Yes. I know it. I know that this game has been out for ages, and people probably already know if they like it or not. However, I just picked this game up roughly a few weeks ago (borrowed from a friend who didn't care about it anymore), and I must say... Nintendo did some things right, but then they fell back in some areas. The last Pokemon game I played was Pokemon Emerald. I replayed it in order to compare its gameplay to Diamond/Pearl (by taking on a few trainers and getting back into the game).
First of all, the story behind the game hasn't changed in the grand scheme of things. Choose your gender, give yourself a name, choose a starter Pokemon (the same three types, fire, water & grass), then go on a journey to gain all eight gym badges, take on the four elite trainers of the region, then the regional champion. A villainous organization is on the loose again, and it's up to you to take out their dastardly plans. However, one change from the game's actual plot is the new arrival of two ?rivals? as opposed to one in the previous titles. At times, you even battle alongside your rivals to take out bad guys or to achieve a certain purpose, a feat in which no previous game (as far as I know) has achieved. There are also subtle changes from the previous titles, with more RPG-esque side-adventuring, giving more side-plots and stories. In terms of story, it's slightly average, as it doesn't change from the wildly successful story-based plots (and why would they?), but it's still widely compelling for younger audiences, and even slightly ?darker? for more mature audiences as myself. Granted, it's still rather childish, but that's where Pokemon was born, so I'm not expecting anything much to change in that regard.
Let's talk about gameplay. At first, I was aggravated and confused about it. Nintendo changed the fast-paced gameplay mechanics of the Emerald game for the GBA, and made it actually slower. Originally, I thought it was my DS's options that was off, so I changed it to ?fast? settings for battles, only to make a minimal amount of difference, and probably nearly half as slow as Emerald. It took me until nearly halfway through the game to get used to the new slowness, and even now it stills irritates me. Battles are basically unchanged from the previous titles, only having new attacks and animations to differenciate between the two. As usual new Pokemon were added, and several of them were actually rather cute, and I enjoyed them. Others were just ridiculous and had horrible character animations (seriously, a ?beaver??). Others had RIDICULOUS amounts of prerequisites in order to catch, and it took away from the gameplay for me to just finally saw ?screw it? and move on to other more catchable Pokemon. (One such instance required me to talk to 30 people in an underground mini-game that were close enough to me with a DS with another Pokemon Diamond/Pearl game to talk to, only then to go into another region and then catch a one-of-a-kind creature). Seriously, what Nintendo fails to realize is that this game is played by people that don't socialize often (or don't know anyone that owns their game) and gamers are penalized for this. Sure, you could go out and buy an extra DS and extra video game to catch exclusive Pokemon for each game, then trade them to one system, but who actually wants to do that? (However, it does make new sales for Nintendo). However, there are new gameplay elements that make this title worthwhile the annoying parts. A new Wi-Fi based trading and battle system, with a friend code, can allow trainers to trade or battle with anyone around the world. Testing it out, it worked crazy well (as long as your opponent has a good wireless connection), and usually you had good matches (unless you are unlucky enough to fight somebody that hacked their game, giving their Pokemon out-of-game stats), and you usually got good trades (however I was scammed once). The online community makes it all the easier. Marriland and Serribi Pokemon communities ties battlers from around the world together, making the online fanbase easy to access, and make the game all that more enjoyable.
Soundtrack is like the standard Pokemon game. A pretty unique sound for every town, rare pokemon, common pokemon, gym leaders, elite trainers and common trainers. The tunes are repetitive and you feel as though you've heard them before (which you probably have in previous titles), but I must say that a few of them really made me drop my jaw. The battle with the game's final trainer had an AWESOME midi-based tune, and I actually found a metal remix of it online, which turned out to be an amazing MP3 to add to my instrumental collection. You won't be buying the game for the soundtrack, but it's still a nice addition to the game.
Oh, and I know it's one of the DS's biggest functions, but it really didn't play any role in this game. The bottom screen is used for clicking attacks in battles, scrolling through menus in battle, and using a ?Poketch? (Pokemon Watch). The Poketch is actually handy, as it has a built-in game clock and other goodies that you can use to enhance your gameplay experience. However, it's not used to the best of its ability, and is pretty much an afterthought in this title.
Like I stated at the beginning of the review, most gamers already know if they like this title or not. The hard-core gamers are going to pass it by because of it's cuteness, and the casual gamer (which is where I usually place myself in) is not going to want to deal with the tedious micromanaging of each creature. However, I enjoyed the title (flaws and all), and it's obvious to me that it was excellent because I didn't actually have to buy the game (as it was given to me for borrowing), and the Wi-Fi is (for lack of a better word) Friggin Sweet. But, if you have previous titles in the GBA system, there's no reason to buy this, as you've already got the same experience, minus the Wi-Fi. In fact, I liked the gameplay in previous games (Emerald especially) better than this version's. So, it's just up to if you want to shell out some cash for a ?next-gen? video game.
