Pokemon Diamond - Definitely a Diamond!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Wireless/WiFi trading and battles, nearly 500 Pokemon, hundreds of hours of gametime, so diverse!

Cons: Rehash of other Pokemon games, too easy to "win", Pokemon Platinum (read review)

The Bottom Line: 
I've been played for 500 hours total, and it's good, but since Platinum was released, get that instead. It has much more.

Author's Review
Pokemon Diamond for the Nintendo DS

First off...

I have been a Pokemon fan since it's arrival to America when I was quite young, buying up the Gameboys, the games, and those neat little books that listed the 150 (or 151, if you bought that sparkly Mew version). Pokemon was the best, and everyone had link cables. However, those days are long gone...

...and replaced with everyone having wireless games with almost 500 Pokemon! I have to say, that by far is one of the best features of the game, but you're gonna have to read my review to get it all. ;]

What it's about...

(Please do not read this if you do not want spoilers!)

You have arrived in your new town of Twinleaf. You meet your "rival", a kid with gigantic yellow hair who is more your friendly adversary; the professor's assistant, who is the gender you did not pick; and Professor Rowan. You save him from a Starly attack by choosing your starter and fending them off. Of course, your rival takes the one that you are weak to, and the assistant takes the final one.

Finally, you set off with your handy dandy Running Shoes (courtesy of Mom) to go battle the 8 Gym Leaders and defeat the Elite 4 (all five of them!), but you run into some suspicious characters, many of them being named after a planet. You discover this is Team Galatic, who aim to take over (destroy?) the universe by enslaving Dialga. Oddly enough, you are able to defeat the only guy in the universe who thinks he's capable of controlling the embodiment of time (guess he would've screwed up anyways) and you end up being the one to capture Dialga instead (unless you defeat it, which would suck for you; I used my Master Ball).

And the stories go on, with Regigigas, Darkrai, Giratina... (but not with Slowpoke, Pinsir, Misdreavus, Hondour, etc., since they are Pearl exclusives).

How it plays...

The playing is enjoyable, but alas, I believe that it is the curse of the Pokemon RPG series to have the same basic game that we mastered years ago with Pokemon Blue/Red/Yellow (or Gold/Silver/Crystal, for those few who weren't lucky enough to witness the awesome that was Blue/Red/Yellow).

Pokemon teams are exactly the same; you're allowed a maximum of 6 Pokemon, and at any given time you will most likely have all 6 slots filled with your strongest Pokemon (most likely headed by your starter's final evolution). You will follow the pre-determinded, extremely linear course of the game (though linear is hardly how your adventure will seem by far, considering you'll hit up every city at every challenge trying to find out what to do next), and eventually become the best trainer there ever was.

I'm not knocking the style at all, in fact it's a tried and true method that I would gladly keep paying for every time they designed about 150 more Pokemon (though Sinnoh's Pokemon were a bit lacking, they were still really impressive). The new moves are a blast to use, and Dragons have gotten a significant boost to their move pools. The Sinnoh Underground gives us the little base I've always wanted (and I'm sure others have wanted to), see below for the "How it works online section..." for more on that.

How it looks...

Pokemon decided to spice things up a little (but just a little) by making Diamond slightly more 3D, so that when you walk, buildings have a very tiny amount of perspective. While it's nothing major, it does make me feel a bit better that Pokemon didn't think they were gonna get away with Gameboy graphics forever. Or maybe we just pestered them enough? :P

Of course, with a new version, comes new Pokemon sprites, and not just for the new Pokemon, either. Every single Pokemon has a redesigned sprite (as far as I've seen, and I have 317 of the 493), including classics like Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and their evolutions. Some look better, but others (like Charmander) seem to have their heads shrunken too much.

