Pokémon Platinum Comments by Dan Pearson

Not catching them all is wrong! You have to! Catch them all good sir.

There aren't many reasons to buy a DS and this game doesn't seem to change that fact.

There are plenty of reasons to buy a DS, though I agree this is hardly a console seller alone. But it is a great game for Pokenoobs.

This took it's time to come out... Diamond and Pearl are sooo 2007.

I'd hope that this is the last in the series to follow the rigid Gameboy formula. I'd like to see a reinvention of the series for the next ones, but somehow I feel I'll be disappointed.

A word of warning for parents thinking of this for youngsters. Pokemon is hugely text heavy and featues an overly long setup process before you get to do anything on your own. Nobody ever seems to mention this.

Meh, newbies to Pokemon should wait til they remake Silver and Gold [now confirmed!]. They remain the best.

There aren't many reasons to buy a DS

AHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh god wow, you people are really getting desperate.

Sooo... Time to get Pearl or Diamond for pennies then?

Finally gave Pokemon a go with Diamond.

It's shit.

@Murbal

It'll never happen. Pokemon games always command a decent price, even second hand :*(

They still want 25 quid for the GBA one in CEX.

chinpokomon: gotta buy it gotta buy them all.

@AphoticCosmos


Confirmed? Really? That is pretty awesome, Gold and Silver were the best, 250 was a perfect number, and it was before things got far too complicated.

I wonder if anyone has ever legitimatly caught every single Pokeman. Back in the original days, 150(1) was a tough goal, but not impossible. But I can't imagine anyone being able to do it now, without cheating.

@nic

Yup:

http://kotaku.com/5245005/pokemon-gold-a...

There you have it.

Can't wait! Dang when I were a boy Silver dominated my handheld life.

@ Coin-Op

How did you escape from the MASSIVE TOOL box?

Pokémon is always going to be fun for me, I reckon, even if it's only because of how hugerly nostalgic the whole thing is. Pokémon Red was, more or less, my first ever videogame when I was about 7 or 8 and I basically grew up watching the anime, playing the games and swapping the cards. Besides, I think Pearl (which I'm playing atm) is actually pretty objectively fun, too.

Pokemon has gone stale to me.

Red and Blue where by far the best, simple plot, easy to learn gameplay, and just plain fun to play. The forumla of having two games was a great idea I had Blue and my best friend had Red and we would trade and battle every day in the summer holidays.

Silver and Gold, I'd say these where my second fav games, nice amount of new monsters, being able to go back to kanto was also a nice touch.

Sapphire and Ruby. Was not keen on these I completed them but it felt like they were stuffing them with badly designed Pokemon, loads of gimmicks and not enough to make them truely great games.

Diamond and Pearl - I had Pearl, got to the 7th Gym and got bored shitless. To many gimmicks and not enough substance again. The new Pokemon are shite as well.

Let's be honest Nintendo are holding back what we all want deep down, a Pokemon MMO, that would be a step in the right direction.

Or a Pokemon games with all the Pokemon split between two games, so you dont need older games to get them all. As well as all the different maps on one game. Less story and bring back Team Rocket.

There aren't many reasons to buy a DS

I can only assume that you're a fanboy of the new "Boredom Box 5000" I've just invented if you think there aren't many reasons to buy a DS.

Games. Games are the reason to buy a DS.

They are good games but they haven't really changed since the first ones.

Pokemon's a tough series to rate. You can't really change the core mechanics in the same way you can't add terrain and weapons to chess without dramatically altering the basic system. And that's what Pokemon is, at its heart: the video game equivalent to those timeless strategy games.

The "RPG bit" is just an elongated tutorial.

@DFawkes:

No, there really isn't. Apart from the games Nintendo make themselves most titles seem to be half-baked versions of games you might just as well not play at all. I've had a DS myself but I got bored of it after a week.

@Nikanoru:

I missed the joke, please enlighten me what was so funny.

@kazzahdrane:
Games. Games are the reason to buy a DS.

Oh right, thanks for pointing that one out to me Sherlock.

@kazzahdrane:
Games. Games are the reason to buy a DS.


And what games would they be? The only games that I would buy would be Final Fantasy 3 and 4. The rest don't intrest me at all.

@Daryoon

They don't have to change much, but if they did more to improve the feel of the game rather then pack it with badly designed Pokemon. A Pokemon MMO would be huge, it wouldnt be changing the gameplay, just making it different enough rather then just attaching more bells onto it as it is.

"They are good games but they haven't really changed since the first ones."

They have - just not when it comes to the main adventure. The combat system has evolved a lot since the Red and Blue days.

Anyway, this is just Nintendo's usual attempt to exploit the Pokemon fanbase by selling them the same game they bought for the same system not two years ago. As good as it may be, no amount of tweaks and enhancements can justify a purchase if you already own D/P. Yet it will sell millions.

