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I miss Team Rocket!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 12
Date: May 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Team Rocket has been replaced by a new dumb criminal gang! This game is great except for that and the lame new pokemon.

Have You Bought This? If You Have, You've Been CONNED

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 11
Date: April 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is only for people that have NEVER PLAYED pokemon before. Only then will it be a decent game. If you've played pokemon before and just bought this because of all the new pokemon that came out and the new adventure etc etc, if that was your reason then sorry to say but YOU'VE BEEN DUPPED, TRICKED, CONNED, FOOLED!!

Nintendo (game freak) sure got you. I'm not bashing their name for nothing, I'll list you all the reasons why this idea is indeed based on something.

Slap a new name on an old game. Pokemon diamond is almost the same old game as when it first came out. Being on the new DS, you would expect it to at least upgrade its graphics and utilize the DS's full potential more. The only differences are: The towns look different, pokemon attack you more, different types of pokemon, different types of people, different bad guys, more tm's and hm's.

1. POKEMON: Okay, in this game there are even more pokemons for you to find and....sometimes catch. But here's the low down if you're an analytical thinker. You see different types of pokemons right? But if you get to the basics of it, are they REALLY different or are they just the same old pokemons with a different look? Nintendo ran out of ideas for pokemons decades ago so they go into the pictorial dictionary of our earthly creatures and make a caricature of it and slap a goofy name that sometimes relate to the animals real life nature or...not..and call it a pokemon. They are so desperate to make up more pokemons that they brought in everything from dinosaurs to petshop animals to mystical creatures like dragons. Its to the point where its almost ridiculous to look at.

Pokemon in this game seem to attack you a lot more, probably also based on ur abilities. Playing this game would drive you completely NUTS if you didn't carry a lot of REPELS, which seems to be the only real thing that works to repel those obnoxious wild pokemons. Sometimes you can take 2 steps and get attacked. Think about it, you're trying to solve a clue to get your way out of a cave and you get randomly attacked every 2-10 steps that you take. Just take a minute out of ur day and think of that for a second and see how you'll feel. Buy some insurance for your DS because I almost broke mines.

I know cheating is bad but this game literally begs you to buy an ACTION REPLAY or other cheat device. Why? Because through half of the game they keep having you encounter the same small variety of pokemons. Catch'em all they say? How can you if 90% of the DIFFERENT types of pokemons almost throughout the game belong to a trainer?!?! You can set up your team however you want, but that's really limiting when you can only catch a handful of pokemon, especially old pokemon from the first game, even through half way in the game?! What is really fun is to be able to raise a pokemon throughout the game. Why would I want to find a legendary pokemon at lvl 50 when I'm practically done with the game?

What I really really hate is how nintendo gives you a lot of pokemon like machop, gasley, abra in the beginning. They're nice but they can only evolve to their final form by trading. That is sort of hard, I'm 22 and I don't feel comfortable walking up to a little kid and be like "hey do you want to trade pokemons with me?" this is when a cop arrests me and I become a sex offender. I'm not crazy enough to play this online either.

2. DS Utilization: Okay, the DS has a much better graphics engine on it, so why not use it? Pokemon Diamond could have easily been done on the regular gameboy. Use of the stylus? It's okay but nothing extraordinary. Sometimes its almost more convinient just using the buttons. Don't expect a lot of interaction using the stylus, its very badly incorporated into the game, to the bare minimum almost.

Graphics remain pretty much 2D. For those of you that say DON'T FIX WHAT'S NOT BROKEN, that's the kind of attitude that makes you sink lower back to the caveman era. Don't fix it, IMPROVE IT.

3. MISSIONS and PLOTS: SAME O SAME O. Old game with a new name indeed. Missions are basically the same, start in a town, objective to be the best, go beat gym leaders, beat the elite four, then battle tower etc afterwards.

