Diamonds are forever... (Pokémon: Diamond (DS))

Member Name: Stunt 101

Product:	Pokémon: Diamond (DS)
Date:	29/08/07 (268 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The same outstanding gameplay from the old games.

Disadvantages: Graphics and sound don't take advantage of the DS (why no 3D Pokemon?!?)

Pokemon has always been one of my favourite gaming series. I remember playing the really old Gameboy versions when I was young, it was all heaven. I would play the thing while eating dinner! I would even play on the toilet. Anyways, the series started on Nintendo’s Gameboy, and has since made appearances on the GBC and GBA. There have been a couple of spin-off games on the DS, like Pokemon Rush and Pokemon Link! but there’s never been a proper Pokemon game on the DS-a game like the old Pokemon games like Crystal or Blue/Red. But, that’s now changed wit the release of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. It gives fans everything they want-weird looking monsters, lots to do, addictive gameplay and a lengthy adventure. Plus, the game adds online play-a much wanted component for the series. This is one of the DS’ best.

-(The Story)-
It’s pretty much the same as the old games-you’re a boy/girl (whichever you choose) and now you and your best friend (who is itching to fight) are sent out into the region of Sinnoh by Professor Rowan to collect as much info on the Pokemon in this region which you do by finding and/or catching them so you can fill a machine called the Pokedex. Yet, in the world there’s a dangerous group called Team Galactic who seem a little odd, are trying to steal all the Pokemon in the region. So it’s up to you to fill the Pokedex, defeat Team Galactic, train your Pokemon and become the best. It’s nothing complex, but you’ll still enjoy it for what it is.

-(The Controls)-
The controls do take advantage of the DS, but don’t feel like they were slapped together. Rather than having the same iffy controls from Animal Crossing where you touch the screen to move the character, you use the D-Pad to move. You can select moves by highlighting them and then pressing A. You can go back an option by pressing the B button. The bottom screen is used as a clock thing, which can do a number of things, like tell the time, show the status of your Pokemon and check Pokemon you put in the Day Care Centre.

-(The Gameplay)-
I should first note something quickly, though you probably know already. Diamond and Pearl are the exact same games, except for different boss Pokemon, some Pokemon exclusive to each game and some other minor differences. If you want to catch em’ all, you’ll need to either get a mate who has the other copy of Pokemon to the one you own and trade, or go online and get them. And, of course, you could always shell out £60 for both versions, but I think we shouldn’t go there. If you don’t, then it doesn’t matter which version you get. Me, I choose Diamond simply because Blue is my favourite colour…

In terms of gameplay, Diamond isn’t much different to the previous instalments. And, you know what, that’s perfect. The reason the 3D versions didn’t succeed, at least in my opinion, is that they changed the gameplay in some sort of way. Take Pokemon Colosseum on the Gamecube-they made it so you couldn’t catch wild Pokemon which meant limited access to Pokemon and sucking much of the fun out of the experience. This is good old style Pokemon at its best. The only drastic change to the gameplay is added online play.

So basically, you go around the game world as you travel with your new adopted Pokemon (one of three which you can choose), as well as more you have caught around the world. You can have up to Six Pokemon with you, and all the others will go to a PC which you can access anytime from Pokemon centres. The world is split up into cities, with roads in the middle taking you to them. In each city, there’s usually a Pokemon Centre where you can heal your Pokemon when they’re hurt, a Pokemart where you can buy items, lots of houses with pedestrians to talk to and, traditionally, Gyms where you can earn badges to move onto the Elite Four (more explained later). You can’t access each city immediately, as there’s either something blocking off the road to the next city or things of that nature. It means as soon as you get to a city with a Gym you haven’t completed you should try to defeat the leader. You can travel to locations by foot, by flying to them with a Pokemon in your party or sometimes swimming to them. You’ll travel to many cities, caves, windmills, ancient ruins and more.

The combat in Diamond/Pearl is still Turn-Based. Who ever is fastest gets to go first and attack. You can get into fights with either wild Pokemon or Trainers. Wild Pokemon fights are started when you walk into grass, swim into water etc. and they appear. Trainer fights happen when either you get into their line of sight or you talk to them. Either way, it’s time to fight. Each Pokemon has four moves and they do different amounts of damage. As you attack, the enemies lose health. Once all the health is depleted they faint. It’s the same with you so you have to be on your toes otherwise you’ll die a lot. If you KO a wild Pokemon then you go back into the walking mode, but sometimes Trainers will have more than one Pokemon. There are two different types of moves-attacks and stat changing moves. Attacks obviously damage enemies. Stat changing moves can lower Pokemon’s stats, e.g. slow them down or make you harder to hit, or add a status effect to them. Status effects do something to the Pokemon, for example Poison and Fire effects damages them bit by bit, Paralysis can stop a Pokemon from doing a move at certain turns and Ice actually freezes the Pokemon so they can’t do a move. These can all be cured by using a special potion on them. There’s also potions that heal Pokemon, restore PP (how many times a Pokemon can do a move) and more.

Obviously, the main thing in the single player story is the Catching mechanic. It could of made it down to luck, it could have been broken but it has never been, and it still isn’t now. Here’s how it works: you get into a fight with a wild Pokemon and you can catch it. First, you usually need to weaken it down by attacking it, otherwise it will usually just get out of the ball you threw at it and that’s a waste! You could also try to add a status effect to it, like paralysis or poison. Then you throw a ball at it and hope for the best. There are different types of balls to use. There’s the standard Pokemon ball, which does the job so long as you weaken the Pokemon. The Great and Ultra ball, which both do better than the standard ball, can be brought for a more expensive price. There are also other types of balls, like balls which heal Pokemon when you catch them and more. As a tradition in the Pokemon series, you can still get a Master Ball, which captures any wild Pokemon without fail.

