Pokemon Platinum (DS) Review

You've beaten Pokemon Diamond to death, and you've covered every corner of Pearl to the point that you can name every critter in every region. Now it's time to really step up in Pokemon Platinum, the latest in Nintendo's hugely popular role-playing/strategy series. Once again, you're smack dab in the Pokemon-filled region of Sinnoh (like you were in Diamond and Pearl), butting heads with the ne'er-do-wells in Team Galactic and trying to solve the mystery surrounding the strange Distortion World. While you're at it, you're researching a unique new class of Pokemon known as Giratina, a mixture of ghost and dragon types.

There are minor improvements in this game that weren't seen in the previous efforts, including enhanced animations and some fresh new attacks to unleash. The battles, however, are mostly the same. They call an attack, you call an attack and the last person standing wins.

Platinum's coolest feature comes in the form of Distortion World. Here, you can walk along surfaces M.C. Escher style, without having to worry about the rules of gravity. That means you'll walk up and down walls as you seek out the mysterious Giratina and try to figure out how the dreaded Team Galactic is involved in all this. Our only concern is that it takes a few hours into the game before you even reach the World. Fortunately, the game offers enough side quests and missions to distract you, along with a few other things.

Pokemon Platinum lets you organize your Poke-army any way you see fit. There are some old favorites here, along with a few new transformation abilities. At one point, we even saw one that had the power to transform into a lawnmower.

Fans will love Battle Frontier, which first appeared in Pokemon Emerald. It's a huge training facility where you engage in side missions and tournament challenges with other Pokemon trainers, so you can brush up on your skills. This is a nice place to be, although you might want to be careful if you haven't learned all the classes and abilities yet. Thank goodness you still have access to a Pokedex to keep track of it all.

Overall, the quest is good, but mainly for Pokemon fans. It seems custom built for those who really know this territory inside and out, although newcomers shouldn't have a problem learning the ropes and essentially becoming Poke-pros. The later boss battles with the hardcore Pokemon trainers will put you to the test, but if you come prepared, you should be able to score a victory. The presentation holds together well for the most part, even if nothing (aside from the twisted Distorted World) blows your mind.

Fans will also enjoy Battle Recorder. This is essentially a replay function, so you can save your biggest battles and play them back for friends, either to rub it in their faces or to get a better idea of strategy for the next fight. No, it's not a revolutionary feature, as most games already do this. (Hello, Madden?) It is a neat addition, however, and allows users to upload and download videos at will through Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection.

As far as Wi-Fi goes, there's also an online supported center where you can interact with other users. It's somewhat limited in terms of battling, however. You have to register codes with others and then fight. This somewhat kills the momentum (especially the code-entering), but players will probably feel more accustomed fighting people they know anyway. Along with that, you can trade Pokemon with others, engage in three Pokemon-related mini-games (including an activity where you can pump balloons with a Wobbuffet) and take in a nice fireworks show and Pokemon parade.

Pokemon Platinum is probably the most elaborate entry of the series, thanks to its involving storyline with the Distortion World, its Wi-Fi-supported features and its addictive gameplay. Sure, it feels familiar, but thanks to its new additions, Nintendo earns the game's Platinum status.