Review: Pokémon Link: Battle

Pokémon is the second biggest gaming franchise in the world at the time of writing this review. Whilst the successes of the franchise are largely due to the work of Game Freak, other developers also take Pokémon under their wing for spin-off games. Genius Sonority – the developers of Pokémon Coloseum, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness and Pokémon Link – are now taking a stab at a budget downloadable title for the 3DS.

Pokémon Link: Battle! (known as Pokémon Battle: Trozei! outside of Europe and Australia) is a puzzle game revolving around the concept of “linking” Pokémon via the touch screen. It’s a “match three” game much like games such as Bejeweled, Candy Crush and its predecessor Pokémon Link. However, where Pokémon Link: Battle varies from similar games is its incorporation of elements from the Pokémon role playing games, such as type advantages.

All 718 current Pokémon are in the game and it has its own distinct and cute charm about it. One thing I couldn’t help but notice though is that a lot of the Pokémon sprites are recycled from Pokémon Link – which is getting on for eight years old.

Gameplay revolves around linking at least three or more Pokémon on the touch screen to defeat and capture a variety of wild Pokémon. Wild Pokémon can attack you and will gradually deplete your health bar. If you lose all of your health then it’s game over. When you link a Pokémon its type will determine whether or not it does more or less damage to the wild Pokémon – for example, linking a Fire type will deal more damage than usual to a Grass, Steel, Bug or Ice type Pokémon. Veterans of the franchise will know which Pokémon and types have advantages over others but players new to the franchise will struggle as there’s very little to teach you about types in game besides tips screens during loading. Pokémon only have single types too which can prove frustrating too. A Dark/Ice type such as Sneasel is only classed as a Dark type. Therefore linking a Fire type Pokémon won’t give you an advantage. It’s quite disappointing as many Pokémon have dual types and it would have allowed players to mix up strategies even more.

Linking multiple Pokémon quickly will also allow you to build up a combo and deal even more damage. Linking three Pokémon will set up an attack, linking five will allow you to use a scatter attack which can hit multiple wild Pokémon and linking six will give you a much stronger variant of the aforementioned scatter attack. Linking four Pokémon and then at least three immediately afterwards will initiate a “link chance” which allows you to clear the touch screen by being able to link two Pokémon at a time and they allow you to dish out massive damage. Two Pokémon – Ditto and Chansey – also have special effects and are the only two Pokémon in the game to do so. Ditto can be linked with any other Pokémon on the touch screen and Chansey restores a small portion of your health when linked. You can also choose a Pokémon to support you once you’ve captured it, this allows you to select a Pokémon with a type advantage or constantly have a Chansey as a healer for every stage.

Unfortunately, there’s not much more in the way of gameplay to talk about in Pokémon Link: Battle. Once you learn how to master linking and type advantages the game becomes repetitive and bland very fast.

There are thirteen stages with a handful of levels to complete and you can rinse through them fairly quickly. Each level ends with a boss fight which could end up being a powerful Pokémon or even a legendary Pokémon. After going through all of the stages however, I felt very little incentive to pick up Pokémon Link: Battle again. Completionists will be compelled to catch em’ all and gather up all 718 Pokémon, but for many the game will be a one hit wonder. Once you’ve played one level of Pokémon Link: Battle you’ve played them all. It’s fun at the beginning for sure, but once the repetitiveness sets in you’ll more than likely move on to something else.

Pokémon Link: Battle is a game that struggles to be relevant in this day and age. With free-to-play clones of Bejeweled coming out almost every other day on mobile devices it’s a game that’s a few years late to the party and one that costs more than it really should. The original Pokémon Link was a solid idea back in 2006 as it was a rather niche market, but the same can’t be said now. If you’re looking for a puzzle game with depth then you’d do best to give Pokémon Link: Battle a miss.

Tags: Pokemon, Pokémon Link, Pokémon Link Battle, Pokémon Trozei