Pokémon Sun Standard Edition - Nintendo 3DS

Not going to lie here, I was not optimistic about this game. But I wanted some new Pokémon and I took a chance and I'm glad that I did. Pokémon Sun is a great addition to the Pokémon world. The same gameplay is there that existed way back in Pokémon Blue (which is where I started) and the new gimmicky things down ruin the game. If you're on the fence about this game, I'd say give it a chance. I think you'll enjoy it.

These games just keep on giving!! Hours upon hours of good.

Huge changes to the pokemon formula since Pokemon X & Y, no longer as it's strictly battle and collecting focused (although still present) as they added variety of mechanics to switch things up a bit and to bring more variety in gameplay. Changes include: 1. No HMs No longer do you have to carry around a HM slave (s). This has bothered me in the past games as I have to restrict 1 or 2 slots out of my party of 6 to help traverse certain areas of the world. In the place of HMs there are Poké Rides where you can ride pokemon interacting with them on the world map, some you may not be able to access until you've completed mission within the game. 2. Is it super effective? No longer do you have to look up guides online (unless it's your first encounter) to tell if a move is super effective or not very effective against the pokemon you're up against. After you battle a pokemon once, the game will tell you what moves is super effective or not in the battle menu once you encounter the same pokemon the second time. 3. No Traditional Gyms No longer do you have to battle your way through gym after gym to prove you're the best out of brute force. There are 4 islands in the game, each of which are controlled by 4 Island Kahunas To get to them you have to get pass Trail Captains and Todum Pokemon Trail captain will give you quizzes, side quests to complete, and/or fight in traditional battles Todum Pokemon. Basically typical pokemon you find the wild, but significantly stronger and have grunts that help them battle. 4. Rotom Pokédex Typical pokedex, but with a face and personality attached to it. 5. Alola Forms Basically different forms of pokemon you seen in previous generations. Either it's there physical form that is different and/or the pokemon's typing 6. Z-Moves With a Z-Ring and a Z-Crystal you can use a pokemon's ultimate move once per battle. It's not like Mega Evolutions where it stays constant 7. QR Scanner. You can now scan QR codes to get event pokemon. Also if you scan a random QR codes it will give you 10 points. Once you reach 100, you are able search an island for a rare pokemon. Each scan also gives you random trivia about pokemon 8. Battle Royal A 4 player free-for-all where the battle ends after all of one's pokemon trainer's faints. They tally the win-losses of each trainer and the one with best stats at the end wins 9. Hyper Training. Once a pokemon reaches level 100, they can go through hyper training which can improve a Pokemon's IV 10. Poké Pelago Your PC Box now has functionality to it. It's like a day care sort of thing, instead of just depositing your pokemon, you can passively train them in the PC or have them search for items 11. Festival Plaza. An online mode where you can battle other trainers and trade with them. You get festival coins for each interaction which you can spend on clothes, shop or upgrade your pokemon's stats. There's also missions you can undertake to get more coins. 12. Night and Day phase, New Pokemon Pokemon Sun goes the traditional time route while Moon does the opposite. In Pokemon Moon if you're playing in the daytime, the game will consider it night time in-game. Some events also play out differently like different Totum Pokemon on the same island/trail In traditional Pokemon fashion you can only get some pokemon in each version so trading is required either with a friend or if you own both versions. Also some pokemon evolve differently in each version now. I'd say some of overall models of new pokemon are better looking than the last batch in previous iterations of the pokemon series. 13. Auto Run Your run is as fast as a bike now, and it has unlimited use. You can now move in all directions instead of the traditional 4 and it feels very fluid 14. No Rod Fishing is now dedicated to specific regions in the world. You cannot fish wherever you want anymore. 15. Photo Taking You can now take Photos of pokemon in the wild. 16. Team Skull and Aether Foundation Team Skull is the new antagonist group like Team Rocket, but they have a new style to them as they try act gangster-ish with their animated hand gesters/movements. They have more personality and have a darker tone to their backstory and mission. Aether Foundation is the opposite of Team Skull as thier mission is to cure injured and hurt pokemon. The group is also conducting research on the Ultra Beast (Pokemon) which is a good mystery story in and of itself. 17. Graphical Upgrade Game looks better than the last, although there are some pixelation around the edges still. Models look more realistic than before, and the battle animations are more visually impressive. There are some framerate issues on 2v2 battles for some reason, but then again I own the launch 3DS. You may not have the issue if you own the New 3DS? It's a turn-based system so it doesn't really matter much in terms of gameplay, but the slow down is noticeable -Returning mechanics: Pokebank return, you can now transfer all your pokemon to Sun and Moon Clothing Options: Although more options are available, it still feel very limited. Mega Evolutions return, but none for new pokemon from what i've discovered Pokemon Refresh: don't remember if it's in the last game, but you can groom your pokemon in your party If you discover more changes, please put in comment below. Overall, love the changes to the traditional formula as it gives the Pokemon Series a nice refresh and is more streamline to play.

