Pokemon Diamond & Pearl for NDS - Hands-on Review
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Basic Information The fourth generation introduces another 107 new Pokemon, bringing the total of Pokemon available to 493. Diamond and Pearl take place in the region of Sinnoh and the player starts in Twinleaf Town.
Like the previous generations, only certain Pokemon are available in each game requiring both games to capture all the Pokemon. Though, the games WiFi trading system makes it a bit easier and cheaper for those wishing to get a complete Pokedex. Below is a list of Pokemon exclusive to each game.
| Pokemon Game | Exclusive Pokemon Found |
| Diamond | Seel, Dewgong, Scyther, Murkrow, Scizor, Larvitar, Pupitar, Tyranitar, Poochyena, Mightyena, Aron, Lairon, Aggron, Kecleon, Cranidos, Rampardos, Honchkrow, Stunky, Skuntank, Dialga |
| Pearl | Slowpoke, Slowbro, Pinsir, Slowking, Misdreavus, Houndour, Houndoom, Stantler, Spheal, Sealeo, Walrein, Bagon, Shelgon, Salamence, Shieldon, Bastiodon, Mismagius, Glameow, Purugly, Palkia |
The day-night system which first appeared in Pokemon Gold and Silver has once again returned. There are now five time periods: morning, day, evening, night, and late night. Different Pokemon will appear in the wild during these time periods and there are also time specific game events. This brings a new level of depth to the Pokemon games
A new multi-function device called the Poketch, short for Pokemon Watch, is also introduced. The Poketch has 25 functions, including a map of Sinnoh like its counterparts the PokeGear and PokeNav did for Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn. The Poketch has many functions that are not available at the start of the game but can be unlocked throughout the game and a few other functions that must be obtained by showing a certain species of Pokemon to another character. The Poketch mainly appears on the bottom DS touchscreen and it displays a clock while walking around in the main world.
Diamond and Pearl are compatible with the Game Boy Advance Pokemon games Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed or LeafGreen. The GBA cartridge is inserted into the GBA slot of the Nintendo DS, while Diamond or Pearl is in the DS card slot. In order for the player to transfer their Pokemon to Diamond and Pearl, they must visit an area in Sinnoh called the Pal Park. Pal Park is located on Route 221 after you get the National Pokedex and it is the only means of transferring the Pokemon to your game from your past games. Pokemon uploads are restricted to six per day per GBA cartridge and the player will have to re-capture such transferred Pokemon in a Pal Park. The player cannot transfer any of the Pokemon back to the GBA cartridge once they are transferred to their Diamond/Pearl copy. While this is a interesting a unique way of allowing backwards compatibility with older games, it's restrictions may fustrate some gamers.
The DS's native support for Wi-Fi is also used, allowing players to trade, battle and communicate using "voice chat" online on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is a free service for all DS users unlike Xbox Live and other online games. Diamond and Pearl also feature Wi-Fi connectivity to Pokemon Battle Revolution, much as their predecessors connected to the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. This allows you to use your DS as a controller in Pokemon Battle Revolution and also transfer your Diamond and Pearl Pokemon to battle online using that game.
Diamond and Pearl feature a global trading system, which allows trainers to search for any Pokemon they want. The global trading system will then go through a multitude of trades with other trainers in order to get the desired Pokemon. This is one of the best new features in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl as it allows Pokemon fans to interact better with people worldwide and find specific Pokemon they are looking for to complete their Pokedex.
Diamond and Pearl also feature connectivity to Pokemon Ranger. By completing a special mission in Ranger, a Manaphy Egg can be sent from Ranger to Diamond or Pearl, where it can be hatched into the legendary Pokemon, Manaphy.
Plot
At the start of Diamond and Pearl, the player sees a newscast about a sighting of a red Gyarados. They then head to their rival's house and go to Trust Lake with him to try to see it. Once there, a Starly attacks. Nearby is a briefcase containing three Pokemon that the two choose from to fight off the Flying-type. As is always the case, the rival takes the Pokemon that weakens the player's choice. The professor's assistant, who is the alternate-gender player character from the player, takes the remaining starter. After the Starly is defeated, the two return to Twinleaf Town with Professor Rowan's briefcase. Back in Twinleaf Town the player's mother gives him or her running shoes and then the player leaves for Sandgem Town to return the briefcase. After meeting Professor Rowan, he gives the player the Pokemon they chose to keep and a Pokedex.
During the course of the game, there are many conflicts with the evil Team Galactic and their leader, Cyrus. When the power of Dialga or Palkia begins to overwhelm Sinnoh, Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf must be summoned and the player must catch or defeat the Legendary." (Source: BulbaPedia)
Overall the plot of the game is similar to the previous generation of Pokemon games, capture, train and collect all the Pokemon that you can. On your journey you collect badges and battle opponents on your way to becoming the Sinnoh League Champion. The story in Diamond and Pearl does help the overall flow of the game unlike the previous games where the story was sort of tacked on.
Gameplay
A new battle system is used for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. In this new battle system, attacks are declared either physical or special by how the attack itself operates. Other then this change, the same basic battle system/design is used just like the previous games. You select your attacks by using the D-Pad or the stylus on the bottom DS screen and the attacks are displayed on the top screen. A lot of new Pokemon moves have been added. A list of all the moves available in Diamond and Pearl has been posted below.
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Graphics
One of the biggest criticisms of Diamond and Pearl is the battle graphics. The DS is capible of 3d graphics but the developers decided to keep the sprite based battle system instead of going to a completely 3D view like Pokemon Stadium. Many would argue that Pokemon Battle Revolution is the 3D part of Diamond and Pearl, but it would be nice to have Pokemon Stadium like graphics in these DS games. The game-world is in 3D and it only makes sense that the battles should also be in 3D. The sprite based battle system in the handheld games is 10 years old and has only had minor adjustments over that time. It would have been nice to have a fully 3D battle environment for the Fourth Generation of games, knowing that the DS is capable of doing this.Music
Hitomi Sato and Jun'ichi Masuda have composed some great music for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. One of the highlights of Pokemon games is the music and they definitely do not disappoint in this department. It is still limited to computer generated music but the synthesizer for the DS is improved from the GBA. The soundtrack for the games has been out for quite a while in Japan on a 2 CD set and some of the tracks have been fully orchestrated for use in the Diamond and Pearl anime. It would have been nice if they had used orchestrated music in the DS game as well.Conclusion
If you have ever been a fan of the Pokemon games, you will absolutely love Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. They are definitely the best games in the series with hours of game play. It would have been nice if Nintendo sent out media kits to Pokemon fansites for review to help promote the games, but as our previous article pointed out, it seems that Nintendo did not do very much marketing for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. As the pre-order numbers have shown, little marketing of these games still produced big numbers. It would have been nice if they marketed this game to people who have never played Pokemon or think they are too old to play these games. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl is a great game for all ages and many people will be eagerly awaiting the North American debut of Pokemon Battle Revolution for the Nintendo Wii.Rating: 8.5 / 10 Rating would have been 9/10 but the 2D graphics leave a little to be desired.
Review written by: Sunain, PPN Staff and www.pocketmonsters.net website admin.
Screenshots from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are available on our Imageboard Feel free to view and post your own screenshots there.
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