Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness: An Emerald Hidden in a Batch of Diamonds.

By: Aldrin Heaps

Correct me if I am wrong, but the general consensus of the GameCube is that Nintendo did not miss. From titles like Super Smash Bros. Melee to Twilight Princess, the GameCube had endless titles that fired off on all cylinders. Following off that momentum, I would like to bring my personal favorite up to discussion, that being Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness. Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness, to me, was the pinnacle of not only GameCube games, but Pokémon games as well. I know that is a bit of a hot take but follow along with me as I list my reasons for what enshrines this game as an S-tier classic.

Now before I go any further, I would like to give a special shoutout to it’s predecessor. Pokémon Colosseum. Without Colosseum, Gale of Darkness wouldn’t be nearly successful enough for me to write about it so I must give the proper flowers to it. The blueprint that colosseum provided and Gale of Darkness improved on made this game more enjoyable.

Let’s start with comparing the two. Colosseum incorporates a 3D Model double battle system that looks way ahead of it’s time. I’d like to argue that the newer games don’t look as good as Colosseum or Gale of Darkness because of this. The animations of the moves and watching your Pokémon do cool flips or tackle attacks just to pull off moves makes it madly entertaining no matter how many times it is seen. Colosseum also introduced a new type not found in previous games, this being “Shadow Pokémon”.