DS Review: Pokémon Diamond / Pearl

After more than ten years of success, the Pokémon franchise continues to perform extremely well. Players have captured, trained, and traded Pocket Monsters time and time again, moving from the old-school Game Boy versions to the more sophisticated Game Boy Advance entries to the series, with a variety of spin-offs and battle-only games for many other Nintendo systems. With the unstoppable success of the Nintendo DS in Japan and elsewhere, Nintendo wasn’t going to skip the opportunity to release a few Pokémon games for the dual-screened system. We’ve seen Pokémon Trozei, a puzzle game that many criticized for not being ‘Pokémon’ enough, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, a dungeon crawler that put players in controls of the Pokémon themselves, and Pokémon Ranger, which introduced new gameplay mechanics via a different approach to the use of Pokémon. After these games and the unsuccessful Pokémon Dash, the Nintendo DS has finally received two straight-up versions to the popular series in the form of Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl. Fans of the franchise have undoubtedly already bought the game and played it to death, but there are likely some uninitiated gamers out there who have never played a Pokémon title but who are curious to know what all the fuss is about. Continue reading to hear our take on these two games and find out if this would be a good time to take that Pokémon plunge.

If you’re a previous Pokémon player, you know exactly what to expect; a new region with new creatures to catch, trainers to battle, badges to collect, and a few extra features. For those unfamiliar with the series, Pokémon puts you in the shoes of a young hero, either a boy or a girl, in the quest of becoming the Pokémon League Champion. To do so, you must collect Pokémon, short for Pocket Monsters, which are different creatures that represent animals or other objects, such as cats, bats, dragons and boulders or trees. There are 493 different creatures spread throughout the series, offering a great amount of variety and replay value for the truly hardcore. As you capture these Pokémon, you must fight other creatures to level up your characters and make them stronger so that you can challenge the Pokémon Gym Leaders, which regard you with badges upon a victory. Once you collect eight badges you are able to challenge the Pokémon League to attempt to earn the title of Pokémon champion. While you do all this, you will have to face a group of baddies know as the Galactic Team, who are after the world’s Pokémon for some evil, twisted ends that you must prevent. As you explore the brand-new Sinnoh region, you will find cities, towns, and other Pokémon trainers waiting for a challenge. Townsfolk will give you items or advice, therefore it is recommended that you talk to everyone. You can use different items to heal your Pokémon, teach them new moves, affect their battles, and even make them evolve into other Pokémon, which they can also do by earning experience in battles. Battles are turn-based and based on a rock-paper-scissors scheme of different Pokémon types, such as Fire, Grass, Poison, and Psychic, which work well towards some other types but not well towards others.

Diamond and Pearl offer a variety of new features to long-time fans of the series. Aside from a new region and new creatures to collect, the games offer new features such as touch screen controls, new Pokémon moves, and new items. Without a doubt, however, the most innovative features added are the connectivity capabilities of both games. Not only can you battle friends or trade Pokémon locally, now you can both trade and battle over the internet using Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection service. In fact, you don’t need to have anyone’s friend codes to trade Pokémon. Using the game’s Global Trade Station you can deposit a Pokémon on a server and specify which creature you want in return; if any player around the world accepts your trade, the next time you check the GTS your new Pokémon will be given to you. With this feature, it’s now easier than ever to actually Catch ‘Em All. Both versions of the game include little differences aside from certain Pokémon exclusives to each, but with the new internet trading feature collecting these exclusive Pokémon is an easy task. Unfortunately, as in many other Nintendo online-enabled games, you won’t get the most out of online gaming without sharing friend codes.

The game’s graphics have also received a significant boost. Moving from the standard 2D view, Diamond and Pearl feature stylish 3D-esque polygonal graphics that look really nice, while still keeping the colorful and charming look of things. The game’s audio is excellent, with very catchy tunes that will stick in your head for a while. The game’s sound effects are great too, as long as you don’t mind listening to the old Pokémon cries of previous Pokémon versions. The game’s presentation and dialogue make it appealing to younger players, but gamers of any age can easily become addicted to collecting creatures and leveling them up to challenge friends in battle. There is a lot to do in these games; after finishing the main quest which will take you around 40 hours to complete, you can attempt to capture all the Pokémon, trade with or battle friends, enter Pokémon contests to win special items, enter the local-multiplayer-only Underground to dig up more special items, and other activities that will greatly extend the replay value of the game, if you’re interested on continuing the adventure. There is, however, not enough innovation from previous Pokémon games, save the online Pokémon trading. Battle animations are still a bit on the downside, and you can’t help the feeling of ‘been there, done that’ that the series is now known for, for the most part.

As it is, you either love Pokémon, hate it, or know little or nothing about it. The first two groups of people either got the game or ignored it. Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl offer an addictive RPG experience with lots of things to do, and if you can stand the kiddy appeal and presentation, you will find a great adventure in either version, which are the best Pokémon version installments to date.

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