"Not every diamond shines brightly..."

In a Nutshell: Pokemon Diamond is a great game, but suffers from severe unoriginality and a lack of new features. The online play is a nice bonus, but it's hardly essential.

(Note that this review for Pokemon Diamond counts for Pokemon Pearl as well).

Don't get me wrong, I was a big fan of the Pokemon series when I was younger and I still greatly enjoy the games now too. But now I'm getting bored with the series conventions and Pokemon Diamond (and Pearl for that matter too) fails to sustain my attention for long. It's the exact same formula and scenario, and there's nothing new, shiny and exciting to attract your attention this time.

You see, the second generation of Pokemon games fixed all the flaws of the original generation and made everything much bigger and better. The third generation gave the series a much needed graphical and functional update, and introduced many new features. Although deep down they were very similar to previous entries, there was a leap. Diamond and Pearl are basically a copy and paste of Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. There is no leap, only a trip into a muddy puddle. It plays exactly like any of the previous games. The ironic thing is, it somehow manages to be worse than even the original games. It's slow, tedious and although the game is somewhat enjoyable until you beat the story, it's ultimately utterly boring and offers little reason to come back over other games in the series, unless you are new to the series of course.

As a standalone game, Pokemon Diamond is a good game. As the latest entry in a longstanding series, it's a wasted opportunity and a generally mediocre game. It's unoriginal, uninteresting and makes no attempts to add worthwhile additions to the series. To be honest it's quite clearly an attempt to cash in on the franchise and the success of the DS. If GameFreak wish to keep this up much longer they need to embrace change and drown the next Pokemon games in it. After all, change is good. Pokemon needs to change, and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl fail to accomplish that in just about every single way.

Now for those readers who don't know what Pokemon is about, let me enlighten you. For Pokemon Veterans, you can just skip this paragraph if you want.
Pokemon is game where you are in a world full of creatures big (and I mean REALLY big) and small called Pokemon. Certain humans called Pokemon Trainers, capture these beings in electronic balls and pit these critters against each other in fierce (or pathetic) battles. The world is usually inhabited by several towns and eight Gyms. In the games the leaders of each of these gyms must be defeated to earn badges. Once this goal is eventually accomplished, the trainer may challenge the Elite Four of the Pokemon League in four consecutive battles and finally the Champion. Once this is done, the main goals shift to catching all 493 of the Pokemon species, although this is completely optional.

Graphics
In-Game:
The overworld is finally in 3D! Hooray! Although the game still keeps the familiar birds eye view and tile based maps, it's probably a good thing as certain recent 3D Pokemon games have shown... The overworld is very bright and pleasing to look at and there are some nice new effects that spice it up too. It could be a bit better though, and it would have been nice to see more use made of the 3D world though, rather than just a few camera angles during what is generally a poor excuse of a cutscene. The one thing I didn't like in particular was on the sea routes. The previous games tried to make it blend in realistically with rock formations all over the place and the like. This time, it's generic grey rocks in a straight line. A step backwards and completely ugly.

Disappointingly, the battles were a wasted opportunity. They could have, and SHOULD have been in full 3D, hell, even a background of the surrounding area (a'la Final Fantasy) instead of the boring multicoloured blur would have been nice at the very least. But apart from the interface being moved to the touch screen, they look no different to the older and far less technologically capable GBA versions of Pokemon, which quite franky, is an utter disgrace. Even the battle animations are exactly the same. The technology used in the DS is superior to the Nintendo 64, so you would expect the battles to look like Pokemon Stadium. But they make no attempt to push boundaries or even change it slightly. I can't believe that they let such an opportunity pass them by.

Interface:
The interface is easy to use, the menu is simple in design and everything is easy to see. The Poketch is a new interesting, but ultimately trivial addition that displays the time and has several other more useless features. It only has a single button, meaning you have to cycle through all the different applications if you accidently pass the one you want. It's not as intuitive as, say, the Pokegear seen in Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal for some reason. Quite why they had to invent a whole new gadget is beyond me though. Annoyingly the menu dramatically changes whe you enter the wireless Underground mode and becomes dark, cluttered and visually unpleasant. They seem suspiciously similar to the awful menus from the very original Pokemon games, making it difficult to look at. I have no idea why they felt they needed to do this.

Sound
Music:
The music in Diamond and Pearl is where the game really excells. It's much more pleasant and perhaps adventurous, in terms of style that is. Some of the older tunes are reused here but there are plenty of new ones too. Also cool is the fact that most of them become softer, more relaxing tunes at night which is really a nice touch. The battle music is new and exciting, while containing a slight nostalgic feeling. They even changed the wild pokemon theme for once, which is something original I suppose. A lot of the battle music, particularly for Team Galactic and Legendary Pokemon, are really quite good. It's not exactly used to it's full potential, but it sure is one step up in this game.

Sound Effects:
The sound effects here are pretty much the same as any other Pokemon game, but thankfully they have been changed from annoying bleeps to pleasant chimes. Deeply disappointing however is the fact that Pokemon cries in the Pokedex and battle are exactly the same as the Gameboy versions!! In fact, the cries for the newer Pokemon are MUCH better sounding and when compared to the older Pokemon's cries, it all sounds mismatched and it becomes very obvious they've cheaped out on this one! Sadly they still haven't changed the stupid beeping and blooping to the actual cries we hear on the TV show and 3D games, despite the dramatic increase in the capability of the hardware. Very disappointing indeed.

