The reviews for Pokémon Sun & Moon are coming in and we’re keeping them all compiled here! Let’s see what the professionals have to say about what are sure to be hits for the Nintendo 3DS!
FAMITSU – 38/40
This is actually lower than the score for Pokémon X & Y, which earned a 39, but we’re waiting for details to know why Sun & Moon scored a 38 out of 40 (9/10/10/9). If you’re curious, Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire scored a 37.
GAME INFORMER – 8.5/10
Sun & Moon feels significantly different from previous Pokémon games. X & Y may have marked the series’ biggest visual change, but Sun & Moon shows Game Freak is willing to re-examine Pokémon’s tenured mechanics in order to improve the game. Sun & Moon is still Pokémon, but it showcases some of the biggest changes the series has ever seen – and that’s a good thing.
NINTENDO LIFE – 10/10
Simply put, Sun and Moon are best Pokémon games that Game Freak has ever produced. Poké Pelago, the side quests, the absolutely stunning nature of the presentation, it’s all a sheer joy from start to finish. Game Freak hasn’t missed a beat and has managed to carefully balance the inclusion of new mechanics without totally ruining things for the most hardcore fans. It’s got content coming out of its ears, a much more interesting story, and rewards exploration in a way no other title in the series has. Whether you’re a Pokémon fan new or old, this is an absolutely essential purchase.
IGN – 9/10
Pokemon Sun and Moon switch up the formula to create an engaging adventure that improves on its predecessors.
METRO UK – 9/10
We’re trying to avoid spoiling too many secrets here, because Sun and Moon are absolutely bursting with them, and purely in terms of value for money the games are off the scale. It’s rare that a sequel in a long-running series can please both veterans and newcomers in equal measure but Sun and Moon achieve that balance almost perfectly. The end result is not just the best Pokémon game ever, but one of the best video games ever made.
POCKET GAMER – 8/10
Ultimately, Sun and Moon are games that are bursting with good ideas, welcome changes to the formula, and a lot of charm and style.
But the game’s obsession with accessibility will make it almost unbearably simple to anyone who has played a Pokemon game before.
FEATURED DISCUSSION: Request-a-Trade
Where the heck are the Happy and Love reaction buttons?!
All I want is a “Meh” reaction button
You don’t like S/M?
I do like Pokemon Sun and Moon.
I do have feelings about some news that are meh.
Oh ok, I criticize reviewers who don’t review as I expect them to. Say that’s really censoring much, but some people just don’t have fun.
Just hit the dislike button, it’s almost the same as disinterested.
What’d they say?
It’s good stuff.
Everytime I see ratings like this and hear people talking about how good the game is, the additional wait of 5 days feels even more torturous x.x Imma raid every store in my small country on Friday till I get the game like everybody else in the world ò.ó
Who cares about their opinion?
I honestly don’t give a F*** what they think. I’m still gonna enjoy the game.
Same.
Oras was thousand times better than XY.
Soooo i can’t take famitsu seriously.
Yep!
Keep in mind, Famitsu gave Black and White a perfect score. I guess Japanese scores work differently.
bw is actually my favorite pokemon game….
The Story was great!
Everything was great
B/W was a perfectly contained game though. I have no complaints about it.
Except you know, them forgetting the other Pokemon existing.
That was the best part.
It’s a new region, using and discovering new Pokémon is half of what makes a new game so exciting
But most of them were copied or ugly!
Like that beautiful pokemon Muk! Or the not at all uninspired and not overused “lets make a creature mimic an item”
I’m not saying Gen 1 was good in fact it’s my least fav gen and i despise Genwunners with passion although I think Ditto is adorable. Just some Gen 5 Pokemon stink, like Alolamalola, Bouffalont.
You could get them post game, so it’s not a huge loss.
Oh, Black and White are not bad games by any means.
But compare the perfect score of Famitsu to the more mixed reviews overseas.
Yeah, they’re actually serious? BW was the best pokemon game, XY/ORAS are shit
Wrong and wrong.
But that’s your (poorly construed) opinion.
XY and ORAS were too easy, there wasn’t anything interesting with XY plot, it was the most generic one ever. You could argue it is targeted to kids, but I doubt any of us are in the target audience for this, right? It introduced the least amount of pokemon ever, and the post game was non existent in both of them. They even erased the Battle Frontier, easily the best part of Gen 3.
