One Life Left: Pokemon X

“So, are you a boy or a girl?” Moments after being asked this question by a suave man in a lab coat, I was tossed out into Kalos to begin my adventure in Pokémon X. I picked my starter, a Froakie (obviously), and soon found myself giggling like a kid again as I tromped through the world, capturing and battling any Pokémon that I could find.

If you are a fan of the series you should stop reading and keep playing because you already have these games. If you are an old fan who has fallen off the bandwagon, or someone looking into Pokémon for the first time, these games have a lot to offer.

If the Pokémon series has ever been consistently criticized for one thing, it is stagnation. “They’re just the same games over and over again!” cry some. In a way, they are right. Pokémon games all follow a tried and true formula. You will be presented with the same starter types, introduced to a rival or two, and face off against gym leaders and some sort of criminal team before finally confronting the Elite Four and becoming the Champion.

Each game offers some new wrinkles and updates, but the basic formula remains the same. If this formula does not appeal to you, I cannot honestly recommend X and Y. While the game boasts a slew of new features which make the experience both on and offline all the more captivating, you will still be tasked with the same goals and challenged by similar obstacles.

Where X and Y shine is in their ability to make the Pokémon formula feel fresh. Earlier games in the series had notoriously slow starts, requiring a good hour or two of play before the real game began. X and Y start at a breakneck pace, handing you a starter and some Pokéballs and releasing you into the world pretty much from the get go.

From there, you will notice that Kalos is home to an almost ridiculous array of Pokémon. Every route is packed full of monsters from every generation of games, allowing you to build a varied team right away. The first chunk of the game is quite spread out, giving you time to adventure and enjoy the world. As you progress, the game’s pacing speeds up by reducing time between gyms as your character hardens their resolve to face off against the Elite Four. The pace of the story allowed me to enjoy my wanderings at the beginning of the game, and by the time I felt ready to be done with the story and move on to creating a competitive team, the pace had accelerated enough for me to do so quickly.

Pokémon X and Y’s most noticeable change is their move to fully 3D graphics. Making the most out of the more powerful 3DS hardware, Game Freak created fully animated models of every Pokémon which replace the old two dimensional sprites. The battles and world look phenomenal. My favorite Pokémon designs came to life through the new graphics, and I found a new appreciation for some Pokémon I was previously not so fond of. The battle scenes also make use of new attack animations, and the whole thing feels snappy and fast paced.

The new graphical style is accompanied by greater freedom of movement using the 3DS’ circle pad and your character’s roller skates. Moving around the world feels intuitive, for the most part. Kalos’ capital city of Lumiose suffers from some difficult controls due to its behind the back perspective, and I often found myself wandering through alleys and shop doors that I had not meant to enter. Aside from the awkwardness of Lumiose, Pokémon X and Y have made the jump to 3D graphics quite masterfully.

For those of you looking to get into Pokémon’s more complicated meta-game, X and Y are by far the best places to start. The breeding and training cycle of old games has been accelerated through a number of new features. With the introduction of the Super Training system and the ability to breed good Pokémon more quickly, I actually found myself having fun with making my team, as opposed to accepting it as a necessary chore.

Pokémon X and Y are great games for getting into this series. The whole experience feels streamlined and fresh, giving players old and new plenty of reason to start out on their own journeys. There is no better time to play Pokémon, just make sure to put down the games long enough to attend classes.