The original Pokemon Ranger was an enjoyable if repetitive game that incorporated stylus control and action-oriented gameplay into the traditional Pokemon formula. Instead of "catching 'em all" and training your Pocket Monsters for battle, the Rangers' goal is to help Pokemon and in turn, take advantage of their individual abilities to bypass obstacles.

This is accomplished by encircling a wild Pokemon with your Capture Styler tool, which transmits your feelings of goodwill towards the creatures. Fiction aside, this just means that when you encounter a Pokemon, you have to quickly draw a bunch of circles around them on the DS touch screen. Of course, it's not necessarily as easy as it sounds. The Pokemon constantly run around the screen, making it difficult to capture the faster specimens. They can also attack, and if they happen to hit your capture line, the Styler takes damage.


There has been a bit of tweaking to the capture system since the original game. Before, you needed to circle the Pokemon a set number of times without lifting your stylus or taking damage to capture them. The tougher the animal, the more circles you would have to draw. This time, however, each Pokemon has a "Friendship Gauge" that fills up with each loop you form around it. If your line does happen to break, you can recover by quickly restarting your drawing. Wait too long, though, and the gauge drains, forcing you to start over. This new method makes your job a bit easier than it used to be.

Once you've shown a Pokemon that you're their friend, they'll join your party. As they follow you around, you can opt to use them during battle -- they each have specific moves that make your job easier as you attempt to catch others. You'll also have to call upon various critters to clear obstacles that are scattered around the world. Different Pokemon can use their skills to slice down fences or shatter boulders that block your progress. Just don't be too quick to use a Pokemon's power. After they've been put to work, they leave your party. Also, you can only have a limited number of Pokemon following you around at any time, so a bit of planning is required to build the proper party for each area you explore.