Pokemon XD: Gale Of Darkness

Please remember, these articles are based on opinions only, they're correct opinions, but they're opinions.

Overview


Pokemon XD: Gale Of Darkness is probably the best and rarest pokemon game to find ever released for a console, along with Pokemon Colosseum. Unlike Colosseum, where you play as an awesome company rebel that tries to save the world, you play as some dorky 12-year-old that hasn't even gone through puberty yet. Despite that however, XD is superior in all other ways, except the Legendary Pokemon it has to offer. In all honesty though, Pokemon XD is also one of the best spin-off games Nintendo has ever made.

First World Problems
From the get-go, I was already having problems with the disc, as I purchased this copy without the case for merely $17. My GameCube just did not want to cooperate with the disc, even after about 5 minutes of rincing. After thinking that I got ripped off by a dirty old black market, one more idea hit me. "The Wii!", so anyway I pulled out that system, put the game in, and without hesitation, the game actually worked! Even though I plan on turning this one in for a better copy (I know the guy who sold it to me), I played it anyway and was very pleased from the result.

My First-esque Playthrough
To avoid confusion, I have played and completed this game before, but that was when I was only 8, so I don't remeber one detail from it, except the title. The game started with a firece battle with a  LV 50 Metagross. I destroyed that thing using a LV 50 Salamence that knew Earthquake, but unfortunetly, the battle turned out to be a training program. Anyway, you return to your normal, boring life in some random pokemon lab, but then all of a sudden, your mom comes rushing from the bed after sleeping with the professor, and tells you that your sister is missing! Some bozo tells you to go look for her in a haunted house that's like over 100 miles away. You arrive just in time before your sister is about to get incinerated, but then you get stopped by a midgit on lsd (and that happens like 20 times). I finally came home with my sister to the animal abuse lab, but then my mom's butt buddy professor gets tied up by serial rapists and brought to, another, boring old lab. Alright, I don't want to ruin the rest of this block-busting plot, so I'll go ahead and break-down the details in catagories.

The Battling System
One of my main problems with Colosseum and XD, is that there is no way to speed up the battling system whatsoever, so basicaslly, I'm just sitting on my carpet, operating the controller with my left, and jerking off to Julio Iglesias on my right. The game's pokemon models also come from the Stadium series, so it makes the game look ancient.

The Actual Pokemon
Nintendo felt bad for the people that only owned Pokemon Sapphire and Fire Red, so they put every version exclusive pokemon from Generation III in this game. there's way more to catch than Colosseum this time around, but to get around this, Nintendo decided that some trainers should be able to fight you with multiple Shadow Pokemon, instead of one, like Colosseum. What's cool about this game, however, is that there are two generation IV pokemon to be found, one of which you can battle with.

The Locations
A lot of the same areas in Colosseum are also in XD, the only exceptions being the Cunstruction Lot, and The Under. A lot of changes, minor and major, have also happened to buildings in both games. An example would be in Pyrite Town, where the building that lead to and underground base led by Cipher, is now a News Studio Center, ran by kids that came from The Under.

The Music
The music in all pokemon games have always been good, and this is no exception. A lot of the tunes heard in this game are either from, or remixed from Colosseum. Even though you're forced to listen to 200 loops of every track during a full playthrough, the songs rarely ever get old, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Review And Final Impressions
Given the amount of effort I put in, just to replay this fantastic game, I give this game 8.5/10 Bowling Pins, because every detail peppered throughout this game, blend into an excellent synergy of properties that only a few games hold.