The bad guys are back, only difference is their name. Everything is EXACTLY THE SAME. Same with your rival. If you were starting to get sick of pokemon emerald....this is almost the exact version so pick one and keep it.

4. Battling System: EXACTLY THE FREAKEN SAME. NINTENDO, if you were going ot make the exact game and change it a little bit to trick a bunch of kids to buying your game and making you a lot of money, at least make the pokemon's moves look a lot cooler. The moves have a little more graphics in them but HARDLY anything worth mentioning.

THIS IS WHY I THINK IF YOU BOUGHT THIS GAME AND YOU'VE PLAYED POKEMON BEFORE, YOU'VE BEEN RIPPED OFF REAL BAD. WHAT NINTENDO IS DOING IS WHAT THE MOVIE INDUSTRY HAS BEEN DOING FOR A LONG TIME AS WELL. ADD A LITTLE STUFF, ADD A LITTLE SUSPENSE ON THE RELEASE, SLAP ON A NEW NAME AND BOOM, GULLIBLE HUMANS EATING YOUR TRASH.

Get a flashcart everyone! You can put all your games on a memory card and play it on ur ds. Saves you lots of money!

This is the only thing I can think of now but I'm pretty sure there's more complaints to be said. Oh yeah, you can't trade in your pokemon from your other pokemon games until much later when its almost useless.

Be prepared to be pissed off when your pokemon that has a 165 based attack power and is 10 levels above a wild pokemon and still can't KO it with earthquake and its a normal effective move. THat's how ridiculous it is, and that pokemon has a 70 base def too...RIPP OFF!!!

Boring.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: August 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

In my opinion, I found this game VERY boring... I really don't like most of the new pokemon (i mean, have you seen Comby?! Come on!!!) and my favorite pokemon, munchlax, took WAY too much boring waiting to get. I was never a fan of the pokemon games anyway (with the exeption of the Mystery Dungeon games, i love those). All you do is go around battling pokemon and catching new ones. Training is boring, battling is boring, and putting so much waiting to find rare pokemon is just...... boring. And it was much too easy to catch pokemon... I cought the all-powerful legendary pokemon, Dialga (the pokemon on the cover of the game), with an ordinary pokeball. I'm not even kidding! I weakened it, then threw a pokeball... and it caught it. If you liked the old games of just wandering around catching pokemon, you will probably like this too, though.

I Don't Understand ...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 15 / 32
Date: June 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It was bound to happen, and it's happening now.

Maybe it's a little unfair to give Pokemon the same score as Full Metal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy, but I'm grading Diamond on a comparative scale to the general populus, whereas FMA had a sparse 3 or 4 reviews.

It's hard to disagre with the general public as to which games are good and which ones aren't. But there are few games, which by personal preference, just doesn't rub the right way for the user. Pokemon has been one of those games for me. Believe me, had this been a review for the very first Pokemon game that ever came out, it'd be the same score and the same thing.

Sure there are several things different with this Pokemon game. There better be, after the long awaited anticipation of its release. But the premise is the same, touch screen capabilty is limited, and not much is different. As a Pokemon hater (I'll explain in a bit), I had initially decided against buying this. I bought this game for two reasons:
1. Selling my DS collection in bulk in the future would have a gaping hole if one of the two Pokemons were missing.
2. I actually thought that maybe I could get into it and it could put my DS to good long use.

An hour after I bought it, I realized why I hated the game so much.

It's too simple, monsters (of which you could only carry 6 at a time) with a whopping 4 moves... I dunno, but it gets really annoying seeing poor graphic moves over and over and over and over and over and over again. Maybe it's just me, because everyone in this universe seems to absolutely love Pokemon.

I credit the Pokemon franchise with absolutely nailing the RPG with the much younger audience. They've done a fantastic job of creating this never ending RPG that can capture a child's attention for hours at a time. How it can hold the attention of an audience even slightly older? That boggles my mind.

