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.
