Pokemon Diamond/Pearl Released in U.S. 61
The wait for 'catch-em-all' folks in the US is over; Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are out today. Joystiq and Kotaku have coverage of yesterday's launch party at the Nintendo Store. "There was a station set up to play the card game, manned by adults who were there to teach the game to kids. Finally there was a station where Junichi Masuda, the game director, and Shigeru Ohmori, the game design lead, signed autographs for those old enough to know who they are. It may have been meant to push Pokémon merchandise (the guys at the card station handed out thin packs of cards to every kid who came by) but it also meant there was something for everyone." 1up and Gamespot, meanwhile, are offering up reviews of the game. Both hand it the respectable score of 8.5, saying that it's still a great game experience but dinging the developers for not moving the series forward in any innovative directions.
My impressions. (Score:3, Interesting)
Not that anyone asked for them, but here are my initial impressions on the game...
The last Pokemon game I played which was Pokemon Blue for the old Gameboy Pocket and this game despite being significantly more complex is very reminiscent that game. I have to say I don't agree with the complaints that the game should have been more innovative. Sometimes I don't want a game to be innovative. I want a game to adhere to a tried and true formula which I know I will enjoy. I don't want to feel alienated because the developers decided to completely revamp gameplay. I wouldn't want Pokemon Diamond/Pearl to be some stylus-based puzzle game.
Perhaps if I had played all the Gameboy Color and GBA version I would be asking for something different myself. But there are already plenty of other Pokemon games with differing gameplay styles on the DS.
I like the game. It's got nice vibrant graphics. When traveling around the world environments are subtly done in 3D; it all looks like it's sprite-based, but the environments are all 3D. Another neat thing is that a player can cross the entire world seamlessly. The outside world isn't broken into sections. Interiors and caverns, of course are the exception.
The Pokemon, in fights, don't really look any different than what I've seen of the GBA Pokemon games. The lack of character animations is a slight disappointment. But I can appreciate the amount of production involved in dealing with over 400 Pokemon, especially since some aren't much more than blobs.
The background music is decent. But Pokemon sounds leave a lot to be desired. Most consist of odd digital squawks. When I first encountered some of those sounds I couldn't help but momentarily wonder if those audio clips weren't corrupt.
Fights are entertaining but can get tedious sometimes, especially since Pokemon can be taken down more easily than a player character in most conventional RPGs. Walking through tall grass or caverns can bring an absurdly high number of random encounters. Then there are the jerks who stand around waiting to challenge the player. I like the interface, especially during fights. It's colorful and easy to follow. There are some inconsistencies, however, particularly with the inventory. It's like a different team worked on that aspect of the game.
One thing I've noticed is that this game has longer save times than any other DS game I've played to date. In some cases it even warns that it has to save "a lot of data".
The minor issues aside I do enjoy the game. It does get addicting; I can't help but wonder why Nintendo hasn't considered an MMO version of the series.