I really didn't want to write this, and I was actually considering leaving Pokemon out of my reviews, because I want my reviews to be helpful to the prospective buyers. But I guess anyone buying Pokemon knows what they're getting themselves into, and a review of the game would simply be for amusement. I guess I'll just have to take the 0/50 helpful votes on this review...

What drove me to wrote this was that the Pokemon duo released for the near maximum DS price of $34.99, and it seemed to me that it wasn't worth it. But that's not all... Some genius found a way to max out every single monster and stat and item in the game, and started selling copies of these on Ebay for a whopping 135 bucks a pop.

People, people, people ... WHY!? I don't understand, I never thought I'd see the day when a DS game broke the $39.99 maximum (only two games have hit that price ceiling so far, Final Fantasy III, and the Star Trek Game, with a third one coming soon, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass). Not only have you wasted money on the game, you defeated the whole purpose of purchasing the game in the first place... TO COLLECT THE MONSTERS MAYBE?

The only thing that kept me droning on and on for that one hour I played the game was the faint desire to level up my Pokemon. I can't imagine how dull it must be to play a brand new game, completely demolishing every Pokemon and Gym Leader that comes your way with your Level 100 monsters. It makes no sense.

And what, wireless play? How ridiculous is this, a bunch of maxed out Pokemon fighting each other with a maxed out number of items to replenish health so that the battle goes on into infinity.

My hate for Pokemon had grown immensely after seeing that nonsense.

It's not a very good game, the story is lame, and it costs too much. Everything about the game is drab, graphics are dull, the SoundFX suck, and still! GameFaqs top 2, DS bestseller, and it ACTUALLY beefs up my collection. That's so depressing to me...

Only in America.

Thanks for reading. I'm putting my flame suit on...

Expected better, but still a good game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: October 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've always been a pokémon fan, so I got Pokémon Diamond without hesitation. I have to admit I was disappointed; I'm a big RPG fan, and D's storyline was pretty boring. I think it wasn't different enough from the previous game, Emerald.

Pros:
- 3D graphics
- Amity Square
- big world
- super contests
- time of day
- weather
- the underground

Cons:
- boring plot
- the pokemon of the sinnoh dex are useless
- no fire types
- Team Galactic is rather tedious, and couldn't they have a more realistic purpose than world domination?
- you can't trade your pokemon from your older versions until you've beaten the Elite Four
- Happiny
- the master rank of the super contests are almost impossible
- the versus seeker is really annoying; the match call was a lot better because you knew who wanted to battle you and you didn't waste your time looking everywhere

I think the best of the pokémon games so far was Crystal. You could travel between Johto and Canto and the game lasted a lot longer.
D is still a good game, but could have been a lot better. It deserves 4 stars, but I had high expectations for D and it didn't quite live up to them.

Addictive Fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 10
Date: January 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this for my 9 year old son. Also bought the Pearl edition for my 7 year old daughter. They share a Nintendo DS and are constantly fighting to use it. Each session has to be time-limited, and they act like they're going through withdrawls when they are not playing. But they have to "earn" playing time through chores and good behavior, which balances out all that fun.
They enjoy talking strategy and comparing the Pokemon they've caught or battled. They've also made it clear that they can trade their Pokemon with each other if they BOTH have a DS. Hmmm...

Anyway, if you don't mind your kids being addicted to a good, clean, non-violent video game (like we were), this appears to be the ultimate for now.

Diamonds Are Forever

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 136 / 148
Date: April 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

After countless spin offs the real deal is here: Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. The Pokemon craze has been around for years. Ever since the Red and Blue versions hit way back, Pokemon has been huge. It's tried and true formula has worked for over ten years, and it's pretty apparent that the formula isn't going to die now. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are a lot like the Pokemon games that preceded it, but they've really thrown in some good touches here. Still, most players who've been playing since the Gameboy days, or even as recent as the GBA days will still get a "been there, done that," feeling. Still, the game is good, addictive and it will keep you busy for hours on end.

