Black and White has the Pokemon Global Link and Heart Gold and Soul Silver have the PokeWalker.
Both of these promotions or devices enhance the games by allowing players access to Pokemon in a new way. The only downside is both devices frown upon restarting or replaying the games.
On the Pokemon Global Link, each person registers their Black and/or White cartridges so that the network can identify them. When a player restarts either of their games, and reconnects back to the system, they are given a new code to put into PGL, but PGL does not give you a way to delete an old code and/or replace it with a new one. From the research I've found, you have to contact Nintendo Customer Support and request them to delete your old code.
This puts a huge deterrence on people restarting games. If you don't jump through Nintendo's hoops, you literally have no access to the PGL on that cartridge.
Using the PokeWalker, it is registered to a trainer ID #. This makes sure it is transferring information to and from the right trainer. If you restart your game, your ID # changes, meaning that you have to reset your PokeWalker, losing all the progress you've made in unlocking new areas or step milestones.
At least with the latter system, it is possible to fix it in your own time, but both systems put a huge deterrence on players to restart their games. Why is this? The Pokemon games only have 1 save file.
I love to restart my games. I'd almost say I am a restart-a-holic. I like having one game as the base, and then restarting another and transferring the Pokemon to the base game, and starting over against. This allows me to try out different Pokemon through the gym system, which I find the most fun.
Why did Nintendo design their two latest Pokemon promotions and contraptions to be like this? What were they thinking?
Both of these promotions or devices enhance the games by allowing players access to Pokemon in a new way. The only downside is both devices frown upon restarting or replaying the games.
On the Pokemon Global Link, each person registers their Black and/or White cartridges so that the network can identify them. When a player restarts either of their games, and reconnects back to the system, they are given a new code to put into PGL, but PGL does not give you a way to delete an old code and/or replace it with a new one. From the research I've found, you have to contact Nintendo Customer Support and request them to delete your old code.
This puts a huge deterrence on people restarting games. If you don't jump through Nintendo's hoops, you literally have no access to the PGL on that cartridge.
Using the PokeWalker, it is registered to a trainer ID #. This makes sure it is transferring information to and from the right trainer. If you restart your game, your ID # changes, meaning that you have to reset your PokeWalker, losing all the progress you've made in unlocking new areas or step milestones.
At least with the latter system, it is possible to fix it in your own time, but both systems put a huge deterrence on players to restart their games. Why is this? The Pokemon games only have 1 save file.
I love to restart my games. I'd almost say I am a restart-a-holic. I like having one game as the base, and then restarting another and transferring the Pokemon to the base game, and starting over against. This allows me to try out different Pokemon through the gym system, which I find the most fun.
Why did Nintendo design their two latest Pokemon promotions and contraptions to be like this? What were they thinking?