Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

The games industry has made it pretty easy to be a Pokemon fan in the 12 years leading up to the release of Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia. Starting with Blue and going through Yellow, Gold, Ruby, Fire Red, Diamond and Pearl, there have been plenty of addictive games to help you catch 'em all. Shadows of Almia looks to continue that tradition, albeit in a slightly different vein.

Building on the success of Pokemon Ranger, Shadows of Almia puts an action-adventure spin on the traditional Pokemon training of the series' core games. Rather than permanently capturing and training Pokemon, players must become a Ranger, temporarily reining the critters in so that they can make use of their unique abilities.

Pokemon are captured using the Capture Styler - a new tool that requires players to use the stylus to rapidly draw circles around the required creature. This will fill up a meter that corresponds to the relationship you've built with the Pokemon. Once you fill it, you're good to use the creature's ability to overcome all manner of puzzles and challenges as you try to help the people of the Almia region.

For its part, the region is bigger than that seen in the previous Ranger game, coming with more missions to complement it. Shadows of Almia is also the first new game to make use of the Pokemon from Diamond and Pearl.