As I said, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl have a "been there, done that" kind of feel. You begin as a rookie trainer in a village, and under some circumstances, you are asked by a professor to go and collect Pokemon data using a Pokedex. On your journey your goal is to collect as many Pokemon as you can and train them to take on other trainers, and to get all the badges from the games various gym leaders, while you've got a rival who is out doing to same thing to prove he's better than you. In addition, there's an evil organization called Team Galactic that has plans for a new world order and to do that they need all the Pokemon they can get. If all this sounds familiar, that's because it is! It's the exact same formula that worked for the original Pokemon games on the Gameboy, the games on the Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance. The story, of course, is simple and charming, but where Pokemon has always managed to shine most is it's fantastic and addictive gameplay.

Pokemon is actually really strategic and in-depth. That is to say, it requires a lot of thought, and believe me, some of these battles (especially against the new Pokemon that are introduced in this version) require a lot of your skill. Battles are turn based, where you select a command and then watch a round of combat. There's a paper/rock/scissors effect here, however. Each and every Pokemon has a type, and some of the attacks they use reflect its type. This makes up what deals massive damage, what deals no damage and what deals just normal damage. Grass may be strong against water, for example but grass is also weak against fire, but in turn, fire is weak versus water. This effect plays through with seventeen and different types, and there is no best type because every type has a weakness. It's because of this element that Pokemon is so much fun to play. Just trying to construct the perfect team will take you more than a day, and with over 100 new creatures to collect, you can form endless amounts of teams. Just catching all the Pokemon alone will keep you busy for well over 50 hours. To add to the effect you'll face several other trainers as well, and you never know what they'll throw at you. Your strongest Pokemon may very well become your weakest in certain battles just because of its type.

The battle system itself is made even simplar by the touch screen. Where as before you were scrolling through menus, battling can simply be done by touching the different options on screen. It makes battling a lot faster, especially because the icons are pretty big. Luckily, there's never really a point where you have to use the touch screen if you don't want to, and battling can still be done the old fashioned way if you so choose.

As with Ruby and Sapphire there are also moments of two on two battles. Usually they come with either two trainers taking you on at a time, and you'll send out the two Pokemon in your top roster, or you'll be with another trainer who will send out his or her Pokemon with yours. It adds to the strategic feel of the game, but the moments of two on two battles are pretty few and far between.

In your journey you'll also receive a nifty watch that works based off the time of your internal clock. This means that much like Gold and Silver, it'll switch between day and night. Some Pokemon come out only in the early morning, others come out late at night. Some Pokemon only come out on certain days. Either way, those itching to catch each and every Pokemon will enjoy this aspect of it.

As I said before, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl have added some new things. The most important new thing however, is how much easier it is to trade Pokemon and battle with your friends. Using Wi-fi on the DS is far better than the various link cables or having to go out and buy the wireless adapter for the GBA. You can battle with people all across the world, and do other things as well, such as trade with them. Of course, in order to enjoy the full benefits of this you'll need the friend code to do it, and sometimes. In order to get the full experience of the online gaming world in Pokemon, you'll need to register friend codes. If you don't you can't enjoy some of the better perks, like being able to talk to a friend using the microphone of your DS as you battle. Still, the combat is enhanced greatly when playing online. If you don't want to play online you can easily connect to another DS and battle it out that way with your friend simply sitting in the room.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are also full of little secret goodies. There are the legendary Pokemon, Pokemon contests, and of course, even after you've finished the main story there's more to be done. You can transfer Pokemon from your GBA versions by sticking it into the GBA slot of the DS. No matter how you slice it, Pokemon can easily keep you busy longer than several RPGs combined

