"You Can't Kill the Metal...Or Pokemon"

The metal will live on...and so will Pokemon.

With the creation of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, Pokemon enters its fourth generation. 107 new Pokemon have been added. Pokemon continues to astound the world.

But what is in this game that is so astounding?

Well, like every other Pokemon game, you start out as an average child, and you are whisked into the Pokemon world almost instantly. Your rival dares you to go to Lake Valor. There, you see Professor Rowan and Dawn. They leave, but without their bag. You and your rival find Pokeballs containing Pokemon in the bag. Once you take one, you are attacked. Rowan finds out, and he is fine with it. And that is how you get your first Pokemon. Now, this is a Pokemon game, so nobody should expect it to have a plot equivalent to Harry Potter, but the story is not what makes Pokemon so great.

As the game progresses, you encounter Team Galactic, this game's villian team. And, like always, you will find gyms once you progress to new towns.

Once you defeat the sixth gym, though, is when Team Galactic starts to interfere the most. They capture Mesprit, Azelf, and Uxie, of lakes Valor, Acuity, and Verity. They use these Pokemon to do some stuff, and eventually, they awaken Dialga (Palkia in Pearl). Once you defeat/capture Palkia, Team Galactic stops committing their heinous deeds, and you can press forward to become the Pokemon Champion. Now, while being Champion is great and all, it seems ironic that you are never addressed as so. Your always just an average person, and the champion is always the champion, no matter how many times you beat her (yes, the champion is a GIRL!).

Well, enough of the story.

The controls, like in all Pokemon games, are simple. The touch screen is hardly used in this game, except for a couple of annoying minigames. While you are not in a minigame, though, it is used as a Poketch, which keeps time, acts as a calculator, and has numerous more attatchments the further you progress.

The gameplay in Diamond is great. The typical battle style is used, as well as double battles. Fortunately, though, double battles are not as forced as they were in Emerald. Once in battle, the Pokemon's moves are displayed on the touch screen. They can be chosen by stylus or the D-pad, whichever you chose.

There are 107 new Pokemon, and I am pleased with most of them. However, about ten of these are legendaries, and about twenty or thirty are new evolutions. Now, this is not necessarily bad, but what I do dislike is that only about 75 can be obtained before you beat the elite four, which I find bad.

One thing I really like is that there are a lot of references to Johto in this game. There are also more second generation Pokemon before you beat the elite four than in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald Verisons. I think that Gold and Silver were the best Pokemon games, and I liked how Diamond and Pearl followed suit.

Speaking of Gold and Silver, one thing that was taken from those games was the time system. So if it is morning on your DS clock, then it's morning in your game. If it is night on your DS clock, then it is night in your game. They also added two new times: afternoon, which I believe is from 5:00 p.m. to 6:59 p.m., and evening, which is 7:00 p.m. to 7:59 p.m. However, in terms of when night Pokemon come out, night officially begins at 8:00 p.m., meaning that day Pokemon are still out from 5:00 to 7:59. The time can be observed on your Poketch, which is on your touch screen when not in battle.

It is not as easy to obtain the National Dex in this game as it was in FireRed, LeafGreen, or Emerald. You must have seen all 150 Pokemon on the Sinnoh Dex (not including Manaphy) in order to obtain the National Dex from Professor Rowan, as apposed to just beating the elite four. However, if you have battled every trainer in the game, then this should be accomplishable.

Once you obtain the National Dex, the Pokemon world really unfolds. You can now trade with GBA games as well as battle other people in the battle tower. Pokemon from privious games can be obtained, and new legendaries can be caught.

Contests have returned to Diamond and Pearl, but they are much different. Now they are called "Super Contests" and have been separated into three categories: visual, dancing, and performance (or something like that). In visual, you dress up your Pokemon with some accessories you may have. In dancing, the leader performs a couple of dance steps, and you must copy with the same steps on the same beat. In performance, your Pokemon perfoms a move to a specific judge.

In hand with these contests, a mini game has been where you create "poffins" for your Pokemon. They are the equivalent of Pokeblocks in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald.

The elite is a mixed big in difficulty in this game. The types of the elite four's Pokemon do not impact the difficulty as much as the stats of the Pokemon. The programers of this game decided to pick relatively weak Pokemon in the Elite Four (Dustox, Beautifly, Quagsire) and drive the levels up a little higher. The champion's highest level Pokemon is 67, two levels higher than Gary's highest level Pokemon in Red and Blue version.

The graphics in this game are better than in Ruby and Sapphire. The sprites in this game actually have (GASP!) mouths! The colors are a lot brighter than in Ruby and Sapphire, giving it a somewhat more cartoonish look. There are a couple of weird parts, though. For one, the sprites; heads are WAY out of proportion with their bodies. The 3D-ish look is better than the look before, but it is only noticeable when you are running. The battle animations are also great, though a little lengthy for my taste.

The sound in this game is pretty game. Although none of the music is memorable, it sounds a lot better than in previous Pokemon games. I noticed that the piano is used quite a bit as an only instrument (like at the Pokemon league) and it takes away from some of the powerful music. The sound effects are not to bad, but they aren't great.

A lot of reviews say that 493 Pokemon is a lot to catch. However, I find that 493 is not a lot to catch; I find it is a lot to choose from. Everyone seems to make such a big deal about catching Pokemon when they should be finding the right Pokemon to kick the butt of everybody else with this game.

One great addition not to leave out in Diamond and Pearl is the WiFi Connection. Over WiFi, you can trade and battle with just about anybody around the world.

Overall, Pokemon Diamond is a grand installment into the Pokemon collection. There are minor things to be tweaked here and there, but it is an awesome game in general. I highly recommend this game as one of the best Nintendo DS games out there.

Overall Score: 9/10

Story: 4/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 7/10
Audio: 9/10
Online: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/26/07

Game Release: Pokemon Diamond (US, 04/22/07)