Pokémon Platinum
Been a while since I've played a Pokémon game, so I figured I might as well get a new one since they're all so similar. This one is especially similar, I'm having trouble differentiating this game from Emerald. Aside form the obvious of being in a new country and adding some new Pokémon, there's really not much new and different, so this one felt like playing the same game more than any other one in the series. Sure, some new features like online are nice, but the core gameplay is exactly like Emerald.
Well, except for the contests, they added a new section to them and changed up the way they work. They're actually a pretty interesting deviation from the typical Pokémon battle, so it's a shame that they are nothing but a completely optional diversion and are not integral to the progression at all. They also take too much preparation for the later contests... but that's actually a widespread problem in the whole game.
Building a competent team for things like the Battle Frontier just takes far too long. There are too many tasks that need to be done, including elements left up to random chance, such as IVs and natures. It's a long and tedious process that I've never bothered with because it's just so incredibly boring, and I have no idea how people find that kind of grind fun. The game also does an extremely poor job explaining it all as well, further limiting the number of people who could enjoy the extra modes of the game.
It may sound strange to say it, but Pokémon needs to become more accessible. It shouldn't take so long and be so random to create a good team, there are tons of ways to streamline this process so that everyone could get into it instead of a select few hardcore nuts. It should also be possible to catch all Pokémon within one game, without having to trade. Not even half of the Pokédex is available in Platinum, which is just stupid, especially when the slogan is “Gotta catch 'em all!” More like, “Gotta trade for 'em all and end up with Monz with phallic names!” Lastly, after nine versions, they still haven't created a good box storage system.
Oh well, the core gameplay is still solid so I enjoyed playing it, but am also disappointed that this series has yet to reach its full potential.