The Psychiatric Ward

Intro:

Pokemon HeartGold is a very popular game developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo, the Pokemon Company. Released on the Nintendo DS in the US on March 14, 2010, it became an instant hit with all the fans of the second generation of Pokemon, wishing for a good remake of their favorite game. As with most other games in this main line of Pokemon, this is one of the role playing genre.

This game is a remake of the Silver, Gold, and Crystal versions that many people will remember playing years ago. Though many things have been added to this game, it still is almost a carbon copy of the old game as far as the placement of everything goes. This means that anyone playing the game will instantly recognize the characters from the older versions of this game.

Set in the fictional area of the world known in the game a Johto, the player is sent out as a child to capture and train small creatures known as Pokemon. Along with the training comes the ability to pit one Pokemon against another in battle, which one will see quite often. He/She starts out in a small town known as New Bark Town. As the game quickly progresses, the player gets caught up in several assignments from the town professor. After receiving a starter Pokemon, the player is sent out on his/her journey in this land. Fighting against a rival that constantly appears out of nowhere, the player also has to deal with the gym badges of the region, and the evil criminal organization known as Team Rocket. Through it all, the player will manage to progress and rise to fame in this small world of their's in but a few short days.

Graphics:

Graphics for this game were overall pretty good. There weren't too many things I could complain about here, as it seems a good bit of work has gone into the appearance of the game over the years its been in development.

It's easy to see for anyone playing this game that most of the graphics were taken from the Platinum game and put into this one, only tweaked a little to look more vivid and smooth in how they operated. The graphics out in the fields are almost an exact copy, only exception being new places such as gyms and special event areas where the animation needs to be at a slightly higher quality. Special event places being something like the lighthouse, tower where Ho-oh is, Pokemon League, and the Lugia scene.

As for in battle art, it's a great improvement as compared to the Silver/Gold/Crystal games most people played as kids. Everything seems to fit together well and the animations on each move are impressive. Though everything still seems a bit blocky due to little movement in battle, I believe it's still a major upside to the game.

For the graphics of the game, I would have to give it a 9 out of 10 just for being so good as compared to how it used to be.

Sound:

The overall sound in this game was fairly decent; I didn't have many complaints while playing the game. As I've said before, not much has changed since the previous games. This is just as true when talking about the sounds of the Heart Gold game.

Though it is similar overall, I have noticed several differences since the release of the Platinum game. The music seems to be a bit better in this one, not only in type but also in quality. Though, it seems quality does go up with each release of a new game in this series. Some of the music in this game just felt more at home; giving more than the generic Pokemon sounds. The variety just gave this game a great mark. I did enjoy how, when entering an older town such as Ecruteak, the sound of the music would give off as more of an older Japanese style as compared to the more modern and common sounds. The battle music was a great deal better as well. During major battle such as those against gym leaders and especially the one against the champ of the Pokemon League, the music changed to something not heard often before, giving a feeling of the fight being something special. I would have to say that, overall, the music in this game was a major up point.

Something I personally found odd, but seems to fit well when regarding the feeling of nostalgia would be the sounds the Pokemon make when either selected or called upon. With all the new advancements, it just seems to me as if they could do something more than simple electronic sounds. Make it a bit more realistic, though I'm not holding it against anyone if the sounds of the beasts residing within this game aren't improved, seeing as it sometimes is best to stick with what works.

One down point that I've noticed while playing this. If you're wearing headphones or ear buds while playing this, you might walk away with a bit of a headache. The music and noises for that aren't blended particularly well. If an attack is made by you, the sound will only be on the left side of the head. When something happens to your enemy or you attack them, the sound will only be on the right side of your head. Yes, it's a good idea to make it seem more realistic and giving the feel that you're actually in the game, but there needs to be a bit of the noise on each side, not just one. After about five minutes of gameplay, the sound will begin to get to anyone and disorientate the player.

Overall, I would have to say that the sound for this game would receive an 8 out of 10. It was great in most areas, but the blending just brought the total score down a bit.

Gameplay:

Once again, we get to the longest part of the review and really just the heart of it; the gameplay. Don't expect a flower filled bit of text in the near future, for I'm not exactly a fan of how the game's gameplay is heading.

