Pika pika pika pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika, pika chuuuu. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika.

Pika pika, pika pika, pika pika pika Pikachu Pika pika pika.

Pikachu. Pika pika. Pikachu pika pika chuuuuuuu?

Pika
Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika. Pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuu. Pika pika pika pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika, pika chuuuu. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika.

Pika PIKA Pika chu. Pikachu. Pika pikachuuuuuu pika pika. Pikachu? Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika. pika Pikachu Pika Pika Pika pika pika chu pikachuuuuuuuu.

Pika Pika
Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika. Pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuu. Pika pika pika pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika, pika chuuuu. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika.

Pika pika pika pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika, pika chuuuu. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika.

Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika. Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika. Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika.

Pika Pika Pika Pika
Pika pika pika pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika, pika chuuuu. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika, pika chuuuu. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika, pika chuuuu. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu.

Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika. Pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuu. Pika pika pika pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika, pika chuuuu. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika.

Pika Pika Pika Pika Pika Pika Pika Pika
Pika PIKA Pika chu. Pikachu. Pika pikachuuuuuu pika pika. Pikachu? Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika. pika Pikachu Pika Pika Pika pika pika chu pikachuuuuuuuu.

Pika pika, pika pika, pika pika pika Pika pika pika… Pika pika, pika pika, pika pika pika Pikachu Pika pika pika.

Pika, pika pika, pika pika pikachu pikachu pika pika pika:

Pika.

Pika….. chu?
Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika. Pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuu. Pika pika pika pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika, pika chuuuu. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika.

Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika. Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika. Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika pika.

Pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuu. Pika pika pika pikachu. Pikachuuuuuuuuu. Pika pika, pika chuuuu. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika. Pika? Pika pika pika pikachu. Pika pika pika.

Jonathan Widro is the publisher of Diehard GAMEFAN and owner/CEO of the Inside Pulse Network. He has worked as a writer and publisher for over a decade, after working in game-related retail for over five years. He has worked in game development, most notably creating user-generated gaming portal Fyrebug and over 100 Flash games. Gaming Under Construction, Jonathan’s perspective on the gaming industry, is published every Wednesday on Diehard GAMEFAN.
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Lunar, or more specifically Lunar: The Silver Star, in all of its different incarnations, can quite rightly be considered a “classic” by RPG standards. Anyone who considers themselves a fan of Japanese RPG’s has some version of the game somewhere on their list of “Best RPG’s Ever”, including our own Alex Lucard, who ranked the PS1 release as Number 12 on his Top 30 RPG Countdown back in 2004. The game has seen three different releases at this point, between its original Sega CD release, its PS1 release which was dubbed as Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, and then its Gameboy Advance release which was dubbed Lunar Legend, each with its own different adjustments and upgrades. Well, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony marks the fourth release of the game, this time on the Sony PSP, and like its predecessors, it’s still a mighty fine game. This is to be expected, of course, as it’s a remake of a classic, and while Game Arts has been having issues making good new games, their remakes tend to be high-quality affairs for the most part, and this remake is no exception. Is it better than its predecessors, however? Let’s find out.

The story of Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is more or less the same as the story of all of its predecessors. You take on the role of Alex, a teenager from the small town of Burg, who wants to take a journey to become the Dragonmaster, one of the world’s legendary heroes. One day, one of the four dragons wakes up near his home, and he goes on an adventure to meet said dragon with his childhood friend/adopted sister/romantic interest Luna and his business-minded and somewhat lazy friend Ramus. This starts him on a long journey to actually fulfill his dream of becoming the Dragonmaster, which is actually a two-part tale, with the first part being about his adventures around the world and his making new friends, and the second part being about saving the world from unspeakable evil. The story of Lunar is still as simple as it ever was, but it’s still as good as it ever was largely because of that simplicity. There are no mentally unstable heroes, no emo kids with “complex issues” to deal with, and no long, involved explanations of plots that wouldn’t otherwise work without long and involved explanations. Lunar: Silver Star Harmony does add a few new things here and there to make the story its own, but it’s still a story that’s just complex enough to be interesting but just simple enough that anyone can appreciate it. The characters are still likable, the bad guys are still very bad, the big plot twists are still interesting, and the game still inspires the emotional response it attempts to inspire. The story is basically something of a retread of the PS1 version’s story, with some minor additions and such added in, so if you’ve played that particular version of the game you’re getting pretty much the same story here, but honestly, the story is good enough that it’s worth seeing again, and if you’ve missed the prior Lunar releases, the story in this version is as good as any other to be your first.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony has received a visual upgrade from its predecessors, as it essentially looks like a cleaner version of Lunar Legend. The character sprites are bright and colorful, and look significantly better than their Sega CD and PS1 counterparts, and the game environments are also very pretty and look fantastic. The game’s sprites are somewhat similar, again, to those of Lunar Legend, though they’re a good bit cleaner and more vibrant than they were in that game, and they look very nice overall. The animated cutscenes from the prior disc-based games have made a return to this release as well, and though the animated scenes do look very nice, they’re essentially the same scenes from Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. They don’t have the artifacting present in the cutscenes of that game, though this may be due to the smaller screen size, but they look very nice on the small screen, regardless. The sound quality of Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is also very nice, though whether or not you’ll like it is a matter of personal preference. Speaking in terms of pure quality, the music is very well done and fits the theme of the game well, the sound effects are great and sound as they should across the board, and the voice acting is generally very solid, though it occasionally runs into the “too much to say given the short amount of time a character speaks in a cutscene” problem. Fans of the prior game, specifically the PS1 release, may not be huge fans of the voice acting, as the voice cast for this game is completely different. Whether this is a show of solidarity in favor of Vic Ireland or a power play orchestrated by him (depending on which rumors you believe), the point is that the voice acting isn’t the same, and thus may put you off if you were a fan of the prior games. Personally, I think it’s silly to hate what is a fairly solid voice work job for something Xseed has absolutely nothing to do with (the dissolution of Working Designs), but to each their own, I suppose.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is very much a “classic” JRPG in its mechanics, so fans of the genre should have no problem picking it up and playing it. You’ll spend your time either wandering around towns buying goods and talking to people or wandering around dungeons slaying monsters and collecting loot. The D-pad and analog stick can both be used to navigate around, and the X button interacts with pretty much everything you can look at or talk to. Inventory management is just as simple, as moving through the menus is done with the pad (no stick support here), X chooses an option or item, and Circle cancels the choice. Combat, again, is just as simple to work around as any of the above. The pad moves through the menu options (no stick support here either), X confirms, and Circle cancels choices. All of your characters have various regular attacks they can use, depending on the weapon type equipped, and most have powerful special attacks at their disposal that they can use to heal, wipe out individual or groups of enemies, boost stats and so on, as do your enemies. Each character is rated by their abilities, health and magic bars, meaning that some characters are beastly fighters while others are better spell-casters, giving everyone a use in battle of some sort or another. Absolutely all of the above should be instantly familiar to fans of more traditional JRPG’s, and playing the game is going to be easy enough that no one should need any sort of a tutorial to understand how the basics work.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony has its own unique elements, as did many of its predecessors, to make it more than just another RPG, however. For one, each character save Ramus has available to them what the game calls Arts, which are essentially super-special attacks that have all sorts of useful effects. Arts, unlike magic and other skills, don’t drain from your magic bar when used; rather, you fill up an Arts bar over the course of several battles by doing things and having things done to you, and when it’s full, you can use your Arts ability. Arts are usually heavy damage attacks, though one or two have other uses, making them mostly useful in boss fights or desperate battles where your party is outmatched, so it’s good to note that you can keep your Arts charged until you need them. You can also customize your battle formation as needed when outside of battle, placing magic users and distance fighters in the rear while you place fighters and meat shields in the front. This layout tends to fall apart after two or three rounds, since characters will move around the battlefield, but it’s useful at the start of battle if nothing else. In another useful addition, enemies appear as actual sprites on the game map instead of simply engaging you in random battle, meaning that you get a rough idea of what you’re facing in advance and can potentially avoid battles you don’t want to face if you can move past the enemy well enough.

The game also makes it harder to munchkin your way through bosses by allowing boss monsters to level up along with your characters, as the earlier games in the series did. This isn’t a huge addition for reasons we will address later, and the formula doesn’t make the bosses EXACTLY the same no matter what, as being four levels higher than you would have otherwise been through grinding will give you a marginal boost, but this might cut off one turn at most, so boss battles don’t turn into a complete cakewalk just because you spent two hours grinding in the cave outside of the Magic Guild. The game also gives you the ability to automate battles, which is great when you’re just fighting regular enemies, as you can essentially just choose the “Attack All” set and let your team rip through a battle you don’t feel like dealing with. You can also let the computer go with its own AI choices, though the AI is somewhat spotty, as it will sometimes use overpowered moves on enemies that can be wiped out with regular attacks without an issue. This isn’t a constant problem, but it makes the AI option less than desirable when you can just choose to have everyone attack and conserve magic for battles that might need it. These aren’t amazing additions on their own, but together they make Lunar: Silver Star Harmony one of the better games of its type for the sake of variety if nothing else, and keep the game interesting throughout.