I wish I could say the graphics and sound are absolutely amazing, but they're really not. For as much fun as this game is, it's certainly not the best as far as graphics go. The same goes for the sound as well. Pokemon has never really been a game you go after for eye-candy, though. There are some moments where some 3D effects come out, but not very many. The sprites are more or less the same sprites they've been using since the Red and Blue versions. Ideally, the game doesn't look all that much of a step up from Ruby and Sapphire, and they were not fantastic looking games either. It's really colorful, but the DS is capable of so much more than this. Likewise, in battle is still as horrible as ever. Fun to do it, but the Pokemon still only flinch to attack, and there aren't a lot of animations going on, and we're still looking over the Pokemon's shoulder. Essentially, the combat engine hasn't changed since the series first outing in 1998. There are some move animations that look really good, but aside from that it's hard to look passed the simple fact that the game's combat engine hasn't really evolved since the original games came out way back in 1998. This isn't the original Gameboy, this is the Nintendo DS.

The sound is also no exception. A lot of it sounds really tinny. There are some tunes that definitely sound Pokemon like, but again, it's using old technology on a system capable of a lot more. Most of the sound effects such as the Pokemon's cries are ripped straight from--you guessed it--the original Gameboy versions released in 1998. That's not to say all the tunes sound bad, it's just to say that a lot of what you're going to hear is recycled.

Despite the games graphics and sound, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are still excellent games. There's a lot more depth here than people think, and a lot of stuff to keep you busy for a long time to come. Even those who are tired of the same simplistic plot and formula will find something great here.

Pros:

+Simple, yet addictive gameplay
+Deep, strategic combat system
+Touch screen controls make battling easier
+Wi-fi connection works well
+Over 100 new Pokemon join the roster
+Simple storyline that anyone can understand
+Being able to battle trainers all across the globe and being able to trade with them is fantastic
+Game can keep you busy for hours with all there is to do, easily over 80 hours worth of gameplay

Cons:

-You can still only save one file
-Graphics and sound are horribly outdated
-The formula works, but there are bound to be gamers out there who are sick of the same old storyline

Pokemon arrives on the Nintendo DS

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 37 / 47
Date: May 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Pokemon Pearl and Diamond.

INTRODUCTION:
The Pokemon franchise has always been a mixed bag. While it spawned numerous disasters, like an annoying cartoon and frequent controversies, it also resulted in a sweet card game and some of the greatest portable RPGs the world has ever known. Any Pokemon game that has stuck to the traditional formula has been a true winner. From the series infancy right up to the recent Game Boy Advance titles, this is the RPG series that has never failed to please. With each new entry in the series (as far as the "traditional" RPGs of the series go), there have been enough improvements to keep fans interested, but enough sticking to the classic formula so as to not alienate long time fans. Read on for my review of the Nintendo DS entries in the series, Diamond and Pearl.

OVERVIEW:
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were released in Japan in the latter half of 2006. The American release followed in Spring of 2007. The game adds over a hundred new Pokemon to the roster, as well as a whole new world to explore, and Nintendo WFC compatibility.

REVIEW:
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are more or less what people expected them to be, and that's a good thing. Nintendo took its flagship franchise, and stayed true to the classic formula, but took excellent advantage of what the DS is capable of (in most respects.) What results is one of the finest titles both in the Pokemon franchise and for the DS.

