E3 impressions - Pok'�©mon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

More Pokémon on the DS…aren’t we excited?! I know that some of you are…those diehard Pokémon fans. There’s nothing wrong with that, I am very happy that you enjoy these games! The Pokémon series actually has some of the better luck with spin-offs. I actually thought the original Pokémon Ranger was a decent title, and from what I’ve played, the sequel is going to bring more of the same. As far as new-and-exciting content…I really don’t know what to expect.

Once again, I took control of the ’styler’ and ran out to save someone from…something. I don’t know what was going on…it was all in Pokémon lingo that is far too advanced for my feeble mind. I am sure that any young Pokémon fiend could put me to shame, but hey…at least I know what Pokémon are. So yes, I was out and about in some grassy field, chasing down Pokémon to capture with my styler.

The gameplay mechanics were exactly the same as the first title. You take your styler and circle an enemy. Keep circling them until you capture them. A little meter shows you how much longer you have to circle in-order to have a chance at capturing the Pokémon. You have to be careful when capturing these wild Pokémon. They may attack your styler line, and if they do, you lose health and your styler line breaks. To make the captures go a little bit smoother, you can bring out one of your captured Pokemon to help fight. With a little subduing and a lot of fancy styler work, you should be able to claim some of these wild Pokémon as your own.

That’s all there was to the floor demo, really. Walk around, capture Pokémon, repeat. There were some story bits in there, but nothing other than people telling you how you need to save person X, or Pokémon X. I don’t know that the retail title will really do all that much in the way of new gameplay, but I don’t think anyone is expecting it to break new ground. We will most-likely have to wait for a third iteration to get some kind of significant gameplay advancement.