"You still gotta catch 'em all..."

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl mark the franchise's first steps onto the Nintendo DS, and the fourth generation of the game which took the world by storm last decade. Everywhere you looked, there was someone caught up in the craze, trying their best to complete one of the game's two goals – to catch all of the creatures, and to become the strongest trainer in the world.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl see the return of both these goals, but make them significantly tougher to achieve. There are now just under five hundred critters to collect, which also means becoming the ultimate trainer is going to be a lot harder with all of the added strategy. That said, under the ‘bigger and better' veil, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are still the same award-winning game you experienced for the first time all those years ago, apart from a few touch-ups here and there.

Best looking game on the GB—I mean DS.
No doubt the first time you look at Pokemon Diamond and Pearl you'll notice that the visuals aren't very revolutionary. Sure, tree and house models do look semi 3D, and there are some nice moving, rendered windmills in the game, but the game overall looks far too reminiscent of the titles on the GBA. The colour pallete is much of the same, and even though there might be some 3D renders in there, they're so basic that you may as well have used sprites instead.

It's annoying in the sense that the game doesn't know what it wants to be – it's trying to break free of the sprites of old games, but in doing so the developers have only taken baby steps from the old formula. They should have either gone with the old sprite based look, or remodeled the game to look like Pokemon Colosseum or XD for Wii with fully 3D rendered models. Not something really bland and uninspiring taking place in between the two.

That aside, the game is the best looking handheld Pokemon yet. Sprites are well done and the in-game menus are very nice and easy to navigate. There's also some nice cut-scenes in the game, which, although few in number, are nice for reminding you just which system the game has been developed on.

Speaking of which, the game can really amaze you once you realize the size of the world and just how much has been put into creating it. The game is centred around your character's journeys through the land of Sinnoh. Basically, you pick up a Pokedex from the local Pokemon professor, select a starter out of either a water, fire or grass type Pokemon, then set off on a journey to collect all eight gym badges from the land's gym leaders and defeat the Elite Four whilst foiling an evil team's plans to take over the world. Sound familiar? Of course it does – it's the same formula you've played again and again for every other Pokemon game.

Whilst the storyline might not be anything original, adventuring across Sinnoh is a wonderful new experience – more so than any other Pokemon game, as you'll soon find out by the sheer greatness of the land itself. Traveling from one city to another has never taken so long – but that isn't to say it will bore you. There are definitely more than enough brilliant new experiences along the way which will keep you glued to the screen as you trek across the land, fighting trainer after trainer and catching monster after monster for your Pokedex. There's hours of new gameplay, and the game will take a decent amount more time to complete than previous Pokemon titles.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl feature a brand new soundtrack as per usual with each new generation of the game. Sounds, although a bit GBA-esque, are great and the music itself is very memorable and will be sure to stick in your head, especially the battle themes. Whilst there isn't a return of the music of old, it won't worry you because the music is dreadfully catchy anyway.

One welcome feature which returns to the franchise is the day and night support, last seen in Pokemon Gold and Silver for the Gameboy Color. Whilst the old games' timer was based on a clock within the gamepak, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl's clocks are set from the Nintendo DS, thus the battery for which won't run out after a few years like Gold and Silver's. Certain events and Pokemon can only be accessed at a certain time of day (or night) or on a certain day of the week, so the clock can play a large part in your Pokedex collecting. Time also affects the growth of berries among other things, so it'll be important to make sure that you check up on the game for a few minutes each day.

You still gotta catch ‘em all…
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl adds over one hundred monsters to the ever-growing list of creatures for a grand total of 493. Whilst it's good that the developers are deciding to broaden the variety of different creatures and open up battles for even more variety in team make-up, there are a few problems which come with the additions, first being the attack of the clones.

Whilst a large number of the new monsters are unique and cool to add to your collection, the new additions don't come without clones of existing monsters. Starly is your typical bird Pokemon which appears from the start of the game – just like Pidgey in the original games and Taillow in the GBA generation. Bidoof, whilst technically helpful later on for using HM attacks outside of battle, is your annoying Rattata or Zigzagoon of the new generation – a monster you'll see over and over again no matter where you are in the game, and which only serves to annoy you after you've caught it the first time.

There's also a lack of variation in the new game. Whilst there are plenty of grass and water type creatures to add to your team, there's a severe lack of fire Pokemon during the main game. Basically if you want a fire Pokemon on your team before the Elite Four, you're limited to either Chimchar (ie the fire monkey starter Pokemon) or Ponyta, a Pokemon from the original 150 monsters which isn't particularly strong or cool. The lack of variety hurts team building significantly, and it's almost guaranteed that if you take a look at a sample of trainers yet to finish the game, that half (or more) of their team are identical to that of another person.

The last problem with adding so many monsters is that it really takes away from the whole ‘catch ‘em all' element of the game. In order to actually get all pokemon in your Pokedex, you're going to have to do some pretty ridiculous things. Whilst trading and giving Pokemon stones to evolve is all fine, it really gets annoying when the game forces you to purchase five other games to complete the dex – most GBA games and the Gamecube games. What's more, in order to obtain the ultra rare Pokemon, you'll need to attend special events hosted by Nintendo – which, when they aren't in a city several hundred miles away from you, are exclusive to the Japanese. Collecting all of the monsters becomes pointless – unless you own a cheating device, the odds of being able to collect all monsters legitimately is extremely poor.

Cordless at last
Whilst it's true that technically Pokemon went cordless with the release of Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green for the GBA with their included wireless communication peripheral, the DS does it without any clunky add-ons, and whilst it may read that its range is 30 feet, people have reported to be able to trade and battle when 100 feet away from each other, which is definitely nicer than having to keep close together with fiddly link cables.

Furthermore, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl fully support Wifi trading and battling. You can either trade with somebody else at random worldwide by entering the GTS room in-game and choosing what you'd like in return for your monster, or you can set up a trade with somebody personally online with the use of Nintendo's friendcode system, to ensure that what you're getting is exactly what you want and not some cheap fake.

Quite possibly the best part of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, is the inclusion of a wifi battle mode. You can set the match so that all Pokemon appear at level 100, so there's no need for any cumbersome training if you don't feel like putting in the effort. After selecting your rules, you can go into battle against a friend in either single battle or double, 2-on-2 battle mode. The game is the first to support in-game voice chat on the DS, which can be very entertaining if you feel like trash talking to a friend during the heat of a match. The only real problem is the omission of random wifi battles, however this was also a good thing as in most cases it prevents you from being disconnected from when winning a battle, and also lets you set up any additional rules with your opponent before you fight. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl sport arguably the best multiplayer support for the DS thus far, and wifi is most probably the single best reason to buy the game if you've experienced a Pokemon game at any point in the past.

Final Comments
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are both extremely good reasons to buy a Nintendo DS, whether you're a complete fan of the franchise or just like duking it out with your favourite monsters against a friend. The game's multiplayer support is arguably the best on the Nintendo DS thus far, and the single player mode is a very solid experience for those who aren't fortunate enough to sport a wifi connection. The only real problems are that, while the game is definitely an award winning experience, it's the exact same experience you played last decade with a few minor touch-ups here and there. Don't get me wrong – the series has been extremely solid over the last few years, and Diamond and Pearl are no exception, it's just if you're looking for a brand new experience, this isn't it.

Presentation – 7
Visuals – 7
Sound – 8
Gameplay – 8
Replay Value – 8
Overall (not an average): 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/07

Game Release: Pokemon Diamond (AU, 06/21/07)