Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver Review

Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver Review

By Ben Salter

A 10-year-old game being remade is not uncommon. However, technically Pokémon Gold/Silver has already been remade, or was at least enhanced with Pokémon Crystal, the completion of the trilogy on the GameBoy Color. The Pokémon games are fantastic, but it’s still beyond me how Nintendo sell millions of copies of essentially the same game. In saying that, if you’re ready for another Pokefix Pokémon Gold/Silver with some shinny new graphics and multiplayer options will no doubt appeal to you.

Perhaps saying it's nothing more than fresh coat of paint and rehashed wi-fi modes is short changing Game Freak. They’ve added new content, and perhaps most surprisingly included the Pokéwalker. The device, reminisce of a Tamagotchi, is more like a pedometer for your Pokémon. It measures how many steps you take while its on your person, and conveys that data into the world of Pokémon. Your player card and clock from the game are transferred to the device, and allow you to train up your Pokémon on the go and earn currency to help you find you Pokémon and items. It’s a nifty little device, but utterly useless. You see, the DS is already portable, so there’s no real incentive to train up your Pokémon in the Pokéwalker. That said, it lets you take your Pokémon places the DS would not, like school for example, and is encouraging kids to get up off the couch and walk around. Combine the Pokéwalker with Wii Fit and parents will never be able to criticize video games again!

If you’ve played any of the Pokémon RPGs you’ll know what to expect coming into Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver, regardless of which version you played. The core gameplay remains largely unchanged since the original Pokémon Red/Blue, and yet it’s still highly addictive. If you haven’t played a Pokémon RPG before, I ask you, where have you been for the past 15 years? Seriously? It’s impossible to avoid! If you’ve somehow missed the craze (and hats off to you that takes skill), you play as a young man or woman on a quest to become the world’s best Pokémon trainer. The mysterious creatures are encountered in random battles, and can either be defeated to increase the experience of your own Pokémon - in turn allowing them to evolve, learn new moves and become stronger - or caught to join your team. After all you’ve "gotta catch 'em all!” Battles continue to use the tried and tested turn based system and certain Pokémon types will fair better against other types in what is essentially a big game of rock, paper, scissors. I’ve easily spent over 250 hours playing Pokémon RPGs in the course of my life, and there is almost no difference between them. Somehow there’s still a sense of achievement when you complete your Pokémon collection and become a Pokémon for the 7th time.

Game Freak has introduced a few little improvements that will feel like so much more to veteran gamers. The first is the ability to toggle the running shoes on and off. No more holding down B, when you obviously want to run all the time; instead, simply press the shoes switch on the touch screen and you’ll run, run and run again until you toggle it off. A nice little piece of nostalgia for Pokémon Yellow fans is the addition of a Pokémon walking behind you. Back in the Yellow days Pikachu followed you around everywhere. In HeartGold/SoulSilver the lead Pokémon will forgo their nice warm Pokeball and follow you like an enthralled child. It doesn’t add much to the gameplay (anything, actually), but it’s a nice little touch for Pokémon Yellow veterans, and fans of the original TV show. Those of you young enough to remember the real version of Pokémon will know Pikachu wasn’t a fan of the Pokeball and chose to leg it everywhere with Ash. Other new inclusions include the Pokecathlon, a series of touch screen based mini-games, and all the wi-fi options you experienced in Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum.

One thing that cannot be denied is the sheer amount to do in Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver. You can spend as much time as you want training your Pokémon, but the impressive story alone will be more than enough to tide you over. As per usual there’s a massive world to explore, full of a vast range of Pokémon, people and places. There’s the normal 8 gym badges to earn, and then the entire world from Pokémon Red/Blue opens up and presents another 8 gym leaders to defeat. The story in Gold/Silver is one of the best in the Pokémon series. The writing and English localization is nothing short of fantastic. So often classic writing in Japan is butchered when it’s translated for western audiences, not so here. Of course, the story isn’t really important. Collect a badge, talk to some people, Team Rocket’s being naughty, collect another badge. It’s entirely possibly to go through the game knowing nothing more than this. However, you’ll get a lot more out of the experience if you stop to take it all in. Talk to people when you aimlessly intrude their homes. Some will blab on like Grandpa’s childhood stories, but others have interesting comments to make. That’s one of the best things about Pokémon. If you’re willing to put the time in a decent story is there, but unlike other RPGs it isn’t forced on you.

The Pokémon formula has held up extremely well. It’s as good today as it was 14 years ago with Pokémon Red/Blue, but therein lies the problem. The core gameplay hasn’t changed at all. We’ve been playing the same game for well over a decade now, and while it keeps drawing us back in, at some point we need to be treated to something different. Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver is going to sell like hotcakes, but I wouldn’t be surprised if veteran Pokémon fans decided to boycott this one in hope of something amazing on the recently announced 3DS. If you’re after something different don’t buy Pokémon SoulSilver/HeartGold.

When Game Freak updated Pokémon Red/Blue on the GBA they successfully developed intertextual graphics that portrayed the original games with a little more flair. When they developed Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum they did the same thing. The DS is powerful enough to produce far superior graphics, but they went with the 2.5D backgrounds that remind players of the original games. Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver looks exactly the same as the previous DS games, as it's using the same engine. Now, don’t get me wrong, it looks fine and does pay homage to the original games, but after so much of the same it was time for a serious graphical update. We still have no real animations in Pokémon battles. Come on, Game Freak. Something so simple would have made such a big difference to Pokefans. Maybe they’re saving the revolutionary update for Gen 5, but it would have been much appreciated.

The sound effects suffer from similar issues. The screechy sounds of the Pokémon have been lifted directly from the GBA, many of which were stolen from the original Game Boy versions. To an extent I was willing to overlook that in the earlier DS games, but this is meant to be a remake. What’s the point of overhauling the visuals, albeit not as well as they should have done, if the audio is lifted from the 20th century? To an extent the melodies are the saving grace. They’re catchy, and a joy to listen to; although, you’ll miss out on many of them if you embrace your inner cyclist.

The Final Verdict

The Pokémon gameplay is as good now as it was back in the original Gold/Silver in 2000; if you liked it then you’ll love it now from start ‘til finish. It’s timeless and one of the few handheld games that leaves you with a sense of achievement, and a cheeky reminder of fond childhood memories. However, Game Freak needs to mix things up in Pokémon Generation 5. There’s only so many times we can do essentially the same thing without eventually abandoning ship. Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver has a few nice inclusions, but as a remake it doesn’t make the cut. The graphics and sound effects both needed to be better. Fortunately, it’s held up by its fantastic gameplay, but next game we need something more.