Gameplay
The game is very, VERY similar to previous renditions. As usual you start off in what mysteriously happens to be the smallest town in the region and you must select one of three "starter" Pokemon. Then you must journey to all of the different towns and cities in the region and defeat the 8 Gym Leaders all the while defeating an evil organistion trying to conquer/destroy/revolutionise the world. Once you defeat the final Gym Leader you must journey to the Pokemon League and defeat the Elite Four. Which unsurprisingly consists of four elite trainers, and a champion (it's a girl this time!). Throughout the game you can, and must, capture many or all of the 493 Pokemon that run wild in the region.
Still, don't fix what ain't broke. No problem there. It's the fact that it's far too similar to before and that there is nothing new to do after all of this. Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal added another region (admittedly you still had to defeat another eight Gym Leaders but it was slightly different, had more to do and was SOMETHING to do afterwards), Pokemon Firered and Leafgreen also added a new region-of-sorts and Pokemon Emerald added the Battle Frontier, a place where you still had to defeat several area kingpins, but the different battle scenarios and challenges it offered were tremendous and brilliant fun! Pokemon Diamond takes a step back and doesn't offer anything of the sort. Just a small island to catch some more Pokemon and take part in the Battle Tower, which has been a part of the series for years and is also really boring... To be honest, I really can't be bothered anymore. I've done it all before, several times. Pokemon is getting stale.

But as I said, it's basically a cut and paste of Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. Some examples. The Pokemon League has always been given an interesting setting. Not this time. Just like R/S/E, it's on a clifftop island, complete with waterfalls, only it's more generic, ugly and barren. How about another Rock-type trainer for the first gym leader? The visual sandstorm effects in the desert. The way the Elite Four are presented (complete with Agatha clone!). Poor Flint, the fire member of the four, can only use two fire Pokemon because only two sets of them are in the Sinnoh Pokedex. Another deranged corporation owner who gives away their products for free. Oh what about the Pokemon Contests, now called Pokemon Super Contests? They're stupidly random and far less enjoyable than before, with the winner generally being whoever gets the most points in the first of the three rounds. Not to mention they're as slow as a turtle with a suitcase on it's back. Sure you can migrate Pokemon over from your previous games into Diamond/Pearl, except you need to migrate six of them at once and catch them in a timed contest. Excuse me? I've already caught these Pokemon. Why must I catch them again? WHY must I be judged? Why can't I just simply trade them over and why can't I trade them back? Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal made it possible. It's very poor design on GameFreak's part. Good thing Pokemon Emerald has a cloning glitch. No way I'm trapping my precious creatures in this game...

Speaking of which, most of the Pokemon are, like many things in this game, completely unnecessary. The starters are weird and ugly, and they look as though they were designed at the last minute. We have more wannabe Pokemon, such as clones of the Pikachu clones, a trio Mew clones who are also clones of each other, useless and hideously weak pre-evolutions, completely unecessary evolutions and of course generic Pokedex filler (Bidoof I'm looking at you). I'll go into a little more detail on that one in the section below. There are probably only three or four interesting new Pokemon whose additions where worth anything. 490 something is a lot of Pokemon, so let's hope they don't make any more. It would be a terrible mistake.

What about the latest and greatest new feature to the series: Wi-Fi? Personally, it's not all it's cracked up to be. Functionally it works well. And yes batting your friends from potentially the other side of the world is indeed an exciting prospect and activity, but it's marred by the huge infux of grossly overpowered Legendary Pokemon introduced in this game, resulting in many people filling their teams with them. It's sad really, as all that hard work to train your team from Lv 5 to Lv 80 or something can be ruined by someone using, say, Arceus the god Pokemon, which has the highest stats and can be any type and is simply caught at Lv 80 in the first place. It's ridiculous, and why they thought to allow such a thing is beyond me. The Global Trading System is also ruined by idiots who want to trade Lv 5 Bidoofs for Lv 100 Mews/Celebis. No joke. Really this wondeful feature is ruined by the new Pokemon. The saddest thing about this game is that despite being virtually the same game as before, it's worse than previous renditions.

Originality
For this category, Pokemon Diamond fails on all levels. New Pokemon creatures aside, there is practically nothing new that really seperates it from the plethora of other instalments in the series and that is really not a good thing. The new Pokemon aren't even terribly original, even stooping so low as to create Porygon-Z, a completely similar looking and pointless addition to a pointless evolution of a Pokemon that was utterly pointless in the first place. It's proof, if it were ever needed, that GameFreak are really struggling for ideas and that they are clearly trying to cash in on the franchise here.
The names of the new Pokemon are uninspired, unoriginal and lack the catchiness of the older Pokemon names, with the worst culprits being Happiny and Togekiss (who also incidently happen to be completely unnecessary new Pokedex filler).

Control
The game controls well, with the touch screen doing everything you'd really expect it to in this game. Battles are a little easier and quicker to navigate than before thanks to the touch screen and stylus, and menus and other interface elements can be prodded. One part of the game that really uses it well are Pokemon Super Contests, slightly different than before in which you must use the stylus to dress your Pokemon in all manner of crazy accessories and time the right moves to a dance competition. It would have been nice to see more unique usage from it, but hey, I thin kwe've established the GameFreak officially hate originality.

Final Thoughts
On it's own, it's a good game. Otherwise, it's the same game, but with less. If you're new to Pokemon, I seriously recommend getting the far better and more enjoyable Emerald Version instead (by far the most "complete" Pokemon game. It doesn't have Wi-Fi, but you won't miss out on much. For series veterans, don't buy this game. This was GameFreak's chance to invigorate the series with a new lease of life and revive the phenomenon. They blew it.

[+] Most diverse music in the series
[+] Wi-Fi was a necessary inclusion and functionally works well
[-] What's new?
[-] New Pokemon aren't very good
[-] Seems like overkill now

- Scores -
Graphics: 7
Sound: 7
Gameplay: 5
Originality: 0
Control: 8

Fun Factor: 6
OVERALL SCORE: 5

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/09/07, Updated 07/15/08

Game Release: Pokemon Diamond (EU, 07/27/07)