So, it's evident that us Pokemon fans will literally buy anything with Pokemon attached to it, fuck me I own Pokemon Channel and we've all seen how good that was.
Lovely... So what else could Nintendo do with the Pokemon series... I know Puzzle games!
So we have Pokemon Link,
No! Goddamn it Deviantart!
So in Pokemon Link we slide rows of Pokemon heads left and right to match up the heads in rows of 3 or more and you play through levels based around a story mode including bosses who have their own powers such as turning the heads into silhouettes to make them harder to match, and yes I did say story. You play as Agent Lucy Fleetfoot.
And in case you haven't noticed the art style isn't very Pokemon like. Well it's not the traditional anime style, but rather that faux anime style made by the americans for shows like... Samurai Jack.
Okay I'm game...Anyway Lucy is on a mission to rescue pokemon from the evil phobos organisation which translates as do puzzles, get pokemon! Seriously puzzle games shouldn't have a story... okay there are exceptions, for example Layton and Portal where these do it well, but this... just no... which is remedied in Pokemon Link Battle.
So how do we make a sequel to Link... keep the kids, change the gameplay. Instead of moving rows, we move the heads with the stylus, but you still move heads into rows of 3 upwards. While in the original Link, your goal was to empty the screen, but here your job is damage enemy pokemon to catch them.
When you beat a pokemon you automatically catch it and each Pokemon has it's own special abilities and attack power levels.
Another thing you'll notice is the typings on the pokemon. Well each link you make does damage to the opponent and each pokemon is limited to one type meaning you have to plan your moves as Oshawott will do super effective damage to Fennekin, but not visa-versa, like the actual Pokemon games. But each pokemon only has one type, so Aegislash is just ghost, not ghost/steel for example. Oh and be careful as the enemy can attack, and if you run out of health it's game over. And also they can enter your matching screen to make it harder to make links.
Thanfully here there's no story to be seen and this game can get a lot harder than the original Link... but this isn't the last Link game, even if the next one doesn't have Link in it's title.
Pokemon Shuffle, the free to play sequel and we all know how free to play works...
Yeah I've used that clip before... fuck it. While this game isn't boring, in fact it plays a lot like Link Battle except the enemy doesn't jump into the screen below and you have a move limit rather than a health bar or in some levels a time limit.
That and... did I mention freemium... well you get 5 trys and once you run out you either wait for a timer which charges a try every 30 minutes or PAY MONEY!
You want powerups like stunning pokemon or instant mega, well you pay with in game coins which you earn from levels or.... YOU PAY MONEY!
Yes you can also get Mega Pokemon in this game.
These are obtained by beating bosses to get their stones and used in matchs by matching their regular forms enough times to fill the meter. But once you defeat them unlike Link Battle, their capture is not automatic but rather based on chance.
There's a set chance and then whatever moves you have left are added to the catch rate... meaning you can beat a very tough level and be fucked over by the catch rate, meaning you have to play the level again. This is infuriating and also you can buy Great Balls with in game coins which can double you catch rate, but again these can steal fail, meaning if you spent real money on the ball and it failed you just wasted your cash, why can't you buy a Master Ball, because well it's less money in the long run. My god this game does my head in... but the sad thing is there's a good game hiding underneath all the freemium crap. But even if I never put money into it, tons of people will and Nintendo's gonna be singing this.
No comments:
Post a Comment