Though its not Leaf Green or Fire Red, Diamond (and Pearl) is an amazing Pokemon game(s). One more form your shelf.
User Rating: 9 | Pocket Monsters Diamond DS
I bought my copy of pokemon diamond from America (I live in the U.K so I decided to import). On my first play through I was amazed by the new story which was similar, but not the same as previous games. The story seemed to flow and it made you want to get to the next town, it made you want the pokemon in the grass. At first I thought the story was better than my favourite story line from any pokemon game, that of the generation one remakes, Leaf Green and Fire Red. However, upon buying Pearl I was proven to be wrong on my first assumptions. The problem is, that where the 'magic' had encouraged me on my first play through there seemed to be nothing, like the novelty had completely worn out untill the foruth gym battle. The flow for the first third of the game seemed to have completely died. Basicly I am saying that these games have a more limited amount of replay value than previous titles in the series. As games alone they probably wouldn't stand up much at all. The graphics are far from great with some pixels blurring and slightly out of place, the sound is poor, they have limited replay value and they follow the same formula as all of the previous titles in the series. What saves them is the fact that they are not just games, they are Pokemon games. And as pokemon games they are massive, a good 30 hours to get through just the main adventure on your first try and then any training and pokedex completing may be done after that. The new set of games also improve on the battling mechanics of previous titles. Moves are judged by action not type in whether they are physical or special moves. There are new pokemon in every battling class that vastly improve on many previous pokemon. By this, I mean pokemon like Garchomp, a physical sweeper which gets around the almost regulation ultra low speed for sweepers, infact 'chomp is one of the fastest. EV training could once be seen as a daunting task, macho brace used to be the only EV aiding hold item avaliable. Now however, there are 'power' items which double EVs gained in a particular stat. This helps and shows that Pokemon's creators are starting to cater more and more for older players (who make up more of the market than they did in the G/S/C days). Infact on that subject, they show that they are catering for perhaps the widest range of people in the history of pokemon video games. With the 'cute' appearence for the younger kids and precision training for older players. Another vast improvement is the Wi-Fi. You can now battle, trade and more with people from all around the world. This gives more purpose to competative battling and precision training and makes it that little bit easier to complete the Pokedex. Finally, cross generation trading, using the DS's GBA slot has been introduced. This allows players to upload pokemon from third generation titles and again, makes completing the Pokedex far less daunting than before.
In conclusion, I would reccomend his game to anyone, of any age. It cuts put much of what made pokemon games hated by some groups and builds on what made it loved by many millions of other people. It may not be perfect, it may be some distance from perfect, but it still makes one of the best games on the DS and one every gamer should atleast try to play. Score: 91%
By Ben 
