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

I'm a big fan of the pokemon series but I never played Gen 4 or 5 before. I wasn't a big fan of Ruby and Sapphire so I stopped playing the series until a few years ago when I bought a 3DS on a whim and bought Pokemon Y. But anyway I recently acquired this game and played through it. There was a while when playing this that I thought it might actually be my favourite of the series but it kinda lost me by the end. I actually had the same problem with Alpha Sapphire. This game is surprisingly challenging for a pokemon game. Usually I can beat a pokemon game without losing a single fight, but I found some of the earlier gyms kinda tough. I feel like part of the issue is that I had a hard time getting pokemon of the types that I wanted and a lot of enemies had different moves than what I would expect from their type. I also had a lot of bad luck with enemies getting critical hits and stuff and me getting none. I like a game that isn't too easy but sometimes this got frustrating. The map felt big which is a good thing. Huge pokemon selection which I like. I try to make teams of ones I haven't used before so I used Empoleon, Luxray, Machamp, Garchomp, Glaceon, and Tropius. It honestly wasn't the best group haha but I love those little scamps. I think my big issue is with the pacing of the game. The story kind of reaches a big climax around the point of the Giratina fight... and then the game just keeps going. I found Victory Road to be kind of boring and frustrating. Then my guys were really underleveled when I got to the elite four and then I had to stop to train for a while and I actually kinda just quit playing the game for a few months. Once I beat the champ I didn't even feel like playing any of the post-game stuff. I don't know. It's definitely a strong entry in the series but it's not perfect. I'd still say that it's one of my favs but not my top game.