Pokemon Sun and Moon are the most refined Pokemon games ever made it terms of gameplay. Every generation adds more and more user-minded features that make the game more streamlined and less cumbersome, and this generation does that more than ever. For the first time they've really nailed the 3D environment (the 2D Pokemon games were perfect; they struggled with going to 3D for the first time in Pokemon X & Y). It feels more like a world designed in 3D from the start, rather than a 2D world that drawn with 3D art. They've also changed the Pokemon formula more than ever before. Gone are the Pokemon Gyms that we've all grown accustomed to, now replaced with a system of travelling from island to island to challenge trials and eventually each island's respective kahuna. The story is also a larger focus with each new generation; expect a number of cutscenes as well as scene jumps where you're skipped ahead in time to a slightly different location. Things are not just "character talks to you in a speech bubble for a while, and then you move on". The downsides? That 3D world I mentioned can sometimes be a pain to navigate and learn. I found myself constantly forgetting where important locations were, and how to get back to them. This is because of a few things: for one, the camera will spin and pan around cinematic-style, which screws with your sense of direction; you may be running downwards (South) onscreen, and the road hooks to the left, but instead of turning your character, the camera turns, so you're still running downwards, except now you're running West. Over hours of playing you do start to get twisted around. On top of that there's the scene jumping I mentioned. A character may encounter you on a road, and says "follow me", so the screen fades to black and then you're in new location, and then they say "let's head back home", so it fades to black and now you're at that character's house. It hinders your ability to form a proper "mental map" of the world, learning how each place connects to the next, which makes navigation very frustrating sometimes, The map is awful; they put in on the bottom screen, and when you click on the center, it just talks to you. You have to click off-center to open. I couldn't figure out how to open the map for hours. Actually, you don't even get the map for quite a while as it is. All the multiplayer features are in one part of the menu in a strange 2nd world kind of environment, with a sort of mini-game aspect to it. It's called Festival Plaza. They've done this type of thing over many generations, and it always turns out being very weird and disconnected from the rest of the game, so much so that I usually don't use these features. I think it's the developers' way of taking years worth of various multiplayer features, added game-by-game, and trying to collect them all into one cohesive menu. It's just not gonna work. And finally, the actual gameplay itself. Like I said it deviates from the norm more than ever, but it also feels less like Pokemon with each passing generation, and more like any other generic JRPG. Also, there's not many new Pokemon; over the first 12 HOURS of play I had only caught 2 of the new generation Pokemon. Most of the others were Gen 1. Perhaps that is because of the popularity of Pokemon Go, they know a bunch of people are gonna be returning to the games, so they crammed the beginning with Gen 1 Pokemon. Maybe not. Either way it's pretty disappointing. Overall the game is fun, but I honestly think the problems I mentioned all combine to to make the new Pokemon games feel just a little less like Pokemon than they should. They're missing a lot of the charm of the older games. Pretty much the only thing that's still around from those days is catch Pokemon and battle them. All the other aspects of the game, the atmosphere, the FEEL of Pokemon gen 1-3 is gone, and these new games are left feeling a bit empty, generic, and kind of part their prime. Please know, this is coming from someone who has played every single mainline Pokemon game; and yes, I mean every single game, each version, not just 1 version from each generation. I don't like having to say it, but it's what I feel; Pokemon is getting more and more refined while also becoming less and less of what many of us consider to be "Pokemon". I think that new players will enjoy Sun and Moon quite a lot for what it is, but players with experience in older Pokemon games will likely notice the significant change, and may find that it doesn't quite measure up to what they're looking for. I am sticking with a 4-star rating, as I do recommend the game, but with the understanding of the qualifiers that I've mentioned here.