1. It becomes a lot harder if you turn off the Exp. Share.
2. You kind of already answered your own question with the target audience thing.
3. Gen 2 only had a 100 new Pokémon and is regarded as one of the best games.
4. Did you forget about the Looker side quest?
5. Subjective. Not everyone was a fan of the Battle Frontier. Note; Gen 4 also had the Battle Frontier. Also note; Gen 5 was the one that got rid of it in the first place.
The Exp. Share was a cheap way to do that. It’s extremely unrewarding for players looking for a harder game experience.
Defending Gen 2 doesn’t defend Gen 6.
The Looker side quest was, like the whole game, absolutely uninteresting, and also really short.
And, while Gen 5 got rid of the Battle Frontier, it had a loooot more post game, like half the whole region. Also BW2 introduced the World Championship, which was really cool albeit not as difficult and long. Gen 6 gave us a more boring Battle Subway, and a troll sign in the Battle Resort island saying “lol no battle frontier suck it”.
1. Again, just turn it off. The game doesn’t force you to use it. For an extra challenge, don’t use Pokémon-Amie boosts either.
2. My point was that fewer Pokémon isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
3. Subjective.
4. Such as?
Mainly exploring the remaining third of Unova, Black City/White Forest, fighting Cynthia and the Battle Subway, catching Volcarona, Kyurem, and a bunch of pokemon from older generations.
I guess garbage IS a thousand times better than shit
How eloquently put, you poet you.
Reviews are fun for purely knowing what others think, but they never play into my purchase of a game.
IGN gave a 9/10! Holy Arceus these games will be great! I think this is the best review ign ever gave to a Pokemon game
They gave Gen 1 and Gen 2 10/10
Yeah, but I’m talking about the games from recent years.
They gave Black 2 and White 2 a 9.6/10
I don’t look at reviews much
The B/W2 reviews and the infamous ORAS review were written by two different people. Goes to show just how subjective reviews are. One person’s 9.6 out of 10 may be a 6.5/10 for someone else (I didn’t find B/W2 very engaging). Meanwhile, ORAS is a 8.5/10 for me with no complaints about the water level. 🙂
I think it’s pretty clear they are being paid off.
It’s a sad day when gaming journalism welcomes shills.
I don’t really think GameFreak does that. If they did they wouldn’t have gotten a 7.8/10
That’s to get the tinfoils off their trail.
The performance issue gamexplain mentioned worries me because I only have an old 3ds xl and cant afford a new 3ds anytime soon.
hm if Gamefreak would of thought it was a big issue they would of made it a new 3ds only title. youll be fine.
Metro,also said “The perfect follow up to Pokemon Go” and that was irritating.
Though tbh, it might be good marketing, but I doubt people who only play a free app are gonna buy a 3DS just for one game that’s nothing like the shell go is, it might entice old players back, the ones not complaining about creativity being lost.
Well it is a good successor. It actually has gameplay this time around!
It’s not really a Successor or Follow up though. They’re seperate, that’s like saying Super Mystery Dungeon is a follow up to X/Y.
Spin off’s and side games aren’t follow ups unless to each other.
No I know it was just a joke. It is so crigey seeing that stuff
FINALLY REVIEWS 😀 AND IGN DIDNT COMPLAIN ABOUT WATER
https://youtu.be/apbtEs17wIo
Dis made me smile
I kinda trust Nintendo Life the most for reviews just because if I understand correctly, they don’t have to rush through the games since Nintendo is just one company
NintendoLife is never bias imo. ive seen mario games get bad reviews from them
Its funny how serebii didnt get a early copy but Poketubers did
Can someone with the game confirm the Metro UK review? That’s a really amazing review
i can confirm there is alot of secrets and turns.
Can you confirm the PSS returns?
i dont have the game but I spoiled myself so i can help my friends out if they wanna know stuff, the PSS i dont know
It Doesn’t.
It’s replaced by a simpler quick link option in the menu
That sucks. If Wondertrade didnt return I’m selling my soul.
It does
Wait. I confused it with something Else.
It’s replaced by Festival Plaza
I thought IGN scored it a 7.8? And I disapprove of Pocket Gamer’s mark.
7.8 was ORAS. Sun and Moon is 9.0
Oh
The simplicity part scares me but hey, it was probably going to feel ever more simple as I grew up, and things like super training and stuff just made the competitive scene more accessible to a much more casual player like me.
The story being huge is exciting! I’ve had one or two things spoiled for me, but I still think they will be enjoyable games!
