[DS] How do you get 3,000 pikachus on a bus? POKEMON!

Well, these games are turning out nicely. I never expect major graphical leaps in my handheld games, so this 3D look is nice. If you compare this to R/G/B/Y/G/S/C/R/S/E/Fr/Lg it's a significant step up.

While animations would've been nice, doing so for the 300+ pokemon available would be too much, so getting the day-night cycle is good enough for me.

And coliseum battles? I like the gameboy iteration battles far better, unless you want each encounter to last 8 minutes.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Freelance Wolf

Seconded. I didn't like the fact none of the monsters actually touched each other. They run just a short way and then magically 'hits' the opponent. That's just lame.

What I've always thought would be absolutely fantastic would be a console pokemon game that was more like the gameboy versions. I'm talking about animated 2-D pokemon art, etc.. But in this age of 3D, this is increasingly becoming a pipe dream.

Oh, one last thing. I've always been interested in seeing the starter pokemon in each new addition and this one is no different.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Info time guys (btw, props to whomever is representing Paper Mario):

Originally Posted by Serebii.net

- September 28th, 2006 is the release date (PSP goodbye)
- Legendary Pokémon are Diarugu (for Diamond) and Parukia (for Pearl)
- Diarugu is a time ruling Pokémon, Parukia is a space ruling Pokémon
- Chieriumu is the pink flower thing, Pachirissu is the blue squirrel, and Dorapion is the purple rock snake thing
- The new evil team is Team Galaxy

Here's some more scans:

http://img23.imagevenue.com/img.php?...size_473lo.jpg
http://img131.imagevenue.com/img.php...size_356lo.jpg
http://img120.imagevenue.com/img.php...size_469lo.jpg
http://img102.imagevenue.com/img.php...size_581lo.jpg
http://img24.imagevenue.com/img.php?...size_419lo.jpg
http://img12.imagevenue.com/img.php?...size_415lo.jpg
http://img152.imagevenue.com/img.php...size_395lo.jpg


And here's some more information from Serebii.net. Looks like they shafted Tamanta given that's it's both water and flying (phail with electric).

Quote:

-Cherimu is a Grass Type Pokémon. Classification of Sakura Pokémon. It has a brand new ability called Flower Head which powers itself and any teammates up when Sunny Day is in effect. It has an attack called Trouble Seed. This attack changes the foe's ability to Insomnia temporarily.
-Pachirisu is an Electric Type Pokémon. Classification of Electric Squirrel Pokémon. It has either Run Away or Pick Up for it's abilities. It knows Thunderbolt/
-Dorapion is a Poison/Dark Type Pokémon. Classification of Changeable Scorpion Pokémon. It has either Battle Armor or a new ability called Snipe which increases the base value of an attack during critical hit. It knows Poison Fang. It has an attack called Cross Poison. This attack has a high chance of Critical Hitting and Poisoning.
-Tamanta is a Water/Flying Type Pokémon. It's Abilities are Swift Swim and Water Absorb.
-Perappu is now a Normal/Flying Type Pokémon. It's abilities are Keen Eye & a new Ability called Unstable Gait which allows for evasion to increase when confused.
-Lucario's second ability is called Humble Heart which increases Lucario's speed when flinched. Lucario has a new attack called Wave Guiding Bomb. It's a Fighting Type Attack. Lucario also knows Detect & Quick Attack.
-Munchlax has an attack called Nature Spurt which used the berry Munchlax may be holding to change the strength and type of an attack.
-Weavile has an attack called Freeze. This attack disables the hold item that the opponent has.
-Buizeru has an attack called Aqua Jet. This attack always hits first.
-Evil Team is Team Galaxy who are stealing Pokémon everywhere and trief to befriend the professor.
-Seperate rival other than the other gender. He is your childhood rival and although he is sometimes rash, he helps you along the way.
-Bottom of Pokémon Center is for WiFi features which utilise Friend Codes.
-Bottom Screen during battles confirmed for Menus.
-In Battle, the bag is organised as thus: HP/PP Recovery, Pokéballs, Status Recovery, Battle Use .

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Winter? No way, chances are it'll be released around the same time that Fr/Lg hit the states. Marchish, no?

How ya doing, buddy?

Heh, that's about right. The good thing is, at least we know the general timeframe for these games to be released. Hopefully we have the Black DS lite by then.

