There’s no denying that 2016’s Pokémon Sun and Moon made a huge impact on the gaming community. At the time, they were the fastest selling games in Nintendo’s history, leaving a superb first impression for those just getting into the series, and for veterans who really wanted a change of pace and scenery for the games. Needless to say, Sun and Moon provided that experience and more, transporting players to a great, immersive new region, and offered a wide variety of new generation Pokémon to play around with. A year later, Ultra Sun and Moon boasts that same exhilarating experience, though with a few great new changes and tweaks that benefits this re-release for the better and sometimes, hits a few missteps for the worse.

The game, despite retreading familiar ground, still manages to dazzle with its introduction to the world. Players assume the role of a new trainer in the Hawaii-inspired Alola region, aspiring to battle new trainers while honing their craft as a formidable challenger to the residents of the islands. From here, players journey across various locations and areas, meeting friendly faces and other trainers along the way while encountering an astonishing variety of great new Pokémon. Meanwhile, the looming threat of a mysterious Pokémon hellbent on draining the light from the world becomes more prominent as the game progresses, and it’s up to you and others to band together against the foe.



Each Pokémon game does a commendable job of easing new players into the games mechanics and world, but a minor nitpick of mine really has to do with Pokémon games in general. For seasoned players already accustomed to the gameplay, going through the tutorial stages for what feels like the hundredth time can be a bit tedious. However, Pokémon Ultra Sun does mix things up with a few new gameplay mechanics that might feel unfamiliar to those who haven’t played the previous iterations. Pokémon Ultra Sun encourages players to form close bonds with their Pokémon, making the task of collecting them less about quantity and more about quality. These bonds can be formed in a variety of ways, some less weird than others. For example, the new Alola Photo Club lets players strike poses with their Pokémon by their side for pictures, being able to edit them with filters and other assorted tools. It isn’t the most groundbreaking addition to the series, and really does nothing other than present artificial ‘bonding’, but they’re charming enough to get a pass.

Pokémon games generally have a knack for featuring huge worlds to explore, but the Alola region takes it several steps further. The region is absolutely massive, featuring an archipelago that spans several interesting new locations. The games dense population of characters and tasks is also its greatest strength and weakness. There’s a metric ton of side quests and tasks to do in Alola, and with Ultra Sun's extensive new activities, it can be very daunting at first glance. What keeps the game grounded is the characters you encounter along your journey. Each inhabitant has some kind of rich story to tell, and often tasks you with helping them in remedial activities or errands. This makes it feel more like a traditional RPG than any other Pokémon game thus far, but thanks to the charm and likability of the citizens, it’s hard not to get attached to them.



However, the downside to this may not be to everyone’s liking. The sheer density of activities you can do across Alola does detract from putting too much emphasis on the main journey. I found myself spending hours searching for lost items or exploring dangerous areas, only to lose track of the main plot. Like any traditional Pokémon game, grinding for experience points to level up your Pokémon has never felt like a chore to me because I always like to approach my future battles with the strongest roster of monsters I can possibly build, but in Pokémon Ultra Sun, there’s no hook that drives the main story forward, at least until midway through the game, which is unfortunate considering there’s a great story to be told in Alola.

A few welcomed additions to Pokémon Ultra Sun mix up the experience. The Battle Agency, once unlocked in the game, allows you to battle various trainers in one-on-one battles, usually in teams of three. The trainers on your team depend on the people you encounter across the region – some having great advantages due to the level of their Pokémon. If you haven’t encountered other trainers, the game typically provides you with standard trainers, but I found this annoying because you never quite know what to expect from the random AI you’re teamed up with, whereas trainers you’ve already bonded with tend to connect with you on a deeper level in battle. As a whole, The Battle Agency is fun and gives plenty of incentive to grind out experience as opposed to the normal way of, both figuratively and literally, beating around the bush.

Another great addition is Mantine Surfing. Travelling around Alola can be difficult as each island covers massive land mass for foot exploration, but Mantine Surfing allows players to travel more efficiently to different islands via the sea while providing an addictive mini-game in the process. Riding on the back of a Mantine, players can take to the waves and pull off various surfing tricks to gain points. They do initially come off as ridiculous, but I found myself enjoying it thoroughly and always looked forward to making the trip to new islands, if only to pull of some radical surfing while a smiling Mantine acknowledges my petty attempts at looking cool.



Finally, there’s the Ultra Wormhole system, which lets players hop on the back of Solgaleo and explore the Ultra Space. Despite some horrendously clunky controls while traversing the Ultra Space, which has you passing through rings before exiting through a wormhole (Superman 64 flashbacks be damned), the joy of finding a new dimension and encountering the large roster of rare and legendary Pokémon is unparalleled. The further you manage to make it into Ultra Space, the rarer and more challenging the Pokémon became. It always pushed me to travel deeper and see what awaited me in the next dimension. It would’ve been a perfect feature had the controls not worked against me most of the time, which ranged from infuriatingly slow to downright unresponsive.

Pokémon Ultra Sun does cover familiar ground, but the new changes and additions ensure a refreshing experience for both fans of the original and newcomers looking to be wowed by the sheer density of things to do in the Alola region. Apart from a few missteps, such as the main story only kicking into high gear halfway through the game and the unrefined controls in Ultra Space, for every negative there’s a handful of positives to sink your teeth into. It’s not the quintessential Pokémon experience you can find on a Nintendo 3DS, but it is a fitting swan song for Pokémon games on the handheld console.