Simple isn’t necessarily bad
I know but I’d prefer not to fly through the story because the battles are easy and everything is easily obtainable…
i can tell you the battles are actually hard this time around
I’ve been hearing people have played for over 30 hours and are still on the main story
Thinking of turning off the Exp. Share this time around, seeing what happens
Was ORAS the lowest rated main line Pokémon games?
Lowest by IGN I believe
Others have it rated above some games. For example, Famitsu gave Platinum a 36/40 and ORAS a 37/40
ORAS got a higher score than Platinum? What!?
Some games seem better in retrospect
IGN gave it a bad review because they were pissy about it being mainly water routes.
Most of the game was land though. IGN was insane
Yeah… At least they’ve redeemed themselves with S/M
ORAS was amazing.
ORAS was amazing, the only thing it really lacked was the Battle Frontier (huge exclusion), difficult gym leaders, and rematch capabilities for them
Yes!
it was good for me
https://youtu.be/apbtEs17wIo
Well Derrik Bittner from GameXplain loved it! It’s a good thing Andre didn’t review it. I remember him playing through the ORAS demo and when Slash didn’t do enough damage on Zubat, he used Leaf Blade xD xD
Pokemon X and Y has the worst music ever created for a video game.
Not true but worst for a Pokémon game
IMO it is the worst
If I had music in my nightmares, it would probably be from X and Y
Well no. Objectively it isn’t he worst. It is actually composed decently. Try any game on the Atari or just yoshis new island
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkUL2RMhZ7c
There were some very distinguished tracks on there. (Sycamore’s Theme)
Also the Trainer Battle, Xerneas/Yveltal, Lysandre and a few routes and towns were great. The rest of it kind of ran together IMO
I would disagree. I love the French inspiration and thought it was very nice. Dendemille town is one of my absolute favorites.
Personally, I’ve never understood why so many people praise Gen V for its music.
Because it gave you the feels, and it sounded great.
What’s not to love about this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF1n0GflZMg
or this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qknPcOzYRug
Oh, now this is FUNKY. I love it. Too bad we rarely battled them.
gen 5 blew me away with its music
It’s my second favorite gen for music. Gen 4 is my favorite.
omg same
For me, Gen 2 then 5, but 5 is undeniably outstanding in conveying emotion
Gen 3 is my favorite soundtrack.
Gen 3 is pretty good and dynamic
Not the worst video game, but definitely the weakest in the pokemon series by far.
Snowbelle City is so beautiful ;~;
personally i loved the x/y soundtrack
Onw of the only reasons XY did so well is that it was the first main series game that was in 3d. It has other things going for it, but that’s the mins thing I think. Otherwise it likely wouldn’t have had a 39 necessarily
The games are amazing.
The story,visuals,music,difficulty,content,atmosphere, visuals its all perfect.
The only complaint I have is the low number of new Pokémon and the odd stat distribution of some Pokémon,although that doesn’t really affect the main story line
Why so slow?
Yeah, the fact that everything is so slow is a little weird. And I’m hoping for 7th gen move tutors soon. Otherwise it all looks pretty fantastic!
They usually come mid gen so should come out either with the 3rd game or the next remake.
Please do justice with this Intro gamefreak in the remakes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3RSyyFqsus
I love how jazzy Sinnoh was.
I just want to snap my fingers down a ally way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb9UKjQTwig
I think X and Ys soundtracks problem was the sound font
honestly I feel like from now on with each new pokemon game on new hardware its gonna get criticize then the next one will improve it
Guys
Does anyone know which Pokemon are rideable in Sun Moon?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/951b91940e5535cc871466132762afa382ea61a0cabc85926df52c9508432059.jpg
Minor spoilers obviously
do you have the game? does charizard work like regular fly or like latias/os
Regular Fly.
Sadly gamefreak persists on removing great features from old games
Thanks
Wait no waterfall?
No.
And no cut or dive either
There’s no TM’s at all.
“Rewards exploration in a way no other game in the series has”, “Bursting with secrets”
Well, that’s a relief. I read one (probably unreliable) account that the game was too linear.
Polygon?
GameFAQs
ign’s review video has music spoilers so if u dont wanna hear dont view lol
“The end result is not just the best Pokémon game ever, but one of the best video games ever made.” Then they give the games a 9 (??????)
its really hard for games to get a 10/10, 9 and 9.5 usually means perfection
The thing is they say i’ts one of the best games ever made. It can’t get better than that.
