Nintendo DS Review: Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

Review by: Pierst179

The Pokémon franchise has been on the top of every single list featuring the best sellers of the past 25 years. Since 1998 many different versions were released and not much has been changed. It is still the same old RPG that looks silly and childish at first glance, but once you give it a try you discover it is one of the deepest.

The game starts almost in the same way as its predecessors. You are a boy or a girl who lives in a small town somewhere in a region ridden with amazing creatures called Pokémon. One day you are wandering around when you are attacked by a wild Pokémon, you then find a bag with three Pokéballs, you pick one and suddenly you are engaged in a battle. After that you are given the Pokémon by an expert and your journey starts.

Once again over 100 new Pokémon have been added to this game making a whopping sum of 493 creatures. Many of them may seem strange at first glance, but from a strategical point of view it creates many new different ways of assembling your team.

The game visuals are great. While battling, you will notice the sprites have obviously been improved, unfortunately the game doesn’t push the DS graphical capabilities as far as possible. Still everything looks quite smooth. Both the Pokémon and the Attacks gained new animations, most of the effects are really cool and needless to say the battles got more thrilling.

Out of battle the game presents a pleasant mix of 3-D buildings with 2-D terrain. All cities now have their own particular characteristics. Some of them are small and at the middle of nowhere, while others are big cities with sidewalks, roads and poles that will light at night. You will also find some routes with quite different scenario than you are used to, a foggy mountain, a city covered in snow and other new environments.

The night and day periods are back so obviously there are Pokémon that can only be caught at a certain time of the day. The time is also important when evolving some Pokémon that need to be trained at the evening or during the morning.

Sound effects are great. During your adventure you will surprisingly hear many great tunes, unfortunately you will also find some annoying recycled songs that had to be improved or remixed for a new version of the game.

The point where Pokémon Diamond fails is when it comes to the gameplay. It is pretty much the same as in all other versions, the battle starts you choose and attack and try to defeat the foe, with the DS you would expect some improvements but the only thing that has been changed is that now is easier and faster to use the menus.

Despite new Pokémon, animations and attacks, the battles are still the same and you have got to once again beat 8 gym leaders to enter the Pokémon League and become the champion. There are also some contests but we all sure agree that battles are much more compelling.

What makes Pokémon Diamond stand out is obviously its online features which are great.

First of all there is the Global Trading Station (GTS) where you can search for any Pokémon you have already seen during your journey. This makes easier to complete your Pokédex and improve your team the way you want to. Most of the trades succeed when they are not too absurd. By using the GTS you will get creatures from different countries, different natures and movesets.

Besides the GTS there is also the option to battle and trade with your friends. It may seem like and awesome idea, but truth is the FCs kind of ruin the whole experience since you can't battle anyone unless you have their FCs.

There is also the Underground which can be explored using the Wifi. You can go there and search for treasures and rare items. Once you get enough treasures you can trade them for special items and build yourself a secret base. It is a great place to explore specially if you have your friends around since you can play some great games such as trying to break into one's secret base.

Like Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald there is still lots of things to do once you are done with the game. You can try to catch all Pokémon, use the Pal Park to transfer your creatures from a GBA version of the game to Diamond/Pearl, and explore a new big island that is only avaiable once you defeat the League Champion.

To sum it up. Pokémon Diamond/Pearl is a great challenging game. Its main flaw is that it doesn't present any changes when compared to the last versions, but the online mode, despite some problems, is great to use and it sure adds a lot to Nintendo's most successful franchise.