Pokémon X

I've got six badges so far, so I feel like I've seen enough of the game to make a review based on actual game-play rather than preconceived notions. I've only been playing Pokemon since HG/SS, so I'm definitely not a genwunner. I'm also not into competitive battling, so I won't really be talking too much about that, or things like the new fairy type. Those are topics for discussion on forums, not a game review. Since most of the changes are the online features, I'll probably discuss those more than anything else. For starters, yes, it is the same as every other Pokemon so far. The same introduction, pick your starter, battle random trainers and gym leaders, collect badges, defeat the champ. The same limitations of having a party of six, with each having a max of four active moves. If you stop and think, everything else is gravy: story, graphics, music, etc. The fundamental mechanics are the same, and I think that is quite frankly the majority of the reason for the franchise's staying power. You can pick up any gen game, and knowing your basic types, weaknesses, etc, you'll know how to play. A lot of the changes in this generation are based mostly around the online features, some of which were only in their beginnings in BW/B2W2. But you no longer have to find a Pokemon Center to participate in the online functions, they're all right on the screen. You can turn the online functions on and off at will. Probably the most interesting is the PSS, the Player Search System. Like most native 3DS games, this game integrates with the 3DS friend codes, so you no longer have to manage separate friend codes. You just add their 3DS code to the 3DS friends app, and then you can see their status in-game. Now while you're in game, you can see their status: player profile, badges, and other things. You can battle, trade or chat with them. Pretty much like in the old Union Rooms, but not as limited as the Union Rooms were. Over time, you'll see people being added to the PSS, under the headings of acquaintances and passerbys. Acquaintances are added as you interact with other remote players via the global trade, battles, etc. I'm not exactly sure how passerby's work, but I think they just are random people who appear on your screen; again, you can interact with them in all the same manners. One thing I enjoy so far is the "wonder trade", which is a random trade matchup: you chose which Pokemon you want to trade, and it'll find someone in the world, and you get what you get. You might get trash Pokemon, or you might get something good. Beyond the online features are all the other changes to the game. Music is awesome, no longer grating to the ears (altho I'm a chiptune fan, you can only listen to the Pokecenter music for so long without wanting to stab your eyes out). The graphics are fantastic, altho I do not play in 3D mode. The avatars are nicely customizable. After a long-winded review, I'll just close with that I think this is a great addition to the franchise. Post-game edit: I beat the champ in about 5 days, less than 25 logged playing. This is by far the easiest version I've played. Each gym, elite and champ, I was able beat in one attempt. I never felt it necessary to rethink my team, go back and grind up, or anything of that nature. I also played straight thru with my starter, Fennekin, in slot one. She was KO'ed a few times, but I never considered retiring her. With Exp Share, even my HM slaves become viable. I'm still exploring post-game play, and since I have tried to refrain from strat guides, I don't know how extensive post-game is yet. So far, I've found a side-arc of working in a detective agency, and found daily jobs at a hotel. I found two stationary legendaries to catch, and ran into one roaming legendary but do not know how to catch it yet. I did not find anything similar to BW2's Join Ave, or the little and big stadiums, with their daily battles, but I'm probably not searching hard enough.

Excellent. Perfect condition. Works exactly as expected. I have zero complaints.

I would consider Pokemon X (and even Pokemon Y to similar extents when I get it in the mail) one of the best Pokemon games to play. A departure from the series is the pixel sprites that made the world. Now games are in 3D and have not disappointed me. I enjoy drawing fan art of Pokemon and prior to the advent of this game and its companion, I'd usually have to rely on pictures from the anime and manga, which I am no longer fond of. Now that the Pokedex shows a 3D model when a Pokemon is caught, I can actually draw fanart of Pokemon at different angles beyond front and back. You can actually change your avatar to suit you as your are ask for your gender, your looks and your name. However, the skin color for the darkest skin type for looks is still a dark taupe color. It's still a start and quite a departure from playing what is a essential a white-skinned protagonist. Some items have changed, particularly the plates that are to be attached to Arceus, which include the Pixie Plate which corresponds with the new Fairy element type. The biggest change of all is the Exp. Share, which first started out as Exp. All in the very first games, giving all Pokemon in the party Experience Points, and later Exp. Share, giving a selected Pokemon in that party a share of the points. For this set of games, the Exp. Share has reverted back to the properties of Exp. All. I have very few complaints involving the Lumiose City. Before I bought the game, I was well aware of a glitch that prevents moving around if saved in the North and South Boulevards and the two Avenues from The South Boulevard leading to the Central Plaza. Pokémon's official X & Y Site recommend you save your games in a shop or better yet, in the Pokemon Centers. The Evolutionary stone shop in Lumiose City, to my knowledge, only sells Fire, Water and Leaf Stones, so evolving Eevee and Pikachu would require a debate on your self if you're trying to complete the Pokedex as I only received one Thunderstone. You will encounter Pokemon from all 6 generations, some from the previous 5. Overall, the story did not disappoint. I won't tell you the ending, but the game does leave many characters involved open for debate and fan theories of their beings and pasts. The ending, however, simply doesn't just go to the credits right after beating the Champion, it involves a Pokemon battle with an enigmatic character who is involved with the story's backstory. After that, the cut scene that ties up the loose ends enough to satisfy those who held on long enough and then the credits, which has a song involved from the second part of the credits, subtitled in English and French. The music in the credit reminded me of the song "Hana wa Saku" (Flowers Will Bloom), created by the NHK, Japan's public broadcasting station for the recovery of the Tohoku region. I have been told that Pokemon Y has a darker, more sinister story to its programming. However, I can say that Pokemon X is not that much different from the description for Pokemon Y from my experiences. As for educational aspect: Mathematics are part of figuring out how much damage you deal to your opponent. Logic involving Rock-Paper-Scissors like deduction is involved when in a battle. Life lessons are involved with the story, such as the lengths one would go through to take back what was lost and the cost of the war from a non-monetary aspect. It is a fun game to play. You might even beat my record of entering the Hall of Fame in 3 days after starting a game.

