Pokemon Battle Revolution - E

Good for Pokemon fanatics, but lacks mass appeal.

Publisher: Nintendo Category/Genre: Video Games - Role Playing Games Platform: Nintendo Wii Price: $49.99 Online Enabled: Yes Graphics: Everything looks great in the 3-D battles! Playability: Easy to play, but also offers good strategy. Reading Level: Medium Release Date: 06/27/2007 ESRB Rating: E for Everyone

Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this game offers an extremely narrow gaming experience. Gamers should think of it as an add-on to the Nintendo DS Pokemon Diamond/Pearl experience and should only consider buying it if you already own one of those two games. It's all about participating in battles using Pokemon that you upload from your Pokemon Diamond/Pearl DS games. Pokemon fans may have a hard time ending play, so a timer may be a good companion. This game has an online component where you can play with others using the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi connection. Common Sense Media does not recommend unsupervised online play for anyone under the age of 12.

Families can talk about why Pokemon is such a popular license. Why do you like Pokemon? Do you like that this game rewards your efforts of collecting Pokemon on the DS by allowing you to use them for future battles on the Wii?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Anise Hollingshead

POKEMON BATTLE REVOLUTION isn't exactly revolutionary, but it is a thoroughly enjoyable gaming experience for its target audience: tweens who are Pokemon fanatics. For everyone else, it won't hold quite the same appeal.

In Pokemon Battle Revolution, the sole purpose of the game is to battle with all the Pokemon creatures that players have previously captured in Pokemon Diamond or Pokemon Pearl for the DS. Players can upload their collection of Pokemon to the Wii game -- a really handy feature -- and then battle with either the game's trainers, their friends in head-to-head matches, or with other players online. The 2D sprites from the DS become gloriously animated in 3D and perform their battle moves during the battles, which looks really cool.

The Pokemon can't level-up or evolve during these battles, but players can earn items to transport to their DS, and gear to outfit their trainers on the Wii -- however, earning these items takes entirely too long. For those who don't have the DS versions, there is a watered-down Battle system that features set teams of Pokemon for each Coliseum battle. This isn't nearly as fun as using personal Pokemon.

The online play feature sounds wonderful, but the implementation is clumsy and poorly designed. Players have to enter in long friend codes, which are different than the codes on their DS games. And, there isn't any tracking of compiled scores or ratings for comparison. The head-to-head battles are the most fun of these wireless gaming choices, so the much-vaunted online ability is actually peripheral to the game experience as a whole.

The bottom line is that this is a fun way for young Pokemon players who own either Pokemon Diamond or Pokemon Pearl to extend the gameplay of those games. However, older Pokemon fans will soon tire of the battles without an accompanying adventure.

Parents looking for good games to play on the Wii can try: Wii Sports, Ratatouille, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Reviewed: 09/28/2007

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