Remember good old fashioned Pokemon fun?
Now for the good news... Pokemon Diamond/Pearl is one of those elusive games that keep you pleased for the entire gaming experience. I was a little sceptical when I first picked up Diamond, I had already bought my Girlfriend a copy of Pearl some months before I even bought my DS let alone Pokemon. The main issue being that I hadn't played a Pokemon game since Gold and Silver when I was first getting into middle school.
Naturally I was expecting the same old grind that I had experienced as a child but I was immersed into a beautiful world full of challenges, new Pokemon, and a wonderfully original plot, which is something good since the traditional, "I wanna be the very best" thing must have been getting tired.
Firstly, the new rival as well as Dawn (I was a male character, substitute Dawn with whatever the boy's name is if you pick a girl) were excellent recurring characters. They weren't even half as annoying as RED was or how bothersome SILVER was during Gold. Another thing I really enjoyed was Team Galactic. Their whole evil agenda was very reminiscent, to me, of Garland from FFIX, creating a new world, destroy the old one. I found it to be a great traditional RPG feeling.
Besides the characters the game play itself felt much more interactive, probably due to the DS touch screen controls.
Another set of features I really enjoyed were the connectivity to the older games, such as the Dongle method or the wireless connection to the Wii's "My Pokemon Ranch" and so on. It brought a great nostalgia to be able to catch all the original Pokemon, who I grew up with, and the newer ones who I've never seen before.
In the end, it all boils down to this. Pokemon is a wonderfully traditional RPG with many, many new features that really make both the Nintendo DS and the Pokemon series shine. There is so much interactivity and diversity in this little game card that its almost overwhelming.
I gave Pokemon a 9/10 because even though it presents all these wonderful new features and a great new world with a rather compelling story, but it lacks in one respect and one respect only. The frustrating and time consuming legendaries. I understand that they are meant to be a challenge but I believe a capture rate higher than 3 would still suffice to make them difficult enough... That aside, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl is a true pleasure to play for new and old gamers alike. I highly recommend this one.