Five Things I Thought About Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire have been out for almost two weeks in North America and I’m still playing the games as much as I can trying to explore every nook and cranny of the new and improved Hoenn region. The game’s been a lot of fun and it’s no surprise that I’ve really enjoyed playing it. The following is a general review of the game that goes over five key things that I thought while I was playing the newest installments in the Pokémon series. Don’t worry, if you haven’t played the newest games yet, this “review” of sorts is free of any major spoilers.

1. The Graphics Are Wonderful

It’s funny how seamlessly Game Freak managed to transform the look and style of the R/S/E Hoenn in these new 3D games. If you played the original games, you’ll have no problem recognizing all of the familiar areas despite the graphical leap forward. Everything looks so classic, yet so new at the same time. Tiny details, like the waving of the grass, the Pokémon in the overworld, and the wide array of colors used to give life to the world really go a long way and fans of the older games will really appreciate it. Aside from just the overworld, though, the 3D trainer models look great and even better than they did in X and Y. Their movements and expressions are fluid and expressive and really add a lot to the experience. Speaking of the trainers…

2. Every Character Has a Distinct Personality

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire truly stand out in terms of character development. Each unique character you meet from your rival to the Elite 4 all have distinct and memorable personalities that are only enhanced by their expressive faces and movements. True standouts in this department are the previously flat characters of Courtney (she in particular I found to be both creepy and awesome at the same time), Tabitha, Matt, and Shelly. While the Magma/Aqua admins were never super memorable in R/S/E, they really stand out here. They not only have more interaction with the player and involvement in the story, but Game Freak really went out of their way to make each of them unique. The same can be said for your two rivals, Brendan/May and Wally, as well as the gym leaders. It’s unfortunate many of the gym leaders don’t do much but battle you, but even in the short time you see them, they make their impression. The gym leaders and Elite 4 also each get their own cinematic introduction that really helps get you hyped for each battle. Special props to the introduction and battle with Norman in particular which set the stage for your dramatic fight against him perfectly. I hope future games take as many steps as these ones did to help establish their characters because I think it’s something that fans young and old can appreciate.

New Pokémon ORAS Trailer Featuring Info from December CoroCoro Scans

Well, that was fast. A brand new trailer was released today that shows off all of the information that we learned from the CoroCoro leaks yesterday. Only, this time with a little more detail. As I stated yesterday, I’m using the “Continue Reading” tag to hide spoilers if you want to keep yourself in the dark, so again, there’ll be no specifics unless you click below and choose whether or not you want to read them.

Anyway, if you want to know more, click below to read about my thoughts and opinions on this new trailer.

5 Things I Thought About Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS

So, it’s finally here! Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS is out world-wide and we finally have the ability to play the game that we’ve been anticipating for months. I’ve been playing the game myself over the last few days and, I’ll say it up front, so far I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s a great game and if you’ve liked the previous entries in the Smash Bros. series, you’ll very likely enjoy this one.

Like I did for Tomodachi Life, I’ll provide you with five key thoughts about the game in lieu of a traditional review that will give a broad, spoiler-free opinion on the game and its features.

5. Being a Handheld Game Has its Pros

I typically don’t have a preference either way when it comes to handheld or home consoles, though I know some games are more suited to being portable than others—like Pokémon main series games, for example. One of the first things people thought of when they heard Smash Bros. would be coming to the 3DS was whether or not it would work. Simply put, it does. The game’s graphics still are crisp and detailed, the animations are smooth, and the game overall runs pretty quickly without any super long loading screens or anything of the sort. Another pro is the fact that the game’s portability gives you the chance to link up to someone and battle from anywhere there’s an Internet connection. Truthfully, the Internet connection can be not-so-great at times and lag during matches is very annoying, but I’ve had only a few instances in which I noticed significant slow-down. Most of the time, everything ran smoothly and quickly and I had no problems and the issues people have been having with their connections may solved over time. And even if you don’t to go on the Internet and do a traditional match, many of the games modes are set up so that they can be played quickly and in short spurts. A round of Classic Mode takes about 10-20 minutes, Smash Run takes about 5-7 minutes, and the mini games such as Home-Run Contest and Target Smash are short and have a mobile game feel when they’re being played on the 3DS. However, even with all these pros it’s important to keep in mind…

