Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (2005) — Release Date, Cheats, Price & Requirements

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness

Pokemon XD is a sequel to the role-playing game Pokémon Colosseum. You'll play as Michael, a Pokémon trainer who is trying to thwart the evil Cipher. Cipher plans to control the world by using the powerful…

40 4 August 2005 ESRB E

What Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness is

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness is an adventure game developed by Genius Sonority and released in 2005. It was published by Nintendo. It is available on Nintendo GameCube only. It carries an ESRB E age rating.

The premise, in the publisher's words

Pokemon XD is a sequel to the role-playing game Pokémon Colosseum. You'll play as Michael, a Pokémon trainer who is trying to thwart the evil Cipher. Cipher plans to control the world by using the powerful, but unpredictable, shadow Pokémon. Now you must fight back by collecting your own shadow Pokémon and beating Cipher's goons in battle. Pokémon XD also lets you import Pokémon from Game Boy Advance Pokémon games and participate in head-to-head battles with other players.

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a third person perspective. Its themes are action and fantasy. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.

Where it sits in the Pokémon series

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness is the 123rd of 306 entries we hold in the Pokémon series. The next entry was Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation: Pokémon Suuji Battle!! in 2005. Its critic score of 40 is 34 points below the series average of 74. The highest-rated entry is Super Smash Bros. Melee at 100.

See all 306 Pokémon games in release order →

How it was received

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness holds a critic score of 40 out of 100. That places it above 4% of the 7,530 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 2005 averaged 67, so it scored 27 points below the year average. Players rate it 56, 16 points higher than critics did — a gap worth knowing about before you buy.

How long it takes, and what that costs

The main story runs about 11 hrs.

What it launched against

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness launched on 4 August 2005, within three weeks of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Dungeon Siege 2, Dungeon Siege II and Fatal Frame III: The Tormented. All of them reviewed better.

Released around the same time: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Dungeon Siege 2, Dungeon Siege II, Fatal Frame III: The Tormented.

Official trailer