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Pokemon XD: Hands-On

Financial In Market Ever since the unexpected success of Pokemon Red/Blue on Gameboy Nintendo fans have clamored for a full-fledged Pokemon adventure on a home console. After toying with us by adding a small quest mode into Pokemon Colisseum the big N has finally answered our prayers.

Based on my impressions from the demo displayed on the show floor here at E3 Pokemon XD appears to be a solid and enjoyable RPG. The storyline appears to still revolve around the "shadow" Pokemon dynamic introduced in the Colisseum quest. For those unfamiliar with Colisseum, the "shadow" Pokemon are creatures bent on only gaining more power, generally they are held by evil trainers.

Despite what seems like a familiar story, Pokemon XD excels where all of the other entries in the franchise have- the battles. The demo features 2 on 2 battles exclusively (no word on whether 1 on 1 will be in the game, although it is a safe bet) and plays extremely similar to the Coliseum and Stadium games. One difference I noticed is that the trainers react visibly to the events occurring in battle, when their monster takes a big hit they wince, and when they triumph they celebrate. This may not seem like much, but when playing the game it is very noticeable, and serves to really show the connection between your Pokemon and their trainer.

Although it's always a little soon to base visual impressions off of a demo, the visuals and battle effects in XD are solid if not amazing. Although this game might not rival RE4 or Zelda, the battle effects and environments are well done and fit the Pokemon universe well. The fact that I never once was concerned about the graphical prowess of the game while looking at it with a very critical eye is very telling, the game gets the job done visually.

Before playing Pokemon XD I was skeptical of whether Nintendo would take this game seriously, or choose to pop out another quick half done money making title. After playing the demo I have no doubt this could very well be the Pokemon game we've been waiting for since 1998. Pokemon XD is a title to watch. If Nintendo puts the right polish onto it before shipping it this fall, GameCube owners should be in for a treat.

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