Once you do capture a Pokemon, that Pokemon will be entered into one of your vacant Pokemon slots. To start with you have three slots available and by the end of the game you can unlock a total of seven. When you capture a Pokemon and all your slots are filled you have to choose to either let the newly captured one go free or set free one of the ones you already have. So basically you gotta catch em’ all but you don’t gotta keep em’ all. One of the most fun aspects of keeping all your slots filled at all times is that you actually see your Pokemon following you around. It’s a lot of fun to watch a wild variety of seven Pokemon plus your buddy Pokemon and maybe even a person you’re escorting follow you around in one big line.

Besides special attacks in battle, wild Pokemon can also serve to remove obstacles while out of battle. Many objects such as trees, boxes, rocks, and other obstructions can be selected while running around. When you select them they have an elemental rating which tells you which element and how much of that element a Pokemon must be aligned with in order to interact with that object. So say you walk up to a log and it has a rating of two fire icons. Then you’ll need a Pokemon that has a rating of two fire icons to clear the path. Once you have the required Pokemon in your group you select the Pokemon with the stylus and drag it to the object. A little animation will play out where the Pokemon does his or her duty and then afterwards it runs away. That’s right, once you use a Pokemon to interact with something it leaves you for good.

After messing around with this truly next generation touch screen gameplay you’ll be well on your way to completing the first mission of the main quest. This quest takes you through 10+ large missions which are all very linear in nature but really don’t seem that way when you’re playing. Like most Pokemon RPGs, you travel between cities, capture Pokemon, help out the people of the area, and regroup at your favorite Pokemon Center. And of course there is a rival team, Team Go-Go this time, which is raising havoc and must ultimately be stopped. Also the whole storyline apparently ties in to the 9th Pokemon movie entitled Pokemon Ranger & The Prince of the Sea – Manafi.

While you’re pounding away at this lengthy 20+ hour main quest you’ll also run into a few other new features worth mentioning. First is the fact that there are no random battles. All Pokemon that you battle roam around with their own well drawn sprites and animations. Second is that for the first time in Pokemon history you can battle more than one Pokemon at a time. That’s right, if you run into a Pokemon that happens to be close to another couple Pokemon guess what, all of them will show up on the battle screen. If it’s too much for you to handle you can always circle one of them once to activate the run away button but it’s certainly more fun to try to catch em’ all. This multiple opponent aspect also shows up in many boss battles and makes them truly memorable as the AI of the fight comes from the group dynamics. You’ll be swerving your stylus all over the place to catch em’ all.