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Blue Dragon Plus is a return to form for the admittedly lackluster JRPG originally housed on the Xbox 360. From Mistwalker Studios and famed developer Brownie Brown (Magical Starsign, Heroes of Mana), we’re gifted with a sequel to a story that, while it shouldn’t have received continuation to begin with, is much more engaging than its previous installment. With a focus on strategy conventions rather than tried-and-true turn-based battles coupled with some gorgeous sprites and washes of color, this is the Blue Dragon I would have preferred from the beginning.

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Amidst remakes of the hugely popular Final Fantasy series comes Suikoden: Tierkreis, an original JRPG with all new characters, settings and story lines.

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It’s back, and it doesn’t intend to go away. Selling over one million copies, just in Japan, two days after its initial release, the Pokemon games are still just as popular as they once were. Here comes Platinum!

Story
Let’s face it- if you’ve played one Pokemon game, you’ve basically played the rest of them. Sure, the overall story lines differ slightly and maybe the evil organization you’re battling with throughout the game has a different name than the one before. That’s where, while the original Red and Blue might have let you down, Platinum might give you a good run for your money.

In this particular game, the pokemon developers decided to give the world a bit of a twist. The game follows your main character, either being male or female, and your journey through the strange and exciting world of pokemon. Along with your rival and best friend, who can best be described as a overexcited kid with acute ADHD who seriously needs to be medicated, you travel across the land, searching far and wide, for pokemon to aid you in battle and help you earn gym badges.

Pick if you would like to play a girl or a boy!

The twist, you ask?

Cyrus, the leader of Team Galactic, is a super downer and wants to use pokemon to take down the world and reduce it to nothing. He’s convinced that mankind is all about sorrow and hurt, though he honestly comes off less emo and more butthurt as far as personality goes. Whatever- the point is that he’s sick of the state of the world and he’s using his legions of minions to help him obtain his goal.

The three legendary spirit pokemon – Uxie, Azelf, and Mespirit – have been kidnapped by Cyrus’ grunts. Harnessing the power of these three pokemon, Cyrus opens a portal to The Distortion World, an alternate dimension in which houses Giratina, a pokemon that ‘lives in the reverse side of the human world.’

You know the drill past here though, I’m sure; you hand Cyrus his ass back to him, after you’ve beaten it to a bloody pulp, then fight Giratina. If you’re lucky, you’ll add him to your party. If not, he’ll eat you and your pokemon friends alive. After that, you finish collecting your badges, challenge the Elite Four, and go on to do pretty much whatever you feel like doing, be it breeding pokemon, catching the entire pokedex, competing in pokemon contests, or battling in the new and improved battle tower with trainers from around the world.

Uh-oh! Giratina is miffed!

Gameplay
Like the Diamond and Pearl before it, Platinum uses the DS’s touch-screen both in the item menu and in the fight menu. Or, you can bake Poffins to feed your pokemon and play the fun cooking minigame. It’s not completely necessary if you’re simply playing through and battling, but it’s a fun feature that makes you feel a little more included in the game. The buttons work just fine, however, if you don’t feel like pulling out your stylus every time you fight.

As far as it goes, however, Platinum is pretty much the same-old pokemon fighting game you’ve grown up playing. Walk or bike across the land with your pokemon pals at your side, fighting other trainers and wild pokemon as you go. Pick berries and replant them, compete in contests and dress up your pokemon; even with the new features added, it’s mostly the same old thing.

If you like repetitious games, you’re covered. Even with what plot they managed to squeezed into the game, it’s still Pokemon- the gameplay is going to be the same. If you’re expecting more than what you’ve been given before, you need to look somewhere else. If you’re looking for a good way to drain 30+ hours of your life with something that you grew up with, it’s worth the money.

Pick the pokemon you would like to start your adventure with; Turtwig, Chimchar, or Piplup!

Visuals
Graphics in the original were wanting, but now we have shiny color and fancy sounds. It’s a definite improvement from what we looking at a decade ago, but it remains familiar. Many of the sprites that appear in battle have been re-done from Diamond and Pearl, but nothing that would break your skull open with amazement; while one pokemon might have been standing in Diamond or Pearl, it’s now sitting in Platinum. Not that big of a deal.

Audio
Much like the graphics, the music for Platinum is a lot like it was ten years ago, in the ages of Red and Blue, simply improved. It’s less blocky than the games before, but don’t expect orchestra-remakes of this stuff. It’s good enough to get stuck in your head (pokemon center music always does that to me), but you’ll forget after the day is over.

Multiplayer
Though you can’t play completely through the game with a friend, you can battle and trade with people from around the world. Hook your DS up to your WiFi connection and go to town. It’s a fun addition, considering the games before; they’ve come a long way since Red and Blue and the cord that you were forced to buy if you wanted to trade with friends.

Fight pokemon of all shapes and sizes as you play!

Lifespan
This is the key element of the game, honestly; how long you can stretch out your hours of pokemon adventures, be they the minigames and contests, trading, or battling people the world over. How long this game lasts depends completely on how much effort you put into it. See, if you just want to play it to say that you’ve played it, you’re going to put about 20 hours in, defeat the Elite Four, maybe poke around the battle tower or trade some of your favorites into your party. Or, if you’re a badass trainer and can’t get enough of these games, you’re in luck- Platinum easily stretches over 50+ hours. If you’re crazy about these little critters, you can even take your Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby, Leaf Green, and Fire Red and plug them into the bottom portion of your DSlite and trade all of your caught pokemon over onto your new game. You can, if you put enough effort into it and are lucky enough to live around areas that have the pokemon events for certain creatures like Deoxys (hey, it happens- I have one), honestly, catch them all. That’s the point, right? Bragging rights.

Recommendation
If you’re a pokemon fan, you’ll like this game. If you like wasting your time on things that are too cute for their own good, you’ll really like this game. Platinum is for people of all ages, despite the fact that it’s marketed mostly toward the younger generation. Anyone can pick up this game and begin to play it, from the most seasoned of vets, to newbies to the gaming world.

If, however, you’re a hard-core collector and trader and have one of those new, fancy, DSi handhelds, you might want to skip out on this one. The DSi doesn’t come with the GBA game port like the DS Lite does, meaning if you have the older games and want to transfer your pokemon onto Platinum quickly and easily, you’re out of luck.

Pokemon Platinum
Systems: Nintendo DS
Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo
Find: Amazon, Gamefly, Goozex.
All reviews are based on the final retail code unless otherwise noted.

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Most of us would likely never consider farming as a desirable career choice, considering the long, grueling hours one must put into fields, crops, and animals in order to see even the smallest results. Who would have ever imagined gamers would ever let themselves become so acquainted with farming sims? Surprisingly, the games are a substantial success - titles such as Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing really bring in the sales. Having grown up with both, I can attest to the hours of entertainment they can provide if you’re willing to put in the work.

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