Dark winds sweep across the land of Orre, shadow Pokémon are everywhere, and the land's fate rests on a spiky haired hero and his Pokémon companions...

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness is a full RPG game in Story Mode, allowing players to experience the excitement of hunting for Pokémon in a vivid and colourful 3D world - snagging Shadow Pokémon and catching new animals from the wild! The game's Battle Mode allows players to enjoy multiplayer fun in 2 and 4 way battles.

In the main story mode, the sinister CIPHER organisation from Pokémon Colosseum is back, and have created the ultimate Shadow Pokémon - Shadow Lugia, who is specialised in fighting and has exclusive moves. CIPHER believe that Shadow Lugia can never be purified...

As the game's hero, you set out on an epic journey, along with your Pokémon companion Eevee, to "Snag" and "Purify" Shadow Pokémon, special monsters not catchable using normal Poké Balls. Once snagged, a Shadow Pokémon will still remain under the dark influence of CIPHER, so to truly set it free the player must purify it.

Along with the two main modes, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness features exciting new mini-games not seen on Nintendo GameCube since Pokémon Stadium. One of these is a battle based mini game called Battle CD, which lets you experience virtual battles in various different situations. But there's a twist! To clear these battles you have to fulfil certain conditions like defeating an opponent within a certain number of turns. You even get to fight Legendary Pokémon!

The game is also fully compatible with GBA Pokémon titles like FireRed, LeafGreen, Ruby and Sapphire, as well as the forthcoming Emerald. By linking your GBA to the Cube, human characters from these games can be imported to Pokémon XD. After finishing the game players will also be able to trade Pokémon between Pokémon XD and the GBA versions.

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness launches on the Nintendo GameCube in Europe on 18th November 2005!