GameSpy Review of Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

The original Pokemon Ranger was an enjoyable if repetitive game that incorporated stylus control and action-oriented gameplay into the traditional Pokemon formula. Instead of "catching 'em all" and training your Pocket Monsters for battle, the Rangers' goal is to help Pokemon and in turn, take advantage of their individual abilities to bypass obstacles.





This is accomplished by encircling a wild Pokemon with your Capture Styler tool, which transmits your feelings of goodwill towards the creatures. Fiction aside, this just means that when you encounter a Pokemon, you have to quickly draw a bunch of circles around them on the DS touch screen. Of course, it's not necessarily as easy as it sounds. The Pokemon constantly run around the screen, making it difficult to capture the faster specimens. They can also attack, and if they happen to hit your capture line, the Styler takes damage.










There has been a bit of tweaking to the capture system since the original game. Before, you needed to circle the Pokemon a set number of times without lifting your stylus or taking damage to capture them. The tougher the animal, the more circles you would have to draw. This time, however, each Pokemon has a "Friendship Gauge" that fills up with each loop you form around it. If your line does happen to break, you can recover by quickly restarting your drawing. Wait too long, though, and the gauge drains, forcing you to start over. This new method makes your job a bit easier than it used to be.





Once you've shown a Pokemon that you're their friend, they'll join your party. As they follow you around, you can opt to use them during battle -- they each have specific moves that make your job easier as you attempt to catch others. You'll also have to call upon various critters to clear obstacles that are scattered around the world. Different Pokemon can use their skills to slice down fences or shatter boulders that block your progress. Just don't be too quick to use a Pokemon's power. After they've been put to work, they leave your party. Also, you can only have a limited number of Pokemon following you around at any time, so a bit of planning is required to build the proper party for each area you explore.















In addition to the main story, there are also several side quests that you can tackle in order to earn power-ups for your Styler. These bonus missions are good for increasing the length of the game, but you don't really do anything different than what you would be doing in the main game.





You Spinda Me Round





That's the main problem with Ranger: Although the game is enjoyable, drawing circles around Pokemon begins to feel very tedious after a couple hours. It's even worse if you've played the first game, as the two titles feel extremely similar. The battles simply lack any strategy to keep them interesting for long, and the constant juggling to have the proper Pokemon with you at any given time sometimes seems more like a chore than a game.





Another problem for those making their second Ranger outing is the unnecessarily long and tedious intro/tutorial section. Now, it certainly makes sense to show players how the game's mechanics work, especially considering how different they are from the regular Pokemon series, but there's simply no excuse for this segment to last for two friggin' hours. Drawing circles on a touch screen warrants a 15-minute demonstration, tops. Even when it's integrated into the storyline, the lengthy "Ranger School" bits will have you rushing to get to the "real" game.





Unlike with most Pokemon games, there are no multiplayer features in Ranger. Nintendo did, however, include Wi-Fi support in the form of downloadable missions. The first two bonus missions that you can get feature a special treat for anyone who owns Pokemon Diamond or Pearl. Clearing these missions earns you a couple rare Pokemon that can be transferred into those games: the rare Manaphy and a Riolu that knows the move Aura Sphere. Hopefully more quests will be available in the future that award other characters for your menagerie.





If you're in the mood for a more simplistic romp through the world of Pokemon, you'll likely enjoy Shadows of Almia. Those looking for a more traditional Pokemon experience, though, might feel a bit let down. This title may lack the strategy and collection aspects of the games that inspired it, but it's still an enjoyable, if repetitive adventure. Just like its predecessor.

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