Getting back into Pokemon.

[Revising Ocelot]

A year or so ago my mother got a DS Lite. She used it mainly to play the Professor Layton games, and whatever else that's vaguely puzzle-like, including some rather unfortunate shovelware lately. She's not good at things like NewSMB - she's over 60 and the reaction times for platformers and so on just isn't present. So I casually suggested a Pokemon game for her due to its turn-based nature, and her birthday is coming up; at the very least, if she doesn't like it, I could always hijack it. The last Pokemon game I played though was back on my old GBC, Pokemon Silver.

So from what I can tell, there's currently remakes of that generation out, SoulSilver and HeartGold. There's also Platinum, which I presume is a brand new version and probably has an obscene amount of Mons, 500+ by now I'd reckon? I'm more inclined towards the remakes as they'd probably have simpler mechanics and thus be easier for me mam to handle. There seems to be some sort of "PokeWalker" thing though, which fills me with dread.

So, anyway, I'm lazy and I'd like to know if the latest Pokeymans would be suited for her, and how they've changed from... I guess over 10 years ago now? Phew.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

I recently purchased HeartGold. My last Pokémon game before that was Silver.
I haven't played anything in between, but the remake got updated by a good deal of features and gameplay mechanics (yes I hate those two words). But I find the gameplay as simple as ever. It might even be a bit more accessible to some thanks to the optional touch controls (As a lefty, I'm glad it's not forced on one)

The Pokéwalker is basically a pedometer you can catch some mons and find some items with. Nothing to be afraid of, and you can completely ignore it of you wish.

I think it wouldn't matter which game you get. As I assume the gameplay of the remakes got updated with the most recent additions (at least that's what my brother told me, who played some rubies, pearls and leaf greens.) The core gameplay is still the same, though. And the tutorial at the beginning does still assume you are braindead and/or never played a Pokémon game in the past.

[Token]

Go with the remakes. Their mechanics are entirely different from the originals, but still fun and easily learned. I genuinely enjoy them more than Gold and Silver. (Although that's not saying much. I hated GSC.)

[PyrosNine]

My cousin left his copy of Ruby at my house, and I just started playing it because I think he has my copy of Brawl that he was supposed to give back when he came back.

It's kinda messed up, and the clock battery is teh deads, but at least now I can curbstomp gym leaders between classes.