-THE GOOD-

-CLASSIC POKEMON GAMEPLAY. This is true blue original-style Pokemon gaming, not one of those misadventures that made people tilt their heads in confusion. If you've played any of the other games in the series (the REAL series, not the departures from the classic RPG formula), and you found them appealing, you'll fall in love with this new entry instantly.
-OVER A HUNDRED NEW SPECIES. You'd think after a decade with this franchise, Nintendo would be either fresh out of new ideas for Pokemon or scraping the bottom of the barrel for new ideas. Neither is true. Nintendo keeps things fresh, with several awesome new species, and even some new pre-evolved forms and evolutions for the old ones. Not to mention there are a ton of new legendaries in town.
-NINTENDO WFC COMPATIBILITY. I really had my doubts about Nintendo being able to use this well in a Pokemon game, but for the most part they succeed well. All trading with friends locally is done wireless in a Union Room (like what you did in Fire Red and Leaf Green for the Game Boy Advance with wireless adaptors.) You can even trade online with gamers all around the world! The online trade system is an awesome addition to this series.
-INVOLVING. This game grows on you. Any fan of the Pokemon series will tell you that the RPGs are addicting, and there is definitely more to them than meets the eye. Beneath the cute characters and happy music is an in-depth game that requires well-planned strategies to win. This isn't just a kids game. Get started with it, and it will take over your whole life.
-TWO VERSIONS. As with all Pokemon games, there are multiple versions of the game - Diamond and Pearl. Each game is the same, except for the different versions of Pokemon in each game. You can buy one version and a friend can buy the other, and this is a good way to get everything the game has to offer.
-TONS OF REPLAY VALUE. With the over one hundred new species added here, the total number of Pokemon now approaches five hundred. With that many, you'll never get tired of hunting. And even if you catch them all, you can always try training different species and participating in the Pokemon contests. There's always something to do.
-LOTS OF CUSTOMIZING YOUR MONSTERS. This has always been a feature I've loved about this series. You can arrange the moves of your Pokemon to your liking, and thus customize them to suit your own fighting style. A similar-specie monster own by you and your friend, at the exact same level, may have totally different attacks!
-NEW UNDERGROUND MODE. This is a nice little extra addition to the series. Though by no means required, it's a great feature and can help you get some rare items.
-COMPATIBLE WITH THE GAME BOY ADVANCE RPGS. You can use them to import your old monsters once you get the National Pokedex, and even have them in your DS's GBA slot to make some rarer Pokemon appear in the wild! A nice incentive to have one of the older games.

-THE BAD-

-THERE ARE SOME PROBLEMS IN THIS SERIES I DON'T THINK NINTENDO WILL EVER FIX. Pokemon CAN NOT forget HM-taught moves on their own! This gets extremely annoying when your Pokemon wants to learn a new move, and you can't get rid of the one annoying once-obligatory move you want to trash the most. Likewise, you can't change the nicknames of Pokemon gotten in trades. This gets annoying when trading online with Japanese gamers who give their creatures nicknames consisting of Japanese characters us Americans will never understand. There are other little flaws but I won't nitpick.
-IMPORTING YOUR OLD GBA MONSTERS IS A GREAT FEATURE, BUT YOU HAVE TO ACCOMPLISH TOO MUCH BEFORE YOU CAN DO IT! You have to beat the Gym Leaders, Elite Four AND complete the regional Pokedex before you can do this. Fortunately, you only have to SEE all the Pokemon to complete the dex, but this doesn't make this any less annoying. Eager trainers who want to get their old monsters into the game right away are going to be annoying. I understand Nintendo wanting to make gamers work for this, but this is just too much. The feature should have been made available earlier in the game.
-HORRIBLY OUTDATED GRAPHICS. The Game Boy Advance games in the series are graphically superior to these! The graphics are often pixelated, and the attempt at three dimensions will cause confusion at times, as some paths will become difficult to see. You actually have to play the game to know what I mean.
-WHEN TRADING ONLINE, YOU CAN NOT TRADE FOR A POKEMON UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN IT BEFORE IN YOUR GAME! This is absolute bull! If you're thinking about filling out your Pokedex through online trading, forget it. I don't know what Nintendo was thinking when they came up with this asinine idea.
-YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE POKEMON UP FOR TRADE AT A TIME ONLINE. This pretty much speaks for itself.
-IF THE DS HAS SO MANY BUTTONS, WHY CAN YOU ONLY REGISTER AN ITEM TO ONE BUTTON? It gets annoying having to decide between having a fishing rod or a bike on the register button, as I use both a ton and most gamers will too. Would it have killed Nintendo to make the L and R buttons register buttons too? They don't get used much at all.

