Pokémon Battle Revolution

Pokémon — love it or hate it, there’s no denying the sheer scale of the phenomenon. With 175 million titles sold worldwide, only the Mario franchise can boast higher figures, and everyone’s favourite Italian plumber has been around for 15 years longer than the electric rodent, and appeared in roughly 200 more titles.

This incredible/terrifying success is in no small part thanks to Nintendo’s canny marketing strategy. Each generation of Pokémon games — from Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue on the Gameboy through to Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl on the DS — comes in two parts, each of which has unique content. Thus in order to “catch ‘em all” you need to trade between versions, a task made much easier if you happen to own copies of both. In addition, Nintendo has brought out tie-in titles for the past three generations of their home console system, starting with Pokémon Stadium on the N64, which allow owners of the handheld games to use the Pokémon they’ve collected in tournament style competitions on the big(ger) screen. This long and impressive history of milking the Pokémon cash cow now comes to the Wii in the form of Pokémon Battle Revolution.

First things first: Pokémon Battle Revolution is not a game for the uninitiated. The back of the box states “Although this Wii game can be played by itself, linking with Pokémon Diamond or Pokémon Pearl using your DS may broaden your experience”. What it should say is “Unless you own a copy of Pokémon Diamond or Pokémon Pearl there’s really no point in playing this game (and even then it’s debatable).”

There are two basic gameplay modes. In Colosseum mode, the player enters their Pokémon (which can be downloaded onto the Wii from a DS copy of Diamond or Pearl) into various tournaments held around “Pokétopia” in order to win coupons to purchase “Mystery Gifts” (which are only of any use when loaded back onto a copy of Diamond or Pearl). In DS Battle mode two to four players battle against each other using their DS systems as controllers. Is anyone else starting to see a pattern here?

It is possible to play Colosseum mode without downloading Pokémon from a DS, but if you do that you are given a selection of pre-determined Pokémon and only fleeting access to the options available to players with their own critters. The dynamics of the battle work in pretty much the same way as ever, being in essence a multi-layer version of rock, paper, scissors with additional whistle and bells. The graphics are entertaining enough, and obviously a step up from those on display on the DS, but are hardly worth the entrance fee, especially given that if you and your buddy have a DS each and copies of Diamond and Pearl you can already fight each other without the need for a Wii, a copy of this game, or indeed the need to both be in the same postal code.