@mr_writer:

To be fair, I did like the Zelda game even if it was too easy and I think I would enjoy the Super Mario games again. That's about it. The rest of the lot is not up to par by a longshot.

This is the first Pokemon game I have ever played, and I'm rather enjoying it so far.

Glad you're liking it Toonster, I'd have thought it be ideal for people like you that haven't played a Pokemon game. I am jealous you'll have those extra bits and pieces to play, but I'm not paying anoher Ł30 for them!

I've not even finished Diamond, I'm still grinding a lower level Pokemon to the same level as the rest of my team. Then I get easily distracted by a bit of Advance Wars, or a bit more of Suikoden, or tending plants in Animal Crossing, and before I know it I've forgotten my mission to as they say, "Catch 'Em All!". I'm not fussy about having all of them, just the ones that look awesome :)

levitate

ignored for bein too fukken stupid

Huh?

WOW! Something as powerful as the N64 with the graphics of a SNES!

I know that it's not al about eye-candy but come ON.

Well, for one thing this new generation of Pokemon games led me to Bulbapedia and a new word: *shipping. Pokeshipping, for example. If you have sanity, you do not know what this means. Trust me, keep it that way. Do not research the meaning of *shipping on Bulbapedia.

'WOW! Something as powerful as the N64 with the graphics of a SNES!'

The game looks a lot better than an SNES game. Granted, the lay-out looks the same as all previous Pokemon RPGs, but the environment does use a lot of 3D, particularly for buildings. It's sort of like a cross between Animal Crossing and Advance wars DS in terms of the graphics department.

One day someone in the know will include details on the eugenics side of things (IVs, EVs, egg moves, et al), and explain just how intricate the Pokémon games are.

For older players, there's more on offer here than simply collecting and levelling up to level 100. If only people knew.

They're still making pokemon games?

I gave Pearl a go when it came out after owning Silver and Red+Blue before it, but the whole formula just felt so old and boring I traded it in after 8 hours or so.

I still don't get the really deep stuff of Pokemon, like EV training. I get the concepts, but it's just a tad too far for my simple tastes. I go as far as making sure I've got the type advantage, and making sure I've grinded more, but there's a whole lot of depth past that like the stuff Skye listed, or making sure you know whether Physical or Special attacks are better suited for that opponent. It's good, is what I'm going for :)

"levitate: No, there really isn't. Apart from the games Nintendo make themselves most titles seem to be half-baked versions of games you might just as well not play at all. I've had a DS myself but I got bored of it after a week."

And here we have exhibit A for complete ignorance.

*Feels like a nerd pointing out they misspelled Togepi in the article.* Also, Platinum is pretty much the definitive version of Pokémon (as of yet, at least :D). Okay I'm a self-confessed PokéManiac, but I gladly paid out for it even after investing 400+ hours in Diamond and completing my dex. The changes to Plat may be minor, but there's so many of them it's a pleasure to play. Just little cosmetic things here and there, extra appearances from NPCs, the addition of more Pokémon to the Sinnoh dex. Why doesn't anyone ever mention the writing of Pokémon games? Especially Looker and some of the Galactic goons in this one, the script seems very tongue-in-cheek in places. I agree with some above posters too. For a 'kids' game, it's incredibly complex if you let it be.

@varsas:

Please explain how that is "complete ignorance"? With the amount of crap games that have been released for the DS the last year or so there really isn't much to chose from, and it certainly doesn't motivate me to own a DS to play games on it.

It's fine by me if you enjoy playing Cooking Mama, Pokemon or whatever else there is but I don't and I would hardly call that "ignorance" from my side.

Well, DS games wise I enjoyed "The World Ends With You" immensely. The aforementioned Zelda as well. Disgaea is another game I wasted too much time on. "Hotel Dusk" is also good imo and different from most games you see around these days.

Yes, there is plenty of dross for sale for it but there are also plenty of games I enjoyed. The major thing that annoys me is that you tend to find far more of the franchised cash-in dross than the small gems on the store shelves.

You're always going to get massive amounts of shite with a popular machine. It's unavoidable. That doesn't mean there aren't loads of great games available as well.

I bought Pearl after not playing Pokemon in many many years. I really enjoyed it and after getting hooked again I started diving into the deep aspects of it (effort values, EV training, breeding etc). The game isnt designed for kids, as once you delve deeper it gets rediculously complicated. I will pick this up tommorrow as its not full price as far as I can see. Its 25 euro cheaper than Pearl and Diamond in work :D, untill price changes on the older ones tommorrow Im guessing.

As someone said earlier changing the formula in Pokemon just wouldnt work, as for those who didnt enjoy it or traded it in afetr a few hours, I fear you will never enjoy the games, as the real joy comes from breeding and training a beast of a pokemon after reading into the mechanics of the game :) oh well
Guess I need to think of an excuse when Im buying it again.... erm.. its for my little cousin ... I swear.

Stil when some dude sees a 25 year old (me) playing Pokemon on the train its still a bit embarrassing. lol