This game is so great that they could only give us details on the First 10 Minutes! :O

Though Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl don't hit US shelves until April 22nd, Nintendo has given us the opportunity to take our time to get through the Sinnoh Region in the DS RPG by sending us copies of both games a week and a half before it's supposed to ship. Very nice indeed.

Of course, we just got the game a mere couple of hours ago. The Pokemon adventures are incredibly deep experiences, so posting a hands-on the same day the games hit our desks isn't going to even skim the surface of what this productions are all about. That's why we're openly branding this as simply "the first ten minutes." What you'll read and see are the early portions of the English version of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl -- you want more detailed impressions, you're going to have to wait until we get a little further.

We've already tinkered with the two games when they were released in Japan back in September, so a lot of what we've experienced is a repeat of what we played nearly seven months ago, but now we can understand what the heck's going on instead of guessing the plot through the pantomiming pixel art characters.

Essentially, this is a "fresh start" Pokemon experience. You play an innocent bloke with a name of your choosing, who sets off on some fun with his best friend...also a boy with a name of your choosing. After waving goodbye to your mom and heading over to your buddy's place, you two are off on an adventure where you'll bump in to a Professor and his female assistant. As they leave, the professor's briefcase is accidentally left behind in the dangerous tall grass. Anyone who knows Pokemon understand that wild Pokemon linger in the tall grass, but the two kids go in there anyway to get the discarded luggage.

Bam. They're attacked. Luckily inside the briefcase are your choice of three different Pokeballs with different starter Pokemon inside. Make your decision wisely as, believe it or not, when you survive this battle, you'll own this Pokemon due to the generosity of the Professor. But he wants something in return: fill his Pokedex by encountering, capturing, and training Pokemon as you traverse the world. What a guy.

Sakura via ds.ign.com »