Have you seen my Pokemon?
A few months ago the latest iteration of the Pokemon hit stores for the Nintendo DS. It has two versions: Diamond and Pearl. For those that have missed the general Pokemon plot, it goes something like this: “Gotta catch them all!” The anthemic slogan from the show is the pretty much the plot of the game. Yes, there is some small details that go into the mantra of a game. For example, you have to collect badges to move into the next area of the game. You have a rival, who is try to do the capturing first and you must beat him to the capture. There is a slight plot of other trainers wanting to do nefarious things with their captured pokemon. And that’s about it.
Don’t scoff about the lack of plot. Really does anyone play Nintendo games for the story? C’mon! Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, and etc have none or little story. It’s all about the game play! Normally, the game has a gentle learning curve, with a built in tutorial, and hidden challenges, and a wonderful control scheme. Pokemon resides in the great house that Nintendo built. It has these same qualities.
The reality is, if you haven’t played Pokemon this is the best version yet. You owe yourself the favor to playing this addictive franchise. It gives players more highs than a crack house, and a meth lab combined. It has the simple joy of catching a new pokemon. There is nothing like waking up early to explore an area to see if you missed catching any morning pokemon. Hours will go by as you just need to catch an ellusive pokemon you glimpsed at earlier, but failed to bag. There is a thrill of learning new techniques that will open up previous areas, and finding an abundance of new pokemon to catch. The excitement of leveling up pokemon to see if they evolve into newer and more powerful versions of themselves. The strategy of defeating the trainers, as they act as mini bosses in the game. The game eats up time, and is highly fetching.
The only problem with the game is its staleness. If you have played previous versions of Pokemon, you’ve played this one. Yes, it’s a new world and you start off with different Pokemon than the ones of yore. It also does have the newer features introduced in subsequent sequels, like sexes, time, and later in the game, breeding. Yet, it does have that feeling of sameness with some of other entries in the series.
There are some new features though, like the evolving Pokewatch. The game makes it easy to trade using the Wi-Fi capabilities already built into the DS. In order to catch all the pokemon, you must trade with someone who has the other other version of Pokemon. So if you have Pearl, you need to trade with someone who has Diamond, or vice-versa. Players get to choose their control schemes, you can either utilize the DS touchscreen or the original settings. I recommend opting out and using the original controls. The touchscreen controls don’t feel intuitive.
If you have played previous Pokemon games to death, I really can’t in good conscience recommend this game. However, if you haven’t played it before, do it. The game is as popular for female or male players. Despite what the cartoons might lead you to believe, the game isn’t just for kids. If only kids get to play captivating games like this, then I want to be a kid.
