"New cities, new Pokemon, same great adventure!"

When the first generation Pokemon games came out, I never thought Nintendo could improve the series. Upon the release of generation number two, I would find that thinking was quite wrong. However my Pokemon infatuation did end after the second generation and I never believed I'd be coming back to it. Pokemon Diamond sparked up my interest and I purchased a DS just to find out how great it could be. I was simply astonished by how they could take the same gameplay engine tune it some and create a whole new adventure. With every new release of games, there's always a copious amount of new Pokemon added. There's now a whopping 493 total Pokemon to seek out or trade to, collect 'em all!

The beginning of your Pokemon journey starts out in Twinleaf town in the beautiful Sinnoh region. Similar to previous installments, you don't have any Pokemon and you have to walk around a bit to spark up the story which begins once you leave town with your would-be rival. You travel slightly north (avoiding the long grass) only to be attacked. Three Pokemon in their Pokeballs lay upon the ground that you borrow to defend yourself. It turns out the Professor of your town has returned and he has decided to let you keep the Pokemon if in turn, you help him complete the Pokedex of the Sinnoh region. Unfortunately, many of the new Pokemon seem poorly thought out and even more so named. There are some Pokemon that look exactly like real-life animals (A beaver or seagull) and are named exactly like real-life names. Generation number one showed true originality in creating Pokemon that didn't look like things you normally saw and gave them insane names. It really feels like Nintendo just took some random animals, changed their name around a bit and added baby Pokemon to previous Pokemon and created the roster. But it sure puts a smile back on your face when an original Pokemon shows up and you can tell that there was time put into thinking up that one.

Like the past generations, you traverse the world obtaining and raising Pokemon while you fight to get gym badges. There's not to much new pertaining to the gameplay. You still have the over the shoulder view where you choose one of four attacks to take out the other Pokemon or weaken it to capture. Generation three brought in dual battling which as awkward as that sounds, it works surprisingly well. Throughout the journey, two trainers might challenge you at the same time and you use two of your Pokemon against two of theirs (one for each). The other possibility would be another trainer teaming up with you to conquer a forest or dungeon. Unfortunately transitions are still slow, random battles are abundant, and there's a lot of unnecessary text to read. The game would have been so much better if they could have cut out telling you who you're sending out to fight or who you are fighting. We get it after the tenth time.

Example.
Wild Pikachu appears.
Go Staravia!
It begins to rain.
Staravia's intimidate cuts wild Pikachu's attack

That is only one of the many times where you're just sitting there while the game just lathers text all over you causing you to go mildly insane. It would be so much simpler just to start the battle off with your Pokemon already out and your choice of attack ready at your selection. And it's not just the start of the battle that text is abundant. There are cases, after every turn that it'll tell you it's still raining or the sandstorm is still brewing (By the way, the purpose of the rain is to boost water moves and the sandstorm damages the Pokemon)

Other parts slow down how quickly you could be moving but Nintendo feels you need to see a three second animation of your Pokemon moving to cut down a tree or smash a rock. I wish an option to turn of animations would have been included but it's not so bad that it makes the game is unplayable. The main quest of obtaining all eight gym badges and journeying to fight the Elite Four will take around thirty hours. But that's just the beginning, there are plenty of side quests, online battling, and collecting every Pokemon. Your Pokedex is set up a little differently this time around. The Sinnoh region is made up of 150 Pokemon from every generation and after you have seen everyone of those 150 you'll be able to track down the remaining 343.

One of the most annoying things that the earlier generations had but thankfully has been fixed was the lengthy amount of time you had wait through was the time it took to change boxes that held your Pokemon in the PC. You can now, freely move between boxes without any loading or saving. Thanks Nintendo. Other little goodies include the ability to choose a boy or a girl (first seen last gen) and the ridiculous amount of gadgets that you can access using the touch screen. Things like, clocks, maps, counters, and the ability to check your Pokemon. The rest of the game plays just like the old games, with improvements on everything. Your bike now has gears to go faster, there are more HM to use outside of battle, and you can dress up your Pokemon and have it compete it contests that include dancing, showing off their moves or just take part in a simple beauty contest.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of the new games is the ability to go online via WiFi to trade and battle with your friends or anyone else around the world – for free. If you can find yourself a WiFi hotspot or have wireless internet in your house with a router you'll be able to connect to anyone in the world and test out your skills. Unfortunately you can only trade between Diamond and Pearl. If you want to bring any Pokemon from R/S/E/FR/LG, the only option will be to import them but there is no possible way to do a trade so to speak. Battles online have many using strict rules with level 100 Pokemon so finding a “fair” battle is somewhat of a tough find. Trading however is great, you can usually find great Pokemon to trade and online users are friendly enough to help you out.

It's a new generation and a new handheld. Naturally the graphics have been improved. Pokemon look amazing and the whole world has a sort of 3D feel to it even though you're playing from a bird's eye view. Character sprites are impressive, there is truly some diversity in the Pokemon world that was rarely seen in the past. It's not only the characters that received the upgrade, the environment has truly been overhauled. There is snow, rain, fog, mud, and longer grass. My jaw literally dropped when I first entered the area drenched in snow and the blizzard narrowed my vision. The lush trees, dark caves and the clean white snow really suck you into the game and get you going. The visuals are superb and the sound really helps put it all together in one package. Gone are the annoying tunes they play when you ride your bike or encounter a wild Pokemon. That's to say, the annoying songs are gone only to be replaced by new ones that are quite nice. I must say I did shed a tear when they didn't use the classic Pokemon theme at the start of the game.

The DS adds a new spin on the game and you input every attack straight from the touch screen. One of the coolest things you can is sign your trainer's card using the screen and save it to display to others. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl is a wise buy for any owner of the Nintendo DS. Even if you think you're to old or too mature to play a Pokemon game, this one will truly bring you back to the craze. The story is solid, the game looks amazing, and collecting all the Pokemon and completing your quest is as addicting as ever. The only things I didn't like were the unnecessary messages they displayed and the wasted time spent on showing you a cute action of your Pokemon before each time they perform it. Diamond/Pearl are great however they aren't as epic as Pokemon once was and that is the difference between now and then. That shouldn't hold you back, this really is, in the most literal sense a must-have game. I recommend this game to anyone looking a for a great addicting game with a high replay value.

Now if only they would take this same concept and bring it to the console... we can only wish.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/30/07