Game Informer gave Pokemon XD got a 5.75

[Auraninja]

Title is self-explanatory.

Here is what they said verbata, pretty much. Doesn't quite mean I will get it all right.

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness

When The Dream Dies

Concept: Pen a sequel to the icky Pokemon Colosseum that's even worse.

Graphics: The N64 was a lovely system. Using its level of graphics is not.

Sound: Shamefully using the same growl for each critter is only the start of the dumbed-down audio presentation.

Playability: The menus work is intended, and I guess that's a compliment.

Entertainment: Games are supposed to be fun, right? Gale of Darkness does not meet this primary threshold.

Replay Value: Low

Long have I been a fan of the Pokemon series. For the same length of time I have wanted a full-featured console version that would bring to life all of the things that I've found so compelling in the handheld RPG series - epic adventure, wacky villagers, interesting monsters to train, and an open world to explore. The last GameCube Pokemon game didn't do it for me, but I hoped that its sequel, Gale of Darkness, would reverse the flow of poor execution and give me what I really wanted. It doesn't. In fact, I think it's worse than its predecessor.

While never being known for a lush graphical presentation, this world seems even more flat and uninerestion than that in Colosseum, even though it's supposed to be the same geographical region five years after the end of the last game. Textures are uniformly dull and muddied. There's little for ambient life in the enviroment, and character models are blocky, to be kind.

While the battle system is the same as the seroes has always been, the limited focus of colloecting and rejuvenating Shadow Pokemon lessens the feel of creating your own team to tackle the challenge at hand. Instead, there is substantially more handholding in every facet of the game's journey. To be blunt, I've played a bunch of these games, and I don't need the freaking babysitting.

I'm not knocking this game for not being what I personally want. Instead, I'm frustrated because what they've done is stripped out the only parts of the Pokemon series that are defendable. It looks like crap. It plays like a cripple puppy - darn cute but requiring constant and mind-numbing repetiton. As before, you can import Pokemon from the handheld entries for mini battles in 3D - which is the only thing that this game does well. Lisa

Second Opinion 5.5
Despite the stigma attached to Pokemon and its enthusiasts, there have been some pretty addictive and fun games based on the franchise. Gale of Darkness is not one of them. In fact, this game does more to bolster the "Pokemon fans are vapid, hollow drones who'll buy anything tat says 'pika'" theory than jany previous entry. With a lifeless story, recycled visuals from Pokemon Colosseum (or is it Pokemon Stadium?) and the fun factor of a bag of oats, Gale of Darkness is drawing from an obviously dry well. The only enjoyment I got from this titly was the sadistic pleasure in watching my creatures get slashed, bitten, and immolated. Serves you right! Now you suffer like I have suffered! Joe

And Blaziken fans, prepare to be ticked. They got a picture of Blaziken fighting, and its caption was...
"Dear God, what am I, and why do I suck so much?"

What I think about this? I hate game ratings anyway, but one thing for sure. I'm not going to trust GI in game ratings again. What they rated the other games...

Ruby & Sapphire - 7.25
Fire Red & Leaf Green - 8
Colosseum - 7

What do you think of this?

 

[Ethereal]

Um...Who cares? Does it matter what Game Informer thinks? Are they the ones that give final words on games, or are consumers the ones that do? :/

And the thread title...wow. Stay in school, kids.

 

[Auraninja]

Um...Who cares? Does it matter what Game Informer thinks? Are they the ones that give final words on games, or are consumers the ones that do? :/

And the thread title...wow. Stay in school, kids.

You hurt my feelings Jynxo. I am highly intelligent. You make me have to fight you.

Psychic Politoed used Fake Tears.
Jynxo's Special Defense Lowered.
Let me think about this.
Psychic Politoed used Calm Mind.
Don't make me use Kerostorm Omega.

(j/k), but next time, please don't question my intelligence. Just think of this as Engrish. It Zero Wing all over again. (On purpose.)

 

[Cipher]

That doesn't change the fact that Colosseum was one of the top selling games for a long time. And no, of course XD isn't one of the greatest games of all time, but if you love Pokemon, you're bound to enjoy at anyway, and that warrants a purchase.

 

[Naraku_Diabolos]

That person who did the review needs to be kicked in the ovaries. They're bashing a good game. I'm not bored of it one bit, it's just that it's hard to raise your characters when they're lower levels.

 

[-DJ-]

That wasn't a honest game rating, but rather bashing so GI looks popular. You get more subscribers if you bash Nintendo or Pokemon, that's the plain truth. I mean look at what happened to G4.

 

[Ethereal]

You hurt my feelings Jynxo. I am highly intelligent. You make me have to fight you.

Psychic Politoed used Fake Tears.
Jynxo's Special Defense Lowered.
Let me think about this.
Psychic Politoed used Calm Mind.
Don't make me use Kerostorm Omega.

(j/k), but next time, please don't question my intelligence. Just think of this as Engrish. It Zero Wing all over again. (On purpose.)

What the hell are you talking about? I didn't question your intelligence. The "stay in school" was a mudda fawking joke. -_-

"You make me have to fight you"? Lol and a half.

 

[Powerful_Blaziken88]

That's sad. I'm quite enjoying XD, and see nothing wrong with it. Yes, colosseum could've been a little better. But XD's a great game, and as long as that's what we think, others' opinions don't matter do they?

 

[Kakashi-Sharingan Warrior]

since Pokemon is 'dead' now everyone gives them bad ratings..

when the first movie was out over here everyone gave it 5 stars and saying itr was amazing and stayin, and now since it is 'dead' everyone is rating it 1 star and saying 'very poor debut'

so don't trust them, but nintendo offical magazine still loves pokemon and gave emerald around 80% which is very good, they voted pokemon games the 2nd best ever, first was LoZ ocarina of time..

