Introduction

“Gotta Catch em’ all!”…Yes again. The juggernaut of the Pokemon franchise is heading into its 11th year of catching the attention and imagination of kids, teens, and young adults alike. With the release of the much anticipated Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl, we have seen the fastest selling Pokemon title in the U.S. since the original Pokemon, with sales reaching 1 million copies in the first 5 days of its release. Being a fan of the original titles Red and Blue, I was very anxious to open up my own copy of Pokemon: Pearl, not knowing that would lead me into a 9 hour run at the game as I was glued to my DS.

Background

The premise of the game follows closely to that of its predecessors, as it should, but allows for individuality of its own. The story like that of the original follows a boy, and now the addition of choosing a girl, in a quest to fill up a device called a Pokedex that allows for classification of every type and species of pokemon. The nice thing I liked about the new version is that by strictly coming in contact with the Pokemon allows the Pokedex to be updated, whereas before the task of catching the Pokemon was required. Along side of your Pokedex quest you must also grow as a Pokemon trainer by battling other trainers throughout the game. To top it off, there is a group of miscreants called Team Galactic that are trying to use Pokemon to rule the World, and you bet you’re the one to save the day! Following the lines set before it in the original series, Diamond and Pearl contain over 100 new Pokemon, new towns and new characters.