Anyone have any special reason for getting one version over the other, regardless of how trivial it may be? Personally, I always pick the one with Sandshrew in it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Here's a promo video/commercial that aired in Japan for Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. Basically it confirms Wi-Fi internet battles. Oh, and check out the yellow spiked pokemon in the video. Electabuzz evolution maybe?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXqZ8TlaaNs

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Stumbling around GAF I found a Pokemon Wiki with quite a few videos, so people can get a better idea of what this game looks like. The commercial's quality is kind of wonky, thanks t youtube.

http://www.pokewiki.de/Pok%C3%A9mon_...d_Pearl/Videos

Here's some artwork of what appears to be the 3 starters. I doubt it though, since one is Water Squirrel, the other is plant and the last one is Rock/Poison. Boxart, too.











FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Shonos

Um, it isn't a water squirrel. It's an electric squirrel. The scorpion thing is poison/dark too. Weren't you the one who posted that info as well? Unless that squirrel is water/electric. >_>

Because I've simply read the info on these guys once or twice, and what stuck out to me was that it was it's color. Don't we already have an water "squirrel" of sorts? You know, Marril and Azumarril? And I could've sworn we had an electric one too (that's not Pikachu).

Quote:

And you never know, they could be the starters. It would be different for them not to go with the normal water/grass/fire starters but in the last games they were not entirely water/grass/fire either. They were combinations. Why not have electric/grass/posion?

Neogin pretty much gave the reason, it'd break the chain we've had for the rest of the series of Fire/Water/Grass. Even as combinations in the last game, they still adhered to that rule. Maybe the reasoning behind these is to throw some variety into training given that your pokemon has a both a larger amount of strengths and weakness because of the dual type (wider range of pokemon to train on, etc..).

How ya doing, buddy?

Yeah, it's been confirmed that you can trade your R/S/E/Fr/Lg pokemon to Diamond/Pearl after meeting certain requirements.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

BTW, the speculation about new starting types is on the money. Here's some new info:

Quote:

Interesting... By playing the Pokémon Garden game on the website on Yahoo I posted earlier, you get some info, which is not yet final decided, but at this time of developement, that's their plan for the game. Let's look at it.

- Startingtypes WON'T be Grass/Water/Fire this time. It'll be another triangle of types, though: Fighting/Dark/Psychic.

- Roselia can evolve now.

- The region, Shinou, has a undergrund-world/base.

- The fighting system has been changed drastically, i.e. the Psychic and Special attacks. Now their type will be based on the actual attack, i.e. ThunderPunch now being Psychical and Hyber Beam being Special. This could make a lot of Pokémon either much stronger or weaker than in the previous games.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

We'll just have to wait and see, but maybe one major motivation behind this shift was to further nerf the Psychic class. They've seen countless revisions so far, but they're still a tad overpowered.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by AliceNWondrland

I hope I don't have to read through four pages of this to find out the following information:

1. When exactly are Pokemon Diamond and Pearl being released; and

2. Will they be for DS only?

1. Probably March 2007, if past releases are any indication. Not to mention this explanation as to why these games are often released in March:

Originally Posted by Vampiro

End of the fiscal year, I believe. It's an easy way to generate a lot of cash before March 31.

2. Grub's already covered this, but the cover art's a page or two back if you're interested in it.

The new attack system sounds odd, and I'd rather have a preview flesh it out before I rate it. Though anything that can boost neglected types/ add more variety to battles/ weaken psychics is welcome news to me.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Freelance Wolf

Sorry. Diamond and Pearl are DS games. They won't work on a GBA/SP. It looks like you can trade your old Pokémon from the GBA games though.

It's not all bad news though, since the price for the older model DS should (or will) drop and it's backwards compatible so you can still play GBA/GBC games along with DS games.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Well, looks like I stuck my damn foot in my mouth. I took the backwards compatibility thing a bit too far (not to mention GB and GBC cartridges have different voltage requirements when compared to GBA or DS titles).


Anyway, back to the subject of pokemon. This new trio will make the first part of the game interesting, or at least more so than the previous titles. We'll see more pokemon sooner of types that you normally see towards the end that have already evolved, and it should also give the gyms a new twist.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Not to mention the pokemon types in the early areas could be switched from the typical normal and flying types to others in order to avoid having the starters run them over.