Intimidate
Adamant nature 252 ATK and HP
Sitrus berry
Will o wisp
Bulk up
Darkest Lariat
Flame charge
Intimidate
Adamant 252 ATK and HP
Sitrus Berry/leftovers
Leech Life
Darkest Lariat
Flame Charge
Sword Dance
Please tell me guys which set is better???
The one where you pick Houndoom (Jk jk)
Honestly? With that stat pool it got, I’d remove flame charge and give it a different move on the Will-O-Wisp set and run that
I just realized flame charge is kinda useless :/
Replace FC with Flare Blitz and slap a life orb on it
Leech Life means reliable recovery so it wouldn’t mind Blitz tbh
I just said the same thing, I also said to slap a life orb on it for max damage
You didn’t elaborate on LL tho
Great minds think alike :p
Damn. It’s going to be weird seeing Leech Life as a competitively viable move now
Damn game freak didn’t give it Sucker punch x<
Pray for move tutors
About that, is there any tutors in game?
Nope, but they’re practically guaranteed for whatever comes next
They gave Decidueye, the Ghost type, Sucker Punch, but not Shadow Sneak.
They gave Greninja, the Dark type, Shadow Sneak, but not Sucker Punch.
We can all agree that a Ninja is supposed to sneak, but how does an owl sucker punch? and a wrestler doesn’t
A wrestler that doesn’t even use agility?
IRL Owls are ambush predators iirc, or at least launch very fast
Still don’t get why Incineroar doesn’t get jt
Lol IRL owls ambush and in Pokemon they punch. You need a fist to punch so GF gave it a wing fist.
Sucker Punch is actually Surpise Attack if I recall.
The ‘sucker punch’ isn’t literal, you’re right!
Sucker punch is “surprise attack” in Japan and thats what owls do, they attack its prey by surprise
I wonder y dirty fighter can’t learn Sucker punch.
I don’t know or really care what makes the Pokemon is their sassy wass!
https://twitter.com/PLDHnet/status/798521758819061760
Oh god… it wasn’t a nerf at all it was a buff…
I mean TBF
It gets Terrain Buffs now
What got buffed?
Terrains
It both appreciates them whilst also taking advantage of them to kill each Tapu
I just can’t believe we’re 3 days away from Sun and Moon….
Everything just feels like a blur
I’m almost kinda nervous
;-;
I don’t like gen 7’s nerfs and buffs I feel some were just unfair like how they ruined gale wings just for the sake for some UBs getting any game
TBF Talonflame should be out the way before you use either of them anyway
And I do feel it should of been nerfed but I’d prefer it if it lost priority at like 25% health, not by losing even on wheal th
This is a much better than what GF did
They should also nerf Parental Bond so the second attack does not trigger secondary effects
It does less damage so that’s nice
It only does 1/4 damage now which is good.
The Gale Wings nerf I’m legit upset over. It only works at full HP, and its most common attacking move does recoil damage. And if you don’t use that move, and try to set up, you risk losing HP anyway by being attacked!
Well Talonflame was in need of a nerf. And Gengar gets terrain boosts now
Nice, can’t wait to watch Nappys reaction to that!
It’s gonna feel SOOOOO good to finally Earthquake those grinning ghosts
All those times they managed to get a free wisp because always avoiding super effective ground attacks and survive because of sashes
Now Sandstorm equals DEATH
Also that nerd means NO MORE ROOST SPAMMING HAHAHAHAK
Until they bring in Tapu Bulu and half Earthquake’s power as well as nullify sand storm
It only partially solves the burn problem. The other part is Sabeleye’s HA
Well not always
People have a hard time resisting Mega Evolving Sabeleye
And this does not apply to Fire
Point is it makes Poison and Ghost monos a tad bit easier on my end
That wasn’t a nerf, that was an assassination. I think the whole anti-priority moves and abilites were enough.
They took the pokemon from OU to “who knows where” U
Question to everyone where do you think Talon flame will end up?
Talonflame might end up BL2 after this, Gengar BL or UU
It’s don’t see why GameFreak nerfed Talonflame tbh. Especially with all the new things they introduced to block priority moves.
Because that thing has been top of the meta for 3 years straight, there’s hardly any drawbacks to it.
I’m confuzzled about how day/night work in the games.
