As the first Pokémon game to feature on the Wii, Pokémon Battle Revolution had a lot of hype about it. New 3D Graphics, customizable trainers, the lot! Nintendo really had worked hard on this one.

When loading up the game, and creating a new profile and everything, the first thing that came to mind was how annoying the girl behind the counter was. Whatever I chose on the menu for the first time, she had to lecture me about it! Even worse, there was no way to skip it. Seriously, as if I wouldn’t know what to do in the “Save” menu.

Upon starting the “story” mode, I noticed how great the graphics were. The characters were life-like enough for me, and the Pokémon looked fantastic. The Colosseums were also very, very cool.

As I started to customize my battle pass, I realised how annoying it was to type. For some reason, Nintendo thought it would be smart to group the letters into groups, and have the user click on the group to find the letter, rather than having it set out like a keyboard. Even upon completion of the game, I still found this rather annoying.

The first colosseum which I passed through was quite an easy task thanks to my awesome non-EV trained team. In fact, most of the colosseums were quite easy, with two exceptions. The first, being the Neon Colosseum. Having to spin a wheel and choose Pokémon from it was very annoying, especially when the opponent managed to snag Lucario, Gallade, Garchomp or Lapras. In the end, I resulted to using the Cyndy Rental Pass to clear the colosseum, seeing as the Pokémon weren’t quite as awesome, and therefore it didn’t matter if the opponent got one or not.

The other annoying colosseum was the Sunset Colosseum. Although it wasn’t half as annoying as the Neon Colosseum, it was still... annoying! I’d have to choose from a set of pre-defined Pokémon, which my opponent also had access to. Once, my opponent and I had the exact same team. Luckily, there were only three trainers to beat in the Colosseum before you could challenge the Colosseum Leader, Rusty.

That aside, I’ll now move onto the battle aspects of the game, and the first point I’m going to raise will be the Weather conditions. Once again, Nintendo has failed with the weather. Instead of the player seeing it rain throughout the match, they only can witness the rain when the battle comes to the part, “Rain continues to downpour.” Although, Nintendo nearly reached my expectations, seeing as you can also witness the event of a weather condition while selecting your moves.

Another thing which I am quite pleased with Nintendo about would be the actual inclusion of Physical attacks. In PBR, the Pokémon manage to run up to their opponent if using a physical attack, such as Bite. Except, the Pokémon doesn’t actually bite the opponent Pokémon. They rather run right in front of the opponent Pokémon, and then you see a bite move, similar to those in Pokémon Colosseum, and Pokémon XD: Gale Of Darkness.

With the battle aspects aside, we now come to the shop. My major issue with the shop would be the complete lack of “Try before you buy”. When purchasing, you don’t get a preview of the item you’re about to buy, you just get a little indecisive description. Many a times, I would buy an item which I later regretted. Luckily, there is no shortage of PokéCoupons.

The last point which I would like to push would be the difficulty of the game. Whether you’re new to Pokémon, or a veteran trainer, this game is way too easy. I know that after you finish the Colosseum, it becomes harder, but the original story mode is very easy. Especially the Stargazer Colosseum (which is the last colosseum), is one of the easiest colosseums.

In conclusion, although Pokémon Battle Revolution has no real storyline, it’s still quite fun. To tell the truth, it wasn’t half bad, and was definitely better than what I expected. So, I would recommend every Pokémon fan to play it, whether it be in the Colosseum Mode, or playing DS Battle with their friends, every Pokémon fan out there is sure to have fun. I give this game a 7.5/10, happy now?