Once again, you begin the game as a nondescript Pokemon trainer, starry-eyed and eager to take on the world with your fledgling abilities. Choose the kitted-up male or female trainer, and hit the Sinnoh region with all your might. The standard, musty old Pokemon Professor will bestow your first Pokemon and Pokedex upon you, and also reveal some little punk kid who, as is the Poke-norm, will act as your “rival” throughout the course of the game. Nobody really bothered to fill D&P with a story – it’s almost insultingly similar to every other Pokemon game out there. Catch a bunch of Pokemon, collect badges in each town, thwart some lame plans of an evil organisation, and then take on the Pokemon League. It’s pretty much the same story here, only bigger, better and more fun in almost every way.
Given that we’ve had years of Pokemon games up for grabs, the list of crafty critters has expanded in no small exponent since the first 151. Up for collection in your full Pokedex are 493 Pokemon, spanning all games. That’s great, right?
Wrong.
The life of a Pokemon is tough, and full of peril.
Just because 493 Pokemon can theoretically be obtained, it doesn’t mean Nintendo want to make it easy for you. In fact, the main game only contains 150 Pokemon for starters, and the rest need to be collected by actually completing the main quest (and unlocking extra areas, Pokedex entries – but that’s a secret for now), or trading and uploading existing Pokemon from the older GBA games like Emerald. It’s fine to have a few technological goals out there, with a bit of cross-platform functionality, but making around three quarters of the available Pokemon completely inaccessible for the players who just want to play D&P? It’s a really, really poor effort. If more Pokemon were included in the main game from the beginning, we wouldn’t have a bunch of players running around with the same team – beware future Nintendo Wi-Fi gatherings, as your super cool team won’t seem so unique.
Here’s an example of the pitiful Poke-variety. At one point, over 25 hours into the adventure, a trainer was encountered with three Pokemon. Those three Pokemon were all Geodudes. Snore. After said battle, the surrounding tall grass contained more Geodude battles. Yawn. Geodudes and Kriketunes are like cockroaches, filling the void of what could easily have been any one of the hundreds of other great Pokemon in Nintendo’s catalogue. Then we really get into the dregs – a battle against five Magikarps. Not only are they useless Pokemon (they can’t actually attack), they give terrible experience points; so much so it’s not even worth your time to select an attack.
Every fully-fledged Pokemon game has sported a top-down, four-directional look, aiming for maximum ease of playability. Despite the advanced DS hardware, this look remains largely intact for D&P. This isn’t a major drawback for the core Poke-gameplay (though eight-directional movement would have been nice), but the potential for a graphical showcase apparently hasn’t been explored. The buildings are rendered in 3D, but given the top-down camera angle, this is barely noticeable. Everything else seems to be pulled straight from the GBA assets folder and rammed on in. A few sparkly battle animations can surprise the player, but the combat still features static sprites that wiggle and wobble their way around in a poor attempt to mimic what might have possibly been “Thunder Fang” or “Giga Impact”. Needs more impact there, chaps.
Dual-screen functionality is bodacious.
You’ll find the battle system is also pretty identical to previous games. Six Pokemon can be in your active party at any given time (storage of the rest is handled by the PC system), and the first in the lineup will be sent out when you stumble upon a wild Pokemon or challenging Trainer. It’s a one-on-one affair, with each Pokemon taking turns whacking each other until one faints. On rare occasions, a double-team of Trainers will hit you up, resulting in a two-on-two battle, but these are few and far between. Pokemon can still only know four moves at any one time, and can forget an older move to make way for a new one (gained by levelling up or by using a Technical Machine). Hidden Machine moves (those which assist with overcoming physical obstacles which hinder your progess) can’t be forgotten on the fly, so be prepared for the classic frustration of having too little space, and too many HM moves clogging up your valuable Pokemon ability sets.
Gone are the days of link cables. The DS now packs a serious punch in worldwide connectivity, and enables players from pretty much anywhere to battle and trade. The Global Trade Station is a fairly limited system, given you have to specifically choose which Pokemon you want to trade, and the exact type of Pokemon you want for it. Pokemon not in your current Pokedex are unavailable, and as mentioned, the wild Pokemon selection simply is not good enough – so don’t expect to pick up a Pikachu as easily as you would like. The GTS is also plagued by hacked Pokemon, meaning you can trade just about anything and receive a Level 100 Pokemon without even trying. If you didn’t want it to be hacked, too bad – the Pokemon now lies in your Pokedex as caught, tainting the cartridge you popped in with only honest intentions. Not to worry, though – you can always restart the game if you don’t like the way your team is progressing – but once again, only one save is available per cartridge. We understand Nintendo wants everyone to buy multiple copies to catch-em-all, but we’ve put up with one save slot for too long. Not cool.
Additional Wi-Fi features enable battling and trading with players in your vicinity, as well as a rather cool Underground system. This mode lets you drill beneath the Sinnoh crust and engage in all manner of activities within the labrynthine caves. This includes mining for jewels, decorating your own personal hidey-hole, and getting into all manner of mischief with other Wi-Fi players who sought out the underground depths. The Friend Code system is also implemented for trading and battling, and most Wi-Fi features need to be activated at the various Pokemon Centres dotting the region.
Simple as night and day.
D&P probably has the highest physical size/gameplay value ratio of any game ever made. Such a tiny cartridge, but so much to do! The Sinnoh region is rather large, with secrets areas galore and a giant mountain range running right through the middle. Early on, you’ll be given a Pokeatch, a wristwatch with a display showing on the bottom DS screen. Initially, only a few features will be available, but with time the happy campers of Sinnoh will give you a whole bunch – clocks, Pokemon status guides, maps, berry guides, step counters, item finders…everything is available on the touch screen for a quick reference. All battles functions are fully controllable by thumb-friendly buttons on the touch screen, so no stylus is required for ease of use. Two screens really are better than one, and they fit the Pokemon gameplay extremely well.
Passing a final verdict on this new Pokemon experience is a very difficult task. On one hand, the lack of evolution and clear underperformance of the DS hardware are major setbacks. On the other hand – it’s Pokemon, and it still rocks. D&P is as strong in the gameplay department as any other installment before it, and provides a hugely compelling experience for well over 50 hours. Now that the DS allows for wireless battling and trading, this is the original vision of a core Pokemon game the way it is meant to be played. We can’t keep playing the same game forever, but at least the Nintendo DS has helped realise the true value of the original Pokemon formula.
Got a DS?
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