By Fraser Fleming
Occasionally someone will suggest a game for you to try. You go and buy the game and try it out, and next thing you know, BOOM! You have lost days playing it. This is the kind of game I love to play. Pokémon Legends Arceus is the new Pokémon game released on the Nintendo Switch. This one takes you back in time in the Pokémon games series to a time before Ash got his red cap and became a true Pokémon legend with his side kick Pikachu. This is also the first game in the series that is set in a true open space 3D environment. In the game you have been sent back in time, thus is the start of your adventure in the Pokémon land of the Hisui. From this starting point you have to complete quests and research Pokémon in order to complete the very first Pokedex. This means that you have to catch wild Pokémon and train them up, some of these might even evolve into different Pokémon if you choose?
The game has been very well designed and is very easy to get into. You do not need to of played the other Pokémon games in the series, but it would help. The game uses a turn based battle system for levelling up your Pokémon and this works very well with the Accessibility features of the Nintendo switch in particular the screen magnifier. I was able to take my time and zoom into any text on the screen and get the information it presented. I was also able to zoom into the wonderful artwork and designs of the Pokémon themselves. I did find exploring the 3D world a bit difficult to navigate around however there is great sound scape in the game. For example, different Pokémon make different noises in the direction they are on the world map and there are also environmental sounds too like the wind blowing through the trees and the sound of water in nearby rivers. In combination of using the screen magnifier and sound I was able to successfully get to where I needed to be. The pace of this game is also nice. You can choose what you want to do when you want to. For example, I spent many hours completing the challenges of the game and missions. However, when I wanted to spend say 10 to 15 mins playing it, I could simply battle my Pokémon and explore the open world.
I would recommend this game for anyone with a Nintendo Switch. However as with all Nintendo Switch games you do require some residual vision to play. Why wont Nintendo just put a Screen Reader on the Switch. Go on Nintendo just do it. I would give this game 4 out of 5 TopTechTips.
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Triple Tap Tech
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