Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are a pair of role playing games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. These games mark the beginning of Generation IV. It was released in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Pokémon. An enhanced version, Pokémon Platinum was later released and corrects some flaws of the previous two games and makes some changes in the plot.

Remakes of the games, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, were released on November 19, 2021. Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a prequel to these games, was released on January 28, 2022.

Why It Makes You Gotta Catch 'Em All in Sinnoh

 * 1) The new Sinnoh region, which is based on Hokkaido, Japan, is the first to have more varied weather, including snowy regions.
 * 2) *In Platinum, some areas have more snow and characters wear warmer clothing to represent the colder temperatures of Sinnoh.
 * 3) It introduces new evolutions to lots of weak Pokémon from older generations making them more useful.
 * 4) Many new Legendary Pokémon are introduced.
 * 5) Being on the Nintendo DS, the games now allow you to battle and trade online.
 * 6) Higher quality music thanks to the DS' superior sound card.
 * 7) There's an update to the battle mechanics; Moves can now be either physical or special regardless of their type, which means that a type like Ghost that previously was only physical despite being based on spirits and lacking any physical abilities, can now use special moves and have turned moves such as Shadow Ball and Night Shade into Special moves, which makes a lot more sense for those moves to be that way then in the past generations and even helped Pokémon such as Gengar and Misdreavus to become a lot more useful in battling as a whole, with the same being said about Poison with many of their moves now being Special and helped Pokémon of the type such as Venomoth and Venusaur.
 * 8) It utilizes the DS' full capabilities in creative ways.
 * 9) Lots of content.
 * 10) Pokémon contests can be taken part in once more and were expanded on from the previous generation.
 * 11) The graphics look pretty good while still retaining a style similar to the GBA games. The overworld terrain is now sometimes rendered in 3D.
 * 12) The Distortion World in Platinum is one of the most bizarre and memorable moments in the series.
 * 13) The Battle Frontier returns from Pokemon Emerald which has more clever rules in each facility.
 * 14) Unlike in Gen 3, you can transfer Pokémon from the previous generation games, allowing you to keep your collection from previous games and fasten the process of filling the Pokédex. This feature would be included in every subsequent game.
 * 15) Platinum improves most of the pacing problems in Diamond and Pearl, while expanding the story.
 * 16) Platinum, compared to Diamond and Pearl, starts differently with instead of fighting wild Starlys after you get your starter Pokemon you battle your rival Barry and Cyrus being introduced earlier.
 * 17) This generation introduces the Masuda Method, a new shiny hunting method that involves breeding two Pokémon from different language games to increase the odds of finding a shiny from an egg.
 * 18) You can cure a Pokémon of its poisoning by bringing its HP down to 1 outside of battle, saving you an Antidote or a Pecha Berry.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Diamond and Pearl are very slow-paced due to a long battle introduction sequence, a slowly draining or filling HP gauge and jarring delays during battle actions.
 * 2) *You also move slowly in the overworld, made worse by the fact that there exist terrain segments that slow you down even further.
 * 3) * The pacing is very poor as well, with the second third of the game having almost all of the important events happen.
 * 4) Diamond and Pearl have very few Pokémon of certain types, most noticeably Fire with Ponyta being the only fire type found in tall grass.
 * 5) A lot of backtracking is required during the main story of the game. This is made more annoying with Mt. Coronet, a location that is hard to traverse and that has to be gone through multiple times.
 * 6) There were some Mythical Pokémon that were only obtained via special key items only available in certain regions and for a limited time.
 * 7) *In fact, because the Azure Flute event was scrapped, Arceus can't be caught outside of using hacks or glitches.
 * 8) If you're playing on a Nintendo DSi or 3DS, you can't transfer Pokémon from the third Generation since they lack the GBA port.
 * 9) *Regigigas cannot be caught if you don't have the Regi Trio from the Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald games.
 * 10) The Slot machines in the Veilstone game corner cannot be played in any Korean gen IV Sinnoh game due to gambling being banned in South Korea.
 * 11) *This also applies to the European versions of Platinum due to a change in European legislation that rated games with gambling with a 12+ rating.
 * 12) It introduces fog which is really annoying as it decreases the accuracy of your and the enemies' Pokémon by a lot, which makes battles painfully longer.
 * 13) *The only way to disable the effects of the fog is by teaching one of your Pokemon the Defog HM, a move which solely decreases your opponent's evasion stat.
 * 14) The Victory Road requires 5 HM moves to progress through.
 * 15) Unlike other Pokémon remakes, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are barely improvements over the originals, making them more like "faithful" remasters instead of reimaginings like Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire.