Pokémon Ranger - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article is about the video game, for the movie see Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea.

is an action/role-playing video game developed by HAL Laboratory

HAL Laboratory

is a Japanese video game developer that was founded on February 21, 1980. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. Its name comes from the HAL 9000 computer in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The company is most famous for its character Kirby, the protagonist of the eponymous game series, as well as...

and published by Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

for the Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

video game console

Video game console

A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...

. The game was released at various dates, varying between continents. The game was first released in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

on March 22, 2006 and was later released in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

during the remainder of 2006. The game's final release date was in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

in April 2007.

Pokémon Ranger is compatible with Pokémon Diamond, Pearl

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

are role-playing games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. With the enhanced remake Pokémon Platinum, the games comprise the fifth installment and fourth generation of the Pokémon series of RPGs...

, and Platinum

Pokémon Platinum

is a title in the Pokémon series of video games. It was developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It is an enhanced remake of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in the same vein as Pokémon Yellow, Crystal, and Emerald were for their respective games...

, allowing players to transfer the egg of the legendary Pokémon Manaphy to those games. This game is set in the Fiore region.

Gameplay

Pokémon Ranger is a role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

which is designed in a format radically different from that of traditional Pokémon

Pokémon

is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...

RPGs. The player controls a Pokémon Ranger in the Fiore region and catches Pokémon, temporarily, by using a device called a "capture styler", which is controlled by the stylus. The storyline of the game is set out in 10 main missions with three sub-missions. The only Pokémon that travels permanently with the player is a Minun if the player chooses the male hero or Plusle if the player chooses the female hero. The player must loop the Pokémon with the "styler" a certain amount of times to capture them. Pokémon may attempt to flee the styler or attack it. The styler has an energy bar that is similar to an HP counter for Pokémon on the other Pokémon adventure games, when the energy bar of the styler is completely depleted, the player is transported to the last save terminal. The styler can be recharged in a Pokémon center like manner at a ranger base, save points are in the bases and scattered throughout the game. There is a quick save option to use in emergencies when a save port can't be found or is too far away. Temporarily caught Pokémon can be used in the field to accomplish tasks and solve puzzles by cutting, tackling, shooting fire, blowing water, etc. They can also be used to enhance the styler's loop line, if a water Pokémon is selected to aid in capturing a new Pokémon, the styler will produce a temporary bubble that immobilizes the target, preventing it from attacking or fleeing, for example.

Setting

Pokémon Ranger is set in the . The region's name originates from the Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

word for flower. The region itself doesn't appear in the Pokémon anime series

Pokémon (anime)

, abbreviated from , is a children's TV anime series, which has since been adapted for the North and South American, Australian and European television markets...

, although the female protagonist of Pokémon Ranger, Solana, has made an appearance. The Go-Rock Quad is the resident crime syndicate of this region. Fiore itself doesn't have any native Pokémon, but has many Pokémon from other regions. It also does not have any Pokémon Trainer

Pokémon trainer

People with at least one Pokémon creature can be considered a Pokémon Trainer. In this sense, people in related Pokémon occupations, such as Pokémon coordinators or Pokémon breeders, can also be considered to be Pokémon Trainers....

s. All people who live with Pokémon keep them outside of Poké Balls, like pets, as Pokémon are never trained here. Fiore is located quite some distance from the other regions of the Pokémon world up to the third generation. It is a relatively small island region that is quite mountainous. There are four major settlements in Fiore, each named after the season it constantly experiences — Ringtown (spring) to the west, Fall City (fall) to the east, Wintown (winter) at foot of mountains to the north and Summerland (summer) on an island to the south. The Krokka Tunnel connects Fall City and Ringtown. From there, one can also get to the Panula Cave, which is also accessible from Summerland's harbor via water vehicle (aka the AquaMole), the coldest spot of the Fiore region, hence ice Pokémon appearing there, including the legendary Regice. It leads to Wintown, located on the foot of the Sekra Range. The Sekra Range is a 6500 feet (1,981.2 m) high mountain range that is notable for having a waterfall that can "fill the Capture Arena 23 times in one minute"; housing the Go-Rock Squad's base; a house high up where the residents inside will recharge the player's Styler; "Shiftree", a tree where five Shiftry live in and will attack the player all at the same time; and the Fiore Temple, an ancient temple mountain currently home to a lot of wild Pokémon, but with a strange door that will only open when you capture the 3 wanted Pokémon; where the game's climax takes place, located at the very summit of the Sekra Range. On the same island where Summerland is located on is a big jungle called the Olive Jungle. Numerous Bug- and Grass-type Pokémon live here, and in the center is a ruin, with the same symbols on Kyogre, called the Jungle Relic. In the past, Rangers came to the Relic to test themselves. There are four Challenges involving Dragon Pokémon, each representing one of the four classical elements: the Challenge of Destruction (Earth), the Challenge of Wind (Air), the Challenge of Fire and the Challenge of Water. These Pokémon are Flygon, Salamence, Charizard, and Kingdra respectively, as on the cover of Pokémon Ranger. It is said that should all four be cleared, a catastrophe will befall Fiore. After beating the game, the player may roam around free to do almost anything. There is also the Ranger Net for special missions after the main missions. In these missions, the main character is required to capture 3 legendary Pokémon not seen anywhere else in the game; Deoxys

Deoxys

is a fictional species of Pokémon from Nintendo's and Game Freak's Pokémon media franchise. The result of an extraterrestrial virus's exposure to a laser beam, Deoxys frequently appears around auroras. It is recognized as a Legendary Pokémon of the third generation...

, Celebi

Celebi (Pokémon)

is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, they first appeared in the video games Pokémon Gold and Silver and subsequent sequels. They have later appeared in various merchandise, spinoff titles and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise...

, and Mew

Mew (Pokémon)

is one of the fictional species of Pokémon creatures from Nintendo's and Game Freak's multi-billion-dollar Pokémon media franchise—a collection of video games, anime, manga, books, trading cards, and other media created by Satoshi Tajiri...

. If the code for the special Manaphy mission is unlocked, it can be used to get the Manaphy Egg, which can later be transferred to Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Characters

The storyline revolves around a single Pokémon Ranger — or , depending on the player's choice. In addition to the protagonist characters in the game, several other Pokémon Rangers are part of the Ranger Union. Each ranger leader holds domain over that town's rangers. These rangers are named , , , and . A professor named also plays a significant role in the game, as the Chief of Technology for the Ranger Union. The new villainous group, the , has four sub-leaders called the Go-Rock Quads, the leader's three sons and daughter. The Quads have a motto they repeat every time they are encountered. Their original plot is to use the Super Styler, a more powerful version of the original Styler that resembles an organ, to take control of Entei

Entei

is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Entei first appeared in the video games Pokémon Gold and Silver and subsequent sequels, later appearing in various merchandise, spinoff titles, animated adaptations, and printed adaptations of the...

, Suicune

Suicune

is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Suicune first appeared in the video games Pokémon Gold and Silver and subsequent sequels, later appearing in various merchandise, spinoff titles, animated adaptations, and printed adaptations of the...

, and Raikou to attack citizens of Fiore. They would then command them to stop, leading people to believe the Go-Rock Squad were heroes. They would afterwards command Pokémon to start other problems and charge money to solve the problem. The player is then required to prove their worth in three extra post ending missions and capture the enraged legendaries; Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza

Rayquaza

is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Rayquaza first appeared in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and subsequent sequels, later appearing in various merchandise, spinoff titles and animated, printed, and film adaptations of the franchise. Rayquaza also appears on the cover...

Development

Information regarding Pokémon Ranger was first published in the July 2005 issue of CoroCoro Comic

CoroCoro Comic

is a Japanese monthly manga magazine published by Shogakukan, starting on May 15, 1977. Its main target is elementary school aged boys, younger than the readers of shōnen manga...

Magazine. As expected, vague details were told, which mostly hinted that it was a game and a movie. The “official” Pokémon Ranger announcement came on as a short teaser at the end of the 8th Pokémon movie, Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew
Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew
Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, originally released in Japan as , is an anime film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama as the eighth film in the Pokémon franchise. It was released in theaters in Japan on July 16, 2005, followed by the Japanese DVD release on December 22, 2005...

. Little information was known beyond the fact that it was a game and a movie. This game's development was confused for being the same game as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon
- Manga :*Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Ginji's Rescue Team, manga adaption of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team*Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blazing Exploration Team, manga adaption of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Explorers of Darkness, and Explorers of Sky.-...

.

Promotion

A few episodes of the Pokémon animated series have included Pokémon Rangers. They seem to go on special missions to help preserve Pokémon and human relations, and they are closely related to Pokémon breeders. They also have a device that allows them to temporarily control wild Pokémon; this device also allows them to scan Pokémon, check how healthy they are, and make sure that they are not being interfered with by outside forces. Solana herself has appeared in three episodes of the Pokémon anime. One of which Solona must stop a disturbed Deoxys.

Several Pokémon Rangers can also be battled in Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

are the third installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing games, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. The games were first released in Japan in late 2002 and later released to the rest of the world in 2003 . Pokémon Emerald, a special edition version,...

, FireRed, LeafGreen

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

are enhanced remakes of the original Pokémon Red and Blue video games, which were released in 1996. The new titles were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance and have compatibility with the Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter, which originally came bundled with...

, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

, Platinum
Pokémon Platinum
is a title in the Pokémon series of video games. It was developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It is an enhanced remake of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in the same vein as Pokémon Yellow, Crystal, and Emerald were for their respective games...

, Black, and White

Pokémon Black and White

are role-playing games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. They are the first installments in the fifth generation of the Pokémon series of role-playing games...

and are depicted as protecting the environment and wild Pokémon. These Rangers own Pokémon which they keep in Poké Balls, and are not true rangers but still have similar intentions to true Pokémon Rangers.

A direct-to-DVD animated film adaptation Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea premièred on Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....

on March 23, 2007 and released on DVD the succeeding month. The movie starred a new Ranger named Jackie whose job is to protect a Legendary Manaphy Egg which Ash and company also help in protecting.

Merchandise

A game watch has been manufactured in the theme of Pokémon Ranger. The watch is designed to look like the Pokémon Rangers' Capture Styler used for capturing Pokémon. The Pokémon can be used to help the styler by making bubbles or having leaf blades shoot out or having it on fire.

Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

is the sequel to Pokémon Ranger, and is developed by Creatures Inc.

Creatures Inc.

is a subsidiary of the Japanese game development company Nintendo. It was founded by Tsunekazu Ishihara in November 1995, as a successor to Shigesato Itoi's company Ape Inc. Its current president is Hirokazu Tanaka. The company has its headquarters on the second floor of the in Chiyoda, Tokyo, in...

for the Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

video game console

Video game console

A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...

. It was announced in the January 2008 issue of CoroCoro and was released in Japan on March 20, 2008. It was announced at E3 2008 that the game would be released in the United States under the title Shadows of Almia on November 10, 2008. It was announced on September 25 that the game would be released in Europe under the title Shadows of Almia on November 21, 2008. The game features 270 Pokémon, including new Pokémon which were not featured in the original Pokémon Ranger, from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

. The game utilizes the Nintendo WiFi Connection to download new missions.

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs

is the sequel of Pokémon Ranger and Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia
Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia
is an action/role-playing video game developed by Creatures Inc. for the Nintendo DS video game console. It is the sequel to the Pokémon Ranger video game, also for the DS....

. It was released for the Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

in Japan on March 6, 2010, NA on October 4, 2010, and EU on November 5, 2010. The Capture Styler now lets the player call out their Pokémon

Pokémon

for support and use "Ranger Signs" to help in captures. The game received somewhat positive reviews, with Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

and GameRankings giving them a 66%.

Reception

Pokémon Ranger sold 193,337 copies in Japan on its release week. In terms of games reviews, Pokémon Ranger received fairly positive reaction, with a 70% ratio from Game Rankings

Game Rankings

GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...

. IGN

IGN

IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

gave the game an overall score of 7.1 out of 10, citing the presentation, gameplay and graphics as the game's strong points but also citing the game's use of sound as a major drawback, with issues such as the game's use of the 8-bit sounds from the original Game Boy games' as Pokémon cries. A lack of a multi-player mode was also a negative point in IGN's review.

Gamespot

GameSpot

GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...

gave a similar review to IGN, giving the game a 7.5 out of 10 overall. Gamespot commented that the game's "unique capturing system", "good-sized quest" and "attractive 2D graphics and animation" were the games good points while also commenting that issues such as possible scratching of the touch screen during capture and "basic exploration sequences" were the games notable bad points. While discussing the mixed quality of Pokémon spin-offs, Retronauts podcaster Jeremy Parish cited Pokémon Ranger as an example, with Parish later referring to it as “crappy”. He cites the dialogue and story, commenting that while Pokémon was a kiddy game, the writing in Ranger is worse than in the main games. Fellow Retronauts contributor Justin Haywald criticized HAL Laboratory

HAL Laboratory

, which he says is normally a good developer, for making Ranger.

As of March 31, 2008, Pokémon Ranger has sold 2.70 million copies worldwide.

External links

Official Site
Official Site
Pokémon Ranger review at Netjak
Review of Pokémon Ranger on Green Hill Zone.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.