There's one thing that ought to keep you busy for... well, a couple of minutes (though if you're easily amused like myself, it could keep you busy for way more than that): the badge case. Okay, badge case, seems like nothing. Except they get dirty after a while, and if you want people to see you at your best, you have to use the stylus to physically clean them off. It's no easy task, mind you; you will have to spend at least 10-20 seconds or so wiping each badge off, depending on how dirty you let them get. Also, when you tap the badge with your stylus, each one makes a different pitched note, like a piano... hmmm...

How it sounds...

To be honest, it sounds like just another Pokemon game. When the Pokemon come into battle (or if you just like to listen to Pokemon "cries" when you're in the Pokedex), they still have low quality cries. Background music is mostly cheery, but does change on occasion according to mood, which is nice.

Like most of my games, though, I enjoy really epic music to go along with those really epic moments. Halo epic, ya dig? Unfortunately, Pokemon follows the DS trend of unepic background music. Make no mistake, though, the background music is not bad by any means. Sure beats some games' music.

How it works online (WiFi and, for the sake of simplicity, Wireless)...

I shall start with Wireless. Wireless is a genius invention that Pokemon implemented to get rid of Link Cables (though, trust me, I had fond memories of those things). You have to be within a certain proximity of another DS to try to link up with them, though you don't have to be right next to them (perhaps around the house is about as far as I would dare). You can go to a PokeCenter, venture upstairs, and choose if you wish to battle, admire, trade, etc.

Two other key features are available via Wireless: making poffins, and Sinnoh Underground. Making poffins is simple enough; you go to the poffin place in Hearthome (I think), and if your friend is in Wireless reach, you can search for each other. You can both coordinate to throw in the right berries, and then use the stylus to play a stirring minigame that is actually harder than it sounds (you can spill it, burn it, not stir it enough, etc.). You will both get a poffin, and the quality of it is determined by your stirring skill and the berry you put in.

The other feature is Sinnoh Underground. You can go down whenever you want after doing the miniquest to access it, and back up as well. Some parts of the Underground are only accessable by digging down in certain places. The walls often have treasure (you can see where they are on the top screen by the little sparkling animation where it should be), and when you're in the vacinity you can tap the screen to have a "radar" sort of thing show you where to dig into the wall. After playing a very fun minigame to uncover the treasure (more treasure, the better you play!), you can hunt for more (to a certain limit per day).

Sinnoh Underground also features the ability to dig a base wherever you please (and move it, for a certain price), and customize it. Eventually you can remove all of the rocks in it, and have a nice room with a computer, toys, desks, etc. If you hook up Wirelessly, you can also play Capture the Flag with your friend's base, which can earn you trophies. Unfortunately, Underground is only available Wirelessly.

As for WiFi, you can travel downstairs instead in the PokeCenter to hook up via friend code (an obnoxiously long number auto-assigned to you) if you have a WiFi connection near by. You can do all of the Wireless things here as well. To trade with the rest of the world without actually finding someone with a friend code and the exact Pokemon you are looking for, you can search for the one you want and see if that person is looking for a Pokemon you are willing to trade.

BE WARY! TRADING ONLINE, WHETHER BY FRIEND CODE OR NOT, IS LIABLE TO GET YOU SCAMMED. MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, THE POKEMON ARE HACKED, SO BEWARE "IMPOSSIBLE" POKEMON SUCH AS LEVEL 1 LEGENDARIES, ETC. FAILURE TO DO SO, AND OWNING A HACKED POKEMON, MEANS YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED FROM ANY TOURNAMENT, INCLUDING SMALL ONES, WHEN THEY CHECK YOUR DEVICE FOR HACKED MATERIALS.

Finally...

Pokemon Diamond is the game we've all been waiting this long time for, and I got there hours early on the first day to pick it up, pre-reserved. Nearly 500 hours of gameplay and 317 identified and captured on my Pokedex later, I have to say it's well worth it.

HOWEVER, Pokemon Platinum has been released, and this version is just like Diamond and Pearl, except it has so much more. I suggest that if you really enjoyed this game, please buy Platinum instead. You will get much more for your money.