Arrived within it's time-frame in a package much larger than was needed to hold a CD as seems to be the new thing for Amazon these days. I wonder if that is where our Prime dollars are now going? This was the number one request on my 12-year-old daughter's Christmas list this year, so she was over-the-moon when she opened it. From what I can gather, it has lived up to her expectations. She talks about it all the time, going into quite a bit of detail that I do not understand or follow, but it obviously excites her tremendously because she will talk about it for hours, and play it even longer if I allowed her to. The graphics seem to be ... graphicy. There are Pokemon. You play with them. OK, hang on, I will bring in the expert. This is what she has to say. "When you play Red, Blue or Yellow, the graphics are manageable, but when you move up to Pokemon X, the graphics are AMAZING. You can see the Pokemon battle, and you can see the moves that they use. Like, if you use 'dig', you can see them dig down. And if you use 'fly', you can see them fly up. And 'greninja', when it uses my favorite move, water shuriken, you can see it throw the shurikens however many times the move hits, and it can hit up to five times. So you just see the shuriken fly at the opponent and it looks really cool!" About the game she says: "It is a really fun game. You start off in a town where your mom is a famous Rhyhorn raiser and then you find that Professor S. decided to pick you and four other people to become a Pokemon trainer." (Oh, so your Ash!) "So there are three starting Pokemon. There is the Grass Type Chespin. The Fire Type Fenniken. And the Water Type, Frokie." (She chose Frokie). "There is a bad team that you have to defeat." (She can't remember their name, among other people you have to battle.) "One of the coolest parts I think to the game is that you can Mega Evolve Pokemon." (Whatever that means.) "There are tons of different Pokemon that can Mega Evolve. And if you like the final evolution, it will go back to its form after it battles. There are a few like Charizard, Mew, and Venosuar that Mega evolve, so Charizard will Mega Evolve into Charizard X, who is black with blue flames coming out of it's mouth. Mew X - and tons of other ones like Aerodactlye, and the two fossile Pokemon that are exclusive to X and Y that can't Mega Evolve yet, but they are very cool. It was hard for me to decide between them. But in the end I picked Amora. Once you get toward the end, you can catch the legendary Xerans, which I haven't caught yet, but I really want to. I haven't gotten that far yet. In the previous Pokemon games I have played, the gyms are basic and simple. But when I went up to Pokemon X, all the gyms are just SO COOL. My favorite gym so far is the Psychic Type Gym. It's like a big Sphere Maze. You have to locate the gym leader. There are a whole bunch of different trainers that you don't have to battle, but you get so lost you end up having to battle them." That's it for her review. If you have questions, she will be happy to answer them. I'll be happy to pass them along because I know nothing.

Droppin some hot takes on yall. If you have never played (or have but no longer own this cartridge) this game, do not let the fact this is a UAE copy of the game hold you back. The difference between a US copy is only a small official symbol stating it’s for UAE on the box only, and the cartridge having a few more language options than that on US copies. Otherwise it’s identical to a US copy, down to the serial number at the front and back. If you purchase New, you get the ever exciting experience of opening a sealed video game that you’re about to take on an adventure ! From there, the game is good old Pokémon, especially cool now that a sequel has been released on newer consoles so this will catch you up if you want to feel excited for the new game. I have yet to finish the game, it just arrived today. I hope I can edit Amazon review so I can let y’all know in a timely manner how fun it was so you don’t hesitate and potentially miss out on the New purchase option. Peace folks, write you soon God willing 🙏✝️

