As I entered Nintendo's front-and-center booth in the West hall, the first game that caught my eye was Pokémon on the Nintendo Wii. I watched the people currently engaged in battle finish up their match, and then I took my turn. Another person picked up the other DS system, and after a little setup, we were ready to begin.

Now, all three systems were displaying Japanese, but the man running the display had a handy sheet for the Pokémons' names and moves. To be fair, I asked my opponent if we should use the sheet, or just pick "randomly." He decided it would be more fun to play randomly, so there was no help or info on the moves used. The moves are colored based on their type, making the choices quicker and easier, even without the names.

All battles are the same two-on-two styles seen before on other console Pokémon titles. For this demonstration, the parties were selected directly from the DS games, which both contained three level 50 Pokémon each. The first part of the round starts with the move selection portion. Playing with the Nintendo DS as a screen is great for selecting moves. By the time the game is released, Pokémon trainers will be well adjusted to the new selection interface with the DS' touchscreen. The menu options are the same, but the layout is completely different. The large button in the middle of the screen is labeled Fight, with three smaller buttons below it labeled Bag, Run, and Switch. Once Fight is selected, the four moves for that Pokémon are shown, with the borders colored to signify the type of the move. After selecting a move, if a target is needed, one must be selected.

Once both players have selected both actions for their Pokémon, the turn moves into the action phase where the selected moves take place. If this sounds familiar to the experienced Pokémon trainer, it should. There's nothing new to this format or style of battling. The battles are just as flashy and vibrant as before. Many of the moves have new animations, helping to match the graphical advancement of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl. Each team had only three preset Pokémon, so there were only 24 moves available in all to see for this GDC version.