Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (DS) Review
Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl are the latest entries in the handheld series, and bring plenty of new content to the table, while still giving players the same Pokemon they’ve experienced time and time again for the past ten years or so. The most notable additions to the series are touch control, voice chat, about 100 new Pokemon, and of course, online battling and trading over Nintendo Wi-fi Connection.
Let’s start with the basics, though. The graphical style of Diamond/Pearl is essentially the same as it’s always been; an overhead view of the world map with the player and his/her surroundings. But, with the hardware of the DS, the developers were able to add a few 3D items into the mix. For example, you’ll be walking through a field of grass going about your adventuring routine, and you’ll pass in front of some windmills. You, and the grass, will all be in 2D, but the windmill’s blades will be rotating and will seem to pop out at you. This is a very nice feature and works remarkably well on the little handheld. A few other 3D pieces include trees, houses, and skyscrapers.
During battle, (There’s plenty of battling, as with all the traditional Pokemon games), all the fighting will be displayed on the top screen, while the menus and such are located on the bottom screen. You have the option of touching to select everything, or using the D-pad and buttons. All of the Pokemon have new sprites and animations. All the old moves have new animations, and of course, there are plenty of new battle techniques, all of which look very nice. My only gripe with the graphics is that sometimes pixels will the misplaced and things will look a bit choppy. This is mostly on the 3D textures, but isn’t really all that noticeable.
That brings us to the sound. There is a bit of new music, and some old music. Most notably there are new arrangements of old songs, which are very well done. All of the Pokemon have their own distinct cries that you’ll hear in battle or you can listen to in the Pokedex, although this brings up some good and bad aspects of the sound. All the new Pokemon have cries that are smooth, and sound good, but all the old Pokemon have their same cries from the GameBoy Color games. This isn’t too big of a problem, though.
The story isn’t anything new. You collect and battle Pokemon to become the best trainer in all the land, while meanwhile and evil group tries to take over the world, or in this case, create a new one. Team Galactic are trying to capture the Pokemon of Time and Space to harness their power and create a whole new galaxy. It’s basically the same as the other games, except with a new group and a new objective. Although it can be interesting at times, it’s not very deep and not all that important, either.
The gameplay is pretty much the same as it’s always been. You get a starter Pokemon, you run around collecting, battling and trading, eventually rising to the top and becoming the Pokemon League Champion. The Gym Leaders serve as the bosses in the game, but you’ll also battle your rival every now and then. In this installment of the series, you get a Poketch (Pokemon Watch) that gets displayed on the touch screen. It’s a handy device that serves as a little PDA. It has few applications right when you get it, but you’ll receive more as you progress through the game. Not all of them are completely useful, but some are kind of interesting like the Move Tester, which let’s you see which type of attacks work well against whatever type of Pokemon.
Probably one of the coolest new features of these games is the ability to upload your Pokemon from any of the GBA Pokemon games by using the DS dual slot capabilities. The most anticipated feature, though, is the ability use Internet functions for trading and battling. You need friend codes to battle, but if you trade with a random person over the Internet, their data will be added to your Friends List automatically.
The Global Trade Station lets you trade Pokemon over the Internet with random people. You can search for the one you want, and if you find one it’ll display the trainer who has it and what type of Pokemon they want for it. It’s very easy to use and very helpful. The online battles also work very well. They’re very fluid and easy, but can lag if you or your opponent doesn’t have a strong connection. The game also keeps record of your wins and losses.
After you beat the main quest, which can be up to about 45 hours, there’s a ton of extra stuff to fill your time like competing in contests, fighting in the battle tower, or simply just trying to collect ‘em all. The extra content might not change the core gameplay much, but is a lot of fun and will take up a good deal of your time. These games serve the series justice and are great additions to your collection, so if you’ve ever been a fan of the series, or are completely new to it, this game will most likely satisfy your RPG needs for a long while.
