Pokemon XD: Gale of darkness was the sequel to the critically acclaimed Pokemon Colosseum, set five years afterwards. Unlike Pokemon Colosseum, however, the release dates in different countries were relatively close. It was released in Japan on August 4, 2005, North America on October 5, Europe on November 15 and Australia on November 18. The prospect of another GAMECUBE Pokemon game once again left all the little fanboys and all the little fangirls drooling.

The story begins five years after the events of Pokemon Colosseum took place. The Orre region now has significantly less crime, but once again the criminal syndicate Cipher has flared up andis once again creating and distributing Shadow Pokemon for their own evil purposes. A young boy, Micheal (who you control) meeting Professer Krane, his mother's boss. He tells Micheal of the Cipher menace, and presents him with a new and improved Snag Machine and the Aura Reader, which allows the user to see the dark aura of Shadow Pokemon. Shortly afterwards, Krane is kidnapped by Cipher! 0H N035!!! It looks like it's up to you to rescue him!

I found this game beautiful. Once again, the music was great, there was a decent (and this time reasonably long) plot, the in-battle graphics werer even better and even the out-of-battle graphics were beautiful! The process of “purifying” was more entertaining and simple now, with the introduction of the “Purification Chamber”. But as always, there was something in this game that didn't agree with me: Levels. When you captured Pokemon in this game, their levels were much lower than in the last game. What about that guy from Agate town? In Colosseum, his Pikachu's level was forty or fifty-something, but when you meet it for the first time in XD? IT'S NOT EVEN ON LEVEL 20!!! Aside from this (in my opinion) massive flaw, I found the game was great. Once again, I'd recommend it to anyone.