Pokémon Diamond (Pokémon: Diamond (DS))

Member Name: butters

Product:	Pokémon: Diamond (DS)
Date:	31/10/07 (791 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sticks to the same structure, making it as good as previous titles.

Disadvantages: Pointless touchscreen uses, could have been used better

The pokémon craze is a worldwide and hugely successful craze that came about in the mid 1990’s. With the Card games, TV series and video games it will have made quite a bit of money.
It all revolves around ‘pokémon’, creatures which live in the wild and are captured by pokémon ‘trainers’ and are used to battle against others. In both the series and the games the journey of a trainer revolves around travelling a certain region, capturing and training pokémon to defeat 8 gym leaders who give you a badge, and after all are acquired, access to the pokémon league which in the games takes the form of the elite four, very powerful trainers. In the games there tends to be a side story which goes along with this main quest.
Originally there was 151 pokémon but due to the popularity the series has been going on for years, and now there are nearly 500 types of pokémon, drawing in children's pocket money everywhere. This is no doubt what has kept the series so popular, that when people grow out of the craze, younger kids get back into it, with the new pokémon keeping them interested further.
Unlike many games made from films or TV series though (Desperate Housewives the game anyone?) the pokémon games have remained strong, especially with the handhelds which tend to follow the story of the cartoons more. They’re very in-depth RPG games which have the story for beginners (and those that don’t want to play the hard way) and then secret more in depth RPG elements which challenge veteran gamers further. The games are some of the best games with them getting constantly high marks from games magazines, reaching 9/10 from IGN. The great thing about this is anyone who plays gets hooked, so even those older people ho have grown out or the series will still be interesting in the game.

~Pokémon Diamond~

The 4th Generation of Pokémon and first Pokémon RPG out on the DS along with Pokémon Pearl, with the only difference being a few pokémon being exclusive.
The story is the basic story of travelling around the new Sinnoh region, defeating pokémon trainers and gym leaders until you get to the Elite Four, and aim to be the best trainer in the world. It’s pretty much the same story as every other game with the side story being that a criminal organisation called Team Galactic is active, trying to harness the power of legendary pokémon. And for some reason it’s you that seems to have to stop them. However it seems the same as the previous generations, just stop the bad guys by defeating them in different places until you get to the leader. The other aim is to see all pokémon which are recorded in a ‘pokédex’
However, although there are some complaints about the series getting repetitive, it is still an excellent game and since the games are not released that often unlike some other series it doesn’t seem that repetitive. Also being so addictive you’ll complete the game in no time. There are a few changes though these are so minimal and for some reason just the new region alone with the same story seems to be good enough.

Like usual you start with a low levelled pokémon, which I will explain again to be creatures that you battle with against other pokémon with and slowly level up, learning new attacks and getting more powerful until you can take on the best. The creatures and the attacks have a ‘type’ which is something like water, fire, electric, dragon and ground. There are 17 kinds in all with each one having a resistance, weakness and immunity to others.
You go throughout the gyms and battle. What I have notices a lot of though is that a lot of the older pokémon return. 108 new pokémon have been added this series though it seems the creators have ran short of ideas with man of the pokémon looking weird and eccentric. As opposed to the old ones such as Charmander, a simple lizard with a flame tail, now they are a lot more detailed in a bad way with pokémon like Giratina which seems to be a splice between 5 good pokémon until it looks hideous, or Garchomp which is practically the same. They also have that nasty habit of making baby pokémon which to me seem totally useless.
Thankfully though there are quite a few good ones and a lot of older ones come back so there seems to be only a small setback here.

There are a good few parts of this game that come from previous games such as the ability to breed pokémon a the day-care centre and ‘EVs’ which are secret stats which may not mean a lot to many trainers though to those that are really into RPG’s and stat raising will know a lot about, making pokémon even more powerful. Egg moves also make a return, adding further to the fact that the pokémon games are not only for kids but also hardcore RPG fans.
The DS, being touch screen has added a whole new life to many games, such as the recently released Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and this game is no exception. Although many games seem to over-use the touch screen this doesn’t. Moving and talking is still done via the buttons, with the game making use of the x and y buttons and touch screen is used only really for battling, choosing a move etc. There are actually many parts of the game that leaves you thinking a touch screen would be helpful such as re-arranging pokémon and items. It makes a nice change in battling though. The battling has not really changed. There are 4 attacks on each pokémon, and each has a health bar. Attacks are separated into attack and special attack which are more powerful depending on stats.

However there are a good few features that are not so good. For one, the touch screen is used for ‘applications’ which are just a bunch of useless things created to fill the bottom screen instead of it staying blank. A good use would have been your bag for easy access to items. However instead we are left with pokémon stats, a calculator, and watching it slowly fill up to include a digital and analogue clock, a day care watcher, a berry map and many more annoying things that you have to flick through until you get to the only really useful thing which is the pedometer. I don’t know why, but I like it.

It has also made use of Wi-fi, the DS internet for games basically. There is firstly the Global Trading System or GTS for short. This lets you put any pokémon on the GTS and trade for any you have seen on your travels. Then you can use your Friend Codes to connect to friends and trade further. It’s a pretty good idea in theory, and it definitely adds to the game. However, Nintendo seems to have a strong anti-hack policy with other pokémon games that can wreck your data shown with Missingno and the Bad Egg. It makes you a little cautious about trading online since just one hacked pokémon can wreck your data. And anyone with an Action Replay can easily hack.

Another thing is the underground. At first it seems just a place to dig for random crap, and as something (quite addictive) to add hours of gameplay. However by using Wi-fi you can connect to other people in the vicinity. Random but it’s a funny feature at least.

One major problem with the game is that it suddenly ends. Sure, since the first game there have been attempts to add to the replay value with this one having a new island for further battles. However it just doesn’t keep you as addicted to the game as before the elite four and it’s after this point your time on the game slowly depletes. Sure, you can go on wifi and battle but unless you are prepared to really take the game seriously and train your pokémon to a level so high you’ll no doubt get bored since every game character will be far too easy, battling many people will be a waste.

When you first put on the game the graphics will not really shock you and it was not until I put in Pokémon Emerald to trade up my old pokémon (a nice new feature I say though I personally think you’re wrecking your old game) that I realised that the graphics have improved. Not by much but it is more zoomed in and the characters seem a lot more rounded. It’s not much but it adds a little to the gameplay. Seeing it try to attempt a dramatic cut scene half way through the game though does not work the best though the DS is not made for graphics.

~Game information~

Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Game Freak
Release Date: December 06 Japan, Late July 07 Europe
Age: 3+
Platform: Nintendo DS
Price: RRP £30 which you can easily find in most stores. In ASDA and Amazon (online) though it is £25

~Overall~

It makes a great addition to the DS. Although it really won’t get many people into the pokémon craze, I strongly recommend this game to all that have, past or present enjoyed the previous games since it is still as addictive. The game definitely has its problems though a lot of the problems are so minor they will not exactly wreck the gameplay and it is an overall enjoyable experience.
It also makes a nice change to find a game based on a TV series that actually appears to have had a lot of effort made into it (which has got it nearly 13 million sales already). Especially since the series is so popular it would make money anyway no matter what the quality was, which many companies seem to aim towards nowadays with the endless amount of average movie spin-offs and game spin-offs just to make some extra money.

Summary: The latest pokemon game lives up to the standards of the rest.