on your team. Each Pokemon has a move set, a set of moves that it can use in battle to beat down the other Pokemon. There are many different types of Pokemon and there are many different types of moves. Each Pokemon can have up to four moves known at one time. As you win battles with your Pokemon, they gain experience points. After they get enough of these points, they will level up. As Pokemon level up, Pokemon get the chance to learn a new move or evolve. There are many other ways to learn moves, TMs, HMs, and more, as well as evolving, friendship, trading, stones, but this is the most basic way of doing it. The stronger your Pokemon is, the better your Pokemon will do in battle.
I'm guessing you're going to want a more detailed type up about the story in this game right about now. Even if you don't, too bad. The story picks up a few years about Pokemon LeafGreen and Pokemon FireRed. You're asked to go on a small mission to give a Mysterious Egg to someone named Mr. Pokemon in a different town. That's a long walk for a small kid. Fine, take a Pokemon with you. There's so many of them out there, we're just giving them away. So you go on and give the Egg to the man, meet his friend, get a Pokedex, asked to do hard work for free, and you beat down some freak that had a Pokemon that had the type advantage over your's. Now what do you do? Well you could go from town to town, with your free Pokemon, and beat people down known as Gym Leaders in these places known as Gyms. There are eight of them in the area that you live in, Jhoto. Have fun, make friends, and stop Team Rocket.
Who's Team Rocket? Team Rocket is the worst group of villains ever. You don't have to worry much about them. You, a ten year old, can take down their leader in a second, after you get a few more Pokemon then just your one. Oh, make sure they're pretty strong as well. But after all of that and after you've got your eight badges that you won by beating down the eight Gym Leaders, you can take on the Elite Four, witch is really five strong trainers that will kill you if you're not prepared. Don't worry, though. You are going to have a chance to capture a "super rare" Pokemon. There are so many of these "super rare" Pokemon now that it's not funny.
Now that you've beat down the Elite Four, you get the chance to go over and explore the rest of Kanto! Oh what fun. That means there is eight more badges to pick up. And after that? You get to have a little fun and take down the strongest NPC trainer in the game, Red. And that's about it for the story. After that you can level grind your Pokemon up to level 100, finish the Pokedex, or have fun with some of the changes from the originals.
Back to those changes I keep bringing up. One of the major ones is that you can have rematches with Gym Leaders at a certain time of a certain day of the week. This is good for leveling up faster and it's something most of us fans have wanted since the first Pokemon games. Another change is that you can get a lot more legendary Pokemon then you could in the original. You've got Mewtwo, the three birds, and Groundon. Another change to the game is the Safari Zone. In the original, there was no Safari Zone. It moved away. Now we know where it is. Just a bit left of Cianwood City is the best thing ever to happen to the Safari Zone. It is now customizable. You can have six out the twelve areas at one time, which ones are showing are up to you. Each one has its own Pokemon to be found. It that wasn't enough, you can place objects in the different zone to get different Pokemon to show up. Other additions to the game may include, but are not limited to, the Pokeathlon, the Battle Frontier, Pal Park, and trading to Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum.
Alright, time to move on to the graphics. When you look at this game you must see that it's Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum graphics. There hasn't been much of a change since those games, in terms of the graphics. The one that that needs to be changed is the Pokemon's sprites. They just seem very out dated. Other then that, they are fine, even the 3D parts of the game are well done. It's has that charming feel that you should get from a game like this.
If there's one thing to fall in love with in a Pokemon game, it's the music. All of the music was remixed to a more up-to-date sound to it, but it keeps the same feel to it. There are many tunes that are catchy and you will fall in love with. If you don't like the new music, don't worry. You can change it back to the original songs after you get all sixteen badges. It item only works if it's not a song of a new feature. But, once again I find a problem when it comes to the Pokemon. To me, the Pokemon yells seem out dated. I don't know, maybe there's something to this.
One more thing, the PokeWalker. How can anyone not add this into their review? It's a small little device that will let you train your Pokemon as you walk around. You can also capture some Pokemon, and there are a few you can only get on it. So while you're not playing Pokemon SoulSilver, you can still be training one of your Pokemon. Every twenty steps earns you something known as a watt. You can use these watts to do different things like battle Pokemon or find items. There are many different areas to explore in it and each hold its own Pokemon.
There you have it. Pokemon SoulSilver is a great addition to the Pokemon series and should be welcomed by all who like RPGs, like Pokemon, or just like capturing creatures and then force them to battle against one another for no real reason. It stops the trend of suck that was brought in during the third generation and that was continued by the fourth generation. It brings many needed changes to the Pokemon main series and barrows from many of the other games before it. Though that may be true, Pokemon SoulSilver is its own game and will be remembered for a long time as one of the better ones out there.
Pros and Cons:
+Letting Pokemon follow behind you
+Rematches with Gym Leaders
+The new Safari Zone
+PokeWalker
+Tons of replay value
-Beeping at low health
-Outdated sprites and Pokemon yells
-Same old story
Scores:
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sounds: 9/10
Story: 7/10
Replay Value: 8/10
Fun Level: 9/10
Overall Score: 9.3