Pokemon Pearl and Diamond: bringing the franchise back into the spotlight

Pokemon is back in business, and business is booming.

Within just five days of availability, more than 1 million Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl carts for the Nintendo DS have already been snapped up in the U.S., in a rate faster than any of the previous Pokemon stateside releases. Counting back from the very first time gamers beheld Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue in store shelves, more than 155 million copies of Pokemon games have sold worldwide.

It’s no surprise that the Big N’s touting both Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl as the potential top best-selling games of 2007; more than half a million people eager for the Pokemon experience pre-ordered the game before launch. It’s also something to note that thousands of people attended the kickoff launch event in New York. And need we also cite the fact of the games’ success in Japan, both Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl released September 28, 2006, with more than five million gamers having bought into the craze? It’s not just a temporary fad, it’s a phenomenon!

For those of you that still haven’t caught Pokémon fever, or if you’ve hung up your PokeBelt already, here are a few choice tidbits to pull you back in: more than 100 new Pokemon, an improved graphics engine, battling and trading Pokemon globally through Wi-Fi AND the ability to use your DS as a VOIP phone! (Let me show you my Pokemon! Ha!)

But that’s not all! Players will be able to use their Nintendo DS as controllers in the upcoming Pokemon Battle Revolution for the Nintendo Wii, as well as export their Pokemon team from their own carts and into the console game itself, come the title’s June 25 launch! Now I can watch my poorly-leveled team get destroyed in glorious 3D (mental note: become a better trainer)!

Pokemon’s back, and in a big way. Time to catch ’em all…again.

Pokemon is back in business, and business is booming.

Within just five days of availability, more than 1 million Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl carts for the Nintendo DS have already been snapped up in the U.S., in a rate faster than any of the previous Pokemon stateside releases. Counting back from the very first time gamers beheld Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue in store shelves, more than 155 million copies of Pokemon games have sold worldwide.

It’s no surprise that the Big N’s touting both Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl as the potential top best-selling games of 2007; more than half a million people eager for the Pokemon experience pre-ordered the game before launch. It’s also something to note that thousands of people attended the kickoff launch event in New York. And need we also cite the fact of the games’ success in Japan, both Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl released September 28, 2006, with more than five million gamers having bought into the craze? It’s not just a temporary fad, it’s a phenomenon!

For those of you that still haven’t caught Pokémon fever, or if you’ve hung up your PokeBelt already, here are a few choice tidbits to pull you back in: more than 100 new Pokemon, an improved graphics engine, battling and trading Pokemon globally through Wi-Fi AND the ability to use your DS as a VOIP phone! (Let me show you my Pokemon! Ha!)

But that’s not all! Players will be able to use their Nintendo DS as controllers in the upcoming Pokemon Battle Revolution for the Nintendo Wii, as well as export their Pokemon team from their own carts and into the console game itself, come the title’s June 25 launch! Now I can watch my poorly-leveled team get destroyed in glorious 3D (mental note: become a better trainer)!

Pokemon’s back, and in a big way. Time to catch ’em all…again.