Time to catch 'em all again. (Pokémon: Leafgreen (GBA))

Member Name: DaveAshton

Product:	Pokémon: Leafgreen (GBA)
Date:	03/10/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: New areas, full colour gameplay, new pokemon

Disadvantages: You've seen it all before, repetitive.

This is a re-make of the original Pokemon Red and Blue games. Pokemon LeafGreen, and also it's counterpart FireRed were released on October 1st 2004 (5 years after the original games) in the UK. For those of you that don't know about the Pokemon franchise in general, I've written another review on here covering the basics.

Pokemon LeafGreen starts off in an identical way to the original Pokemon games, with you beginning your journey as a pokemon trainer. Unlike the original games however, you can choose to play as a female trainer in this version. Obviously, the first thing you need as a trainer is an actual pokemon to train, so your first destination is the laboratory belonging to Professor Oak (basically, a kind of Dr Dolittle character, but without the actual talking to animals bit) , conveniently located next door to your home. After talking to him, he will let you choose one of three pokemon as your starter: Charmander, a fire type, Bulbasaur, grass type, or Squirtle, which is a water type. There is no right choice, but your rival (every hero needs a rival that tries to take the glory, don't they...) will take whichever pokemon is strongest against yours (so if you take Bulbasaur, the rival will take Charmander). The rival will than challenege you to pokemon battle. After the dust from the fight has cleared, Professor Oak will then give you a small assignment involving fetching a parcel and returning it to him. When you've done the delivery job, Oak will explain he has a job for you. He wants you to create a pokedex (basically a pokemon encyclopedia) of every pokemon in existence (see below). Doing this will involve you travelling the country, solving puzzles, and eventually challenging the best pokemon trainers in the world...

It's after you complete the original storyline that this game starts to make it worth the purchase. A new area called the Sevii is unlocked, consisting of seven small islands. These islands contain a new storyline involving a few of the characters from the original story, and also quite a few new pokemon that didn't exist when Pokemon Red and Blue were released.

Of the 386 pokemon in existence at the time the game was released, these are the pokemon that are only available in Pokemon LeafGreen:

Sandshrew
Sandslash
Vulpix
Ninetales
Bellsprout
Weepinbell
Victreebel
Slowpoke
Slowbro
Slowking
Staryu
Starmie
Magby
Magmar
Pinsir
Azurill
Marill
Azumarill
Misdreavus
Sneasel
Remoraid
Octillery
Mantine
Deoxys Defense Form

These Pokemon are only available in Pokemon FireRed:

Ekans
Arbok
Oddish
Gloom
Vileplume
Bellossom
Psyduck
Golduck
Growlithe
Arcanine
Shellder
CLoyster
Scyther
Scizor
Elekid
Electabuzz
Wooper
Quagsire
Murkrow
Qwilfish
Delibird
Skarmory
Deoxys Attack Forme

Also, a lot of the pokemon introduced in Pokemon Ruby and Spphire are not included. Therefore, if you own Pokemon LeafGreen, you'll have to trade with someone that owns FireRed, Ruby, and Sapphire to complete the pokedex, and vice-versa.

Despite the fact it's a re-make, there's still enough new content here to justify buying it, and as it's on the GBA instea of the original Game Boy, you get to play in full colour.

Summary: Pokemon returns to where it all began, but with colour, new areas, and new pokemon to catch.