Hello everyone, Third here. I'm going to try something new and slap it down here in my journals page: reviews. I play a modest amount of video games, and see the occasional movie and TV series, and sometimes I have things to say about them. For lack of a better place to slap strangers with my random thoughts, I figured what the heck, I'll throw them down here on FA!

So first up, my review of Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee!

Specifically, I have the Eevee edition, because Eevee is clearly the better option, even if it refuses to evolve in this game.

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee (forevermore abbreviated as LGPE) is a remake of the Generation 1 game Pokemon Yellow, upgraded for the Switch. I actually owned and played Yellow along with Blue (I believe I got Red much, much later to complete the trifecta), so playing through this definitely gave me the warm fuzzies of nostalgia. I missed the old towns of Kanto, the Diglett Tunnel, the Pokemon Tower, and I missed Pokemon Gyms (sorry Sun and Moon!).

LGPE boasts updated graphics, which only feels slightly upgraded from the recent 3DS games, but in most other respects it takes a few steps backwards. Only the original 151 Pokemon are catchable (plus a few Alolan Pokemon and Meltan/Melmetal); there are no held items; and Pokemon don't have abilities anymore. This all fits with the original Pokemon Yellow, but it definitely feels like there's something missing, since we've been used to held items since Generation 2, and abilities since Generation 3.

The other major change, and in my opinion the worst one of the bunch, is the adoption of the catching mechanic from Pokemon Go. Instead of battling wild Pokemon, weakening them, and catching them, you jump right into the catching them part, throwing pokeball after pokeball at your target until the RNG lottery decides it's caught. This to me doesn't feel right. It feels boring at best, and frustrating at worst, since the Pokemon can move out of the way, or the ball can just miss the target for no discernible reason. And if a pokeball misses its target, it's lost forever. I can sort of understand the concept of a ball being destroyed if a wild Pokemon escapes from it, but a missed ball should just be sitting there, letting you pick it up again.

Add on to that the fact that this mechanic is entirely motion-control based, and you've got a recipe for disaster. On many occasions I've thrown the ball straight forward and for whatever reason, it veers off to the side. Playing in hand-held mode only slightly waters down the motion controls, so at least you aren't trying to chuck your whole Switch, but there is no way to eliminate the motion controls altogether, which is a definite mark against it.

Pokemon Battles function normally, thankfully, and are the game's strongest feature. One thing I've noticed in Pokemon Sun & Moon is that there seem to be far fewer enemy trainers to face off against in any given route, and those that do exist typically only have one or two Pokemon, which isn't much of a challenge. LGPE, since it copies Yellow, is back to the old school routes that are filled with trainers, sometimes boasting 3 or 4 Pokemon. Getting through some of the longer routes actually can be a challenge, at least early on... which leads me into my next point.

Eevee is OP as fuck. I wouldn't have thought it at first. In fact, I had my reservations about picking Eevee, since as a normal type it has no solid resistances (immunity to Ghost is nice), and normal-type moves aren't strong against anything. At least Pikachu learns electric moves and can be good against water and flying. Those reservations were dispelled upon entering Cerulean City and encountering a Move Tutor who can teach your Eeevee brand new moves based upon each potential Eeveelution (so there's a water, electric, fire, psychic, dark, grass, ice, and fairy type move). He first teaches you only the first three (water, electric and fire), and you unlock more by beating gyms, and let me tell you, these moves are fantastic. Each one has a base power of 90, and 100 accuracy, and all have a fantastic secondary effect (the water one heals you for 50% of the damage dealt, the electric one paralyzes the opponent, and the fire one burns the opponent, for example). Basically, my Eevee became a murderous tank that could annihilate any Pokemon in its way. I ended up keeping the original three moves and swapping the fourth one around depending on where I was traveling to next, and my Eevee has never been knocked out. There's very little reason to use any other Pokemon, which is a bit of a shame, but admittedly in the end this is a choice of mine. You could easily play the game by training an elite team of six Pokemon as normal... but Eevee is just so good it covers nearly every base by itself.

By the midpoint of the game, I was simply making a party of Eevee, Alolan Ninetales (I liked having her out and following me for my adventures), and then just four random Pokemon I was leveling up simply to evolve. I've never filled my Pokedex faster than this. Unfortunately, I sincerely doubt my Pokedex will ever be completed thanks to one small fact... Trading Pokemon online now requires you to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Unless I fork out $4 a month, I can't trade with my friends online. So no Alakazam, Golem, Gengar, or Machamp, and certainly no Pokemon that are exclusive to Let's Go Pikachu. In the 3DS games, online trading is free, and the one online service they do offer (Pokemon Bank) is a fucking tremendous deal at $5 a YEAR. It almost feels like a microtransaction fee: "Pay us more money to get temporary access to the rest of the game you've already paid $100 to play!"

All in all, LGPE is an enjoyable, nostalgic romp that's marred by some questionable decisions. (Please, Gamefreak, ditch the Pokemon Go mechanics when working on Generation 8. Please.) It's still fun, and now that I've beaten it there's plenty more to do that wasn't available in the original Yellow (such as beating all the MASTER Trainers out there, which promises to be a challenge, and shiny hunting!), so I'll definitely be playing it more in the future.

Overall I'm going to give LGPE a 7/10. It's not a bad game for sure, but it doesn't quite stack up as a full Pokemon experience, which is unfortunate.

Thanks for sticking through my review/rant. I'll probably do a few more of these in the future. I've got some things to say about various other games, movies and shows.