Heart Gold and Soul Silver: A review

Now, for all of you that read the title and thought, "Oh great. He's gonna rant on how awesome/lame the new pokemon games are," you are each sadly mistaken. I am here to deliver an unbiased review and overview of the old and new that these titles offer. Yes, I'll admit I'm somewhat of a Pokemaniac myself, but I can appreciate the games' little nuances that most other rabid fans will overlook.

The first thing, and most obvious, is that this game received a major facelift, both in body and sound.Yes, those who have played Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum already know what to expect graphic-wise, but the sound is the meat of the renovations. The soundtracks are familiar to those who know the Gameboy Color grandparents, but there is a noticeable, somewhat elegant arrangement of the classics, especially with the additional drum riff in the "Wild Pokemon" track.

The next feature that deserves note is the new "Pokewalker" accessory that comes free with the game. After you learn to capture pokemon, the option to send your pokemon to the little device is activated. Anyone remember Pokemon Pikachu? This is practically the same thing, although instead of presents you spend your watts on finding wild pokemon to capture, or rustle through grass to find different items from Potions to Technical Machines and everything in between.
From personal experience, I have even found the Big Pearl and Stardust items while dousing, both items that are virtually useless in training or battles but are worth serious coin when sold to shops.

Possibly the best benefit to using the Pokewalker is obtaining rare pokemon early in the game, as the game treats all captured Pokewalker 'mons as your own. Imagine, having a Magby before you get to Bugzy, or a heavy hitting Kangaskhan to mop up Team Rocket, even before you make it to Violet City? It's possible with this little marvel. My only complaint is that you cannot nickname your Pokewalker additions until you get to Goldenrod and meet the Name Rater.

Overall, I say it's a good addition to the family. Get it if you're feeling nostalgic, or if you're new to the games, and enjoy.

Yoshi's Island DS, part 2

Slogging through world one seems to be an exercise in patience and memorization. Already I've come across puzzles I won't be able to solve until later. I do have a revision to my previous entry, though, as I have learned that you cannot use the Y button to run with Baby Peach. It seems that Baby Mario equips the reptilian protagonist with Running Shoes, whereas Baby Peach has a hold of a parasol that catches the gusts about the island to propel you to new heights.

New things that caught my eye were numerous, including the following:

Kamek isn't pulling any punches this time. He throws a giant Spiny at you from behind the scenes, and if you don't have fleet feet, you might find yourself a little holier than you'd prefer to be. Of course there are friendly animal folk as well, a shame they're ugly as sin...

You're reminded that you need to watch your step in the first fortress, since I've had the unfortunate pleasure of becoming roast dinosaur due to a missed jump. Upon making it to the bosses' lair, I've noticed straight away that there was a duo instead of just the single bouncy brother. Same way to defeat the pair, but a little harder due to it being a tandem effort on the enemy's part.

So far, so good. I think I'll report back after each castle and fortress, to keep the amount of posts manageable.