Alright let's go.
Graphics 7/10
Considering this game is a hack of the original Pokemon game Fire Red I will have to comment on it also. The sprites of the main game characters are greatly different, there's a big difference. Both characters (yourself & your rival) are are different to what they looked like in Fire Red, but this is understandable considering it is a hacked version of that game. I do love the character sprites in Fire Red though, the classic Pokemon hat that Ash wears in the anime series' and same particular clothes. That is what drew me into the graphics at first. But, in Shiny Gold the whole classic avatar was changed and the character wasn't too attractive too look at. His hat was yellow which ties in with the Shiny 'Gold' aspect of it but it wasn't at all that nice to look at as it was a poor shading of the colour gold, as I say it was more yellow. The body of the character was really chubby and circular. If you look at his arms, they're like bean bags in a sense. I really didn't like the body. Even the colour used on the body too, the poor use of reds and golds, they weren't too pleasing in my my opinion. Also, I didn't like that hairstyle your character had, it made him look slightly depressed in a sense which really didn't help attract me to the game.
Now for the graphics of the towns, trees, caves etc. Everything was very similar to Fire Red, the saturation and contrast of colours were exactly the same. I really liked the colours used in this game, they were very clear and precise. They really made me want to continue playing the game, which I did! The towns were pretty amazing I must say, the creator of the game really made the effort to make the towns very attractive and eye-pleasing which I want to thank. The towns were heavily worked on as they were terrible on the Game boy Color. The colours used in the town excited me, especially the use of shadowing and darkness, lightning shocks and rain in Eruteak city. I fell in love with the graphics at this point. It was amazing how the creator could do it. I was really impressed, that's why I spent so much time in that city. The gold used in Goldenrod City was also very attractive too! That town was amazing, the cobbled paths were really attractive, great use of blacks an grays used there also. The town was structured very well but some gates and fences were not needed and did not fit in with their surroundings. I didn't see the purpose of it, that time could have been spent editing the rocks and trees that weren't needed.
The trees - I really didn't like how most of them were glitched in the game, you would see half trees everywhere which stood out and made me dislike the graphics very much. They were so unfinished, this really impacted on my progress in the game as you'll find out in depth. There was a great use of the colour green used on the trees, mixed shades which was really nice to see, very similar to Fire Red in that sense too. There was rocks half cut as well, I would see these everywhere, blocking parts of the game. This really turned me off the game as the rocks were place anywhere and everywhere without any care. The water was very nice, the tantalizing turquoises were pretty impressive, I would always surf just to look at them.
Most features in Shiny Gold were almost identical to Fire Red, the Pokemon battles, the elite 4 rooms, the route colours.
Sound 10/10
The sounds in this game were completely identical to Fire Red's sound which I really loved. It's always good to use old music because it reminds you of the times you spent playing Fire Red. It brought back memories. The classic sound that plays when you catch your first Pokemon, even though it plays every time you catch a Pokemon it's still pretty amazing to listen to. It makes you feel that you completed a goal and to be proud of yourself. I also really enjoyed the creepy tunes of the basements in the game it makes you feel that your on a mission and you can't be seen. It really pulls on your senses, you're always alert in the basements because of the music.
The Pokemon battle music is also very awesome to listen to, it's a really fast tune that gets your blood pumping and makes you really competitive and therefore you really want to win, and probably will do so. The music also has great vibes to it. I really enjoyed listening to music in Goldenrod City and Saffron City, the music is very calm as relaxing an soothes you after all the battles in the routes before that town. The music in Celadon is amazing too, it is a cheery song and was a perfect choice for that particular venue. Finally, the Pokemon league music, it was very, very forceful! The tunes were extremely fierce and filled you with determination and success. It made you believe that you could win. That's all I needed to win the league.
Addictiveness 9/10
This game is highly addictive. I would play this game for hours a day, it was that brilliant! The more I played of the game the more I loved it. There were so many different things you could do in the game because there were two regions, Kanto ad Johto. In one region you could so many rare pokemon which is always really exciting for me, just encountering these Pokemon makes me shiver, it's really fun! That's why I'm so addicted to Pokemon. But, this game had many legendary Pokemon in it which made me even more addicted to it. Many Pokemon I had never ever caught in other games, it was just thrill! And I love thrill, it's one of the little things that attract me to a game and makes me want to play it even more. This game provided all my thrill needs which is why I was so addicted to it!
The Pokemon battles are also so awesome and amazing, I'm addicted to battles, this game provided hundreds of battles, hundreds of Pokemon to defeat and destroy! The battles were fairly easy which was a downer though, most Pokemon are completely under leveled which made it almost impossible to lose to them. Having said that, it built up excitement too because you never know when a difficult pokemon battle is coming your way. Occasionally you would get a really difficult battle and that is what you love. A constant flow of hard battles is annoying and really irritating but this game gives you steady bumps and dips in battle, for example: you would get 2 or 3 easy battles and then a final hard battle, this is what I love. It's not constantly easy and not constantly hard, it's just right. It makes me super addicted to Pokemon games, especially this one.
