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September 29, 2006 - It was bound to happen sometime, and now that Pokemon Diamond/Pearl has finally arrived in Japan, thousands of gamers have been invading stores to get their copies before they're sold out. As if the PSP didn't have enough problems competing with the DS in Japan, along comes the game that nearly everyone with a DS has been eagerly anticipating for a very, very long time. This is the first real Pokemon update in a couple of years, and while the basic fundamentals of the game remain the same, the title takes advantage of every feature of the system.
Whereas gamers have traveled around the Kanto, Johto and Hoenn regions in earlier Pokemon titles, D/P features an entirely new area called Shin'ou, which is largely based upon the real life area of Hokkaido in Japan. Once again, gamers will be able to choose between a male or female Pokemon trainer as they set off on another adventure rife with rivals and a new enemy, called Team Galaxy. At the beginning of the game, you can choose among three new Pokemon and soon afterwards, you'll receive a new item called a Pokechi, which is a time management device of sorts that resembles a wrist watch. It allows you to keep track of time (time passes by in this game like in previous Pokemon titles) as well as sporting a handy calculator and a Pokemon monitor to check up on your little buddies. Combat as a whole hasn't changed a lot, with battles still being turned based, as well as team battles still hanging around. There are, however, little things that make the game deeper than before, such as new stats for all Pokemon and new element combinations in the game, such as Poison/Dark.
The biggest addition to the series is the ability to go online via Wi-Fi and not only do battle against other trainers, but trade and collect Pokemon on a world-wide scale. There are several centers in each city that serve different purposes. One center allows you to enter battles against other players, and join the Pokemon Union, a chat room of sorts where you can talk to others on your friends list. The coolest feature is the GTS, or Global Trade Station. By entering the GTS forum, you can search for the Pokemon that you really desire and offer up a trade for a Pokemon that you're not fond of. The surprising thing is how easy and intuitive this is to set up, if you can read Japanese, of course. You can post the Pokemon that you're willing to trade at any time, and you can turn off the system and come back in a few hours to check if someone's taken it. I checked out how widely available some of the starter Pokemons were, so I did a search for Naeru (the Grass-type Pokemon). For searches, you have to input the name of the Pokemon you want, and whether you care about what level they are and their gender. Afterwards, the game will connect to the Wi-Fi network and search for your Pokemon.
Surprisingly, we came up with five people offering Naeru, but unfortunately we didn't have the Pokemon they were after. Even though the game is only available in Japan, the amount of people online with the game is pretty amazing. I can't Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis how insane it'll get once Europe and America gets the game as well. The online battles in particular are so cool because it's complete with voice chat, although it can be difficult to hear the other player sometimes. You have three choices with online battles too, so you can use your Pokemon at the current level they're at, or you can power them up to level 50 or 100 and fight similar leveled Pokemons. It's a good way of balancing fights because even though the stats change, the moves that you have assigned your Pokemon don't, so it's like using your Pokemon on a level playing field.
All of the characters in the game are represented with 2D sprites, but the environments have this weird pseudo-3D look to it. I don't mean that in a bad way though, because the game looks excellent. It's just that sometimes it's hard to tell what's 3D in the game and what's not, but by using this method, Nintendo has managed to make a game that is visually superior in every way to its predecessors, but retains the same style and feel as before. The little visual changes in the game help too, such as the differences between male and female Pokemon, and Pokemon actually appearing from their Pokeball instead of flashing onto the screen.
Diamond/Pearl is a traditional Pokemon RPG in every way, and there are still some small issues with the game, such as the inability to walk in all eight directions. Not only is the four way system archaic, it's just flat out annoying that I have to walk two spaces just to talk to someone who's facing me diagonally. Okay, well, there's only one issue I can find with the game, and it's not that important either. My bad.
Even though I'm not the biggest fan of the series, I have to admit that Pokemon D/P totally rocks, primarily because of the online features. I've always felt that the series was a little before its time, but now with the advent of wireless online play, being able to catch 'em all has never been so easy, or so addicting.
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