First of all, the story behind the game hasn't changed in the grand scheme of things. Choose your gender, give yourself a name, choose a starter Pokemon (the same three types, fire, water & grass), then go on a journey to gain all eight gym badges, take on the four elite trainers of the region, then the regional champion. A villainous organization is on the loose again, and it's up to you to take out their dastardly plans. However, one change from the game's actual plot is the new arrival of two ?rivals? as opposed to one in the previous titles. At times, you even battle alongside your rivals to take out bad guys or to achieve a certain purpose, a feat in which no previous game (as far as I know) has achieved. There are also subtle changes from the previous titles, with more RPG-esque side-adventuring, giving more side-plots and stories. In terms of story, it's slightly average, as it doesn't change from the wildly successful story-based plots (and why would they?), but it's still widely compelling for younger audiences, and even slightly ?darker? for more mature audiences as myself. Granted, it's still rather childish, but that's where Pokemon was born, so I'm not expecting anything much to change in that regard.
Let's talk about gameplay. At first, I was aggravated and confused about it. Nintendo changed the fast-paced gameplay mechanics of the Emerald game for the GBA, and made it actually slower. Originally, I thought it was my DS's options that was off, so I changed it to ?fast? settings for battles, only to make a minimal amount of difference, and probably nearly half as slow as Emerald. It took me until nearly halfway through the game to get used to the new slowness, and even now it stills irritates me. Battles are basically unchanged from the previous titles, only having new attacks and animations to differenciate between the two. As usual new Pokemon were added, and several of them were actually rather cute, and I enjoyed them. Others were just ridiculous and had horrible character animations (seriously, a ?beaver??). Others had RIDICULOUS amounts of prerequisites in order to catch, and it took away from the gameplay for me to just finally saw ?screw it? and move on to other more catchable Pokemon. (One such instance required me to talk to 30 people in an underground mini-game that were close enough to me with a DS with another Pokemon Diamond/Pearl game to talk to, only then to go into another region and then catch a one-of-a-kind creature). Seriously, what Nintendo fails to realize is that this game is played by people that don't socialize often (or don't know anyone that owns their game) and gamers are penalized for this. Sure, you could go out and buy an extra DS and extra video game to catch exclusive Pokemon for each game, then trade them to one system, but who actually wants to do that? (However, it does make new sales for Nintendo). However, there are new gameplay elements that make this title worthwhile the annoying parts. A new Wi-Fi based trading and battle system, with a friend code, can allow trainers to trade or battle with anyone around the world. Testing it out, it worked crazy well (as long as your opponent has a good wireless connection), and usually you had good matches (unless you are unlucky enough to fight somebody that hacked their game, giving their Pokemon out-of-game stats), and you usually got good trades (however I was scammed once). The online community makes it all the easier. Marriland and Serribi Pokemon communities ties battlers from around the world together, making the online fanbase easy to access, and make the game all that more enjoyable.
Soundtrack is like the standard Pokemon game. A pretty unique sound for every town, rare pokemon, common pokemon, gym leaders, elite trainers and common trainers. The tunes are repetitive and you feel as though you've heard them before (which you probably have in previous titles), but I must say that a few of them really made me drop my jaw. The battle with the game's final trainer had an AWESOME midi-based tune, and I actually found a metal remix of it online, which turned out to be an amazing MP3 to add to my instrumental collection. You won't be buying the game for the soundtrack, but it's still a nice addition to the game.
Oh, and I know it's one of the DS's biggest functions, but it really didn't play any role in this game. The bottom screen is used for clicking attacks in battles, scrolling through menus in battle, and using a ?Poketch? (Pokemon Watch). The Poketch is actually handy, as it has a built-in game clock and other goodies that you can use to enhance your gameplay experience. However, it's not used to the best of its ability, and is pretty much an afterthought in this title.
Like I stated at the beginning of the review, most gamers already know if they like this title or not. The hard-core gamers are going to pass it by because of it's cuteness, and the casual gamer (which is where I usually place myself in) is not going to want to deal with the tedious micromanaging of each creature. However, I enjoyed the title (flaws and all), and it's obvious to me that it was excellent because I didn't actually have to buy the game (as it was given to me for borrowing), and the Wi-Fi is (for lack of a better word) Friggin Sweet. But, if you have previous titles in the GBA system, there's no reason to buy this, as you've already got the same experience, minus the Wi-Fi. In fact, I liked the gameplay in previous games (Emerald especially) better than this version's. So, it's just up to if you want to shell out some cash for a ?next-gen? video game.