The game still has the rock-paper-scissors stat for each Pokemon. Basically, each Pokemon is in a category of Pokemon. The category includes Rock, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric and more. Basically, each Pokemon category is strong against one category, but weak against another. This comes out as super effect and not very effective moves, as well as moves that don’t even affect categories at all. Strong effective moves do lots of damage, while not very effective moves may do little. This has a rock-paper-scissor feel, as one category is weak against another, yet another is strong against the other, yet the one that was weak against the second category may be strong against the third. Here’s an example-Fire is weak against water, but water is weak against Grass. Yet, Grass is weak against fire. See what I mean?

Each Pokemon has a set of stats, including Attack, Speed and Defence. These all improve your Pokemon if they are higher. To make them go higher, you need to raise your Pokemon. To do this, you must win battles. Every time a Pokemon wins a fight, they gain experience. Once they’ve gotten the max experience, they grow a level. Each time they grow levels their stats increase. As your Pokemon grow, they may at a stage evolve. When they evolve, they are changed into bigger, meaner looking and more powerful Pokemon. This isn’t the only way Evolution can occur. You can evolve some Pokemon with special stones called Evolution stones. There are lots of different types of stones. Certain stones evolve certain category of Pokemon. Another way to evolve Pokemon is by trading them. Some Pokemon evolve when you trade them onto other Trainers. It doesn’t matter what level they are at or what category they are in-as soon as they’re traded they will evolve. When you trade, Pokemon will gain more Experience and grow faster in turn. You can trade from your old GBA games like Emerald and Ruby.

In most of the cities, there is usually a Gym Leader. These are powerful Trainers that usually sport one category of Pokemon, like Grass or Rock or Fire. Gyms won’t just have the Leaders usually, there will sometimes be other Trainers sporting the Leader’s chosen category of Pokemon for you to fight. Plus, there will be usually some puzzles blocking your way to the leader. These puzzles can be hard, even if they usually involve button pressing. There’s even a Gym which makes you answer questions so you don’t have to fight, even though I fought trainers anyways so I could improve. When you defeat leaders, you earn Badges. Once you have all of the badges, you can then take on the Elite Four. These are a group of really tough trainers who, like Gym Leaders, support one category of Pokemon. It pretty much means you need to strategise and use a Pokemon that’s strong against these leader’s Pokemon. It’s this kind of strategy needed that makes it so much more interesting.

So, the new thing this year is online play-all thanks to the DS. You can go onto Wi-fi and battle people around the world. You need friend codes to battle against people, and you can also do voice chat as long as you’ve registered the person’s friend code. I think I’m going to cry as I can’t access the online play, but there’s still DS Wireless play for local play against people who have copies of the game. It’s strange there are no tag team battles, with lots of double battles during the main story, but it was still a brilliant experience playing against my friends locally. You can also get out your old GBA games and move the Pokemon onto Diamond/Pearl by simply placing it into the bottom of your DS. You need to collect a National Pokedex before you can do that though, but once you get it you can do as much moving as you want to do. Sadly, you can’t do it with the old Gameboy games or the console games seeing as the DS isn’t capable of this yet.

-(The Graphics)-
Graphically, the game looks great. There are some new things and some old things. There’s something you’ll notice about the environments. The buildings are all in 3D, which looks nice and feels new. Yet, a lot of the game is in 2D with sprites. The characters animate nicely, though it would have been nice to have seen them in 3D. Or it would have been nice to see the Pokemon in full 3D, like in Colosseum. They do have some animation, but they’re mostly static for the most part. Also, some of the Pokemon from the older games look a bit static. So it’s a good looking game, but more new would be nice.

-(The Sound)-
The sound is like the graphics-the new will clash with the old. There’s new music, which sounds crisp and clean. There’s different music for different locations and activities, which is nice so it’s not repetitive. But, the screeches from the monsters don’t sound so good. They are screechy and sound scratchy and lo-fi. Also, when you strike a Pokemon they sound rather bad as they sound like crap. Still, the music is good and the new effects are nice. It’s just that the old effects clash with the new ones.

-(Replay Value)-
Like its predecessors, Diamond/Pearl has a lengthy quest and lots of replayability. The main quest takes around the 40 hour mark to complete without trying to catch em’ all. And, really, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Obviously, you can try to catch em’ all, which could take hours to do. Then, there are all the side quests and other stuff to do. And there’s the online play, which could last you months if you’re a fan of the series. This is certainly worth the money you can pay for it; you should expect to spend at least 100 hours if you try to do everything you can. The thing I like is that there are still lots of value even if you don’t touch the online play, or even the multiplayer.

-(Score)-
Controls=10
Gameplay=10
Graphics=7
Sound=8
Replay Value=10
Overall Score=9.0

-(Ending Comments)-
I have wanted a proper Pokemon game (a.k.a not some crappy racing game starring Pikachu) to come to the DS for ages. Pokemon has been one of my favourite RPGs, or games in general, and if this game sucked then I would have hated Pokemon for, well, ever! Sadly, it’s not to be. This is everything a die hard fan could want in the game-it has everything that made the series so freaking awesome and it adapts to the DS pretty well. Slightly dated visuals and sound aside, this will be loved by fans (who will go nuts for the online play) and if you’ve never played Pokemon and are looking to get into it then this is the best place to start.

-(Where You Can Buy It)-
You can buy either version from Amazon for £24.98
You can buy them used and new: Diamond from £18.94 and Pearl from £18.69

-(Extra Info)-
This was published by Nintendo and developed by Game Freak
This was released on July 27th, 2007 and is exclusive to the DS

Thanks for reading. Stunt 101

Summary: Diamond/Pearl will be a treat to fans, and it's a great start for beginners.