The game will take most players around forty to sixty hours to plow through, depending on how much time is spent exploring and grinding. The game does offer some neat stuff to find, such as the Bromides, which are essentially pictures of the female cast members in varying cheesecake poses, and some hidden items and cutscenes to find, for those that like this sort of thing. Aside from finding the hidden items and such, there’s not a whole lot of replay value to the game, unfortunately, as it’s really a game you can see in its entirety after one playthrough, but the story is interesting enough that it might be worth playing through at some point down the road, which is something I personally have done with the prior versions of the game a few times. The Limited Edition of the game also includes two small novelties in addition to the game itself for collectors. The first is a music CD containing the various music tracks from the game, which is cute, though the music isn’t so great that it merits listening to it in the car, for instance. The second is a collection of Bromides from the game, printed as actual cards for you to look at, complete with various quotes and descriptions of the characters on the back. The cards are nicely printed and fun to have, and are a nice novelty for any fan of the series to have. Finally, THANK GOD you can save the game at any time, and bravo to whoever it was, be it Game Arts or Xseed, who included this option. No one wants to be stuck playing for an hour because the game refuses to let them save, ESPECIALLY with a hand-held game, and this is something developers all too often overlook, so good on everyone for this.

The biggest flaws with Lunar: Silver Star Harmony come from the fact that it’s a remake, and as such has to stand against its predecessors in every respect. As such, while this particular release features updated visuals and music, it also features, for example, a decline in difficulty. As I noted above, the game does seem to match boss levels with Alex’s levels, thus allowing the bosses to retain their challenge as you level up, but the bosses aren’t much of a threat to begin with, frankly. As you progress there is some challenge to be had in a few boss battles, but if you play smart the game isn’t as challenging as Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, for instance, as the enemies are simply not challenging enough overall. It also doesn’t help that you can essentially earn way more cash than you’ll ever need and carry ninety nine of every item in the game, which can eventually allow you to acquire items later in the game that essentially make it impossible for you to lose with judicious use. The difficulty aside, if you’ve played Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, this game is essentially the same thing with some minor additions here and there, and while it’s a good bit prettier, it’s not a good bit different, making it hard to recommend in that respect. This being a remake of a nearly two decade old game, the typical issues that plague such releases could be an issue for new players with this game, such as the sometimes archaic battle system or the lack of anything to do with the game once you’re done with it, but those complaints are minor all in all.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is a great remake of a great game, all in all, between the fact that the overall game is still as great as it ever was and many of the improvements made to this version are for the better, but it’s not without its flaws and it’s not likely to blow the socks off of anyone who’s played the prior games to death. The story is still as good as ever, the graphics are fantastic and nicely upgraded from prior releases, and the audio is well presented even if it might be an issue of contention for fans of the prior games. The game is very simple to play but has enough interesting gimmicks of its own to make it more than just another also-ran game, and it’s deep and lengthy enough to make it well worth the asking price for anyone who has yet to play it or wants another go with Alex and company. The game is a good bit easier than its predecessors, unfortunately, and while this might make it more accessible to new players, it does nothing for players who have played Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, or any other game of this type for that matter. Further, anyone who HAS played the prior games will see nothing significantly new here, and the game is a remake of a game from the old days of RPG gaming where combat gimmicks were minimal, making this hard to recommend for more modern gamers. Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is still a good time if you’re willing to overlook its flaws, and anyone who has not played it should absolutely do so, but it’s not as easy to recommend as it once was, unfortunately, and it may be time for Game Arts to buckle down and actually make a third game in the series instead of rehashing the first two and releasing less than pleasant spin-offs.

The Scores:
Story: GREAT
Graphics: GREAT
Sound: GOOD
Control/Gameplay: GREAT
Replayability: MEDIOCRE
Balance: ABOVE AVERAGE
Originality: BAD
Addictiveness: GREAT
Appeal: ABOVE AVERAGE
Miscellaneous: CLASSIC

FINAL SCORE: GOOD GAME.

Short Attention Span Summary:
As the final score says, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is a good game, as were its predecessors, though whether or not you ultimately feel that way will depend on your personal tastes in RPG’s and whether or not you’ve played the prior games or not. The story is as enjoyable and well written as ever, and manages to hold up very well almost two decades after the fact. The game has received a great visual improvement all around, and while the audio may not impress fans of the prior releases, it’s well done all in all. The game is very simple to play but loaded up with enough interesting mechanical additions to be worthwhile, and there’s plenty to see and do across the game’s forty to sixty hours of play to make it worth checking out. Fans of the prior releases will note that the game is a good bit less challenging than its predecessors, however, and it adds nothing significant to the game that fans of the earlier releases will not have seen. It’s also very much an older JRPG, which may put off players who have no appreciation for eighties and early nineties RPG’s in general. Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is still a fine product all in all, and if you’re a fan of the prior games who is willing to overlook what things the game doesn’t do as well as its predecessors or a new player who is willing to accept that this is a game with a simpler mindset, it’s a great release for the PSP all in all.
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1. PIKACHU
Level: 88
Type: Electric
Items Held? Light Ball
Pokemon Ability: Static
Move Set: Volt Tackle, Iron Tail, Quick Attack, Thunderbolt.

Pikachu is a straight up attacker. The first three attacks listed in his moveset are Physical attacks while Thunderbolt is a Special attack. You would think Thunderbolt would be the move you have the least to worry about since Pikachu’s Attack is a lot higher than its Special, but this Pikachu has a Light Ball, which means its Special Attack is doubled, putting this Pikachu into the Mewtwo level of power. Be wary.

Your best bet with Pikachu, who will always be Red’s lead-off Pokemon is to have a Ground type Pokemon which will prevent Volt Tackle or Thunderbolt, Pikachu’s two most dangerous moves, from hurting you. Make SURE it is not a Rock/Ground Pokemon, or Pikachu will take you down with Iron Tail. You might also want a speedy Ground type as Pikachu is lightning fast. Garchomp, Sandslash and Dugtrio are excellent examples of Pikachu stoppers in this regard, Remember though Pikachu has the Pokemon Ability of Static, which forces you to play defensive. Any physical contact with Pikachu has a 30% chance of giving YOUR Pokemon the Paralyze status. As nearly all Ground based moves are Physical attacks, a good strategy would be to find another way to attack Pikachu. For example, a Camerupt, which is a Ground/Fire Dual Type can learn Solarbeam, which is a Grass attack that uses the Special statistic. Here you have a Pokemon that is immune to 50% of Pikachu’s move, has an attack that is super-effective against Pikachu and doesn’t have to risk being Paralyzed. Flygon with Giga Drain can do the same thing.

2. VENUSAUR
Level: 84
Type: Grass/Poison
Items Held? None
Pokemon Ability: Overgrow
Move Set: Sludge Bomb, Giga Drain. Sleep Powder, Frenzy Plant

This is a pretty straight and easy battle. A good Fire or Psychic Pokemon should be able to take down Venusaur without any real challenge. The real trick is to get out of this battle without the Poison or Sleep status. As easy as Venusaur is to take down, you need to do it quickly or you will end up with a status effect. Poison is actually better since you can still attack while suffering from it. If your Pokemon falls asleep, any of Venusaur’s attacks can do some major damage. The worst is if you have Venusaur down to the final third of its Hit Points as this will trigger Overgrowth. Trust me when I saw Overgrowth plus Frenzy Plant equals a pretty strong chance of knockout. As always speed is key, so a fast hitting Psychic Pokemon like an Espeon or Alakazam can take out Venusaur in one to two moves.

3. CHARIZARD
Level: 84
Type: Fire/Flying
Items Held: None
Pokemon Ability: Blaze
Move Set: Flare Blitz, Blast Burn, Air Slash, Dragon Pulse

Charizard is the toughest of Red’s three Kanto starters. It has two Fire moves. Flare Blitz uses the Physical stat and Charizard will take recoil damage from it, so this move actually helps you a bit. Blast Burn uses Charizard’s Special and it’s a Fire-based Hyper Beam, so it will do a lot of damage to your Pokemon. Thankfully Charizard will have to recharge after using it. Now it’s the other two moves that should give you pause. Air Slash has a 30% chance of causing a flinch, so it’s imperative you have a Pokemon that is FASTER than Charizard. Once again, speed is the most important factor in beating Red. Nothing’s worse than having the right Pokemon with the right moves to take out Charizard only to watch it flinch three times in a row and eventual get KO’d because the faster Charizard keeps using Air Slash. Finally there’s Dragon Pulse which is thankfully just a high damage dealing Dragon type attack.

My advice is to get a fast Water, Rock or Electric type Pokemon. Rock moves do 4X damage against Charizard, but speed is hard to find in Rock Pokemon. Tyranitar and Relicanth are amongst the fastest and a Relicanth with Swift Swim is a Charizard’s worst nightmare are its Rock AND Water who actually can be faster than the big Fire Starter. Another great choice is Aerodactyl with Rock Slide or Ancientpower.

4. BLASTOISE
Level: 84
Type: Water
Items Held: None
Pokemon Ability: Torrent
Move Set: Focus Blast, Hydro Cannon, Blizzard, Flash Cannon

Blastoise looks like a tough opponent from its moveset. After all, it knows Water, Steel, Ice and Fighting attacks. Focus Blast and Hydro Cannon are based on lowering your Pokemon’s Special Defense and all four of Blastoise’s moves use the Special stat. The key however is a FAST (there’s that concept again.) Electric Pokemon. Something as simple as a Raichu with Thunderbolt should be able to send Blastoise down for the count in a single round. Although Water Types are also weak to Grass attacks, make sure you don’t actually pit a Grass Pokemon against Blastoise or it WILL use Blizzard against you and the results won’t be pretty. Just be fast and direct with your Electrical attacks and you’ll be fine.

