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After a brief sojourn, the Pokemon franchise once again arrives in a new title called Pokemon: Platinum that is reminiscent of the game from several years ago called Pokemon: Diamond. The gaming mechanics behind this current title is a classic Japanese role-playing game set in the Pokemon universe that includes turn-based battles, character levelling and exploring of the gaming universe. Compared to the previous game, the universe is considerably larger.

The RPG element of Pokemon: Platinum is quite strong as players explore the gaming environment, however where the title does come into its own is when you encounter the new gaming area called the Distortion World which is almost an Escher like experience and revolves around a variety of puzzles and some ancient and new Pokemon creatures that you must collect.

The battles is where the game adds something interesting and by finding new monsters or critters to train, this gives the gamer a variety of ways of challenging in defeating the almost endless supply of enemies that you will encounter. The battles are also quite brief and are not drawn out too long.

Amazingly enough there are almost 500 different creatures available to the player, however not all of these are accessible in the single-player game as the player must join with other gamers to access them which is done through trading. That's right, just like the Pokemon card games.

The control system of the game is quite sturdy on the Nintendo DS that uses the D-pad for movement, face buttons for running, using items and interacting with the environment and the touch screen used for issuing commands during battles. The learning curve is a tad steep for newcomers, however most gamers will be able to master the controls after a few good gaming sessions.

The biggest difference between this incarnation of the Pokemon and the previous title is the engaging multiplayer options which include some mediocre mini-games but where it does shine is through the battle modes with other players. These include Battle Frontier, Battle Tower, Battle Hall, Factory, Castle and Arcade. You can even upload your battle videos with other players and is quite interesting to see how others strategies work. Add in a great ranking system and bragging rights are yours.

Graphically, the title is quite reminiscent of the previous version with those classic colourful sprites. Even though graphics has never been a strong point with Pokemon, it would have been nice if the developers performed a full makeover. Here's hoping that some developers will eventually use the innovative features of the Nintendo DSi soon. The music is pure Pokemon as are the sound effects that only adds to this strange and addictive world of trading, RPG's and exploring.

In conclusion Pokemon: Platinum doesn't add anything new to the single-player gameplay which is a shame, however the multiplayer options are quite interesting and really centers on trading, battles and the like. It's definitely a step in the right direction for the franchise, shame about the graphics though.