This article is definitely preying on your need for the remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, but I want to be honest with you. This isn’t going to tell you how to play those remakes early. They’re launching later this year, and that’s firmly where they’re going to stay. What I do want to make obvious to those who perhaps may not have realised it is that you can play the original versions of these games today. In fact, I was playing them over the weekend. They’re great, showcasing a real turning point for the franchise and laying the groundwork for what eventually became Pokemon Sword and Shield.
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl first launched for the Nintendo DS. They weren’t hugely advanced, but they did offer a slight upgrade over Ruby and Sapphire. I purchased Pearl early from Japan and regretted it as soon as I played it. The entire game is in Japanese, so I had to play through it without a clue as to the story or what Pokemon I was using. I’ve still never played the English versions of either Diamond or Pearl, and don’t plan to until the remakes drop for Switch. I can get my sweet Pokemon Pearl fix by booting up my Nintendo DS and playing still though.
I can’t tell you about all the Pokemon or features in great detail because, as I said, my version is entirely Japanese. What I can say is that the games are simple enough, providing you’ve completed a Pokemon game before, that you know what to do. I even reached the Elite trainers, solved some kind of mystery, and picked up the legendary pink dragon thing from a mountain. The games are built for Pokemon fans, and to me they’re the epitome of the franchise before it got more complex. There are no mega evolutions and stuff like that, it’s pure Pokemon at its finest in that mainly 2D form.
I can’t recommend going back to play these games before the release of the remakes enough. They’re a truly engrossing experience that will keep you busy for weeks, and there’s enough there that you could play them for much longer if you wanted to.