"Yeah, you might be able to catch them all..."

If, that is, you bought every prior version of the games, and attended the "events" to get the special Pokemon, and got the Pokemon Colosseum bonus disc from Japan, and... Need I go on? Well, yes, I do, and I'll do so in my "Tilt" section at the end of the review. For now, let's hit the basics:

Gameplay (10/10)

It's everything you've come to expect from Pokemon, with a ton more added on the side. Besides catching, battling, and evolving your Pokemon, you can enter them in contests, which have been revamped for this version. You can mix a kind of food called "Poffins" to enhance your Pokemon's performance in the contests, and even making the Poffins is a minigame in itself. You can dig underground for fossils, special items, and gems (which can be traded to merchants underground for other items), and create a secret base to play capture the flag with friends. You get an item called the "Poketch", which is effectively a programmable digital watch that you constantly upgrade with new applications, some helpful and some totally useless.

But by FAR the best gameplay advance is the wireless functionality, and is what sold me on the game. You can now battle and trade all over the globe, and by using friend IDs you can even use the DS microphone to talk over the Wi-Fi connection. The trading system is simply awesome, and doesn't even require your DS to stay on. You simply choose a Pokemon to trade, say what you're willing to trade it for, and upload it to the server. All you have to do from there is wait for somebody to trade you for it, and when they do, you'll receive their Pokemon the next time you connect.

Graphics (06/10)

Easily the most disappointing part of the game (besides it being nigh-impossible to catch them all, that is), these graphics look like they're pulled right out of the GBA era. There are 3d effects thrown in, but largely the game is 2d. I normally love well-done 2d graphics, but the poor sprite scaling, the limited animations, and the general lack of any "Wow" factor mean that this game scores below average in the graphics department. It's not an ugly game by any means, but given Nintendo's capabilities (both in hardware and game design) it's a bit disappointing to see one of their flagship series represented in such an unimpressive manner.

Sound (07/10)

I rarely listen to the sound of a game unless it's vital to the gameplay, since I almost always have my own music playing. While this is no exception to that rule, the sound is pretty solid. Each Pokemon has its own cry, all the moves sound appropriate, and the music is decent enough. Still, I recommend just putting on a CD instead and keeping the volume low (since the sound effects are louder than the music) or off. Handheld sound has never been that great anyway.

Story (N/A)

Honestly, nobody plays a Pokemon game for the story. "Fill your Pokedex" blah blah "Defeat the Elite Four" etc. If you don't fast-forward through most of it, I imagine it's kinda boring. Under other circumstances I'd give it a 1 or a 2, but really, the story is a non-factor in my evaluation of the game, since it's practically inconsequential as far as enjoying the game goes.

Tilt (02/10)

Now, to understand why I'm so irritated/upset by this game, we need to talk about the Pokemon games of the past.

The history of the Pokemon games has seen them become more and more difficult, not in the main quest, but in the ability to legitimately catch every Pokemon. Red and Blue allowed for this, even entirely within the games, since the only "uncatchable" Pokemon, Mew, was able to be glitched into battle using some quick timing and knowledge of the exploit. Even without that, only 150 Pokemon were said to exist, and so the lack of Mew didn't do much to detract from a feeling of completion. Sure, you needed a friend or another Gameboy and a copy of the game, but you could legitimately catch/trade 150 Pokemon, even as a casual gamer.

However, as time wore on, it became more and more difficult to get every Pokemon. More "uncatchable" Pokemon came into play, and there are also legendary Pokemon which came once per game under very difficult circumstances. Two legendary Pokemon, Ho-oh and Lugia (which were previously available in the Gameboy games Gold and Silver, respectively) became available on the GBA generation of games *ONLY* by linking one of the GBA games with the Gamecube games Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD.

Now, in Diamond and Pearl, you *must* have a great deal of earlier games to complete your Pokedex. Some Pokemon only appear in the wild when one of the GBA games is inserted into the GBA slot, and both the starter and legendary Pokemon of each game are only available by transferring them in from the GBA games. Obviously, since Ho-oh and Lugia are legendary, and the only way to get them on the GBA games is through the aforementioned Gamecube method, that means you'll need an excessive amount of gameplay time before you're even close to completing your Pokedex. Even if you're willing to skip the legendary Pokemon, you must have the cartridges themselves to encounter some Pokemon in game.

And that's the real problem here. Catching them all is no longer a task that can be carried out by one person with two systems and the two game versions, or even a small group of friends. Yes, the Wi-Fi trading will help, but it's doubtable that people will be trading their legendary Pokemon for your trash ones, unless theirs are hacked versions, in which case the entire spirit of collecting them all is ruined anyway, since you could've cheated for them yourself.

Collecting every Pokemon legitimately (not including the various "uncatchable" types that have been introduced) is nothing short of an epic undertaking requiring you to beat many of the previous games, as well as own the older systems to play them on. It's no wonder that the slogan has ceased to be "gotta catch 'em all." You don't "gotta", and it's a miracle if you can do it at all.

The game also makes you want to bug your friends to buy it by making many activities only possible (or at least better) if you have friends playing wirelessly near you. The underground caves and Poffin making only get better when you have multiple players, and so it can feel like a bit of the gameplay is removed if you don't have others around to play with. On the flipside, though, the features that were previously most missed when playing solo (battling and trading) are now available through Wi-Fi, and so there really isn't any core gameplay missing from the solo experience. Still, it would've been nice to be able to use all of these features online, instead of just a select few.

Conclusion

There is a lot to like about this game. The great gameplay of the series is intact, and Wi-Fi means you can stick it to players all across the globe, or be able to get all the 150 Pokemon in the Sinnoh Pokedex without having a friend who owns the other version. The graphics are at least an improvement on the GBA versions (even if they don't seem too far removed from them) and the new gameplay additions are fun diversions from the normal battle grind. On the opposite end, a great deal of content is missing if you aren't a diehard Pokemon fan, and completing the entire Pokedex (if you include the "uncatchable" Pokemon) is an almost impossible feat. A great deal of the challenge and charm of the early games is missing because of this impossibility, but if you're willing to overlook that and simply enjoy the content the game does offer alone, then you'll be in for an enjoyable time.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/16/07