Yes, the overall gameplay would be good if we were all 6 years old and living in the 1990's, but this is the newer years and the nostalgic feeling of the older games is beginning to wear on my nerves. I'm fully aware that this is a remake of an older game, but the people that create these games are really dropping the ball lately. Flashy looks and new sounds are just a new dress on an old woman. If one were to look closely enough at the actual gameplay, one would see that it hasn't changed a bit in ten years. Anyone wishing to buy this game might as well save their money, because they can get the same gameplay experience out of their crystal versions. They could have at least tried to improve on the core gameplay more than they did. Move, battle, level up. Move, battle, level up. It's a never ending process that begins to become dull after a while.

The stories in these games are always the same, and it's not a bit different for Heart Gold. Some kid is kicked out of the house by his mother and told to go see a professor. You get a cute little monster and are told to take care of it. A few days later, you're the king of the world, already taken down an evil band of misfits that wanted to ruin everything and make the world theirs. It's old, even in an apparently good remake.

The biggest complaint I've seen when talking about this game is the gambling part. Everyone's seen it in the previous games, some casino that this 10 year old child can go to in order to discard all of their money on useless parts of the game in a strange attempt to get more monsters and moves to give to the monsters. Well, it's gone people. They've instead replaced the common casino and slot machines with some strange form of minesweeper. Though I haven't been exactly a fan of the ridiculously hard slot machines in the past, I can definitely say that they're a lot better than the game they've been replaced with. I didn't like the minesweeper game one bit, mainly why I didn't spend any time on the thing. I would have rather just gone through he game and gotten done what had to be done rather than waste my time there.

Another downside I've noticed is the dialogue that the characters say when interacting with one another. I know that this is a kids game but they're pushing it a bit under the E (Everyone) rated line. Some of the stuff they say is completely unrealistic and just makes the game go in a southern direction. There needs to at least be a real feel of anger in this game, of sadness, any real emotion that could contribute to the atmosphere at the moment. But no, we still get lines like "Golly gee that was tough." or "How could I lose to you, I'm going to go and cry now." The generations of players have grown up by now so we expect a little more than these severely outdated lines. I'm disappointed that Nintendo can't bring it more to the T (Teen) side of the E (Everyone) rating border instead of the Y (Young) side.

One of the upsides to this remake is the ability to catch shinnies easily. As everyone should know, it's damn near impossible to get anything shiny in this game without outright hacking it. It seems you come across a shiny at least twice while playing the game. It takes away from the rarity of them all, but definitely adds more fun to the game.

Something I feel I have to mention that I found particularly nice was the sensitivity of the touch screen on this game and how often it could be used if the player didn't feel like mashing on buttons all day. Near everything one would do in this game aside from walking could be done with the touch screen, and the touch screen was made for this game in a way that one didn't really have to use the stylus as much as they did in previous games. It was really responsive, even to something as broad across the screen as my thumb. Kudos to the creators on this part; I really enjoyed it.

For gameplay, I have to say a 5 out of 10, just because I couldn't really get into the story of the game due to how outdated everything was/is.

Lastability:

I will give it to the creators of this game. Out of all the Pokemon games made, this has to be the longest and most enjoyable. When playing this, expect to have about a week of your time taken up, granted you feel like doing everything you can in the main story of the game. Looking at all of the other games in this long line, it seems almost as if this one were two games put into one. A major upside to this game, to say the least.

As a final score for lastability, I would have to say this game gets a 9 out of 10, just because it took us so many of those long hours I spent playing it in class.

Overall:

For the game overall, it wasn't really all that bad. I'm not a fan of Pokemon in general, but I will say this is one of the games in the series I would rather play, if given a choice between them all. It combines styles of music and art you just don't see in all the others, and gives a calming feeling while doing so. The game's worth the buy if you weren't around 10 years ago to play the originals, but I wouldn't exactly recommend it to anyone who still has the originals still stuck up somewhere in a bookshelf like I do. Buy it, save money and don't, really a tough choice on this one.

Overall, I'll say the game gets an 8 out of 10, simply because I liked the older ones and this game was able to kill off so many hours I could have spent reading a book.