3.5/5 ★ – Wawupyun's review of Pokémon Platinum.

Sinnoh. My favorite region with a mountain plonked in the middle like a longitudinal DMZ. The new guys are aight, though I would have preferred some Fire types over the four baby evolutions we got. The world looks inhabitable, yet knowing places like Fortree City and Pacifidlog Town exist back in Hoenn, the video game tourist in me is a bit disappointed. The battles are engaging enough, and the final fight kindly throws you into a den of Train to Busan zombies, but wow the health bars are sluggish like...not Train to Busan zombies. The standout feature of this game is its sound. The crescendo of Mount Coronet emboldens your footsteps towards whatever awaits you at the summit. The Lake theme lifts you off the ground while the Lake Trio battle pummels you back down with rude bass. Route 209 is nothing special in terms of layout, but the melody is euphoria. Even the cries are franchise highs: techno Drifblim, the iconic delelele whoooop, the otherworldly Spiritomb whine that sets the tone for Cynthia if the haunting piano didn't already do it for you. My top legendary trio: Hitomi Sato, Go Ichinose, and the DS soundfont. Platinum is the clear choice over Diamond and Pearl, but I am glad the premise of a third game did not become tradition. The Distortion World definitely piques the interest of that video game tourist, and I really like the bossa nova Lilycove City remix that comes with the equally nice opportunity to get yo own house, but a new cartridge for what would be DLC today is kind of wild. That being said, the few additions in Platinum may alone trump a good amount of what Pokémon produces nowadays.