Pokémon Diamond/Pearl Review - 7/10

Pokémon diamond/Pearl is a new adventure in the Pokémon world. You explore a new region called Sinnoh, along with the hundreds of Pokémon, that we have seen in previous games, there are about 100 more Pokémon; including 13 new legendaries and forty or so evolutions and pre-evolutions of existing Pokémon. Pokémon diamond/pearl takes full advantage of the Nintendo DS’ Wifi capabilities allowing you to battle and trade with people around the world, or locally with up to four of your friends, and up to eight friends in a special, new area. Pokémon now has a new look with 3-D environment and a few mini-games thrown in as well.

Publisher: Nintendo
Type: Role Playing Game (RPG)
Developer: GAMEFREAK
Multiplayer: Yes
Downloadable content: NA
Release date: 21 June 2007
Platform: Nintendo DS

Gameplay: 8/10

Gameplay has not improved much since Emerald, though it has events where you can use the touch screen, it has a time system in place similar to that of Gold/Silver/Crystal for encountering Pokémon and certain events.

Your journey begins in an obscure town, in the Sinnoh region of Pokémon world. You begin with a highly wound, over eager rival, and have the choice of three starter Pokémon and as per usual there is a new Professor. However in contrast to other Pokémon games, there is also a second rival. The two rivals’ starter Pokémon depends on your choice of starter Pokémon. The beginning seems quite familiar to me, as it has changed little since red, blue and green were released.

As in previous titles you navigation through the environment using your D-pad, I had hoped that they would have navigation through the touch screen, so this was quite disappointing. Instead of navigation they have assign a sort of mini application, called Pokétch, to the touch screen for regular play. It has a number of features, including a calculator, happiness monitor, health monitor and step counter as well as others as you progress further along in the game. The new environment has allowed for a 3D navigation, where sometimes you not only go between floors but have different elevations on the same floor, it is often coupled with making the decision “Should I take the short path, and have to battle several trainers, or do I take the long way round, and avoid the trainers?”


Battle scenes give you the choice of touch screen or button interface. Battles are still turn based though new Pokémon, move sets, special abilities and a hundred TM’s add new twists to the already strategic battles. Of course you can still double battle, with sections where you team up with a NPC (Non-Player Character) to double battle wild Pokémon and trainers. Apart from the pairing with NPC’s, double battles are rare and fleeting.

The new additions to the Pokémon family bring the grand total up to 493, with many strange a difficult to pronounce names, new type combinations, new move, and even a legendary that can breed! When you complete your Sinnoh Pokédex, you can import Pokémon from GBA versions of Pokémon, but can only do it in a certain way, confused? So was I. One way to do it is when you reach an area called Pal Park you can catch your Pokémon from previous games, but with the limit of six per day. Right at this point, when I found this out I thought something like: “ Yay! Now I can have my team both on emerald and on Diamond”, I had my hopes up, but as I have come to understand when you transfer your Pokémon it’s permanent.

In Diamond and Pearl you can use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to experience battles and trading with people from around the world, so that you can keep track of your friend you can store their friend code and battle them any time you want. As well as having achievement competitions such as for fishing, Pokémon defeated, and many others. You can also access a new areas: an underground world where you can interact with friends, get special items, and play a mining mini game in pursuit of shads, gems and stones and make secret bases as well as doing countless other things.

Team Rocket, Magma and Aqua are not in Diamond or Pearl but instead we have Team Galactic. Team Galactic are the bad guys and are trying to take over the world, or possibly change it and it’s up to you to stop them. They are not very difficult to defeat, and their hindrances requires little effort to overcome.

Apart from becoming the best trainer of the world, in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl you can also become the best co-ordinator. This is where it gets a bit girly, but there is nothing wrong with that. There are many things that you can do to make you make your Pokémon look pretty, or buff, one way is to feed your Pokémon Profins, which are similar to Pokéblocks and incidentally require you to play a minigame to make them. Another way is to dress your Pokémon up to a theme, I’m not kidding here, and it can get nasty sometimes. All this to compete in contests, do some dance moves, and do some acting; sounds like fun!

There is a distinction between Diamond and Pearl, the main difference is that like in Sapphire and Ruby you face different legendary Pokémon. In Diamond you are able to capture Dialga, the controller of time, while in Pearl you are able to catch Palkia who is able to distort space. They also have variations in regular Pokémon that you can catch, none more than any other pair of versions.

Graphics: 6/10

The graphics have been redone since Emerald; one of the first things you will notice when you first play is that the environment is in 3D, as you move around the point of view of houses, trees, buildings, lights and even long grass change, thought the quality is what you would expect on a DS game. One of the next things you will notice is the day and night cycle has an effect on the graphics: when it’s Day, it’s bright and when it’s night, it’s dark.



Though sprites are not rendered in 3D, they have been upgraded, and revamped. All Pokémon sprites have been reworked. Effects have been upgraded too; attacks are more elaborate than ever previously and the new battle effects go well with altered move sets. The colours are good, allowing lots of detail to be shown. All in all the 2D graphics has been merged well with the 3D graphics.

Though the quality does not compete with next generation consoles, the graphics of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are good in comparison to some other Nintendo DS games.

Sound: 6/10

In comparison to previous Pokémon titles the fanfare of Diamond and Pearl has improved somewhat. The music is a bit similar to the music of Pokémon Red and Blue, or early Mario games. Character speech is text based. However each Pokémon makes a distinct sound, the Filter and Reverberation can be played with in the Pokédex.

Stereo sound has been added since Emerald and sound effects of attacks have been upgraded, making battle scenes more interesting to listen to: when you attach with an explosion a BOOM from your speakers comes with it. Whenever you press, or move or tap any button or knob on the touch screen an effect comes with it. Pokémon actually has many types of music that go with certain places, times of the day, and events.

The music really sets the scene throughout the game; it’s very lively and it makes the game more interesting for players.

Value: 8/10

This game offers at least forty hours of gameplay, to complete the main objective: to become a champion trainer, but to fully complete the game requires at least a couple hundred hours playtime not to mention the hours of fun you can have in online play. The best part about online play is that it’s free to battle with anyone from around the world.

At around sixty to seventy dollars, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are reasonably priced and are good value for money.

Overall: 7/10

Overall the gameplay is pretty good, but is does lack that originality that other games have, but it expands on the theme of the Pokémon genre, in a way that is more intricately woven, and complex. While, for a DS game, is boasts good graphics and sound; it comes far short of the graphics and sounds of next generation games, which can be expected. Nintendo Wifi gameplay expands the world to a whole new level, allowing connectivity to people around the world. In short if you liked Emerald then you will probably like Diamond and Pearl.

Pros:
- Hours of Gameplay

- Mini games

- Online play

- Fun exploration

Cons:
- Changing controls can be a bit annoying

- Limited graphics

- Repetitive combat system

- Lacks originality


Douglas Sherry,

aerodegrail@gmail.com

Submitted by Dougmore 18/08/2007 2366 4

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