I think it's the best game ever made, it's awesome!!! Seriously it is. And it's the deepest game ever made, no game and I mean no game has more stuff to do in it then this one(and I'm including console games). The Underground is cool with wireless capture the flag, spent about 2 hours on that already, and decorating my secrete base. I have close to 70 pokemon now. But between the enormous story, the battle tower the contests, the underground, the wireless play, the wifi play. And an insane amount of collectable stuff, that's all pretty useful. I've spent about 28 hours playing so far, I'm not even half way through the story, and I've yet to touch most of the extra stuff to do. I can't wait to hook up pokemon saphire/ruby not to mention Revolution.
The controls are faster and way better then old versions, there all touch screen incorporated of course if you don't like that you can use the d-pad and buttons, but why would you when you can just press the giant touch screen button with the name of the move on it, it doesn't get easier. Then there is so many neat extras. Like one pokemon you get records your voice, and plays it back when using the move. So you can scream somthing like, "Your mom!" and he'll use it in battle. Mixing records is also quite cool. The traps in the underground use all kinds of cool touch and microphone features also. There is also an insane amount of cool little touches that most people don't even notice, like when you look at your badges you won in your menu, they slowly get dusty over time, if you rub them on the touch screen they get cleaner until they sparkle. Plus the poketechs are pretty cool too.
And Narfer, the console versions your talking about really aren't a full fledged rpg, more like a battle spin-off where you can upload your pokemon to the console and battle in a stadium. It doesn't have a full adventure with a story with gyms and the whole nine yards, it's more or less meant to be an add on. there was one game with a story on the Gamecube, but it wasn't really part of the typical pokemon adventure it was more of a dippy spin off, and not well recieved.
I don't see how people think it's slower than older version it's definitly no different and faster with more intuitive touch controls. i've had this same conversation with friends and they're into it more then me, one already beat it, and he's play Saphire at the same time.
And how did Kwaad get that it was easy? It's definitly not easy, you have to really put some time into it, there is no way your going to brease through it. In fact Kwaad I know you like Tales games, difficulty wise it's on par with that. It's not all about leveling up either, there is real strategy based all kinds of elements and moves, pokemon all have unique battle effects then moves and moves have a type then their own effect.
