If you're playing this today, go play Platinum instead as the definitive edition. I remember Sinnoh very fondly for its mixture of older and new Pokemon (and unfortunately lack of fire types) and never felt that its gameplay was unusually slow, although I didn't have a clear point of comparison as I hadn't spent as much time with earlier (or later) generations.
Compared to platinum which I have now switched to. There were things that weren’t liked about Pearl that platinum answered, such as the quality of life aspects in the game. Still enjoyed it. But getting back into Pokemon I can see where some of the games have lost their quality because the remakes or the next games fixed things wrong with it.
Platinum is better than both Diamond and Pearl, I just never got the chance to get my hands on it for myself. Therefore, I'll just be talking about the game I owned.
Winter 2007, on a snowy night in the biggest Toys' R' Us in Times Square-- I got my first Nintendo DS. A black DS lite. Along with it, I got Pokémon Pearl.
"Ew, the pink one?" the nine year old me said. "Pink is a girl's color. Blue is a boy's color.."
Nevertheless, I still played the game halfway through. I didn't know anything about Pokémon. I picked Piplup and grinded ONLY him to Empoleon. No one else. The experience of ACTUALLY playing Pokémon was lost on me. All I know was that my cousin couldn't play with me because all his Pokémon were higher than me.
Until I became a "rival" with my cousin on this game.
Once I heard he was at the Snowpoint Gym, I remember staying up 'till six am to get to the Elite Four. To not get left in the dust so I can be able to battle him! I started to take pride in the fact that I owned Pearl, and not some loser copy of Pokémon Diamond.
My Piplup was cooler than his Chimchar! He would come over to my house, we would go underground and decorate our caves-- then battle. Battle and battle and battle and battle. He would win most of the time, as his team was better than mine (Infernape and Gengar were just too much for my team. I should have gone with Turtwig..)
My Pokémon Pearl review isn't a review on how the music sounds or how the gameplay is-- or even the story. It's a review about my experience with the game. From this game alone (just like anything in life), an experience can make or break a game.
Pokémon Pearl was one of my best experiences with gaming, period.
Winter 2007, on a snowy night in the biggest Toys' R' Us in Times Square-- I got my first Nintendo DS. A black DS lite. Along with it, I got Pokémon Pearl.
"Ew, the pink one?" the nine year old me said. "Pink is a girl's color. Blue is a boy's color.."
Nevertheless, I still played the game halfway through. I didn't know anything about Pokémon. I picked Piplup and grinded ONLY him to Empoleon. No one else. The experience of ACTUALLY playing Pokémon was lost on me. All I know was that my cousin couldn't play with me because all his Pokémon were higher than me.
Until I became a "rival" with my cousin on this game.
Once I heard he was at the Snowpoint Gym, I remember staying up 'till six am to get to the Elite Four. To not get left in the dust so I can be able to battle him! I started to take pride in the fact that I owned Pearl, and not some loser copy of Pokémon Diamond.
My Piplup was cooler than his Chimchar! He would come over to my house, we would go underground and decorate our caves-- then battle. Battle and battle and battle and battle. He would win most of the time, as his team was better than mine (Infernape and Gengar were just too much for my team. I should have gone with Turtwig..)
My Pokémon Pearl review isn't a review on how the music sounds or how the gameplay is-- or even the story. It's a review about my experience with the game. From this game alone (just like anything in life), an experience can make or break a game.
Pokémon Pearl was one of my best experiences with gaming, period.