This was the first game I bought for my 3DS. I bought it last autumn as a treat for myself after passing my psychology midterm. I play this game the most out of my small game collection because after awhile, it gets a bit addicting. Because of the fast-paced storyline, the adorable (and bizzare) pokemon you can play with, and the amazing multiplayer compatibility, I can say with full confidence that this game rocks. I'd recommenced this as a game for beginning to intermediate gamers, also for those who want to get into Pokemon but don't know where to start. The story is fun, but after you get the basic formulas down (fire beats grass, water beats fire, electricity beats water, etc.), battling isn't too terribly hard unless you're playing against a live opponent. I've gotten to the point where I can play this before bed and continue to win even though I'm too tired to keep my eyes open. However, because your pokemon can only learn 4 moves at a time (with limited times you can use each move), there is some basic strategy required, especially during the moments where you fight difficult bosses or other live players. And while the gameplay isn't that hard, it's easy to get sucked into the mechanics of it all because each pokemon has specific trademark moves that makes for interesting battles. Unlike other pokemon games, you can actually interact, feed and play three different minigames (and a glitchy "hidden" minigame that uses your facial expressions as a playing piece) with your pokemon using the Pokemon-Amie feature. This allows you to feel close with the pokemon on your team. There is a lot of free-roaming allowed, and I have yet to discover all the hidden puzzles and treats left after beating the game's story. One thing I want to mention though is that I don't see why the game's so inconsistent with it's 3D-capabilities. The majority of the game doesn't use the 3D option, but as soon as a battle starts or you enter a cave, you can use it. Also, there is an option for you as a player to customize your character. However, until you do a lot of side-questing in Luminose City, you won't be able to change your appearance, and even then there's a limited pallet. Still, you can buy outfits from each city you visit, so you can change clothes pretty early on. Overall, the game's pretty fun and holds for nice challenges. Excuse me, for now I must be off. Gotta catch 'em all!

I would say Pokemon x/y have dethroned Pokemon Emerald but there are a few issues from a programming standpoint that make me lean more towards a 4.5/5. First of all the battle scenes have a bit of lag and MIGHT* run at about 25-27 fps which is just below fluid. When you turn on the stereoscopic 3D the frames drop to maybe 20fps during attacks, the only way to combat this is to have the attack animations and 3D turned off but in general as long as you keep the 3D off it should be good enough for most people...barely. The 3D option is completely stripped in double and triple battles as well which is probably for the best as peoples 3DS's would be crashing left and right. My only other problem is the movement takes some getting used to, they added horizontal movement so the older players may have trouble getting accustomed to it, the controls are also on the loose side so you may accidentally fall off a couple (rollerblade areas) speaking of rollerblades, you are given a pair within the first hour or two of gameplay and they are superior to the bike in maneuverability so that's a plus. Now on to the positives. The pokemon selection is excellent and there are some old favorites returning and the new ones are generally attractive in comparison to the last generation. I have noticed that Gamefreak have taken more of an avante garde approach to the designs and many will find them interesting. For instance the starter bug pokemon evolves into a butterfree clone but it actually looks BETTER than what it is copied from, also there aren't as many useless pokemon in general this time around and the stat allocation is a bit more streamlined. The overworld looks great but in some ways I miss the "god" view from above as it gives you a better look at your surroundings, still I think they did a good job on it and it's growing on me. The online trading/battling system is pretty well done, the "wonder trade" feature is basically gambling, I've gotten terrible pokemon most of the time but I have also recieved 2 or 3 useful ones. I just trade my duplicate pokemon with it and hope for the best. The music is also pretty good and so are the towns. The setting is sort of French I believe which is a nice change from the usual Asian/western locales. In all seriousness though, if you have a 3DS you probably already own this game and if you don't your missing out on the Torchic giveaway that ends in January.

I bought a 3DS a few weeks before this came out, my first portable game console in a long time, and figured I should see what all the fuss was about. Wow, was I missing out! I always used to love RPGs growing up as a kid -- Final Fantasy 7 was my favorite game ever growing up -- and that always steered me away from the Pokemon franchise, weirdly enough. I both was suspicious of Pokemon ever being able to have a worthwhile story, as well as feared the constant grind of most RPGs. Well, I was pretty much wrong. I say pretty much because Pokemon's story is actually oddly appealing -- you're playing a character who's out to Catch 'Em All. So, no, it doesn't have much of a real 'story' per say, but it's all just goofy fun, so where I was wrong was in thinking it needed to be something it isn't and shouldn't be. What I was really, really wrong about was the fear of grinding. The "catching them all" part of the game has made grinding fun again! It's not constant battles everywhere, even where you don't want them, to get pointless levels. You're the one seeking out the battles -- and not for pointless levels, but to find the new Pokemon. The world keeps things fresh, so you never find yourself lingering in the same place too long, and there's oodles and oodles of goofy side games to keep yourself occupied when you feel you need a break from catching your Pokemon... and would rather spend time 'getting to know them.' I've talked about how much goofy fun there is in this game, but it does take very seriously the heart of this game, what makes it all work: it's mechanics. The combat system is a deceptively deep turn-based combat system. There's tons of strategy involved and, for someone who enjoys meta as much as I do, a whole bunch of tough choices to make. That said, it would be hard to get those decisions so wrong that you'd ruin a Pokemon -- but even if you did, for whatever reason, all you'd have to do is catch more.... or even breed them. To put all of this in perspective, I went from being a deep skeptic of this entire franchise a month ago, who decided to buy the game as an experiment, to a full-throttled Pokemon addict who's put 20+ hours on this game... when I thought the days of me having the patience to play games for hours and hours was long since at an end. Clearly, I just needed to be playing Pokemon all that time. LOL.