Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are new Pokémon games to be released for the Nintendo DS. Not much is known about them, except that they have been officially announced by Nintendo. They are most likely to be Wifi-enabled. While no formal release date has yet been announced, an official statement was made February 16 at the Nintendo DS Conference Spring 2006. It was said that the eagerly awaited Pokémon Diamond and Pearl games will be released in Japan sometime before the year’s end. This is the first official statement regarding the games since the original announcement of the games being in development.

Known information

Rumor has it that PokГ©mon Diamond and Pearl will be released in Japan in Autumn 2006 and the U.S.A and Europe will also be getting them in 2007.

On Thursday, May 11, 2006, Coro Coro Magazine revealed the first screenshots of the titles, showing an upgraded look from the GBA PokГ©mon games. The simple but colorful graphical style remains, but has a somewhat 3D flair to it, similar to Advance Wars: Dual Strike. It does appear, however, that houses and other buildings, including smaller objects in the overworld are made up of polygons. The battle scenes retain the 2D look they had before, but boast more complex sprites and backgrounds.

Coro Coro magazine revealed that:

• It will be set in a new region called Shino (シンオウ Shin'ЕЌ,).
• The starting town is called Futaba Town (フタバタウン Futaba Taun).
• It has been confirmed to use “all of the DS’s features” (Wi-Fi, touchscreen, etc.). Whether or not it will use the internal clock and calendar is unknown.
• It will be compatible with all 3rd Generation games.
• The player to choice to play as a girl or a boy. (Similar to the C,R/S,LG,FR)
• There will be no new types, but there will be new type mixes.
• There will be many new PokГ©mon, including new evolutions and pre-evolutions of old PokГ©mon.
• There will be new moves.
• Up to 16 players will be able to connect with the DS’s wireless capabilities allegedly in a Union Room style (ex. trading, chatting, and battling).

New PokГ©mon

Coro Coro magazine has currently only confirmed nine new 4th generation PokГ©mon:

New Moves

Also, There are a few new moves in the game. Coro Coro Magazine has made a contest about the name of a move and just recently revealed the name and effect of it.

In other games

Munchlax and Bonsly make appearances in PokГ©mon XD: Gale of Darkness, although they are not catchable PokГ©mon. In PokГ©mon Mysterious Dungeon, Lucario, Bonsly, Manene, and Manyula appear as collectable statues. Manaphy will, in part, make an appearance in PokГ©mon Ranger: The Road to Diamond and Pearl for the Nintendo DS.

In the anime

In the main PokГ©mon anime series, Munchlax is captured by May, one of the main characters. Brock captures a Bonsly and James captures a Manene. Lucario and Manyula also appear in the intro of season 8 in the U.S. but have been cut in recent episodes. The other four have yet to appear in an episode and/or be caught by a character in the show.

Trivia

PokГ©mon Diamond was also the name of an unauthorized bootleg version of the Japanese Game Boy Color game Telefang.

External links

• IGN: PokГ©mon Diamond
• IGN: PokГ©mon Pearl
• Article on Bulbapedia
• New PokГ©mon on Serebii.net

Coro Coro magazine scans

• Munchlax in Destiny Deoxys
• Munchlax in movie 8 and Lucario in shadow
• Lucario
• Lucario
• Manyula, Bonsly, and Manene
• First screenshots, showing female character
• Screenshots, showing male character
• Battle screenshots, showing Munchlax
• Battle screenshots, showing Manyula