These are certainly the best Pokemon games yet.
THE BAD:Basically the same as past games;most of the graphics could have been done on the GBA;cruddy sound effects,a lot of which are recycled;no random online battles.
Pokemon Diamond & Pearl are doubtlessly the best Pokemon games yet,improving on most of the aspects of the series while keeping the best aspects around.
GRAPHICS:The most notable area of improvement is in the are of graphics.The environments are bright, vibrant, and colorful to an extent that you will never tire of looking at them unless you've been staring at the same image for 3 hours straight,which isn't likely to happen anyway.The new Pokemon are really well detailed, and so are most of the new attack animations.The jump to the DS has also allowed,for the first time,3-D.The game isn't completely 3-D, though.The core of it's graphics are still relatively 2-D,with the 3-D put in for things such as buildings and windmills,and when 3-D is used,it's used really well.However,the more technical-minded people out there will look at the 2-D part of the graphics equation and find themselves thinking, "Why couldn't they do this on the GBA????"Still,the graphics are really good,and definitely better than past games by far.
GAMEPLAY:Once again,Pokemon Diamond & Pearl delivers fantastic gameplay.Its essentially the same as past games,but that is definitely not a bad thing.Its easy and basic enough so that anybody can play the game through,but as Pokemon veterans know,if you look deeper its challenging and complicated enough that you can spend hundreds of hours on it just tweaking stuff.And you'll probably spend hundreds of hours anyway,because there is a landfill of things to do besides play through the story.Before I go any further, though, the story is one of the let-downs.It's not a bad story,it's just that people who have played a Pokemon game before will know what to expect.Basically,you're a kid from an out-of-the-way hamlet called Twinleaf Town on a journey to become the world's greatest Pokemon Master.Along the way,you'll have to stop an evil crime syndicate called Team Galactic from taking over the world.Sound familiar????It's a bit of a dissapointment that the developer's stuck with the same old story when they could have gone in any number of directions with such a strong gameplay system in place.Yes,the same great Pokemon gameplay returns.The crux of the gameplay revolves around battling your Pokemon against wild Pokemon and other Pokemon "Trainers".When a Pokemon defeats another Pokemon,it gains EXP towards leveling up.When a Pokemon levels up,a number of things happen.The number one thing is that your Pokemon's stats will increase,and this happens every time it levels up.Another common thing is that the Pokemon will learn a new move.And some Pokemon,when they reach a certain level,will even evolve into a completely different,more powerful Pokemon.The battle system revolves around Pokemon types.Basically,a Pokemon has one or two types,such as Fire-types and Grass-types.The moves Pokemon use are also divided into these types,and depending on what type Pokemon you use it on,it can become more or less powerful.For example,a Poison-type move,when used on a Grass-type Pokemon,does double the damage it would have done otherwise.
SOUND:Now that i've bored you to death with my gameplay critique,it's time to move into sound.There has been some improvement in this category,but it's not as noticable as the graphics.The music has made great strides,as almost all the themes are great to listen to and fit their environment well.However,the sound effects are where the game stumbles.There are a few good sound effects,such as snow crunching under your feet when you walk through it,but the few good effects are pretty much eclipsed by the bad ones.The biggest problem is that a ton of sound effects are staticky and recycled from the first games,making them completely outdated.
VALUE:Diamond & Pearl will take you a good 40-50 hours to complete even if you try to do the bare minimum of stuff you can do.The new online features,which include an Ebay-style trading station for Pokemon called the GTS,add tons of hours of gameplay,and if you thought there was a lot of stuff to do during the main game,it's nothing compared to what you can do after completing it.
Basically,Diamond & Pearl are the best Pokemon games yet,and if you've never played a Pokemon game before,they make a really good case for jumping on the bandwagon.