Wednesday 11 October 2006
Ready to rock the WiFi connection? Maybe you are and maybe you're not. If you need to know the basics on the first real Pokemon game to hit DS, check out part one of our coverage, which gives you a great overview of Diamond and Pearl.

Diamond and Pearl may look just like the Pokemon games you're used to. Dig a little deeper, though, and you'll see they're not. Both Diamond and Pearl come with a slew of new features that will make this the biggest, most addictive and longest Pokemon duo of games yet.

Diamond and Pearl have finally brought us online Pokemon battling. Yes, in addition to local wireless battles and trading, you'll be able to swap Pokemon and fight with your friends online after exchanging friend codes. And the online experience is a solid one: the game supports voice chat while trading and battling and everything responds quickly.

For those Pokemon fans looking only to fill their Pokedex with critters, there's the new Global Trading System. Essentially eBay for Pokemon, players can put a Pokemon up on the GTS and specify what they'd like in return. If someone accepts your offer, the next time you connect, your new Pokemon will be transferred automatically.

Likewise, you can search for Pokemon by species, gender and level and see what other players want in return. To keep players from building ridiculous teams from the get-go without playing at all, you can only search for and specify Pokemon you've already seen.