What are Pokémon Diamond and Pearl?

Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl launched Generation IV in Japan on September 28, 2006, reaching North America on April 22, 2007 and Europe on July 27, 2007. They were the first core Pokémon games built for the Nintendo DS, and they moved the series to the Sinnoh region, a mountainous land split in two by Mount Coronet, where Team Galactic schemes under its leader Cyrus and the Champion is Cynthia.

The games added 107 new Pokémon, bringing the total to 493, and rebuilt the battle system underneath them: from this generation on, every move is individually classed as physical or special instead of its type deciding. The day and night cycle returned, Pokémon could be male or female in visibly different ways, and the touch screen became a wrist computer, the Pokétch. Diamond's mascot is Dialga, master of time; Pearl's is Palkia, master of space.

Their biggest break with the past was connectivity. Diamond and Pearl were the first Pokémon games to go online, trading and battling over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and the first to read the Game Boy Advance slot beneath them, importing Pokémon from the Generation III games through Pal Park.

Players answered in kind. Diamond and Pearl sold 17.67 million copies, the best-selling Pokémon games on the Nintendo DS, and were followed by the enhanced Platinum in 2008 and full remakes, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, on the Switch in 2021.