OVERALL:
Despite the obvious flaws, this is a great game. All Nintendo DS owners will be doing themselves a favor adding Pokemon Pearl and/or Diamond to their collections.

EDITION NOTES:
At the time I write this, the game is brand new. You should have no trouble finding a copy in any game store.

"Diamonds are a Girl's best friend..." (by Laura)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 29 / 32
Date: June 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Pokemon Diamond is a good step up from the other pokemon games. I have been a fan of pokemon since the old red, blue, and yellow versions for gameboy. This game makes them look like glitched up things of the past. Here's my opinionated scoop on the bad and the good of this game, in that order.

The Bad:

1. Same old thing. What I mean by this is, although the story has it's differences from other games, it's still basically the same idea. You get to pick your first pokemon from: Turtwig (a grass type), Chimchar (a fire type), and Piplup (a water type). Once you pick your first pokemon in a setup somewhat similar to the Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald versions, you are off on a journey to basically be both the ultimate trainer, and the contest master. You will meet a new, psychotic evil team, who has the wrong ideas about the pokemon world and such. There is also the same goal of beating the elite four, and the return of that tedious training you must do to get past the gym leaders. All I am saying, is this game will probably be a newer experience to those who are just getting to know pokemon.

2. It seems like the Pokemon company are starting to get low on ideas. First off, long time pokemon gamers may notice they haven't introduced as many new pokemon as they did in Gold, Silver, and Crystal. What's more, they even started intertwining old pokemon into the new games, just giving them different index numbers. Of course, it's hard not to include the old pokemon when many of the new ones are either pre-evolutionary forms, or even evolved forms of them. Cute and cool, but may not cut the mustard. Now don't get me wrong, there are some cool new pokemon (Piplup, for example, has become very popular among pokemon fans). All I am saying is, the game designers seem to be digging in the bottom of the barrel.

3. The secret base system just isn't as good. Now, I love the Underground! The prospect of digging for fossils, heart scales, and other rare items appeals to me; but who here has played the Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald versions? In those versions, you can have secret bases in trees, in rock walls, and even in bushes, in any desirable route. This game, not so much. You have to have to create your base somewhere in the Underground. Now, that may not be too bad for some, as you can create it wherever you want, provided you have the drilling tool. BUT WHY DO THE STUPID ROCKS HAVE TO BE THERE?! This is what really stinks; you can't move the rocks unless you capture someone elses flag. I think in order to do that, you have to have Wi-Fi connection, and infiltrate somebody else's base to get their flag. I have dial-up (because high speed can get expensive), and have heard Wi-Fi will not work with it, so I'm out of luck. I'm stuck with the dumb unmovable rocks (that are always in the way), in a base that looks like everyone elses (except maybe with different decorations), that lacks variety in landscaping.

4. The Poketch (Another awkward name, but it stands for pokemon watch) could use a bit more work. It's good if you only have a few things you can access from it. However, when you get more things, you basically have to start tapping the screen like crazy to get what you want. All I'm saying is a quick selection feature would have been nice.

5. Another annoying rival. Long time pokemon gamers will know the type. Pesky, bothering you at the wrong times, always beats you to the gymleaders even if it seems impossible that he did so, picks the starter that beats yours in type and boasts about it, and is supposedly a long time "friend" of yours. Yeah, very irritating.

6. Getting the national pokedex is a bit of a pain. Until you get it, you cannot rely on help from stronger pokemon in a couple of the older versions either.

The Good:

1. Waaay more life-like! This game is the most three dimensional of the pokemon hand-held games I have ever seen! This makes it more life-like in some areas, as it makes you feel you're actually on the ground rather than in a hot air ballon, or something in the air, looking down on everything.

