GDC 2007: Hands on with Pokemon DS

Both Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl -- the true follow-ups to the immensely popular Pokemon RPG franchise -- will hit the Nintendo DS in late April, so it makes sense that, this close to the release, we're finally seeing an English language build. At Nintendo's booth at the Game Developers Conference, that's exactly what we saw. Sort of. The Pokemon Company threw together an extremely limited demo for show attendees, playable for ten minutes or until you get to the demo's goal. Whichever came first.

In the demo playthrough, we're immediately tossed in Jubilee City in the Sinnoh Region, led through a specific path that will take us, eventually, to a cavern. Before we head off to our adventure, we're handed a Pokemon Watch which displays the time digitally on the lower screen.

However, a brief conversation later we're right into a battle with a trainer ready for the pouncing. Luckily for us, we have level 30 critters at the ready, including Lucario, Roselia, and Mime Jr. The first trainer first tried to take us down with his Buizel and Mantyke, but we stood strong and trounced him easily using the easy to navigate touch-screen interface to toss a few attacks in his direction. The second trainer posed no problem, either. He tossed his whole arsenal of Chatot and Pachrisu at us. Again. No problem. The third trainer brought forth his Kricketot and Cherrim, but again, with such powerful Pokemon in our pockets it was hard not to win.

The demo ends right when we strike up a conversation with the person who's blocking the entrance to the cave. A brief "See you when Pokemon Pearl and Diamond are released" message later and the demo comes to an end. It'll also end if you spend too much time lollygagging in the battles or on the path.

If you haven't been following the development of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, the two games are modest upgrades to the Game Boy Advance titles. Character models, backgrounds, creature designs and other elements mostly consist of skewed 2D sprites and bitmaps, though you might encounter a structure or two that actually pushes the 3D capabilities of the Nintendo DS system. The real hook in the update is the touch screen navigation which, admittedly, makes moving through menus a dream compared to the D-pad/button interface of the previous games.

The final game will feature Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support so that players can battle over the internet. The game will also interface with the upcoming Pokemon Revolution Wii title where players can link their system and copy of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl so they can battle their characters in 3D on the Wii system. That feature was also demonstrated at Game Developers Conference, though the versions used in the demo were entirely in Japanese. The DS and Wii systems synched up quickly and smoothly, and enabled a full touch-screen control of the battles via the connection.

The DS games, already available in Japan since September 2006, will ship in the US on April 22nd. We'll have more on the games in the weeks leading to their release.

via ign