European gamers, get ready to to put your Pokemon skills to the test. Nintendo has announced that Pokemon Ranger will be launching across Europe this Friday.

For the first time in the history of the series players will be able to take on the role elite Pokemon Ranger. Along the way, players must learn to harness the powers of captured wild Pokemon to solve whatever problems they encounter. In their new role, Pokemon fans get to take part in a series of exciting and increasingly challenging missions.

In Pokemon Ranger, players get to control the game entirely through the Nintendo DS handheld gaming system's touch screen and stylus. To capture wild Pokemon, players must draw a circle around them. This challenge can also vary depending on the size and the strength of the target Pokemon.

The are also numerous sub-quests available in the game. More than 200 Pokemon are waiting to be caught - including legendary Pokémon such as Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza - in Pokémon Ranger.

Although it's been out in North America for quite some time now, European DS users are still hanging on to the edge of their seats for Pokemon Rangers.

However, the good news is, Nintendo has announced the European release date so they won't have to feel like they're in limbo no more. Now just in case you've forgotten, you'll get to take on the role of a Ranger, a.k.a. an elite task force Poke-protector and choose between the characters of Lunick (male) or Solana (female) as you try to capture a wild Pokémon by working your stylus and drawing circles round your target.

Pokemon Rangers is set to hit Europe on March 30.

The end of the month is coming up, and while you guys will be out there running around trick-or-treating, we thought we'd tickle your gaming sweet tooth by giving you a compilation list of the games coming out for the next few days. Once again, save
yourself the trouble of sweating out a long walk to you local retail store, and enjoy our Halloween treat for  'ya.

And while there's a lot of games to look forward to, we'll have to honestly say that our top picks would have to be The Sims 2: Pets (Sickeningly cute animals, go figure), and FEAR (This one just for this holiday's sake).

Nintendo DS

• 10/30/06 Children of Mana
• 10/30/06 Pokemon Ranger
• 10/31/06 Konductra
• 10/31/06 Nacho Libre
• 10/31/06 The Sims 2: Pets
• 10/31/06 Tom and Jerry Tales
• 10/31/06 Scurge: Hive
• 11/01/06 Chicken Little: Ace in Action

See the full list after the jump!

Hello, PokeFriends! We gave you a sampling of Pokemon Ranger screenshots yesterday. Today, it's another batch of pics to further help you make your PokeDecision to get the game once it comes out on October 30. These screenshots were taken from the Japanese version which was already out a few months back.

Now we see more of the game in action. There's a couple of other screenshots that show both top and bottom screens, showing the various menus that would be helpful in your adventure as a pokemon ranger. What's different in this game is that you "catch" pokemon not through the traditional pokeballs that pokemon trainers use. You'll be throwing a more hi-tech pokeball (it looks like a spinning top), and on the touch screen, slide the stylus around to "ranch" the pokemon in a fence that will trap it.

With this feature, we get to experience a more rigorous way of catching pokemon. Not like before when you would have to rely on the HP of the pokemon being low enough so it won't run away, this time around, it's pure skill of using the stylus that will win you your PokePrize!

More pics after the jump!

   

We got you guys some new Pokemon Ranger material today - Box art and screenshots! And for those of you who are eager and are planning to get Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, note that Pokemon Ranger can be linked up with both of those games. While the latter two are scheduled to come out spring of next year, Pokemon Ranger will be released next month to help us tide over the long wait for Diamond and Silver.

Now for those of you guys who haven't heard of this game yet, a pokemon ranger is different from your regular pokemon trainer (like Ash Ketchum from the animated series). A pokemon ranger roams around the land, not battling with other trainers to earn badges, but uses his or her own pokemon to deal with baddies that try to harm nature. Just like a ranger in a park!

So, without further ado, here are the screenshots:

   
 

Pokemon Ranger is the DS Pokemon game that Nintendo is making before giving gamers the true sequels, Diamond and Pearl. At first, Ranger seems like it is your average Pokemon game, but it varies from the norm with the way that the little pocket monsters are caught. Instead of throwing poke balls you will end up throwing a high-tech top and use the stylus to spin it in circles around the wild creatures before they run away. More information about Pokemon Ranger is scarce, but it will be hitting retail on October 30th. Go ahead and check out some of the screenshots by clicking the thumbnails below for a better picture of what the game will look like.

The upcoming Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl games will somehow work with the recently released Pokemon Ranger. On May 15th, the June issue of Coro Coro Comics will be releasing more information on how it will work. It is said to be significant to the movie, Pokemon Ranger, which is set to be released soon. Hopefully they won't make us link five games together just to catch all the Pokemon this time... Thanks to NeoGAF for translations!

Nintendo's Pokemon Ranger, a Pokemon Universe spin-off, sold over 193,000 copies in its first few days on Japanese store shelves. That's strong enough to put it on the number two slot of the top selling video game titles in Japan last week right behind FF12 (PS2). The action RPG is set in the world of the Pokemon Ranger Movie. A gamer can play two characters: a boy and a girl, both Pokemon Rangers. Rangers use Pokemon to defend the land from the bad guys. Nintendo has not announced its North American release date.

AM3 has announced that they will be releasing the DS protection film "Scratch Guard DS - Pokemon Ranger" on March 23, the same day with the game. The price will be 500 JPY ($4.25 USD).

"Scratch Guard DS - Pokemon Ranger" is a pokemon version of the company's DS protection film series "Scratch Guard DS". "Pokemon Ranger" is an Action-Adventure game slated on March 23 for the DS.

The product specification will be the same with the "Scratch Guard DS". The users can stick the product on the upper cover of the handheld and around the controller part, to prevent scratches on the handheld itself. The film uses static to attach to the surface. Once removed, there will be no traces left on the surface of the handheld, leaving you a clean DS for other new scratch guards with different designs.