Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

In Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, you once again play as a Pokémon Ranger, working to help people, Pokémon and nature in a new area called the Almia Region. Starting out as a Student Ranger, you quickly earn the title of a full-fledged Pokémon Ranger. As you succeed in more and more missions, you will aspire to become the highest Ranger rank: Top Ranger. Along the way you meet and capture all kinds of different Pokémon.

A new way to play Pokémon

Use your stylus to Capture Pokémon. View larger.

Play as a boy or girl ranger. View larger.

Pokémon follow your lead. View larger.

Gameplay
Capture wild Pokémon and create a team to clear obstacles and solve puzzles encountered along the way. After players use a Pokémon's ability, it will leave the player's team; however, you will have a Partner Pokémon that will always stay by your side. As you progress through Missions and Quests, your Capture Styler becomes more powerful, giving your Styler more Energy and eventually advancing you to the level of Top Ranger.

Characters
Harness the power of hundreds of different Pokémon. In addition, players can choose to be a boy or girl Pokémon Ranger.

Key Game Features

• Pokémon Ranger is a unique action-adventure series that features a fun, different way to capture Pokémon with the Nintendo DS stylus, which controls an item called the Capture Styler in the game. Players circle the Pokémon they want to catch by drawing circles around them on the touch screen. When you complete certain Quests, the Ranger Union awards you with power-ups, which add new upgrades and functions to your Capture Styler, allowing you to advance as you work to eventually become a Top Ranger (the most revered Ranger of all).
• Now you can partner with a variety of different Pokémon of each type to complete Missions-giving you many options on how to approach different challenges. Every Pokémon is different, and capturing a Pokémon allows you to use its abilities to overcome various obstacles and challenges you will face along the way. The job of a Pokémon Ranger is never done: your duties will include fighting wildfires, rescuing people or even delivering an important package.
• Your journey to become a Top Ranger takes you to the new region of Almia. This game has a larger world, more Missions, more adventure and more to do than the previous Pokémon Ranger games. It has a storyline full of adventure and the ability to travel to and explore many exciting new areas in Almia, including oceans, forests, deserts and more with the help of your Partner Pokémon.
• This is the first game in the Pokémon Ranger series to feature Pokémon from Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl.

Special Powers, Weapons, Moves & Features
Use the Capture Styler to capture wild Pokémon. Once they are captured, wild Pokémon will follow the player around until their powers are used (either in a Poké Assist or a Field Move).

• A Poké Assist is when the player uses an already captured Pokémon to help capture another wild Pokémon.
• A Field Move is when the player uses a captured Pokémon's power to clear an obstacle that blocks his way or perform any another helpful function with it.

My son got this game for Christmas and he loved it. Unfortunatley, he loaned it to sister to play the next day and she lost it. We have turned the house upside down, but to no avail. Now sister is trying to save her money to buy him a new one. Great game (for the time he had it).

This game is wonderful. You can catch a lot of great pokemon and there are a lot of things to do. You can even download different missions through WiFi. Unfortunately, you sometimes have to wait, to get a certain pokemon, until the mission is ready for download (not something you can influence). Like I would like to get Shaymin, but there is no mission to get him available yet.

My granddaughter was so excited when she opened Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia for Christmas. I believe she put all her other gifts aside and starting play Pokemon immediantly. Thank you, my granddaughter was extremely happy.

In the beginning this game was easy but as the game played on it became more challenging. You choose to play as a girl or boy and the Pokémon you find help you on your missions. You can use them to clear passages, for travel, dig tunnels,etc.
The goal is to protect the Almia region from danger. There are special missions called quests. Overall, this is a fun game to play and hard to put down!

This game is way better than the first installment in the Pokemon Ranger series for the DS. It is very similar in terms of graphics and gameplay, yet offers significant improvements. For example, one doesn't need to circle their targets quite as furiously as before, which had previously led to blisters on my fingers. This one is slightly easier yet no less fun. Also, the ability to send certain special Pokemon over to the Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum games is a plus.