2. Time is more realistic. This could also weave in with more life-like. Rather than change instantly from day to night or vice versa at six, like in Gold Silver, and Crystal, or not at all (like the other pokemon games), Pokemon Diamond actually has day phases. There is morning, afternoon, dusk, evening, and even late night! Gameplay is good no matter what time you play! The game also acknowledges days of the week (example: Drifloon comes to the windworks factory on Friday), though maybe that isn't used as much as it was in Gold, Silver, and Crystal. All the same, it is a better and well-developed system.

3. They brought back the night guards! It brings back fond memories of Gold, Silver, and Crystal, to have police men who will only fight you at night...

4. The gyms are better than ever! Maybe a tad harder than I like, but the traps and stuff don't have a deja vu feel to them. It's a totally new experience!

5. The Underground is awesome! I enjoy digging up rare items and spheres! The only thing I wish to warn is: don't dig to many spheres in the ground! The older spheres will start disappearing if you bury too many spheres.

6. The contests have come back with a vengance! Do you know those old contests in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald? You feed your pokemon pokeblocks in hopes the audience will like how it looks, then you try to outshine the others with moves in a period of four turns on a single judge. Well, that kind of contest is now the thing of the past! First off, instead of pokeblocks, players must feed their pokemon a food called poffin. It's made of berrys still, but in a different way that uses the stylus. It's like you cook your pokemon's food now. Then there's the dancing, the accessory and poffin accented physical appeal, and rather than one, THREE judges you can appeal to! Contests are now more difficult, fun, and entertaining!

7. More trainer card features! You can actually sign your name in your own handwriting using the stylus on the back of your trainer's card! You can also shine your badges, which do get dull! I thought these were interesting and entertaining tidbits of the game.

8. The poketch is cool! Yes, I complained about it not having a quick select feature in the bad; but regardless, this thing is still very cool and useful in the game! Hidden item? Throw away the item finder and use your dowsing app! Forgot where you plant a berry? Find the locations of pickable berrys with the berry finding app (that may not be what it's really called). Chances are, if there's a feature you want your poketch to do, you will find it eventually.

9. The new pokemon are cool. There aren't really enough new ones, and the ideas seem to be a bit... lacking in a couple of areas; but still, the new abilities, moves, and pokemon make for new and exciting gameplay.

10. I believe there are a lot of legendaries. This means more rare pokemon for you (and a good deal of them are cute!)

11. This game is more "people friendly". Quite often, you will team up with a character in the game who will heal your pokemon after each battle, and offer his or her pokemon for assistance in double battling format. This is a great opportunity to learn to work with the pokemon that are not yours. The only drawback, is that you will meet two wild pokemon at once. If there is one you want, you can't catch it until you defeat the other pokemon. In addition, your "partner" will attack every turn not knowing to let up. On these facts, it is better to try and catch pokemon alone.

12. Animations are included, and there are many good details. This time there are differences between male and female pokemon other than the symbol. These differences are slight and difficult to tell, but it is good attention to detail. On top of that, pokemon animations are included (example: Starly flaps its wings when you see it). Another new good detail is being able to tell how much a pokemon weighs against yourself.

13. Taking care of berries is easier and more realistic! Don't recall when you last watered that berry in Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald? Well, now you can tell! The soil actually changes to a light color when the berry plant hasn't been watered, so you know when to water it! The only challenge that remains is being able to water it several times a day...

So, that about raps it up. Overall, this is an awesome game beyond belief! If you want hours of entertainment, love pokemon, or even just enjoy playing videogames in general, then this is one of the best games you can buy out there.

Can't wait til' it comes out!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 27
Date: March 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I got a japanese version of this game for chistmas. It is alot like pokemon fire red and leaf green, but the legendaries are alot like ruby and sapphire. There are like 15 legendaries, alot for one game. You still have to pay money if you lose in a battle, just like fire red, and the elite for have lv 55-70 and higher! If you want a head start on picking a good starter a heads up is that the first gym is a rock gym, the monkey sucks here. I rated this game 4/5 because It is japanese.

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