Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness Review

One of the phenomena in recent years, the Pokemon machine continues to rumble in Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. The second title from the expansive franchise following the release of Pokemon Colosseum in 2004, Gale of Darkness follows a young trainer as he tries to rescue the kdnaped head of a Pokemon research lab. A resurgence of Shadow Pokemon in the area makes Colosseum enemies Cipher the prime suspects, but what do they have to do with the disappearance of a ship transporting Pokemon?

During the course of the story mode, players travel across the region of Orre to do battle against a range of with a range of both Pokemon and their shadowy counter-parts; sadly there is a major limitations in the game, which is players can only catch the Shadow Pokemonâ?¦whatever happened to catching ALL of them? Armed with a Shadow Meter that detects when a Pokemon has closed its heart and become its darker alter-ego, the trainer then has to engage in several battles to open the Pokemon's heart before purifying it and thereby returning it to the light - it's almost like the Pokemon equivalent of a Baptism.

There's a lot of travel in the game, as you'd expect from a turn-based RPG with that other characteristic dynamic, over-frequent battles, highly prevalent. The battles themselves vary in difficulty quite dramatically, especially towards the end of the game, so building up the attributes of your Pokemon is an absolute must. In this, the game actually feels exceptionally repetitive, and with the key Pokemon gameplay element (collecting the creatures) severely limited Gale of Darkness quickly begins to drag its heels. Compounding that fact is the realisation that it plays like all the other Pokemon titles before it; the argument of â??why fix something that isn't broken?â? might be commented upon by some below this review, but isn't it about time that the franchise receives a kick up the butt with some fresher ideas? Ok, so the implementation of a purification chamber certainly helps to allay one of the criticisms from Pokemon Collosseum, but where's the rest of the initiative?

One of the features that you'll find on the packaging of Gale of Darkness is that GBA owners can plug into the GameCube and import their creatures from pretty much every handheld Pokemon title and battle it out with friends. Whilst a good idea, it should hardly be the driving force for parting with £29.99; it feels more of a tacked on gimmick than anything and shouldn't sway the judgement of prospective XD gamers. Having said that, the legions of Pokemon fanatics are sure to buy the game in droves just to satisfy their addiction to the franchise, and in doing that Gale of Darkness succeeds. It has everything the previous titles have (quite literally) together with the darker elements in the Shadow Pokemon to add an ever so slightly sinister tone to the game.

Visually similar to Pokemon Colosseum, the game continues to bring over-saturated characters and environments to the TV screen; the Pokemon feature from across the spectrum of franchise releases including that most well known, Pikachu. As you'd expect the visual style reflects its GameCube heritage and is very similar to Pokemon Collosseum in that regard; techie fans looking for the latest in HDR light effects won't find it in this game.

Pokemon XD is very much a by-numbers title that regurgitates most of the gameplay (and indeed, Pokemon) from previous instalments in the long-running franchise. The ability to plug and play with others via connected GameBoy Advances is a nice touch though shouldn't be marketed as the major selling point. In truth, the franchise is beginning to feel like a churn and there's very little new here to help reinvigorate the series.