New info on the starters, straight from Serebii.net

Quote:

* Lucario knows the attacks Metal Sound, Bone Rush and two new attacks; Force Excert otherwise known as Hakkei, a Fighting attack that does damange and Anticipate, an attack that if the opponent uses an offensive move, Lucario will attack first and at 1.5 times the power of the opponent's attack.

* Mime Jr. knows Psybeam, Mimic and a new attack called Manekko which is like Mimic but weaker. It's ability is a new ability called Filter. This ability cuts the power of any attacks used against Mime Jr. by half if the attacks have any additional effects.

* Dorapion knows 4 brand new attacks; Dokubushi which translates as Poison Barb, a powerful Poison attack and three new attacks likely to be known around the community as elemental fangs; Fire Fang, Ice Fang & Thunder Fang, it is likely that these attacks will be similar to the Poison Fang attack in power and effect rates.

FELIPE NO

All you'd need to do is look at the other art for Diamond/Pearl. Things like Buizeru, Lucario and so on don't look like that. Maybe it's because these might be starters, but they look unbelievably plain. All have the same round-ish look to them and a a general half-assed look.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by DarkDraco911

Will any pokemon from past games be involved??

This is answering both of the above posts: We'll likely see the same thing we've seen before. Most pokemon from the previous games will be available in both, with a few notables being available in one or the other only (example: Sandshrew, Oddish, Bellsprout, etc..). Won't this bring up the number of total pokemon to ~450ish?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Scans showing the 3 starters have shown up on the internet. Looks like they stuck to the F/W/G combo of old. Oh, and the evolutions of Electabuzz and Roselia have been revealed as well. From left to right, here are there names: Naetoru, Hikozaru & Bocchama.

http://img131.imagevenue.com/img.php...9996_447lo.jpg

http://img108.imagevenue.com/img.php...1580_500lo.jpg

http://img141.imagevenue.com/img.php...7577_308lo.jpg

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Well, I'll wait and see what the other pokemon look like before I come to any conclusions on their appearances. All I'm hoping for is pokemon that don't look as unbelievably bland as those in R/S/E.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Yeah, a lot of folks like the fire monkey and others just want to use it to get the inevitable King Kong final evolution.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Here's some more info on the games, straight from the pages these scans came from:

Originally Posted by Coro Coro

-- The Underground world of Shinou mentioned before appears to be a co-operative area where you link up with a friend (Over Wireless and WiFi) and search for items and Pokémon, tackling puzzles enroute. Fossils are primarily found here

-- The underground area is also where the secret bases are situated and there is a game called Flag Retrieval. Each person has a flag in their secret base and when connected you need to go to your friends base and retrieve their flag. There are Rocks and Leaves and many other traps that can slow you down or stop you on that route

-- The Battle Tower makes a return with global WiFi battling in a special WiFi Battle Room

-- There is a Global Trade Station where you can meet up with people online around the globe and trade with people.

Currently it is unknown if the Global Trade Station & Battle Tower require Friend Codes, but considering there is a WiFi Center in each Pokémon Center, it is likely that these are random battles & trade hunts

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...Animemanga.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...ashi/manga.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...ndershinou.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...i/Startoys.jpg

I was speaking idiomatically.

Well, we've got a 3 minute long video of Diamond/Pearl in action and it looks pretty good. The effects are nice, as is the animation for the pokemon when you meet them in the wild. There's mention of single player battles over Wifi along with dual pokemon battles and mini tourneys (8 player max). AFAIK, no friend codes are required/needed.

BTW, Download the WMV (2nd link) since it looks a tad better than the quicktime one.

http://n-touch.dk/index.php?nyhed=1606

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Neogin

Wo0t! The U.S. date of Pokemon has been revealed! At the 10th Anniversary Event, a 2007 Spring release date has been confirmed.

As expected, given that they usually come around before the fiscal year is up, IIRC.

FELIPE NO

Manafi is a Pokemon Ranger exclusive pokemon, AFAIK. You have to trade him/her over to Diamond/Pearl to get it. Tamanta, the sting rayish thing is a pre-evo of the manta ray in R/S/E.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by RockgamerXIII

I believe you're talking about Mantine, which first appeared in G/S/C.

My God, I guess that's a testament to how utterly forgettable that thing was (stats and appearance).

Jam it back in, in the dark.