I had it explained to me that Sun matches the setting of your 3DS clock, and Moon just runs 12 hours ahead of/behind your 3DS clock (still think that’s weird, btw. Glad I picked Sun first).
But I’ve also seen it said that events in one game that play out at night, play out in day in the other version.
However those two things don’t necessarily work together, because, just for argument’s sake, if I played Sun in the morning, then played Moon late at night, wouldn’t the events look the same in game as they’d both be set during morning??
Yeah, night in moon and sun in day are the exact same thing
Also iirc it doesn’t run behind or in front of your clock, it just inverts am and pm, but that’s being pedantic
Ok, thank you for the clarification!
Honestly rather than the day/night time being inverted in Moon, I wish they’d just made it so that certain events in game only unlock during day for Sun and Night for Moon.
If we could get more terrains or weather, what would they be?
(Excluding Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Fairy, Ice, Rock, Steel and Ground as they all have terrains or weather)
Acid Rain
Well technically out of those its just Fire, Water, Rock and Ice
Those types just benefit from them but not based on it
I want to see a new weather called either fog or nightfall where overall accuracy is reduced by 30%
Smog which for the next five turns all Pokemon are considered poisoned
And lastly Star Sky which causes secondary effects to always happen (but it’s only available to a ultra rare mythical
I hate anything that reduces accuracy, so boo to that! XD But I really REALLY like Smog and Star Sky! :0
Gen 4 had fog also it was in battle revolution
That could speed up poison types, and heal them
I’ve been hunting for jangmo-o for over an hour and I can’t find it.
Downsides of getting the game early, I suppose :/
How the heck did ou et it early?
Either getting it early from a store or because the game has an emulator online so people are able to play it on PC/Hacked DS’
What’s fun about emulators you play it the wrong way!
Does anyone do that thing where they make up a full fan region?
Yeah I’ve done a full region and game and pokedex haha 🙂
i have too the legends are based around the Jersey devil Grass/Dark and Umibozu Water/Ghost
I am
I would try to but there are already so many good fan made regions out there.
Sceptile has Mega Evolved
Weavil used Ice shard
Sceptile fainted
Oh no Sceptile died
Sceptile is being dragged to hell
This looks cute https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/51bd818359569cb2f541194ced468a66b2bdc2dbd6de7451a5f68c06ff81abc6.png
It’s like those little puppies who try to act tough but end up being cuter
why
http://www.metacritic.com/game/3ds/pokemon-sun/critic-reviews?dist=positive
More reviews – general consensus – it’s pretty good 🙂
The more reviews I see the more impatient I get >.< I'm gonna have to avoid social media for a while ugh
Here’s confirmation why the game scored less at Famitsu: They didn’t pay them enough.
Really, Famitsu reviews are bought by buying advertising space. The more popular your game is the higher they score it, a 38/40 never says anything on itself.
So famitsu is meaningless is what you’re saying
They’re pretty corrupt, I think they should be temporarily suspended.
It’s clear a lot of these reviews were paid actually..
So the average score seems to be 9/10 that is really good. Super hyped for these games
IGN should have poked fun at themselves and said “regardless of all the water”.
Hehe
D*mn, these reviews are depressing.
If XY had higher scores from many of these reviewers, then these games must not be too great to them.
Doesn’t XY have a higher score only by Famitsu? If so, that’s one person. Just breathe and wait to experience it for yourself to see if its better
Whereas I’ve heard from much more reliable sources that the games are great.
XY had good reviews just because it was the first mainline Pokémon Game to be 3D
Sun moon are better than them in literally every aspect.
I’m glad that Pocket Gamer reviewer said it. I know how to catch a pokemon. You don’t have to show me every time I start a new game. How they haven’t allowed these basic walkthrough procedures to be optional blows my mind.
how come I can only react with “sad, dislike or shocking” on this article? Where are the positive reactions? …
That’s a good question and one I can’t answer. I shall attempt to fix…
I feel like at least Nintendo Life was paid off for that review.. I specifically read there were very few side quests, and things to do in general other than the story that were thoroughly interesting.. :/
You know reviewers were paid when they say the same thing over and over again. Like literally the sane words.. “bursting” as one of them.
I learned this recently, so don’t come for me. #Facts
Why is 38/40 from Famitsu so bad? It’s still a pretty impressive score! So what if it didn’t get higher than X and Y?! Sun and Moon are still amazing games and I’ll be getting both of them no matter what the review scores!