A shameful revolution against the principles and qualities of the Pokémon series.
Negatives: Extreme lack of content and Poor transitioning (-Overall Quality). Poor, contrived-looking animations (-Visual Quality). Annoying background voice talking about the battles
(-Audio Quality).
Overall Quality: 3/10 (F)
Pokémon Battle Revolution features only what is in its name: Pokémon battles. The location of these battles is a fictional theme park called "Poketopia", and the entire content involves you, the aspiring Pokémon Battler, becoming the master of Poketopia by defeating the already-established masters in Pokémon battles. These masters appear in "coliseums" stadiums, and the player must respectively click on a location and head right into approximately 10 hours of Pokémon beating up Pokémon. There is no engaging world to explore freely, nor is there any meaningful storyline that gives purpose to performing in Pokémon battles.
Satoshi Tajiri, the founder of the Pokémon series, originally stated that the purpose of Pokémon was to trade and interact with other players who play the game, as well as cooperate with your Pokémon and establish a sense of fellowship. By taking away the abilities to trade with other players and interact with your Pokémon, Pokémon Battle Revolution represents a very small fraction of what Pokémon is about. The game has an extremely limited amount of content, and is meaningless due to the lack of any purposeful story.
Another problem with this game is the speed and flow of transitions. The game allows players to battle against real people on the internet. However, the strength of the internet connection to the game is always slow, no matter what type of internet you have. Often times, you must wait for 30-55 seconds before the operating system connects to the internet and any attacks are thrown. In the meantime, you and your opponent's Pokémon are standing and staring at each other! This does not feel like a battle at all, since you are mostly waiting around for the internet to connect. And considering that this game only features battling, this game is just plain shameful.
Therefore, a 3/10 is a generous rating, considering that Pokémon Battle Revolution only attempts to feature battles, which are less than 1/3 of what Pokémon is all about.
Visual Quality: 6/10 (D-)
The colors in the background images, as well as the colors and textures found on the combatants of the battle happening in the front of the screen are rich, beautiful, and overall pleasing to the eye. However, the animations featured in the battles are simply appalling.
When the Pokémon move and attack each other during a battle, they move in repetitive, contrived motions. In addition, when the Pokémon are supposed to physically hit each other, they fail to make physical contact! For example, if one Pokémon punches the opponent Pokémon, the attacker punches without fully extending and touching the opponent. Furthermore, the opponent flinches, but the flinches are always identical and therefore look extremely fake. The poor battle animations seem as though the Pokémon are imitating a fight, rather than actually fighting.
While it is true that the colors of the game are adequate, the animations are not, so the game has only accomplished about half of the visuals successfully, getting a 6/10.
Audio Quality: 8/10 (B-)
The music playing in the background of the every battle is somewhat pleasing. The tunes feature synthesized cymbals and guitar beats, so the music is exciting although fake-sounding. However, a negative aspect of the "audio quality" is the constant talking in the background of the game. More specifically, the game features an "announcer" (basically a narrator) that talks about the battle while you and your opponent fight. This feature, however, proves to be extremely annoying, with the announcer repeating the same jokes and wisecracks that make you want to mute the game entirely. Thankfully, the announcer feature can be de activated. However, the fact that this game features an unnecessary and overall negative audio aspect cannot be ignored nor praised.
Controls and Interface: 9/10 (A-)
Perhaps the only part of the game without flaw, the controls in this game are very easy to use and allow players to select what they want to select. More specifically, a player may either point the controller at the screen or move a cursor using buttons to select what they want. While these controls are easy to use, they are not original, creative, and overall the best controls I have ever used. Therefore, a 9/10 emphasizes the control's positive, yet uncreative state.
Final Rating: 5/10 (F)
In conclusion, the game is a 5/10 (50%), earning it a failing grade, in my opinion. There are issues in all aspects of the game, and the lack of content and slow transitioning bring this game's potential to an all time low. This game has no positive future in any gamers' mind; it is a shameful revolution against the principles and qualities that have made the main Pokémon game series successful.