Pokemon Diamond Pearl review

Time for our second review and this one’s not out for a couple of weeks but I couldn’t wait so got it from the States. It’s the new Pokémon games this time called Diamond and Pearl and once again, you run around a little made-up world looking for wild Pokemon, battling other trainers and trying to stop an evil team who are up to no good. This time the land’s called Sinnoh, and the evil team which must be stopped is Team Galactic.

You’d think by now people would be getting tired of Pokemon but even now it’s selling better than ever and this new version on the DS adds some extra spark into the game.

When it comes to the way it looks, I was a little disappointed. The battles are still in simple 2D, and there are occasional semi-3d areas in the world where the game starts to look a but prettier. Of course, it’s not about the graphics but the gameplay and that’s still as tight as ever. In true scissors paper stone style, the key to winning fights is training and choosing the right pokemon at the right time with the right moves. For example, fire beats grass, water beats fire and rock hurts fire. As you play the game your little creatures get more powerful and learn more moves which let also let you surf on water, push boulders and cut down trees to explore new areas.

When it comes to fighting and navigating menu screens the DS’s touch screen really comes into its own. Just touching the on-screen buttons to execute commands feels like second nature but it’s not always used which puzzles me. It feels like the game’s been given to different teams to make and they didn’t consult each other. Still, this is a minor point and I won’t be losing sleep over it.

There’s also a new underground mode where you can go online, make bases, collect treasure and set traps for each other as well as the usual battles and trading which can now be done over Wi-Fi – you can even talk to each other using the microphone which works just like using a speakerphone!

I’ve put over 50 hours into this game to defeat Team Galactic and there are still loads more Pokémon to collect and things to discover. If you fancy losing your normal life for a few weeks then get this game, you won’t be disappointed. 9 out of 10.