 

[MaskedManAbsolkid]

since Pokemon is 'dead' now everyone gives them bad ratings..

when the first movie was out over here everyone gave it 5 stars and saying itr was amazing and stayin, and now since it is 'dead' everyone is rating it 1 star and saying 'very poor debut'

so don't trust them, but nintendo offical magazine still loves pokemon and gave emerald around 80% which is very good, they voted pokemon games the 2nd best ever, first was LoZ ocarina of time..

ROFL. First off, read this part:

Long have I been a fan of the Pokemon series.

Secondly, if you haven't realised, ALL movies which age get lower ratings.
Thirdly, Pokemon is only considered 'dead' in England, but if it's dead, then why does it have a bigger fanbase than a few years ago? Why is it the second best Nintendo series ever? Why does it beat classic shows in surveys when it comes to the best cartoons?

NOM gave it 85%, which is bad considering The Night Before Christmas 2 on GBA got 80%.

BTW, it deserves at least a 7, at most 8 or 9. Non-official reviews are bad.

 

[Kakashi-Sharingan Warrior]

ROFL. First off, read this part:



Secondly, if you haven't realised, ALL movies which age get lower ratings.
Thirdly, Pokemon is only considered 'dead' in England, but if it's dead, then why does it have a bigger fanbase than a few years ago? Why is it the second best Nintendo series ever? Why does it beat classic shows in surveys when it comes to the best cartoons?

NOM gave it 85%, which is bad considering The Night Before Christmas 2 on GBA got 80%.

BTW, it deserves at least a 7, at most 8 or 9. Non-official reviews are bad.

that quote can be considered as a lie, and even the most classic films from over 30 years ago still do get five stars...

 

[Cipher]

On a side note, EGM continues to give Pokemon games high ratings. XD scored slightly above average, which is really what it should get, it's not a fantastic game (unless you really love Pokemon), but the Gameboy ones they review are always very high. And take Nintendo Power's Pokemon reviews with a grain of salt. It's sort of hard to take a review of a game to heart when they devote a whole section to it every month.

 

[Ethereal]

Weird thing is, EGM HATES all things Pokemon. Part of the reason I started hating that magazine when I used to get gaming magazines. Their opinions, as with everyone else's, didn't matter to me. I had the final call in the end.

 

[Slypher]

Ack the stupidity!

What was the point of this thread? Are you sad that Pokemon XD got a bad review? Do you hate everyone who doesn't enjoy what you enjoy? Although I dislike most gaming magazine and consider what I like by playing them, I'll still defend them from this. I thought Pokemon Colluseum sucks and some of the stuff they said were true. The gameboy cries on a gamecube game is just pure laziness and the Pokemon model had outdated graphic. Besides that, it's all opinions and who gives a ****?

 

[Naraku_Diabolos]

Their opinions, as with everyone else's, didn't matter to me. I had the final call in the end.

That was the best post I've seen that was Jynxo's. Not sucking up to you or anything, but that was a moral statement.

The gameboy cries on a gamecube game is just pure laziness and the Pokemon model had outdated graphic. Besides that, it's all opinions and who gives a ****?

That is definitely true. They could at least used the cries from Stadiums 1 and 2. Those are a whole lot better than GBA sounds. Speaking of the models, they just copied and pasted them from the Stadium games. Why couldn't they use some of the models from SSBM like from the trophies?

 

[Pokemaníaco Desesperado]

That was the best post I've seen that was Jynxo's. Not sucking up to you or anything, but that was a moral statement.



That is definitely true. They could at least used the cries from Stadiums 1 and 2. Those are a whole lot better than GBA sounds. Speaking of the models, they just copied and pasted them from the Stadium games. Why couldn't they use some of the models from SSBM like from the trophies?

If they just copied and pasted, they'd be more blocky.

 

[ShiningClefairy]

If they just copied and pasted, they'd be more blocky.

No, not really... the GC has better hardware than the N64. Try playing either LoZ: Majora's Mask or Ocarina of Time on the N64 and then play the same game on your PC using emulation, or on the GC with Collector's Edition.

They ARE using the same models for the Pokemon in the Gamecube games as they did in Stadium, for the record. I've played Stadium not too long ago, and the animations, such as how a Pokemon moves when it attacks, are the same in each game. The attack animations aren't the same.

My honest opinion is that I think both Colosseum and XD could've been leagues better than they are. They disappointed me. I hate Genius Sonority, as a developer, for their Pokemon games. The team that does the portable adventure ones is the one that should've done this.

Even though I don't like XD or Colosseum, Game Informer still. Sucks. Big. Monkey. Balls. Direct quote from them: "90% of our staff thinks that the last two letters on Nintendo DS stand for Dip-S***!"

 

[adamgnome]

It's no good insulting a magazine for the writers opinoin.

I generally don't like reading reviews of things, because I think when people insult it, it's only their opinoin, not mine. If I want to enjoy the game, I won't look at someone's elses opinoin at all. Especially since they just bash things, and have no talent to actually make a videogame.

;249-d;

 

[Auraninja]

OKAY, now all of you need to know the truth. No I am not upset, and no I am not insulting anybody. I was doing this for A. to satisfy people's curiosity and B. because I wanted to see what some people thought of it.

Geez people.

 

[Auraninja]

What I think about this? I hate game ratings anyway, but one thing for sure.

And read what I have to say darn it.