When we got our first glimpses of the game, Pokemon Battle Revolution looked great. If the game were as good as previous 3-D Pokemon battling games had been, it'd be worth it. Plus, Nintendo had invested launching their online gaming services with Pokemon Battle Revolution.

Unfortunately, they chose very poorly, as this game is perhaps the worst first-party effort on the Wii to date.

For such a big and important title, I expected a lot more when it came to features. The game offers three main modes of play: you can battle other trainers who have a copy of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, battle other trainers over the Nintendo Wii's online services, or take on the best trainers the game can throw at you in a story-like mode. There's also the ability to customize the look of your trainers in the game, and while it's a nice feature, doesn't make up for the lack of other features.

The core of Pokemon Battle Revolution remains pretty much unchanged from the earlier Pokemon Stadium games. You pick your Pokemon, tell then what moves to use, and watch them battle in all their 3-D glory. This time around, the game has added two versus two Pokemon battles, which is something that fans of recent Pokemon games should be familiar with.

Perhaps the biggest blow to Pokemon Battle Revolution comes in the form of its control scheme, which feels completely wasted on the Wii. Using the Wii remote, you can select different options during battle, namely which attack to use... but you can also do the very same with the D-pad on the Wii remote, making the Poke Ball-shaped pointer pretty much useless. On top of that, with Wii-DS connectivity, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl users can use their own DS systems instead of the Wii remote when they battle with their personal Pokemon, and honestly, using the DS is a bit better than using the Wii remote.

Other than as a selection tool, the Wii remote is useless in the game. You don't even get to have the satisfaction of simulating the throwing of a Poke Ball, something very small that could have been added to the game to make it a more unique experience. Super Paper Mario, a game originally in development for the GameCube, has better use of the Wii remote than Pokemon Battle Revolution does. That's absolutely pathetic.

Finally, we get to the redeeming part of the game: the look. For a first-generation Wii game, Pokemon Battle Revolution looks very, very good. The animations of both the trainers and Pokemon are well done, meaning that though you'll have to deal with bland controls, at least it'll be easy on your eyes. The actual Pokemon coliseums look pretty good, too. The in-game announcer is nice, but it appears they've only given him about 10-15 lines of dialogue, meaning they'll be repeated over and over again.