5. SNORLAX
Level: 82
Type: Normal
Items Held: None
Pokemon Ability: Thick Fat
Move Set: Shadow Ball, Crunch, Blizzard, Giga Impact

Snorlax just might be Red’s toughest Pokemon. Not only is it immune to Ghost attacks, but its Thick Fat ability means it only takes half damage from Fire and Ice attacks. Offensively it has moves that are super effective against Ghost, Psychic, Dragon, Flying, Grass and Ground attacks. This means you want to make sure you don’t a Pokemon who has one of those six types facing Snorlax. Shadow Ball and Crunch lower Special Defense and Defense respectively, which is turning out to be a trend with Red’s Pokemon. Giga Impact is the Attack version of Hyper Beam. Your best bet here is a solid Fighting Pokemon or at least one with powerful Fighting Type attacks. Machamp is a great Pokemon to bit against Snorlax and I’m sure you can think of others as well.

6. LAPRAS
Level: 80
Type: Ice/Water
Items Held: none
Pokemon Ability: Shell Armour
Move Set: Blizzard, Brine, Psychic, Body Slam

Lapras is both the lowest level of Red’s Pokemon as well as the newest as it has replaced Umbreon from Gold and Silver. Shell Armour prevents critical hits so you’ll have to slowly whittle it down unless you are using Fighting, Rock, Grass or Electric attacks. This Lapras is also great at inflicting status effects. Body Slam can cause Paralyze and Blizzard can cause Freeze. You also have to deal with Brine which is insanely powerful once you knock Lapras below 50% health. As it knows Ice, Water, Psychic and Normal moves, you DON’T want to use Fighting, Rock or Grass type Pokemon as it has a move to counter each. Is your fast Electric type Pokemon that you used against Blastoise still healthy with lots of moves left? Then that’s the Pokemon you’re going to want to go with. An Electric Pokemon is your best overall bet here, so stick with it.

So there you go. We’ve covered all six of Red’s Pokemon and what moves they’ll be packing. Now it’s up to you to assemble your team and take him down.

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The Battle Arcade

In the Battle Arcade, you’ll have to deal with a variety of random status effects that will be inflicted on either you or your opponent. You never know what you’re going to get so expect anything from all of your team being paralyzed to all of your stats being raised. You might also get weather conditions like hail, Sunny Day, or Sandstorm, so make sure you have a pretty versatile team. Because of the random nature of these battles, winning or losing is as much luck as it is a solid team. Good luck!

Your Frontier Brain here is Arcade Star Dahlia. You’ll encounter Dahlia on your 21st and 49th battle, and you’ll receive the standard silver medal and coloured medal respectively after beating her.

Dahlia – First Battle!

1. Dusknoir
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Pressure
Held Item: Iron Ball
Moveset: Fling, Shadow Punch, Trick Room, Will O’ the Wisp

2. Medicham
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Pure Power
Held Item: Salac Berry
Moveset: Endure, Fake Out, Reversal, Zen Headbutt

3. Ludicolo
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Swift Swim
Held Item: Focus Band
Moveset: Drain Punch, Razor Leaf, Swords Dance, Waterfall

Dahlia –Second Battle!

1. Zapdos
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Pressure
Held Item: Brightpowder
Moveset: Air Cutter, Heat Wave, Signal beam, Thunderbolt

2. Blaziken
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Blaze
Held Item: White Herb
Moveset: Flare Blitz, Night Slash, Superpower, Thunder Punch

3. Togekiss
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Serene Grace
Held Item: Expert Belt
Moveset: Air Slash, Aura Sphere, Hyper Beam, Psychic

The Battle Castle

The Battle Castle features your standard three on three Singles or four on four Doubles options. The thing that makes this stand out is that your Pokemon are not healed between battles. Instead you’ll have to earn and then spend Castle Points to heal your Pokemon. Castle Points can also be used to earn new items or even your PP. You can even get powerful rare items like Marowak’s Thick Club or Pikachu’s Light Ball! How cool is that?

Your Frontier Brains are Darach and Caitlin. You’ll fight them on your 21st and 49th battle and beating them will earn you a silver and coloured medal respectively. What sets your battles against this Frontier Brain Tandem apart is that the Pokemon in each team might have one of two very different movesets. Let’s take a look.

Darach and Caitlin – First Battle

1. Staraptor
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Intimidate
Held Item: King’s Rock
Moveset A: Aerial Ace, Double Team, Return, Roost
Moveset B: Aerial Ace, Endure, Endeavor, Quick Attack

2. Empoleon
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Torrent
Held Item: Razor Claw
Moveset A: Brick Break, Knock off, Metal Claw, Waterfall
Moveset B: Aqua Jet, Drill Peck, Rock Slide, Shadow Claw

3. Houndoom
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Early Bird
Held Item: Focus Sash
Moveset A: Crunch, Counter, Fire Fang, Roar
Moveset B: Fire Fang, Endure, Reversal, Thunder Fang.

Darach and Caitlin – Second Battle!

1. Entei
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Pressure
Held Item: Shuca Berry
Moveset A: Fire Blast, Hyper Beam, Solarbeam, Sunny Day
Moveset B: Calm Mind, Extrasensory, Overheat, Shadow Ball

2. Empoleon
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Torrent
Held Item: Quick Claw
Moveset A: Blizzard, Earthquake, Signal Beam, Surf
Moveset B: Drill Peck, Earthquake, Flash Cannon, Hydro Cannon

3. Gallade
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Steadfast
Held Item: Scope Lens
Moveset A: Aerial Ace, Psycho Cut, Stone Edge, X-Scissor
Moveset B: Close Combat, Leaf Blade, Night Slash, Psycho Cut

The Battle Factory

The Battle Factory is the standard “Rent a Pokemon” challenge. You won’t be able to choose any of your own personal Pokemon. Instead you’ll be “renting” some before entering the Factory battles. After each battle you win, you’ll be able to exchange one of your Pokemon for one of theirs. So if an opponent has a superior Pokemon or one that was hard to take down, you should try and grab that. You’ll have to win seven battles in a row before getting a break. Rental Pokemon will be at either Level 50 or Level 100 and your opponents will have the same level Pokemon as yourself.

The key to winning is comes first your selection of Pokemon at the very beginning. You’ll have to choose three Pokemon from a set of six. Check the stats and movesets carefully as a Spiritomb with only Splash will not be as helpful as a Magikarp with four different high powered attacks.

Your Frontier Brain is Factory Head Thorton. You’ll first face him after achieving a streak of 20 wins. Because he is using rental Pokemon as well, it will be completely random in regards to what he’ll throw at you. Beat him and you’ll earn the Factory silver medal. If you can keep your streak going to 48-0, Thorton will return for your 49th and final battle. Beat him and you earn the coloured medal.

The Battle Hall

In the Battle Hall, you are allowed only a single Pokemon or two if you choose to do double battles. Once you enter the hall, you’ll be given a list Matron Argenta. Her Pokemon will be one of the following 18: Arceus, Celebi, Darkrai, Deoxys, Dialga, Giratina, Groudon, Ho-Oh, Jirachi, Kyroge, Lugia, Manaphy, Mew, Mewtwo, Palkia, Phione, Rayquaza or Shaymin. You also won’t be able to choose the type in these battles. You’ll face Argenta in your 50th and 170th battle. If you win you’ll get the silver and coloured medals respectively, but also know that this is the hardest series in the entire Battle Frontier and it will take a lot of skill and luck to win here.

The Battle Tower

The Battle Tower is the same as it has been since its first appearances in Pokemon Crystal and Pokemon Stadium. However this mode also offers WiFi Battles as a play option. WiFi Battles lets you download other people’s Pokemon teams and see how you can do against them. No matter what you choose though, you take your three best Pokemon (or four best if you choose Double Battles) and wail away on your opponents. You’ll have to complete a streak of seven wins before you are given the option to stop.

Your Frontier Brain is Tower Tycoon Palmer, who is also the father of Barry, your rival in Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. You’ll face him in both your 21st and 49th battles. If you can win the first encounter, you’ll earn The Tower silver medal. If you can win the second, you’ll get a coloured medal. Here’s a look at both of Palmer’s lineups so you know what to expect.

Palmer – First Battle!

1. Milotic
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Marvel Scale
Held Item: Shell Bell
Moveset: Attract, Hypnosis, Ice Beam, Surf

2. Rhyperior
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Solid Rock
Held Item: Focus Band
Moveset: Crunch, Earthquake, Roar, Rock Wrecker

3. Dragonite
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Inner Focus
Held Item: Lum Berry
Moveset: Aerial Ace, Dragon Claw, Dragon Dance, Thunder Wave

Palmer – Second Battle!

1. Regigigas
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Slow Star
Held Item: Brightpowder
Moveset: Crush Grip, Drain Punch, Earthquake, Stone Edge

2. Heatran
Level: 50
Pokemon Ability: Flash Fire
Held Item: Focus Sash
Moveset: Earth Power, Explosion, Flash Cannon, Magna Storm

3. Cresselia
Level: 50
Ability: Levitate
Held Item: Leftovers
Moveset: Ice Beam, Moonlight, Psychic, Signal Beam

The Battle Shops

This is pretty cut and dry. This is where you purchase items with all the Battle Points you have earned. You can get items for your Pokemon to hold, moves for them to learn, and even buy scratch-off lottery tickets which can earn you even more Battle Points.

Closing

So there you have it – a complete guide to the Battle Frontier of Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. These are arguably the hardest battles in the game, so make sure you have a well balanced and versatile team to take with you. Good luck!

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Release:
Dead to Rights: Retribution thrusts players into a mature neo-noir crime drama as hard-boiled vice cop Jack Slate and his trusted canine ally Shadow. Dead to Rights: Retribution introduces new gameplay elements that unify the third person shooting and brawling genres for a brutal and relentless new action-driven experience. Introducing an innovative new hybrid combat system that seamlessly blends gunplay with hand-to-hand combat and AI partner, the game puts the full combat potential of a highly trained, highly agitated law-enforcement officer into players’ hands.

