Remember the good old days when gaming was cheap and simple primary colors like red and blue made us happy? But being the vigilant consumers that we are, before we knew it, we'd upped the ante to gold and silver and ruby and sapphire. Now what to we get? Diamonds. Freakin' diamonds. Buying a light RPG has become the cultural equivalent to getting engaged. At least this means the Pok mon arms race may finally come to an end.

Pok mon Diamond and Pearl are the series' first real foray on the DS. Already a huge hit in Japan, there is no question that bajillions of copies will sell in America. But we don't care about sales charts around these parts (true only because it rhymes). All we need to know is if the game any good. Hit the jump to find out the answer in our Frankenreview—plagiarism that's A-OK.

Pocket Gamer UK
Pok mon Diamond (and Pearl)...mimic their predecessors' graphical style to the point where, early on, they're almost indistinguishable from a Game Boy Color game. Even when the environments start to lift into the third dimension, it never approaches the quality of comparable DS titles. The pok mon themselves retain their...but the lack of any battle animations is pretty galling considering the hardware the game's running on.

Game Daily
In the single-player mode, gamers tired of the franchise probably won't find enough new content to warrant a purchase, but Pokemon loyalists will be drawn in by sweet touches...the ability to dress-up Pokemon, a Super Contest that allows people to compete in Visual Dance and Acting competitions, and a day/night cycle that encourages around-the-clock play in order to locate all of the Pokemon.

Nintendo World Report
Relatively early in the game, the coolest new feature becomes available; the Global Trade Center. Players can make Pokemon available for trade and state their minimum requirements for that exchange. Did you pick Piplup as your starter but wish you could have a Chimchar too? Chances are someone who picked Chimchar is having a similar thought... [and] you'll get your wish in only a few hours.

1up
Diamond and Pearl feature a fantastic array of multiplayer options. You can do the standard one-on-one battles, sure — but you can also link up for double-team fights, too. You can explore the vast Sinnoh underworld and play capture the flag... Being on DS affords the ability to play wirelessly, a huge relief after the Game Boy family's clumsy and unreliable link cables. More importantly, the wireless battles can be linked across the Internet — which tends to be laggy, but not unforgivably so...

Game Revolution
Is it just me, or does anyone else find the whole process of catching Pokemon and training them to become your own personal militia slightly disturbing? Everyone in the game acts as though the little beasties should be happy to help us otherwise defenseless humans, but honestly, how could that be? I mean, how would you feel if you were minding your own business, walking through the tall grass, and some kid showed up and beat you to within an inch of your life, then imprisoned you in a tiny sphere and only let you out to fight against his enemies - including your own brothers and sisters?!

So who our there has been jonesing for some new Pok mon? (Sorry, I really meant that sincerely, I just never got into the franchise.) Mark Wilson

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