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Pokemon Preview – Nintendo DS
Fri, 1st Jun 2007
FYI, this story is more than a year old

This month Game Console has the beloved Pokemon on our cover.  I took a brief look at two of the upcoming Pokemon games for the Nintendo DS – Pokemon Diamond version and Pokemon Pearl version.

If you’re a Pokemon fan you’ll definitely be in for a treat with Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Since the cartridge we had was only the demo, we couldn’t go very far with the game but we can tell you that the game follows the same template that makes the Pokemon characters and games so much fun.

You begin with a character that is adventuring around the city and starts off heading towards a cave. Of course, every character you meet along the way is an interaction waiting to happen – all you have to do is approach each character and talk, it’s that easy. Once you interact with the character you might end up being challenged to a Pokemon fight or you might be given something to help you along the way to make the journey easier.

The controls on the DS were easy to use with the directional pad controlling movement. When you fight you need to engage your stylus to read through the dialogue and begin the fight, choosing your Pokemon and special attack. And as always, you gain experience points with every challenge you win.

We think this game will really appeal to fans of Pokemon and to gamers who like simplistic game play with a little adventure and that special Pokemon appeal. I’d recommend this game for younger players but anyone could play Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.

I look forward to previewing this game once the preview code is available.