Pokemon Diamond And Pearl are absolutely everything you've come to expect from major Nintendo sequels, and that's probably more for the better than for the worse. You know the routine, right? The company invents a really brilliant idea, then spends the next two decades refining the hell out of it. The resulting succession of games is progressively better with each new release, but rarely will you see any actual risks taken along the way. Twilight Princess was brilliant, but that brilliance hewed closely to the framework laid down 15 years prior in A Link to the Past. Metroid Prime, fantastic as it turned out, was unabashedly Super Metroid gussied up with fancy 3D polygons.
And so it is with the latest Pokémon. Yes, the series' fourth generation is largely the same as the past three -- but it's also, without question, the best to date.
The uniformity hasn't exactly hurt so far. Given the insane sales that Diamond and Pearl have racked up in Japan (not to mention their startlingly huge U.S. preorder numbers), it would seem that fans are perfectly happy to keep playing fresh remixes of the game they've been addicted to for the past decade. Make no mistake, though: Diamond and Pearl's similarities to their predecessors are a deliberate, stylistic decision by developers Game Freak, not the creative bankruptcy you might assume. The graphics resemble the tiles and sprites of the original Game Boy titles, but they're actually rendered in 3D that's been carefully crafted to look retro. Returning pokémon retain their classic scratchy, computerized battle cries, but the developers also went to the trouble of making sure the game's 100 or so new monsters emit equally 8-bit sounds. Battle sprites demonstrate two frames of animation at most, but combat feels livelier than ever because of all the other visual effects happening -- stretching, rotation, bursts of light -- so while it still plays out like the older games, it also feels more dynamic.
In short, the creators have gone out of their way to preserve the aesthetics of the series while quietly, subtly improving on them. The same also holds true for the underpinnings as well -- for the gameplay. On the surface, Diamond & Pearl could be any other Pokémon: Players control an ambitious young monster trainer on an RPG-****quest through a small island infested with pugnacious creatures, collecting new critters as part of a mission to catch (or at least spot) them all. The path to the end is lousy with virtual cockfights -- combative trainers lurk along every path, monsters roam in the grass, your rival is always one step ahead of you, and an army of power-mad scoundrels keeps trying to conquer the world. Battles are simple, turn-based affairs that allow your team of monsters (up to six) to share the chance to defeat their foes, one at a time. (Or, on occasion, two at a time.) Monsters are acquired by weakening them before capturing them in a capsule. It is, in short, Pokémon, almost exactly as you remember it.
That "almost" is important, though; the differences between Diamond and Pearl and their predecessors are small, but they add up. Refinement is paramount here -- refined balance of battle skills, refined relationships between monster types -- as is expansion. The pokédex has been upped to nearly 500 creatures total, new abilities and powers have been introduced, and new battle modes are available (including a forest where the player is accompanied by an NPC for team battles at all times). Every feature and innovation of the previous games is present, from monster breeding to diurnal cycles. The game also makes use of the DS in small but effective ways: Menus have been shifted to the touch screen where they consist of huge, friendly panels that may be tapped, conveniently, with a thumb.
Like an MMO, the real test of these changes will come in the next year or so as obsessive fans dissect every last detail about the game, uncover unfair exploits and generally turn the game inside-out in their zeal to trump their peers. But the key to Poké'mon's success is that it's flexible enough to engage the wild-eyed fanatics while still being enjoyable to novices and kids.
While the game certainly caters to the unhealthily obsessive -- to collect every monster, you'll need to jump through some draconian hoops and demonstrate true brand loyalty, not least of which includes suffering all the way through the execrable Pokémon Ranger and Pokémon XD -- it's perfectly playable for people who like to be simply thorough. Or people who just like the cute characters, or who enjoy the amusing banter. Or people who don't really care so much about thoroughness and just want to battle with friends.
Honestly, the quest element of the game is secondary to the competitive aspect -- or rather, it exists primarily to supplement your battle roster and beef up your team. Pokémon's real draw has always been linked battles, so it's fitting that this is where Diamond and Pearl's biggest improvements lie. Being on DS affords the ability to play wirelessly, a huge relief after the Game Boy family's clumsy and unreliable link cables. More importantly, the wireless battles can be linked across the Internet -- which tends to be laggy, but not unforgivably so. The standard friend code requirement, on the other hand... that's a little harder to stomach. Yes, yes, children are playing Pokémon and linking with strangers might result in naughty words being exchanged via voice chat, but really -- why not simply add parental controls rather than ruining it for the rest of us?
Aside from this one limitation, Diamond and Pearl feature a fantastic array of multiplayer options. You can do the standard one-on-one battles, sure -- but you can also link up for double-team fights, too. You can explore the vast Sinnoh underworld and play capture the flag. You can even go up against your friends in a pokémon fashion show... you know, if for some reason you really want to. You can wander around for months trying to collect the ultra-rare monsters, harvesting berries, playing capture-the-flag in the tunnels beneath Sinnoh, powering up your monsters, nurturing eggs, whatever. And like an MMO, there's no real "end" to the game, because even once you overthrow the elite trainers and thwart Team Galactic and catch 'em all (even the stupid legendaries and that damnable carry-over from Pokémon Ranger), you still have to best your peers. And those guys are total bastards.
Hardcore gamers tend to turn their nose up to the Pokémon series, but the secret of its success is that it isn't designed for the hardcore. It's for everyone else, and let's face it: There's more of them there are of us. But why does it matter? Sure, it's easy to forget that the games themselves aren't the same thing as the world-consuming, soul-destroying marketing juggernaut spawned by an unassuming pair of Game Boy cartridges so long ago. Look beyond the cheaply-made anime and the overblown collectible tie-ins, though, and you'll find that the foundation upon which the whole endeavor has been constructed is an enjoyable and often addictive RPG with a fantastic social element.
But then, that's hardly a surprise if you've been paying attention at all for the past decade. The fact that it's better than ever this time around, though? That's almost as shocking as the fact that Pikachu can still run circles around every bald space marine the industry has to offer.