Great game and my kids loves it. A few hours into game play and I knew I needed to write a review on this particular game. I absolutely love Pokemon games, and I have been playing since Leaf Green/Fire Red. Here are my impressions from the game. Pokemon Sun is a good game. I love all the new Pokemon, especially the three adorable new starters. The graphics are great. You can tell the improvement from Alpha Sapphire and XY. The overall theme, characters, colors, and customization are great. I'm glad they decided to bring back being able to chose different clothing items and stuff like that to make it a unique experience. However, they got rid of gym battles..... Which in my opinion is a major downfall. Any die heart Pokemon fan lives for gym battles and gym badges. Now we have something called Island Trails. Which are okay.... in terms, but no where near as fun as gyms. They also got rid of HM's and replaced them with pagers that you can use to call different Pokemon to aid you in your quest. This isn't a bad feature. Overall the game is very very different compared to what we have had in the past. There is ALOT alot alot of commentary in this game. Which I usually enjoy but it is a little excessive this time. If you can get past the changes the game is still a good buy. It still has the great Pokemon atmosphere we all know and love, just with several changes. I would recommend this game to a friend.

I've been into pokemon since the start, my first version being Pokémon Yellow. For those first few years, I played pokemon all the time. Going on that same adventure over and over. And this continued with each generation throughout the years. When the series moved to 3d in XY, I was fully immersed once again, and could not wait for what was next. With Sun and Moon, I was not disappointed. You still have the usual. A grand adventure through a new home, gotta catchem all, defeat the greats and work your way up to the top of the league. But it's also new, and refreshed. Gone are the traditional battle the minions and then battle the gym leader. Now you have challenges, each one different, using many different features before you get to the actual battle. These island challenges really kept me interested and I looked forward to seeing what the next one would bring. The story, one of my personal favorites. It has a lot of weight to it, and I felt actually engaged as the problems began to grow more series, furthering my need to save this world and it's people. The pokemon? Love them. The new designs are fun, and the alolan versions of kanto pokemon made playing with old favorites all the more interesting. Wether your new to the series or a returning fan, this game is an excellent entry in the series. Can't wait for the next one, keep em coming Game Freak

The last time I had played a Pokemon game released from Nintendo was Pokemon Yellow back in the Gen 1 days. After those games I feel my interests shifted to other things and Pokemon had seemingly decided to get more complicated and complex as years went by. With the nostalgia and fanfare from Pokemon Go I decided I wanted to play the next entry of the Pokemon series and Pokemon Sun/Moon enters the scene! Overall coming in with only in-depth knowledge of how things are with Gen 1 I was still easily able to grasp the new mechanics and systems that have been entered in. The developer was smart to include some new non-intrusive, helpful systems by showing you the effectiveness of a move after you have battled and encountered a Pokemon from before. That system is just one example of something that is very helpful while not being cumbersome or entirely unnecessary. I can easily recommend this game to both old fans and new fans alike!

I've played, and beaten, 1 game in almost every generation of Pokemon from Red/Blue to now, and this is so far my favorite. The improved breeding mechanics, the different character representations, battle animations, battle screen, HM overhaul, PokePelago, everything is fantastic. Pokemon games can be as basic or as complex as you want to make them, and that is something that I've always loved about them. This is the reason there is such a wide age range for the fan base of Pokemon. People who grew up with it love it for nostalgia, competition, etc, and kids just have fun with it! Definitely worth picking up if you are a fan of Pokemon. If you've been wanting to pick up the series again but are hesitant for whatever reason, you must get this game (or Moon).