wraggster
September 29th, 2006, 22:30
Heres an excerpt:
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.
Full Article (http://uk.ds.ign.com/articles/736/736546p1.html)
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.
Full Article (http://uk.ds.ign.com/articles/736/736546p1.html)