Inter-Graphical Overhaul
And then there’s the 800-pound Mamoswine in the room – X and Y is operating on an entirely new and fully polygonal 3D graphics engine. Though it certainly won’t be winning awards or giving the folks at Epic Games nightmares any time soon, X and Y is that much closer to the ideal Pokémon experience you imagined as a kid.
From a more broad perspective, X and Y represents yet another Nintendo franchise making the successful leap to the third dimension. The publisher is notoriously adept at doing so – be it Metroid Prime, Super Mario 64, or The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, it’s a process the company takes extremely seriously. Nobody wants what happened to Sonic to happen to them, and it’s a testament to Game Freak that they took the time and care necessary to avoid such a fate.
All said and done, Pokémon X and Y offers a rare blend of game elements, as do most Pokémon games. The difference here, though, is that the series has reached what is arguably its apex – a point where world discovery, advanced training, competitive play, and simply catching them all coexist in a delicate balance that few games manage to achieve. Pokémon will never win game of the year awards, nor should it. But as a veteran of the RPG space that has now been in business for the better part of two decades, one thing is clear – its makers, now more than ever, know exactly what they’re doing.
