Review: Pokemon Diamond and Pearl
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
REVIEW
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl
Nintendo DS
Nintendo
Pokemon is the best selling series in the history of video games. Starting with Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow and Green(Japan), this series has sky-rocketed to popularity. This time around, you are exploring the region known as Sinnoh. There are plenty of new Pokemon, and more adventures to explore.
Pokemon Diamond or Pearl starts out as any Pokemon adventure would, with getting your first Pokemon. This time, you get to start with either Turtwig, Chimchar and Piplup, and you have your first battle with it. Professor Rowan’s daughter or son comes to tell you to stop by the lab to return the Pokemon. After you exit the forest, You spot Rowan and his child, and Rowan discovered you used the Pokemon in his suitcase. You go to his lab, and he gives you a Pokedex. You then start your fantastic journey in Sinnoh! But, there is also a secret organization manipulating Pokemon to get one of the Legendaries, and will stop at nothing to get it. You must stop them along your journey.
The gameplay is the same as the other games. If you are a veteran player, you already know about what happens in the game. For the new people coming to the series, you wander around Sinnoh, battling Trainers with your Pokemon. A Pokemon is a creature who, depending on its type, has special attacks. People use them as friends, some use them for battling. Either way, you have them, and you can do whatever you want with them.
The goal of the game is to battle and defeat Gym Leaders, the few Trainers who are chosen to battle other Trainers to see if they are fit to enter the Pokemon League. The Pokemon League is where you get to battle the strongest Trainers in Sinnoh, along with the Pokemon Champion. Early on in the game, you get Running Shoes. This makes travelling much easier, until you get your bicycle. The Sprites are bigger than the game’s predecessor, FireRed, LeafGreen, Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald for the Game Boy Advance. The buildings give off a very 3-D look, which looks very cool. It doesn’t look that different from the other games.
In battle, the top screen takes care of the action, while the Touch Screen has all the action buttons. The buttons are large enough so you can use your fingers to select the command. The battle graphics are a bit of a step up from the previous games. There are new actions for some of the attacks.
The game also has loads of other stuff you can do before and after you beat the game. There is the Underground, which is a underground terrain where you can set up your own base, and dig for treasure. Since each of you can have a base, you can also play Capture the Flag. Your friend can also lay down some traps to block you from getting their flag.
Once you get to Hearthome City, you can participate in Contests. These are the same contests that are in the previous games, but are enhanced for Diamond and Pearl. They now utilise the Touch Screen, and are a great pair. For example, in the Dress-Up Contest, you now use the Touch Screen to put some items on your Pokemon.
After you beat the Elite Four and get the National Dex, you will get to access Pal Park. Pal Park is a place where you get to re-capture your Pokemon from the previous games up to Ruby and Sapphire. When you get access to Pal Park, you just select the “Transfer from whatever game in the GBA slot”, choose your Pokemon, and go recapture them in Pal Park. The only restriction is that the Pokemon you are transferring can’t have any HM move, so you have to go to the Move Deleter in the game.
One of the biggest aspects of this game is that it supports the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Before Wi-Fi, to battle other people, you would have to go over to someone’s house to play them. Not anymore. If you have a wireless router, or a Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector, you will be able to battle or trade someone anywhere, anytime. The game recommends you have one Friend Code to go on Wi-Fi. Once you have someone, and they are on Wi-Fi the same time as you, you can Voice Chat, Battle or Trade.
Also, you can go to a building in Jubilife City that lets you trade Pokemon with anyone in the world. This is called GTS. You go into the GTS, and you choose the Pokemon that you want, and if you have the Pokemon they ask for, at the specified level, you can get the Pokemon. The only setback is that you need to see the Pokemon first before you can get it.
The game features a lot of Legendaries, both accessible and non-accessible. The accessible Legendaries are Dialga, Palkia, Heatran, Giratina, Cresselia, Mesprit, Azelf and Uxie. The Non-Accessible ones are Shaymin, Darkrai and Arceus, the god of all Pokemon.
Overall, this game is really fun, arguably one of the best Pokemon games out there. It makes great use of all the Nintendo DS’ functions, and has great replay value. Catching them all has never been this fun.
Gameplay: 9
Story: 6
Graphics: 8
Controls: 9.5
Re-playability: 9
Tilt: 8
Spikes17’s Score: 9.5/10
Labels: June, News by Sorixas, review
posted by Sorixas @ 5:40 p.m.