Dead to Rights: Retribution is rated M for Mature by the ESRB and will be available in April 2010 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system.

Screenshots:

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Video:

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Nintendo is nothing if not surprising. It’s almost like they keep trying to screw with wankers like me who write these things and try to find a pattern to Nintendo’s upload schedule. For a company who once shuttered an entire Virtual Console update because a couple of companies didn’t go along with Nintendo’s method of releasing information to the press, nothing surprises me.

Instead, let’s look at the first of two outstanding releases.

Akumajo Dracula X Chi no Rondo (AKA: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood)
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Original System: PC Engine Super CD ROM
Original Release Date: October 29, 1993
Price: 900 Wii Points/$9

Alexander Lucard: Rondo of Blood is an awesome game and one of those that everyone had waited years to see get a US release. It never did. It just sat on the Tubro Duo. Sure we got Dracula X for the SNES, but that’s a vastly inferior version of the game. In 2007 we finally got a US release AND a remake on the PSP which was coupled with Symphony of the Night. Smart money says to go that route if you own a PSP. For everyone else, this is a must buy. It’s one of those things that makes the Virtual Console great.

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Christopher Bowen: Now we’re talking!

If you would have asked me in 2006 what my top ten wishlist would be for Virtual Console releases, Chi no Rondo would have been at or near the top. I’ve played games on every system known to man, from all over the world, yet at that time, Rondo of Blood was strange to me. When The Dracula X Chronicles was released, I grabbed it on day one; it’s still one of my favourite PSP games.

For PSP gamers, that’s the version of this game to get. It not only has both the old and new versions of the game, but also Symphony of the Night. However, if you don’t have a PSP, this is absolutely, positively a must-get. It’s the best non-Metroidvania-style Castlevania game ever. That’s right: ever. This is the best it’s been for the “classic” style of gameplay. $9 for a VC game seems like a lot until you remember how rare this is – almost no one owned a Turbo Duo back in the day, and the game is going for well over $100 on eBay – and also how good it is, as it not only is still a top-shelf example of Castlevania, but led directly to SoTN.

This gets my highest recommendation, and is a game I’ll be getting myself.

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Mark B.: Rondo of Blood, specifically the TCD version, is widely considered the best non-Castleroid Castlevania game ever, for many reasons. The game is hard without being brutal, one of the best looking 2D games released, and it’s an absolutely classic experience that very few people have had the chance to play, due to its limited availability. It doesn’t hurt that the soundtrack is BAD ASS, and until Symphony of the Night was out-and-out the BEST Castlevania soundtrack ever made, thanks to the wonderful CD technology advancement.

About the only bad things I can say about Rondo of Blood, and these are very minor you understand, are that anyone who owns the PSP game Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles has Rondo of Blood readily available to them (and it’s cheap as I understand it), and that anyone who only has experience with the Castleroid style Castlevania titles is probably going to be confused by this. Frankly, however, this game is straight-up awesome and anyone who loves Castlevania or platformers in general is doing themselves a disservice by not picking it up as soon as possible.

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On the WiiWare, we have two games, but one of them immediately draws the notice of anyone who checks it out. Rage of the Gladiator is a $10 game that puts you as a first person fighter in a gladiator ring against all sorts of enemies. The first thing I noticed was that the game was gorgeous by WiiWare standards; this looks about as good as a AA Wii game you’d get for $50. The game kinda reminds me of the gladiator minigame in Oblivion, if only because I’ve played that recently, with a lot more variance to who you can fight. It’s a pricey WiiWare game at $10, and pretty one-dimensional, but the one dimension it does, it looks to do very well. Also out for the WiiWare is Triple Shot Sports, a competitive shooting simulator – yes, simulator – for $5.

On DSiWare, we have four new titles. Car Jack Streets is a BLATANT – I mean, BLATANT – rip off of the first two Grand Theft Auto games for $8. Seriously, watch a video of this on the main WiiWare site, and you’ll wonder how Tag Games isn’t being sued to death by Rockstar. Also, this game somehow only earned a T rating. I’m confused as to how they pulled this off, considering the gameplay video shows people actively being shot, with chalk lines around their bodies. Was someone at the ESRB asleep at the switch? Also out is Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs – Fight For Survival, a game that seems to incorporate collecting items in an isometric view as well as a fighting engine for battling with other dinosaurs. It’s published by Ubisoft, and costs $8; at the very least, it could be somewhat educational for grade schoolers. 101 MiniGolf World is exactly what it sounds like: 101 mini golf holes to play. It looks like one of those old shareware games I used to play on old PCs running Windows 98, and has even wonkier physics, if the gameplay video tells me anything. For the curious, it’s only $5. Finally, there’s Zoo Frenzy, yet another minigame collection, for $5.

All in all, not a bad week. There’s only two games I’d consider buys, but they seem really good. At the very least, Rondo of Blood is a rarity: a Virtual Console game that stands on it’s own in 2010 as a must-own game for any platform. Until next week, this is Christopher Bowen, who’s too tired to bother being witty right now. Ask me again in seven hours, and I’ll think of something pithy to say.
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First of all, the basic premise has stayed the same – you are given thirty Safari Balls and you have a limited number of steps to catch Pokemon with. Your play ends when you run out of either steps or Safari Balls. This new Safari Zone is a lot more Trainer friendly however. Remember in the old games where you’d have to waste half your steps just to get to an area where you could hopefully find a Chansey? Well, now the Safari Zone is customizable. By using your DS stylus and the touch pad, you can move around the order of the six Safari Zones. This means if all you need to complete the Pokedex is say, a Smeargle, you can set it up so that the Field area of the Safari Zone is right at the entrance, giving you a better chance of catching it. Each of the six zones features distinctly different Pokemon, so you’ll have to visit them all eventually.

The Safari Zone Warden will also have tasks he will assign to you. The first is to get him a Geodude. In return, he’ll activate the customization ability mentioned in the previous paragraph. After that, he will ask you for a Sandshrew. Once you bring him one he’ll activate a new level of customization. This will involve special items that can attract Pokemon that would otherwise not appear in the Safari Zone. Each of these special Pokemon will require a set number of items to be laid down in the Safari Zone in the area they would show up in. Now you can only have 30 items out at a time, and some Pokemon like, say, Carnivine require 25 Grassland item to be laid out in the Desert area. That leaves you only five items to place elsewhere in the zone. The good thing is that the longer you leave these items out, the more experience those items will get, and they will level up like a Pokemon. These items will eventually be worth up to seven times their original value (based on how long you leave them out for), so things will get easier to catch all the Pokemon possible in the Safari Zone. Some rarely occurring Pokemon will not only requires items to be set out, but will also require those items to sit in the area for a length of time before they appear. Remember Carnivine in our item example? Well you’ll also have to leave those items in the Desert for ten straight days before he’ll begin to appear. Because of this, you might want to consider looking for Carnivine in the Marshlands where he requires only 18 points of items, but he will then take 20 days to appear. It’s up to you.

Here now is an easy to read table of each Pokemon and the requirements you’ll need to make them appear within the Safari Zone.

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The Legendary Trio

Although debate still rages as to whether they are cats or dogs, Suicune, Entei and Raikou are still a huge part of the game. In the original Gold and Silver games, all three were constantly running through Johto and it took heavy use of your maps and a decent amount of luck to catch them. This is still true for two of the Trio, but as the plot of Heart Gold and Soul Silver actually follows Pokemon Crystal, Suicune is a one-time occurring legend in a static location, making things easier for you to at least get one of the three.

When you first enter the basement of the Brass Tower, Suicune, Raikou and Entei will change from statues into real Pokemon and quickly flee the area. From that point on Raikou and Entei will roam all around Johto (and ONLY Johto). You’ll have to encounter them by sheer luck the first time, but once you have, you’ll be able to track them via the map in your PokeGear. Your best bet to make them appear is using a lot of Repel items (which prevents Pokemon of a lower level than your lead Pokemon from attacking you) combined with a level 39 Pokemon, as Raikou and Entei are Level 40. Raikou and Entei will always try to flee, so make sure you have a move or Pokemon Ability that prevents that from happening. Oddly enough I find a Parasect with a quick claw attached to be a sure fire way to catch Raikou (Not as good with Entei since Parsect is Bug/Fire and Entei is Fire). Parasect’s spore has a 100% chance of making an opponent fall asleep and then it can follow up with False Swipe, which can reduce a Pokemon down to 1 Hit Point and yet never KO it. Another good combination is Gengar and Marowak. Use Gengar’s lightning speed to get out Mean Look so your opponent can’t escape, hit them in the second round with Confuse Ray and then switch out to Marowak who not only has False Swipe, but as a Ground type Pokemon is immune to Raikou’s Electric attacks and can withstand a lot of Entei’s attacks.

Suicune will give you the illusion of roaming for a bit, but it’s all storyline based. First you’ll have to head north of Cianwood City for the first sighting. After that you’ll follow him to Route 42 outside of Mt. Mortar . After that it will greet you in Vermillion City in Kanto and then to Route 14 and finally you will do battle outside of Bill’s House (the inventor of the Pokemon Storage System) on Route 25. Suicune is level 40, so you should be able to take it down pretty easily at this point.

The Johto Legendary Birds

Ho-Oh and Lugia’s levels differ depending on what game you are playing, but the location will stay the same. In Heart Gold, you’ll find a level 45 Ho-Oh atop the Tin Tower in Ecruteak City as long as you have a Rainbow Wing in tow. In Soul Silver, it will be at Level 70.

Lugia will be at the final level of the Whirl Islands in both games. In Soul Silver, it will be level 45 and in Heart Gold, it will be at Level 70.

