Pokemon Diamond/Pearl Released in U.S.

The wait for 'catch-em-all' folks in the US is over; Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are out today. Joystiq and Kotaku have coverage of yesterday's launch party at the Nintendo Store. "There was a station set up to play the card game, manned by adults who were there to teach the game to kids. Finally there was a station where Junichi Masuda, the game director, and Shigeru Ohmori, the game design lead, signed autographs for those old enough to know who they are. It may have been meant to push Pokémon merchandise (the guys at the card station handed out thin packs of cards to every kid who came by) but it also meant there was something for everyone." 1up and Gamespot, meanwhile, are offering up reviews of the game. Both hand it the respectable score of 8.5, saying that it's still a great game experience but dinging the developers for not moving the series forward in any innovative directions.

Comments

So....

[Durrok]

Is it still the same game that I played 10 years ago with just more pokemon? Not that I am interested in playing it again but if I recall correctly that was the only difference between the red, blue, green, etc versions.

Re:errrrr

[Applekid]

The point of milking something is to extract everything you can out of it. The big sales weekend in the US just shows the franchise developers that more innovation isn't quite needed yet.

Fads usually don't last this long, though, so I think it's safe to say that the formula works for a reason. Whoa there, cowboy, no need to add chocolate syrup to that milk just yet.