Essesntially the same game from all those years ago. And that's a very good thing.
Graphics: If you've played Diamond, Pearl or Platinum, you know what this game looks like. A good blend of 2- d sprites and 3- d environments. The battle animations are as charming as ever and the attacks look very flashy. A new feature to this game is that the first Pokemon in your party follows you around. The sprites do their job and are solidly animated. A nice subtle touch that I liked is that your trainer will point and your Pokemon will come forward. It's good looking, considering the size of it. 8/ 10
Sound: The classic music is all back in remixed form and sounds very good. And, even if you don't like it, you eventually get a GB sound item that converts all the tunes into 8- bit form. That's a really cool addition. One of the bad things about the sound is that all of the old Pokemon sound exactly the same as they did all those years ago. Sure, much of the charm of this game is nostalgia, but it just sounds dated. I'm NOT asking for them to say their names, just to get updated sounds. But, really, it's a minor complaint when the music is so good. 8/ 10
Story: It's the same Pokemon story we've been having told to us for years. You start out in your hometown and after getting your first Pokemon from the region's professor and set out on a journey to become the best trainer in the world. Along the way you'll encounter many interesting characetrs including the Elite 4 Champion, your Rival and a Team hell bent on taking iver the Region, in this case Team Rocket. Something I really liked about this game, though, is that the game takes place 3 years after the events of the Red/ Blue (or Firered/ Leafgreen, if you prefer) so Team Rocket has severly lost influence in Kanto and Kanto has changed alot. (more on this later.) And the other thing I liked is that your rival is actually somewhat interesting of a character and changes throughout the game. This is one of the few RPG's where it doesn't need a great story to be good. 7/ 10
Gameplay: It's awesome. There is so much freedom in this game. There are over 400 Pokemon to choose from to build your team of 6 with, so the combinations are quite possibly endless. And there are a number of different distractions in the game that really help in the longevtity of it. For instance, there's actually a Safari Zone in this one and you can customize it so that the Pokemon you want to appear will appear. There are all sorts of rare Pokemon to find in there.
This game is probably the most challenging of all the games. The Elite 4 is supertough and it get tougher with each playthrough. Fortunatley, you can refight all the gym leaders in the game, which really helps when you need to quickly level up your Pokemon. (Also, I reccomend getting a Dratini as soon as possible, or some other Dragon type Pokemon.) And after you beat the Elite 4, you get to go back to Kanto. No, that's not a typo. There are 2 Regions to explore for you and 16 gym leaders. And, after getting all that, you face off against the toughest Trainer in Pokemon history. I won't spoil who, but it's awesome. This isn't to say that the game is without flaws. In Kanto, most of the wild Pokemon are very weak. This is held over fromt he original. In the original, limitations had to be made due to the hardware. In addtion to that, many buildings in Kanto are pratically inaccesible. While it makes sense storywise, I think the developers could have fixed these limitations from the originals. And grinding can still be frustrating in later levels, because there is no area with really high level Pokemon to level up faster. I hope something like this is added in Black and White. And, while you can rebattle trainers and Gym Leaders, they're only available during certain times, most of them inconvenient unless you have the whole day open.
But, this is Pokemon and it's as addicting as ever. Whether you're building your Dream Team or just trying to "catch 'em all", this game will keep you busy for a long time. Or at least till Black and White come out. 9/ 10
All in all, Heartgold is a solid remake of a great game. Whether you've visited Johto before, or you're a new arrival, I urge you to play this game. It is one of the best RPG's available for the hanheld and one of the best RPG's available period. It's really only rivaled by Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. Oh, and DQIX. So, thanks for reading and keep on grinding!