The Kanto Legendary Birds

For the first time, you’ll be able to catch Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres in a Johto based game. To get this trio to appear, you’ll have to have all sixteen badges between Johto and Kanto.

Articuno will be in the Seafoam Islands similar to where it was in Fire Red and Leaf Green. It’s level 50 so be prepared.

Zapdos is outside the Power Plant in Kanto’s Route 10 instead of inside it. It’s just sitting out there waiting for you, so go to it.

Moltres is the tricky one. In the Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow games, it could be found in Mt. Ember. Now this Legendary Pokemon resides in Silver Cave, right on the border of Johto and Kanto. Like the rest of the trio, it is at Level 50.

MEWTWO!

In the original Pokemon Gold and Silver, the Unknown Dungeon was sealed off and there was no way of entering it or getting to the Pokemon inside. This was a huge disappointment because in the lowest levels of that dungeon sat Mewtwo itself. Now in Heart Gold and Soul Silver, the Unknown Dungeon is reopened and you can journey to face the most infamous Pokemon of them all. In order to gain access to the dungeon, you’ll have to have all sixteen badges. Mewtwo will also be a whopping Level 70.

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Legends

You have a chance to get Kyroge or Groudon depending on which version of the game you picked up. In Soul Silver you can get Groudon and in Heart Gold, Kyroge is available. Once you have obtained the National Dex and a Kanto starter from Professor Oak, you’ll be able to go visit Mr. Pokemon from the very beginning of the game. He’ll give you a special orb based on the game you are playing (Red in Soul Silver and blue in Heart Gold.). Then it’s off to route 47 and the Embedded Tower where your specific Legendary Pokemon awaits. It’ll be Level 50, like most of the other Legends we’ve seen so far.

Rayquaza is another R/S/E Legend you can pick up in Heart Gold or Soul Silver. It’s a pretty tricky to get the Green Orb you need to summon it though. First you’ll have to catch either Groudon or Kyroge in your own game, and then you’ll have to trade for the other. Now, the traded Legend can only be from Heart Gold or Soul Silver. It cannot be from any other game. Once you have both, put them in your active party and go visit Professor Oak. He will give you the Green Orb and then it’s back to the Embedded Tower you go. Once there, Rayquaza will appear and it’s time to do battle.

Much like Kyroge and Groudon, Latios and Latias are version specific legends in this game. Once you have the National Dex and have traveled to Kanto for the first time, make your way to Vermillion City and visit the Pokemon Fan Club. After doing so, you’ll be told that one of the Legendary Dragons is traveling around Kanto. Latias is in Heart Gold and Latios is in Soul Silver. Both will be roaming Pokemon at Level 35, so remember to use the same strategies you had for catching Entei and Raikou.

You’ll be able to catch the other by downloading the Enigma Stone through a future Wi-Fi event that lets you download an Enigma Stone. Take it to Pewter City Museum where it will be revealed as Soul Dew. After that an angry Level 40 Legend (the opposite of what appeared originally in your game) will be rampaging in Pewter City and you’ll have to stop it.

PLATNIUM LEGENDS

If you managed to get a hold of a special Arceus that was given away with a pre-order of the 12th movie ticket in Japan or through Wi-Fi several months ago in North America, you’ll be able to get either a Dialga, Palkia or Giratina in your game. Take this special Arceus to the Sinjoh Ruins and the Pokemon Champion of Sinnoh, Cynthia will tell you that Arceus can create one of the three Sinnoh Legends in this temple. You’ll be given a choice between the three and you’ll only be able to make one, so choose carefully!

There you go. A comprehensive list containing all the Legendary Pokemon you’ll be able to obtain within Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. With this guide in hand, you’ll be that match closer to finishing off your National Dex. Good luck!
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When you first arrive at the Pokeathlon Dome, you’ll begin to realize what an entirely new beast this is for Pokemon and how some Pokemon are far more useful here than they would have been in Battles or Contests. This is based heavily in part to new Pokemon stats that only come into playing during Pokeathlon events. They are Speed, Power, Skill, Stamina, and Jump. Each Pokemon with have a star rating in each ability ranging from one to five stars. The more stars a Pokemon has, the more likely it will succeed at the event in question. When you look at a Pokemon’s Pokeathlon stats, you will see that some stars are filled in while others are transparent. The filled in ones are your Pokemon’s current rating, while the transparent stars show their potential. You can fill these in by feeding your Pokemon Aprijuice. Let’s take a look at Butterfree, since he’s a fairly common Pokemon you can get early on in the game. It has two stars in Speed, two stars in Power, two stars in Skill, two stars in Stamina and a full five stars in Jump. Obviously, Butterfree then makes a great choice for jump based events. With the use of Acorn juice, you can boost Butterfree up to four stars in Speed, three in Power, three in Skill and three in stamina. Since Butterfree is already at a max score in Jump, you can’t raise it any higher. This means if you max out Butterfree, it will perform best at Speed and/or Jump based events.

When you enter a Pokeathlon event, you don’t actually get to choose which of the ten possible events you are in. Instead you pick a category based on one of the five statistics. The game then chooses three events for you based on that category. Using Butterfree as our example, you would most likely choose Jump as your category. However, you will have to have three Pokemon, so you’ll want to have two other Pokemon that are also maxed out with Jump but then also have strong secondary ability of four or five stars as well.

Each event has two statistics that help determine the outcome of the event. If you have maxed out your Butterfree, you would want it in an event where Speed and Jump are the two determining factors. This event would be Hurdles. So you would put Butterfree in this event and then use your two other Pokemon in the events that came up that their stats were best suited for.

After the events are done, you’ll be able to view records, see your high scores, spend points on nifty items like evolution stones or PP Ups, and eventually unlock the Pokeathlon Hall of Fame, Pokeathlon Crowns and even bonus Pokeathlon points to make your team even more dominant on the field.

Now don’t think stats are the only things that come into play in the events. You’ll still have to use all your gaming skills in conjunction with those stats in order to win events. Let’s take a quick look at all ten events. Remember that these names are basic translations from the Japanese version of Heart Gold and Soul Silver and may be slightly different in the English release.

Block Smash
Important Stats: Power, Stamina

This is similar to how martial arts experts break stacks of wood or bricks with their hands. You’ll use the touch screen to get enough power and rhythm behind your attacks to successfully break the blocks in front of you. The goal is not only to break the most bricks, but also to see who can break the most in the least amount of time.

Lamp Jump
Important Stats: Jump, Skill

In this event you will use the touch screen and stylus to “flick” a Pokemon up the screen in an attempt to knock out as many lights as possible in an allotted time. You’ll be able to use all three Pokemon at once in this event so try ricocheting them off each other to send them off in new directions and knock out more lights.

Relay Run
Important Stats: Speed, Stamina

This is simply a side-scrolling race where each member of your team will take a leg of the race. There are also occasionally obstacles that show up, so you’ll have to be able to avoid these as well.

Circle Push
Important Stats: Power, Speed

Circle Push is an event where each of your three Pokemon will be engaging in a shoving match against many opponents. Your goal is to stay in the circles for as long as possible while keeping opponents out. The longer you stay in, the more points you earn. You also have to control all three Pokemon at once, so time management and strategy are big parts of this event.

Pennant Capture
Important Stats: Speed, Skill

This event has each of your Pokemon running an obstacle course where you collect flags. The goal is to collect as many flags as possible but the secondary goal is to keep your opponents from collecting flags of their own. You can do this by knocking into them and causing them to drop their flags.

Goal Roll
Important Stats: Power, Skill

This is a nice little three on three Soccer (Football in Europe) match, with a twist. Each corner of the screen is a goal. Your job is to deflect balls headed for your team’s goal, and to then score goals. You get a point for scoring a goal and the team that failed to defend their goal loses one. If you’re a long-time gamer, you’ll find that Goal Roll is very similar to the old Atari 2600 game Warlords.

Hurdle Dash
Important Stats: Jump, Speed

In this event your Pokemon will be racing nine other Pokemon in a standard vertically scrolling hurdles race. You tap the DS’ touch screen in order to make them jump. For each hurdle you successfully jump over, you earn a speed boost. For each one you don’t…well you collide with the hurdle.

Ring Drop
Important Stats: Power, Stamina

This event is basically a combination of Pokemon Rumble battle royals and Sumo Wrestling. Here’s you’ll flick your Pokemon into the other ones in the ring in an attempt to knock them out of it. Last man standing wins, or if the time limit runs out, you will be judged by the amount of Pokemony you successfully knocked out and the amount remaining in the ring.

Disc Catch
Important Stats: Jump, Power

This is another game where you will have to control all three of your Pokemon at once. Your goal is to have them leap up and catch Frisbees as the pass over your Pokemon. Just tap the touch pad to make one jump. There are opposing Pokemon on the field as well, so you’ll have to knock them out or push them away to make sure they don’t intercept your catch.

Snow Throw
Important Stats: Power, Skill

This is a combination of dodgeball and a snowball fight. You’ll flick snowballs at your opponents to stun them and earn points while also dodging incoming fire.

Although some Pokemon fans will no doubt be disappointed in the loss of Pokemon Contests, it is plain to see that the Pokeathlon offers a larger variety of things to do and it requires both skill and wits in order to come up with a team that will net the gold. This is definitely going to be one of the most talked about aspects of Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver, as well as one of the most played, so start thinking about your teams!

