Pokémon Diamond

Q: How do you get Pikachu on a bus?

A: You Pokémon.

Apologies to those who have just endured the mortal embarrassment of groaning over that nineties playground joke, but unfortunately I couldn’t come up with anything better.

Happily Pokémon Diamond is not as bad as the above gag. If truth be told, it is infinitely better, squared by nine to the power of three (with extra awesomesauce).

For those who have already engaged in one of countless GameBoy Pokémon titles available previously (Pokémon Red, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Emerald, or any other conceivable birthstone) you should know the drill. Additionally, all those Pokévirgins out there will be overwhelmed to discover a merchandised world of goods, ranging from trading cards to plush toys and beyond. Fortunately Pokémon Diamond requires no previous knowledge of the wonderful and often weird world of pocket monsters. All you really need is a healthy sense of adventure and a firm backside, because trust me, you’ll be sitting on it for hours on end playing this title.

Diamond is essentially an RPG adventure, incorporating battles, quests and story-telling in one pokéball-sized package. Enhancements from the likes of Sapphire and Ruby are evident, although disappointingly the touch-screen facilities offered by the DS are not utilised as often as they could be.

Your very first Pokémon - given to you by a generous professor - increases in level and ability by battling others. There are also various aids available to use during duels. Some will help heal, some will enhance attacks and some will revive a fainted Pokémon. Of course you won’t find any animals harmed in the making of this article; rather than die, a defeated Pokémon will merely faint. How idealistically cute!

The main aim of the game is to achieve eight medals, gained by travelling to various towns and cities within the map and defeating their respective Gym leaders. There is no shortage of environments to explore, characters to interact with, a large spectrum of Pokémon to catch and a great many tasks to oversee. So much so that it is fairly common to find the hours eaten away by trainer battles and cycling to the nearest Pokémart to stock up on all sorts of useful goodies.

As much as this routine may wear you down from time to time, past Pokémon games have almost always managed to lure the player back again and again, and this is no exception. Just when you think you’ve had enough of wild Zubat’s attacking left right and centre, some exciting event will surface and you’ll fall in love all over again.

And that’s the beauty of Pokémon Diamond; it is everything a good game should be. It incorporates squee-worthy cute visuals, freedom to roam yet subtle guidance when you need it, is accessible to a wide audience and, most importantly, provides hours of addictive game play – and all on a cartridge the size of a coin!