Reviews// Pokemon Diamond - by Alfie Bahnan, Aged 10

The first Pokemon game I played was Pokemon Yellow which was the first ever Pokemon game released in England. That was 5 years ago and I have since played all the others in the series, Pokemon Green, Blue and then Red, followed by Pokemon Silver, Gold and Crystal. Soon after came Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. After these came Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green and now the latest in the series being Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.

I was really excited when I first heard that these new games were being released soon, as most of the others have been fantastic - particularly Emerald and Fire Red. Each new series of Pokemon games has new Pokemon characters, and I was very excited about this new game because all of the new Pokemon that were going to be in it looked stronger and cooler. I was also looking forward to the new gameplay using two screens as this is the first Pokemon game for Nintendo DS.

This game is about a kid who starts off his journey across the Sinnoh region of the Pokemon world with his new first Pokemon given to him by Professor Rowan. He is also given his first Pokedex, which stores all the Pokemon he encounters on his journey. He is sent by the Professor to collect Pokemon data for the Professors research. Like all the other games, the idea is to gather as much data and as many Pokemon as possible in order to defeat the Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, who are the strongest of the Gym Leaders.

The graphics are easily the best in the series yet, particularly the 3D effect when walking through towns, as you can now see all the places that you visit as if you were actually walking through it rather than looking down on it. I also thought that the movement of the monsters when battling with them and the effect of the attacks on them was much better than has been in the many previous games. The dual-screen gaming is brilliant because you can carry on watching the battle on one screen whilst deciding which attack to use on the other. In all of the previous Pokemon games you had to stop watching the battle every time you needed to decide which attacks you were going to use next. The sound effects are also ever-so-slightly improved.

Easily one of the best features of this game is the new style Pokemon contest. The Pokemon contest is where all the Pokemon enter a competition and are judged by their different features such as beauty and strength. In the new contests you can dress your Pokemon up and you can place stickers on the poke balls so that your Pokemon gains more beauty points. In this game there is also an underground area which is not in any of the other games. In this area you can make secret bases, which you can decorate and sometimes find special items. If you have other friends who own this game you can play capture the flag with them; the aim of this game is to sneak into your friends secret base, steal their flag and bring it back to your secret base. The new WiFi zone is extremely cool because you can trade with people in different countries. There are loads of new Pokemon in this game I like them all but my favourite is Electivire which is really cool and strong.

As well as all the good features there are a couple of bad points. Firstly I could not save my game when I had already saved one, yet in the other games you could overwrite an existing saved game. This was really frustrating. Secondly like all the other Pokemon games there is too much talking throughout the game. These are only minor points though.

Overall I thought that Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were utterly brilliant.

SPOnG Score: 87% - "definitely the best ones yet"