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
“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!