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Pedometer Aspects

The core aspect of the Pokewalker is the same as the Pokemon Pikachu 2 GS. However, with the Pokewalker, you aren’t stuck with just Pikachu. At anytime you can transfer a single Pokemon into the Pokeball shaped disc. Then as you walk around, the pedometer aspect of the Pokewalker takes effect and it slowly raises your Pokemon’s happiness as well as your level. Let’s say you’re going on a ten mile hike. Transfer in say, a Scizor, and then strap the Pokewalker to your pants. By the time you get back you’ll happy a significantly more powerful Pokemon as well as one with a high happiness rating. This is an excellent way to evolve those Pokemon like Chansey into Blissey or Igglybuff into Jigglypuff.

Gotta Catch ‘Em All?

The biggest difference between the Pokewalker and the Pokemon Pikachu 2 GS is that not only will you be walking around while wearing the Pokewalker, but your Pokemon will be walking too! You’ll have over two dozen locations to eventually choose from, but you’ll have to unlock most of them by playing through Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver.

Once you have chosen your location you can use Watts to trigger Pokemon battles within the Pokewalker. If you don’t have enough Watts, you won’t get to battle. Once you initiate battle, you are given a choice of four pieces of grass. You must choose one and, if you choose correctly, a Pokemon will pop out and you’ll be able to battle. You’ll only have two battling options in this case: Attack and Dodge. Both are self-explanatory. Once you’ve weakened the opposing Pokemon, you can try to catch it. You can only store three Pokemon on your Pokewalker before having to send some back to your main game, so you might have to be choosy with what you keep.

One of the more interesting things about these battles are that some Pokemon can ONLY be caught through the Pokewalker while others might have different and/or unique moves only available on the Pokewalker. One example is the Yellow Forest Pokewalker area, which can only be obtained by downloading it through a Wi-Fi connection. This special location only contains Pikachu Pokemon, including rare Flying and Surfing Pikachu. Of course they’ll be a bit hard to catch, but how fun will it be to have one of those, right?

Exclusive Pokewalker Pokemon

These Pokemon can only be found and captured within the Pokewalker unless you transfer Pokemon over from Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. Numbering is based on the National Dex.

#300 Skitty
#318 Carvanha
#320 Wailmer
#349 Feebas
#351 Castiform
#352 Kecleon
#357 Tropius
#361 Snorunt
#422 Shellos
#442 Spiritomb
#456 Finneon
#459 Snover

Itemfinder

Another neat option in the Pokewalker is the Itemfinder aspect. Each use of the Itemfinder costs three Watts. When you choose to activate the Itemfinder, you are then given a choice of six bushes. You have to pick one of those bushes, and hopefully an item will appear. Items have a common, uncommon and rare frequency but as some of the rare items are exceedingly valuable it’s definitely worth using three measly Watts to try and get one of them. For example, if we stay with the previous example of the Yellow Forest, a common item would be something mundane like a Big Mushroom. Rare items however run the gambit from a Thunderstone to the all-important (for Pikachu) Light Ball. You can store up to ten items of the Pokewalker so if you can’t get the item you are looking for right away, at least you have plenty of chances before you have to transfer items over.

Trading

One of the classic aspects of Pokemon is the ability to trade things with your friends, usually Pokemon. Trading can now be done through the Pokewalker as well. As long as you and a friend have one, you can swap items between the two of you. Unlike trading Pokemon where sometimes you have to unlock an in-game event in order to swap Pokemon from a previous title, The Pokewalker will let you trade even if you have a course your friend doesn’t and vice versa.

Diary

When you hook your Pokewalker back up to the DS and your cart of either Pokemon Heart Gold or Soul Silver, you’ll be given diary entries similar to what you had in Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green. These diary entries will tell you what Pokemon you captured, what items you found, who you traded with and more. These entries don’t add anything to the game per say, but is a cute little piece of fluff that help to further integrate the Pokewalker with the Heart Gold and Soul Silver experience.

It’s wonderful to see the Pokewalker as a free pack-in when you purchase Pokemon Heart Gold or Soul Silver. The original Pokemon Pikachu 2 GS was between ten and twenty dollars, so this is a great addition to the overall package. Much like with how Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green came with Wi-fi adapters if you purchased the games new, this is a wonderful way to reward gamers for purchasing these titles instead of doing something just for pre-orders. This was people who can’t buy a game on release day still get a little something extra besides the game itself. I love how the Pokewalker is more than just a pedometer and Mystery Gift addendum this time around. I think I’m most happy about how much easier it is to get a Spiritomb here than in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. I mean, if you didn’t have a Wi-Fi connection, you pretty much couldn’t get it. Now everyone has an opportunity and I think that’s awesome. Best of all the Pokewalker is something that rewards you for doing exercise. Whether you walk to a friend’s house, go on a bike ride, or get on a treadmill at the gym, you’ll not only be improving your Pokemon, but your own body as well. Very cool.

Pokewalker Courses

Below is a list of all the Pokewalker courses (albeit with Japanese course names) with a list of the Pokemon you can catch on them.

Refreshing Field:
DoDuo
Kangaskhan
Nidroan Male
Nidoran Female
Pidgey
Sentret

Noisey Forest
Bellsprout
Oddish
Paras
Spearow
Venonat
Wobbuffet

Rugged Road
Geodude
Hoothoot
Machop
Magby
Onix
Ponyta

Beautiful Beach
Poliwag
Psyduck
Slowpoke
Staryu
Sunkern
Wooper

Suburban Area
Elekid
Hoothoot
Magnemite
Murkrow
Ratatta

Dim Cave
Gastly
Machop
Onix
Smoochum
Zubat

Blue Lake
Dratini
Goldeen
Krabby
Poliwag
Shellder
Tentacool

Town Outskirts
Abra
Furret
Grimer
Koffing
Ratatta
Voltorb

Hoenn Field
Illumise
Linoone
Skitty
Volbeat
Wurmple
Zigzagoon

Warm Beach
Azurill
Carvanha
Goldeen
Horsea
Magikarp
Wailmer

Volcano Path
Geodude
Houndour
Meditite
Ponyta
Rhyhorn
Slugma

Tree House
Castiform
Girafarig
Gloom
Kecleon
Stantler
Weepinbell

Scary Cave
Ghastly
Machop
Marowak
Natu
Tauros
Zubat

Sinnoh Field
Bidoof
Budew
Combee
Kricketot
Mime Jr.
Shinx

Icy Mountain
Bronzor
Mareep
Sneasel
Snorunt
Snover
Swinub

Big Forest
Bibarel
Bonsly
Exeggcute
Mareep
Tangela
Tropius

White Lake
Buizel
Chinchou
Chingling
Haunter
Misdreavus
Remoraid

Stormy Beach
Finneon
Magicarp
Psyduck
Seel
Shellder
Shellos

Resort
Clefairy
Hoppip
Jigglypuff
Marill
Pachirisu
Pikachu

Quiet Cave
Chingling
Feebas
Golbat
Munchlax
Noctowl
Spiritomb

Beyond the Sea
Chinchou
Corsola
Horsea
Octillery
Remoraid
Starmie

Night’s Sky Edge
Clefairy
Geodude
Hoothoot
Jigglypuff
Onix
Zubat

Yellow Forest
Flying Pikachu
Pikachu
Surfing Pikachu

DLC Track
Buneary
Chatot
Croagunk
Pachirisu
Pikachu
Sableye

Shopping
Eevee
Meowth
Pelipper
Pikachu
Poliwhirl
Torchic

Champ Path
Beldum
Bronzor
Duskull
Horsea
Magikarp

Amity Field
Cleffa
Elekid
Happiny
Igglybuff
Magby
Munchlax
Smoochum

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Sequel – A direct sequel to the franchise. This means if it used sprites and was in 2-D, that’s how you want the next game to be as well. This might involve putting the game on a handheld system instead of a console, but it keeps the nostalgia and classic feel alive.

Spin Off – This is where you take the characters or a specific character is a totally different direction from the established franchise. Examples include Luigi’s Mansion, Hey You, Pikachu!, Shadow Hearts (From Koudelka), and so on.

Start Over – This is a reimagining of the series from the ground up. Perhaps it’s time to bring the series into 3-D. Perhaps you want a totally different control scheme or to throw away the old continuity. In a nutshell, this is taking the brand name from the old series and that’s about it. Everything else is new and re-envisioned.

Stay Dead – This is pretty obvious. This is a toxic franchise that you don’t want to see return in any way shape or form. Let the dead rest.

This week we’re looking at one of the most unique games that Squaresoft (now Square-Enix) ever produced. It’s technically a Final Fantasy spin-off as it takes place in the world of Ivalice, but its characters and out-of-the-box gameplay have only appeared once and then never been seen again. It sold extremely well, it still has a fan following and it’s been available on the Playstation Network as a PSX Classic since late 2009 in Europe, but has yet to show up on the North American PSN. Nearly ten years since the release of Vagrant Story, there have been rumours of both a remake and a sequel, but neither has come to pass. Does the brand name still have any life to it? This week, four of our staff at Diehard GameFAN give their opinions on what should happen to it.

Dave Olvera – Stay Dead

Vagrant Story was a departure from Squaresoft’s usual Final Fantasy mill and was probably the best Ivalice game out there (I liked it more than Final Fantasy Tactics). I would say they should spin-off the game but I would rather it stay dead.

I enjoyed the fact the game was a solo adventure but not in the mode of FROM’s King’s Field series. The puzzles, focus on single member, risk system, crafting system and consistent feel of Vagrant Story actually interested me from the start but didn’t captivate me enough to go through the game again… or even really remember much about the game (like Legend of the Dragoon). I have not played the game in almost nine years, though. So while Vagrant Story may have held my attention for a short period of time during its release, its age is showing. Overall the experience was better than most I’ve had with Square games but I really don’t care what they do. I cannot get excited for anything with the SE logo, not even Front Mission.

Square? I don’t care.

