Forums > Submission Feedback > Suskie's Pokemon SoulSilver Version review

You make some interesting points, though I don't necessarily agree with them all. I considered the release of these two remakes as an opportunity to make catching the earlier generation pokemon a lot easier. Sure, you can catch all these pokemon if you have all the GBA cartridges and the like (and I do), but it's exceedingly difficult and time consuming. In fact, despite having all the 'resources' (with the exception of any sort of motivation to go to Nintendo events to collect the legendaries. Ugh. That's just too much), I've hardly made a dent in collecting all the old-school ones. To me, it'd just be easier to trade with one of these games rather than import from the GBA cartridge or try to catch them using that bizarre poke radar method or whatever.

That being said, I can't really say whether these games would actually be worth the price to someone who's played these games in their original form. While I don't have either remake myself, I am aware of all the new features because, at the risk of sounding super nerdy, I've watched youtube walkthroughs just to see whether I'd really be interested in the new games or not. I do like some of the new features such as the fact that you can rechallenge gym leaders pretty much as often as you like, but if put in retrospect, all these things really are kind of minor so might not be a huge sale. I actually found the Pokewalker thing ot be kind of lame, but it's cool you seem to like it.

Still, whether Nintendo is actually coming up with anything new or not - and in many ways, it really isn't - it kind of doesn't matter to me because when they do rehash something like this, there always seems to be a ton of extras that those exposed to the originals wouldn't get otherwise. But even so, I will admit that I probably won't invest in these until prices come down because I don't really feel like spending $50 on something like this. As much time as I've spent on the Pokemon portable gaming franchise over the years, it's really fallen out with me as I've grown older. I still find it fun, mind, and it's nostalgic as hell, but I'm less interested in getting anything new nowadays.

Truth be told, I'm surprised they can keep continuing the franchise at all. Have you heard about the genuinely new games coming out? Jesus Christ, I had to say to myself, it's like... how much more can they come up with? I actually grew exasperated with some of the pokemon in Diamond/Pearl because they just seemed like variations of similar pokemon in previous generations (well, more so than usual, anyway). But, well, it's a profitable enterprise, so I suppose they'll milk it for as long as there's interest.

Anyway, I sort of went on a huge tangent there. The review itself was fairly decent and provides some interesting discussion points, but probably wouldn't be very useful to someone new to the series. Of course, it's highly unlikely that anyone new to the series would read this review first oer others of different games... I imagine that anyone interested in HeartGold / SoulSilver would have had some prior exposure to the series beforehand. Either way, it really just goes to show that reviewing the Pokemon games is very tricky. I've tried a few times and just... sort of gave up because it wasn't saying what I wanted and how I wanted it said. So kudos to you for going for such a challenging game (in my opinion) to write about.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

Thanks. Yeah, I freely admit that this is more of a rant than a straightforward review. My stance was essentially that I'm not going to waste anyone's time describing in detail how these games work because it's pretty much common knowledge by now and I had more important things to discuss. I agree with the popular assertion that HeartGold and SoulSilver make good starting points for anyone who's new to the series, but how has that not apply to every generation of Pokemon games?

You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it.