Story 9/10
The story in this game is exactly the same as most Pokemon games, you start off by choosing your gender, your name and your rival's name, you visit the professor and he gives you the choice of one out of three possible Pokemon.Very straight forwar, collecting gym badges and eating the elite four. But, in this game there's a twist. A thief called Carlos steals one of the Pokemon at the lab and encounter him outside the lab, you then battle him. You encounter this very person numerous times throughout the game, everytime you battle him he gets stronger and stronger and sometimes very hard to beat. He will steal the Pokemon that is most strongest against yours so it is even harder to beat him. He's always where the trouble is.
You also have a rival too, you challenge him throughout the game also, to be honest he's a lot easier than Carlos as he doesn't get one of Prof. Elm's Pokemon. It's the same with Carlos, you will meet this rival throughout the game and he can pretty tough at times. Both Carlos and him are both Pokemon trainers wanting to beat the Pokemon league.
In this game you have a friend for a change, his name is Lance. Lance helps you throughout the game especially when it comes to Team Rocket. He helps you around their basements, rescuing the director from the grunts who kidnapped him from the radio tower in Goldenrod. However, Lance is actually a Pokemon trainer himself and ends up going further than gym leaders and the elite four. Lance is a really strong trainer, as he becomes the league champion and you will have to defeat him in the end. There is also a few surprises at the end of this game which is always good to see!
Depth 8/10
This game is really detailed. There's a lot of depth to it as it's not just your straight forward choosing your Pokemon, beating the gyms, defeating team rocket and becoming pokemon champion, no this game is a lot more complex than that. In this game there's a lot more challenges, there's always a twist in the story somewhere. I was never expecting Carlos, a second rival to be in this game, this adds more challenges and pressures into the game and you must go further into the game to get rid of him for good as he just shows up an blocks your path constantly.
Rescuing the director is really hard too. There is a lot of challenges associated with locating the director as you need to scurry through the Dept. Store basement to locate certain grunts and get certain information from them. Then you find out there's a key needed for the underground and that takes a lot of time getting. After many battles and challenges getting to the underground and opening to basement door you have to battle Carlos and be takes a good 10 minutes to beat. There are puzzles to bypass the first room etc. there are many surprises in that basement, I would prepare myself for them!
The game isn't that straight forward when it comes to badges. After collecting seven hard earned badges, the eighth gym leader decides not to give you the badge and that you must complete the dragon's den before obtaining it. This creates problems as you'll need certain HMs to get though the den and backtracking may be needed to locate these HMs. As you can see there are always surprises in store for you in this game which is amazing and makes the game more interesting.
There's a massive problem which prevents you from going deeper into the game especially the KANTO region as you cannot access Pewter City which prevents you from reaching many towns. The game isn't finished therefore you cannot go deeper into the story of the game. This is a huge disappointment. This refers back to what I said in graphics, the unfinished trees block you from reaching these towns as they form a barrier preventing you from reaching any nearby routes to access Pewter. This may also affect your Pokedex concerning obtaining a Lugia. The game is still very interesting though. You can defeat the league and become champion completing the game.
Difficulty 5/10
The game itself is fairly straight forward on the difficult aspect as the Pokemon are fairly under leveled in battles therefore you can defeat them very easily and very fast allowing you to progress in the game very easily. The legendary Pokemon are very simple to catch in my opinion as I caught every single one of them in pokeballs. There are never pokemon in the wild grass that are over level 36 and that's in kanto which isn't too good considering your Pokemon will be a lot higher leveled by the time you get to Kanto. Leveling up will be pretty hard if I'm honest. However, you can catch Pokemon who are level 60 in the game, an example of this is Aggron in Kanto. This will make the game fairly easy to progress in as no Pokemon you will ever meet in the game will be a higher level than him except Lugia who is impossible to get.
The league in this game are fairly easy. The first four members, the elite four are very easy to beat, you will have no problem defeating them to be fully honest. However, Lance is pretty hard as he has many Dragonites which are very good Pokemon and very difficult to beat. The game after beating the elite four is fairly simple and you will have no trouble in that aspect in progressing in the game.
Overall 8.2/10
Finally, overall I think this game is a very awesome Pokemon game. It's multi-storied which is brilliant, there isn't just one story, there are many and all contain different challenges which is very thrilling and exciting. The graphics are fairly good as I mentioned. The sound is amazing, there's no downside to it what so ever. The game is very deep which means more gameplay and fun! The game isn't at all difficult so it's suitable for all ages to play and succeed. I would definitely recommend this game to a friend and to you guys, it's definitely worth a play at least.
Thanks for reading and I hope you took the time to read it. Understand it. Please give this game a try, it's really worth it!
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