Mohamed Al-Saadoon – Stay Dead

When I first set eyes on Vagrant Story, it looked amazing. The graphics were jaw droppingly amazing (and they still look decent today as well!) and the gameplay look unique and interesting.

But it all fell apart after the intro scene. It almost felt like the developers wanted to make everything as complex as humanely possible: battle system, story, characters and anything else they could get their hands on. This created a game which rivaled the old late 80’s and early 90’s PC Simulator titles in complexity (Remember those games? the one you had to read a 300 page manual just to get the hang of the controls?).

Also, at this point in time I can’t trust Square-Enix with making a decent RPG never mind a good sequel to a game I don’t even like. Just let this one rest.

Sean Madson – Stay Dead

There was a lot of hype around this game when it first came out. It seemed like every magazine review I read praised it up and down, like it was the messiah of RPG’s. Needless to say, when I finally had access to a Playstation, this is one of the first ones I wanted to try.

Then I played it.

The game certainly looked cool on the surface. There wasn’t a whole lot of color to it, but it had a neat art style that reminded me of a comic book. Beyond that though, there weren’t many redeeming qualities. Cutscenes were spaced out so much between the dungeon crawling that I would forget what was happening in the plot before I got to them.

The weapon customization would’ve been a cool feature if it wasn’t so poorly executed. I’m okay with having to craft weapons in order to survive combat, but I had to keep and maintain multiple weapons in order to fight against enemies of various elements. The constant switching and rebuilding of weapons got really tedious, not to mention the combat wasn’t even all that good to begin with.

I find it interesting that this game takes place in the world of Ivalice, much like Final Fantasy XII and the Final Fantasy Tactics games. However, I’d rather see a spin-off to those than see another Vagrant Story game again.

Mark B. – Sequel

Vagrant Story was a fantastic RPG for the player willing to learn its mechanics. The game blended mechanics from dungeon hacks, Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy and Fallout into a game that was incredibly oppressive to players who weren’t ready for the sort of learning curve the game threw at them. It was mighty ambitious and a hell of a lot of fun if you could understand it. The game isn’t for everyone, certainly, but

1.) If you’re the sort of person who prefers to spend more time watching your games than playing them Final Fantasy is probably more your speed anyway, and

2.) It moved a whole lot of copies, so apparently there are a whole lot of people out there who said, “Hey, I think I’d like to spend some time with an action RPG that involves more than spamming the X button like a seal for twenty hours”.

Besides, Vagrant Story is arguably the best (alongside Final Fantasy Tactics) game based in the world of Ivalice, and since Square seems so intent upon doing something with that world, they should do something with one of the good games based in it. I mean, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? Barf.

Square-Enix has shown that they can still put out quality games now and again, and a good sequel to Vagrant Story could be a positive boost for the company after the back-and-forth response to Final Fantasy XIII and the general lack of anything exciting from the company in years. Vagrant Story was a good seller when it came out, and it has a certain amount of respect behind it that would help it move units. Further, Vagrant Story hasn’t been beaten into the ground like many other Square- Enix properties and with some fine-tuning the gameplay could easily be redesigned into something both casual and diehard gamers could appreciate on different levels. Hey, we’re seeing another Parasite Eve sequel, so stranger things have happened.

Of course, there’s always the possibility it could turn out to be a, “Be careful what you wish for” scenario like Valkyrie Profile 2 ended up being, but what else can I do but hope, yeah?

End Result –
Stay Dead: 3
Sequel: 1
Spin-Off: 0
Start Over: 0

Wow. I wasn’t actually expecting that result. I personally haven’t played Vagrant Story , but I was expecting my staff to want a sequel but only Mark (who like myself, is generally is not the biggest fan of Square products) was for it. That’s the neat thing about these columns – you never know what the end result will be until everything in formatted and the votes are tallied. So it appears Diehard GameFAN gives a strong thumb’s down to the resurrection of Vagrant Story. I expect angry hate mail to this piece to come flooding in.

Join us next week as we look at a Midway survival horror franchise and whether or not that series should survive the death of that publisher. See you then!

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Once again we are being brought back to Diehard GameFAN’s pick for best first-person shooter for 2009, Borderlands, with another DLC.  So you tackled the vault?  You shot a bunch of zombies in the head on Zombie Island? You may have even survived all the rounds in Mad Moxxi’s Underdome, but now we have a DLC out for all the die-hard fans on Pandora, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx’s. One of my favorite things about Borderlands, besides shooting midgets, is looting in hopes of getting that next big gun.  Well the title of this DLC leads me to believe that it has a lot of loot as it has both armory  and a reference to Fort Knox in the title. I am not going to go into too much about the game play as it was already covered in Diehard GameFAN’s review of Borderlands.  So this DLC was released recently on XBOX live for the price of $10(800 MSP).   So what do you get for your $10?

Let me start by saying if you could only afford to buy one of the three DLCs for Borderlands, this is the one to get.  It has nearly double the amount of playtime on missions that was provided by Zombie Island.  This DLC also increases the level cap to 61 allowing to beef up your characters that much more.  The retail game is best played in multiplayer, but it possible to do all of the missions solo all the way to the end of the game.  With General Knoxx this is nearly impossible to do without a little help from your friends.  I died probably about 10 times as many times going from level 50 to 61 as I did with leveling to 50 in the main game. Within the first 10 minutes of this new DLC, I encountered instant death as some Lance Assassins crashed right on top of me. I thought to myself well at least I have a crapload of money.  Being allowed to add 11 more skill points to your character can really enhance your battles.

General Knoxx, as I said earlier provides a lot of gameplay time.  One thing this DLC relies on heavily is driving.  Most of the areas are long highways full of Lance soldiers and Lance vehicles.  The good thing is that there are three more vehicles for you driving pleasure.  The first one available is called the racer and is nearly identical to the vehicle from the first game except its nitro blast lasts longer and allows you to go much faster.  The next vehicle acquired from a quest is called the monster.  The monster looks like a pickup with a roll cage.  It too has a longer nitro blast but it also has a new turret gun that fires heat seeking missiles. The last vehicle, and by far my favorite, is the lancer.  The lancer seats four players so your entire party can mount up and each has player will have their own responsibility.  One will obviously be driving but the other three will have a choice of an eridian cannon turret, a land mine deliverer, and lastly a concussion like explosion that acts like area effect explosion emanating from the vehicle.  Even with all these weapons you will still die, ands the disadvantage of a four person vehicle is that once it explodes your entire party will be fighting for your life. 

So I am not going to give away too much of the story but I will give you some highlight.  Mad Moxxi will be making a return in this DLC and this time she will be dishing you out missions.  She has quite the reputation of being a loose lady in this expansion.  Scooter will be helping you catch a ride again.  Get yourself one! Athena is a bad ass chick who will be initiating most of the story based missions.  These missions will eventually lead you to General Knoxx.  General Knoxx really does not want to be on Pandora anymore and is extremely bored with his responsibilities and your party is the most excitement he has had in a while.  He of course guards armory.  The armory is what it seems to be a place with a lot of weapons. Depending on what you already carrying you may find some good weapons there and you may not.  After completing the main story you will be given some additional missions and one is worth mentioning because it really changed what I thought about Borderlands as a whole.  The mission is called, “You. Will. Die.”  In this mission you will fight a giant level 64 crab called Crawmerax the Invincible.  This character is nearly impossible to solo unless you are using a siren class.  Even with a party of four you will die and numerous message boards are developing strategies and raiding parties.  People are treating this like an MMO boss and joining up to loot his remains.  I will tell this much, when he dies, he explodes into nearly a 100 weapons. He also has the highest probability of dropping pearlescent weapons which are the rarest in the game. I have yet to receive these guns after beating him twice and I have heard people have made dozens of attempts with no luck.  So yeah, they are rare.  However I have found a number of great weapons from fighting him included some guns that say they are manufactured by Gearbox.  There are also some new enemy types that you will encounter besides the invincible crab.  The most amusing were the skags that were being ridden by midgets.  You kill one then you still have to fight the other.  There was some giant spider like creatures called drifters, flying lance soldiers, and giant lance operated mechs.

The Scores:
Story: GREAT
Graphics: GREAT
Sound: GOOD
Control/Gameplay: CLASSIC
Replayability: CLASSIC
Balance: GREAT
Originality: GREAT
Addictiveness: UNPARALLELED
Appeal: GREAT
Miscellaneous: CLASSIC
FINAL SCORE: GREAT GAME

Short Attention Span Summary:
Overall The Secret Armory of General Knoxx will give you a lot of bang for your buck.  For $10 you will get more playtime added to the main game than most FPS’s.  The weapons are great!  The enemies are varied!  The missions are challenging!  For all of you die-hard Borderlands fans this is a must get.  No question.
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The Starters:

Chikorita is the Grass Type starter you can pick. Grass Type Pokemon generally are at a disadvantage against Flying type Pokemon, but much of what you’ll be facing before Falkner are Normal, Rock, and Bug types, so it’ll actually be quite useful. Chikorita learns the awesome Razor Leaf at only level 6, which will be your main move until about level 20 when you learn Magical Leaf. Chikorita also learns two other really helpful moves against early Pokemon. The first is PoisonPowder at level 9. You can use this against Falkner in a suicide run. It might take out your Chikorita, but at least the poison will wear that Pokemon down while also taking damage from your next Pokemon. The second is Sythnesis. This is a healing move. In the original Pokemon Gold and Silver, the time of day determined the amount of healing. Now it’s the weather condition. Synthesis will be very helpful keeping your Chikorita alive against not only Falkner, but the Spearow, Hoot-Hoots and Pidgeys you will encounter in the wild.