4. The 3DS Screen is Kinda Small

The hardest thing to get used to for me was the size of the screen. Since there is so much detail and a lot going on all at once, the screen size may make it hard to play the way that you’re used to playing on a television. Thankfully, the game has features like the outlines around the characters and the damage percentages being moved to the bottom screen in order to help. These features do their job, but the game really benefits from a larger screen. If you’re having a hard time seeing the action on the smaller 3DS screen, I recommend trying the game on a 3DS XL if you can and seeing if your experience improves there. The game is frequently showed off on the 3DS XL and for good reason. It definitely benefits the game, though if you don’t have an XL and you aren’t planning on getting one, the game is still playable on the smaller screen, it just takes some getting used to.

Pokemon ORAS Trailer Shows Off New Megas and Primal Form Abilities + Smash Bros. Release in Japan

As we’ve come to expect, just a couple days after the CoroCoro scans came out, the official Pokémon channel has released a brand new trailer for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire with almost the exact same information as the scans only with a bit more detail. Here’s a link to the trailer so you can see it for yourself!

The trailer clarified the actual ways the new abilities of the Primal forms of Kyogre and Groudon will work and boy do they sound devastating. Groudon’s ability- Desolate Land, as it is called in English, brings about Harsh Sunlight will stop all water attacks and it cannot be taken away by other weather effects while Kyogre’s Primordial Sea ability does just about the opposite by stopping fire attacks and preventing other weather moves from being used. Both legendaries also have a new exclusive move: Groudon has Precipice Blades and Kyogre has Origin Pulse. These moves sound and look powerful and these new abilities are waay stronger than I thought they’d be. These Pokemon are obviously very capable of shutting down just about any weather based team. I wonder if they’ll make any future banned lists. At first glance, Groudon’s ability seems to outshine Kyogre’s (pun intended) as his completely shuts down the type he was 4x weak to in his Primal form. Kyogre’s just blocks Fire types, which can be useful if utilized correctly, but seems to be less practical. We’ll just have to see, though.

The rest of trailer also shows of Rayquaza (saying he’s making his “debut” though he’s hardly new), Mega Camerupt, Mega Sharpedo, and Mega Gallade in action.

Well, that about covers it, however I would like to mention that Super Smash Bros for the 3DS is out now in Japan and there is information about the game going around like mad. I anxiously await the release of the game in the U.S. in just a few weeks, and I know that many people are trying to avoid spoilers, including myself. Though I know quite a bit about the games already, I’m choosing to wait until the game is released fully to give my own thoughts and opinions about it. Also, I do not want to actively spoil the game for those who want to truly be surprised by the character roster, stages, secrets, and the like. Expect a review on the 3DS version of Smash Bros some time after the game’s release in North America and a post on any official news coming from either Nintendo or Sakurai himself.

Until Then,

The Nintendo Nerd

Pokémon ORAS-Mega Gallade, Mega Sharpedo, and Mega Camerupt!

The scans of the October issue of CoroCoro were released today and with them came some exciting new information about Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire! What news exactly? More Megas of course!

My absolute favorite Mega we’ve seen thus far is Mega Gallade. Gallade has been my personal favorite Pokémon since Gen IV, so I’m very excited to see it getting a Mega in these new games. And it looks so cool, too! That helmet and those coat tails look awesome. They make a nice complement to Mega Gardevoir. Not much is known about him yet stat wise or even type and ability wise, but that’ll likely change in the near future as more information comes to us.

We even get a chance to see the newly designed Wally with longer hair and a new coat. His signature Pokémon is, in fact, his Gallade. This means the player will likely still help him catch a Ralts at the beginning of the game. I just hope we see a little bit more of Wally than we did in the original Ruby and Sapphire. Will his Mega Stone factor into the plot at all? Everyone else with a Mega Stone seems to have some importance to the story, so it makes me wonder if his role has been expanded.