The Fire starter Cyndaquil doesn’t have as good (or varied) a moveset as Chikorita has in these first few levels, but it also doesn’t have its weakness against Flying type moves. At level 4 it learns Smokescreen, which lowers your enemy’s accuracy, but it may come in handy against Falkner’s Pidgeotto. At level 10 Cyndaquil learns its first fire move in Ember. This should really help it against Falkner. However, it’s what Cyndaquil learns at Level 13 that may really be its best move in the early game. That’s Quick Attack. It won’t get the Same Type Attack Bonus that Ember gets, but it will always attack first and that advantage is almost priceless in the early game. He who attacks first may not have to attack twice.

Totodile is your Water starter. Where Chikorita and Cyndaquil only learn three new moves in the first fifteen levels, Totodile learns four. At Level 6, it gets Water Gun, which would be a great attack for most other Water Pokemon. Totodile however is a physical attacker, not a special attacker, so it’s a bit wasted on it. At level 8, Totodile learns Rage, which is great for it since it has such a high Attack. This move might just be its best against Falkner as Totodile attack will increase as it takes damage. However, there is actually a better move for it. At Level 13, Totodile learns Bite! Not only does this move use Totodile’s Attack instead of Special Attack, but it is also the most powerful move Totodile will learn naturally until Level 20. It’s also a Dark move, which will make Totodile very helpful against Ghost and Psychic Pokemon and the move has a 30% chance of making your opponent’s flinch! Nice! Finally, at Level 15, Totodile learns Scary Face, which prevents wild Pokemon from running away. This makes Totodile a great Pokemon for catch the Legendary Trio (or duo since Suicuine doesn’t roam in this game), Abras and the like. Overall, Totodile is probably the best of the starters in the early game, but all three have their uses.

On the way to Falkner you’ll be able to go through Routes 29, 30, 31 and 46. Along the way you’ll have a chance to pick up over half a dozen Pokemon to add to your team Let’s take a quick look at them and who is worth having on your team.

The Flyers

You’ll only be able get a Pidgey during the day. It’s definitely my favorite of the three Normal/Flying dual Type Pokemon you can get in the early game, if only because it has the most long term potential of the three. Pidgey learns the Flying move Gust at Level 9 and the all-important Quick Attack at Level 13. Piidget will obviously be at a disadvantage against its evolution Pidgeotto at the Violet City Gym though.

You’ll only be able to get Spearow on a side trip to route 46 in the early game, and it rarely shows up. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth pursuing. Not only does Spearow start with the Flying Move Peck, but many early wild Pokemon are bugs, which means you’ll get some easy XP. It also learns Fury Attack at Level 9. Fury Attack doesn’t have the best accuracy and it’s damage is too varied to truly be effective, but it can be amazingly powerful in the early game if you’re lucky. Spearow’s best early game move is the Dark move Pursuit. Spearow learns this at Level 13 and not only does it do a nice amount of damage, but it does extra damage if your opponent switches out a Pokemon. Spearow is a great choice to have on your team if you didn’t take Totodile, especially when you go into the Sprout Tower.

Hoothoot is your third flyer, but you’ll have to catch it at night. Hoothoot is definitely the worst of the flyers, especially here in the early game. It only has Tackle and Growl at the beginning. It learns the nearly worthless Foresight at level 5, and it doesn’t learn a second damage dealing move until Level 13, which is Peck. At least it’s a Flying type Move, but Pidget and Spearow have already learned their First Flying attack and then some by this point. The only real move of interest Hoothoot has in the early game is Hypnosis, but with only a 70% accuracy rate, it’s not enough to make Hoothoot one of your early six active Pokemon.

The Bugs

Caterpie is an old standby, but you’ll only be able to get it in Heart Gold at this point in the game. However neither Caterpie nor its evolution of Metapod are worth discussing here. You should get your Caterpie to level 10 ASAP so that you can have a Butterfree. At level 10 Butterfree gets the amazing early game move of Confusion and then at Level 12 it learns THREE moves: Poisonpowder, Stunpowder and Sleepowder. Although Butterfree is a Bug Pokemon and thus weak against Falkner’s birds, Any of Butterfree’s powders and Confusion allow it an actual chance to beat a Pokemon it should be weak against.

Weedle is your Soul Silver exclusive until you get to a bug catching content later in the game. The same strategy we used for Butterfree applies to it. Just get it to Beedrill quickly. It’s not as helpful as Butterfree in the early stages or the first gym, but Focus Energy and Fury Attack (learned at Level 13 and 10 respectively) can be a nice combo attack. Just don’t try it against Falkner or it’ll be knocked out.

Spinarak is another Heart Gold Exclusive Bug. It’s not as good as Butterfree, but it learns a few good early game moves such as Scary Face at Level 5, Leech Life at Level 12, and Night Shade at Level 15. Spinarak DOES get better later on, as does its evolution of Ariados. However if you need a Bug for Heart Gold in the early stages up to the first Gym, stick with Butterfree.

Ledyba is the Soul Silver exclusive and it’s a neat Bug/Flying dual Type. It learns Supersonic at Level 6, but that only has a 55% accuracy. It does learn Comet Punch at level 9, which is basically Fury Attack. Again, this is too unreliable to depend on, but it’s better than nothing. At level 14, Ledyba learns three defensive moves: Safeguard, Reflect and Light Screen. Unfortunately, all the defense moves in the world can’t help it against Pidgeotto in the first gym.

The Normals

Rattata is definitely a Pokemon you want in your early team. It hits hard and hits fast. It has three amazing moves before Level 15: Quick Attack (Level 4!), Bite (at Level 10) and Pursuit (at Level 13). All three of these moves are must haves for your Ratatta and you’ll see it quickly dominate against nearly everything else in the early game. GET ONE.

Sentret is a fun Pokemon. Like Bidoof, it can kearn a ton of HM’s but unlike Bidoof, it has decent stats and moves it can learn. Even better, since we’re only looking at the first 15 levels, you’ll be happy to know Sentret evolves into Furrett at Level 15. It doesn’t learn anything truly great aside from Quick Attack at Level 7 though, so Ratatta is the better choice if you have to go with one or the other.

Rock Types

If you sneak up to Route 46 or enter Dark Cave in Route 31, you’ll have a chance at catching what is easily the best Pokemon in the early game besides your starter: Geodude. As a Rock/Ground Pokemon, Geodude is strong against everything you will face besides Bellsprouts and can single handedly destroy the Violet City Gym. It has very high Attack and Defense stats for this stage of the game and although it’s only attack for the first ten levels of the game is Tackle, at Level 11 it learns Rock Throw and at Level 15 it learns Magnitude. Much like Ratatta, Geodude it a Pokemon you want to get as quickly as you can to make the early game a cakewalk.

In Violet City, you can get an Onix by trading someone where a Bellsprout. I’m not a fan of traded Pokemon due to the inability to control them unless you have a certain number of badges and the potential seems to go down when not with their original Trainer, but if you can’t get a Geodude, Onix is a decent replacement. It’s only decent attack is learned at Level 9, and that’s Rock Throw. Really, it’s only worth getting this particular Onix to fill your Pokedex or if someone has given you a steel coat this early in the game. Otherwise I’d suggest waiting until you catch a wild one.

The Rest

You can find two other Pokemon in the Dark Cave: Zubat and Dunsparce. Zubat is especially worth it for its eventually evolution of Crobat, which was amazing in the original Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Even here in the early stages, it’s an amazing Pokemon. It learns the Ghost move Astonish at Level 9, and the Dark move Bite at Level 13. Both will be very helpful and it can stand up to Pidgeotto pretty easily.

Dunsparce however, is awful and only worth getting for your Pokedex. It’s going to be exceedingly rare unless a swarm is occurring, so it may take hours to get one to show up. Even then it only has one damage dealing attack until Level 17, and that’s Rage. Just leave Dunsparce in the box.

Bellsprout is a Grass-Poison Pokemon you can find right before Violet City, although you may want to catch two to trade one for Onix. If you have Chikorita, you won’t need to bother with Bellsprout but otherwise it may be worth a go. Bellsprout starts with Vine Whip, which is a fine move but it’s the only direct damage dealing move it will learn until Level 23. It can learn Sleeppowder and Poisonpowder at Levels 13 and 15 respectively, but so can Butterfree and it learns better over all attacks.

Finally, if you go into Violet City’s Sprout Tower at night, you can find a Ghastly. Ghastly is an awesome Pokemon in any Pokemon game and to get one this early is a real treat. It starts off with Hypnosis and Lick which are helpful. It also doesn’t hurt that Falkner’s Pokemon use mostly Normal attacks, which Ghastly is immune to. It learns Mean Look at Level 8 which is nice for catch other Pokemon and Night Shade at Level 15. It won’t be a truly good attacker until Level 19 when it gets Confuse Ray and then Level 26 when it gets Shadow Ball, so you’ll probably want to give it a TM before then to supplement its damage. Still, it’s a great Pokemon and worth having on your main team.

Overall the best five Pokemon to compliment your starter on the road to your first badge are probably Geodude, Ratatta, Zubat, Ghastly and then either Pidgey or Spearow. You do have 15 choices, not counting evolutions, so you can really make whatever team you want in order to get that first badge. Now that you know what’s waiting for you on the way to Violet City, you can decide what Pokemon you want to be your early active team.

Now that you’ve seen your path to the first badge, feel free to look over our guides for all the Gym Leaders, both Kanto AND Johto, as well as our guide for the Elite Four and the Pokemon Champion. Just click on one of the links below.

Johto Gym Leader Lineups

Johto Elite Four and Pokemon Champion Lineups

Kanto Gym Leader Lineups
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