Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl

Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are the conservative remake — ILCA rebuilt Diamond & Pearl almost tile for tile, chibi art style and all, then poured the ambition into the Grand Underground: a sprawling dig-and-explore network with Secret Bases and Pokémon Hideaways where species from outside the Sinnoh dex finally show up.

The good stuff

The Grand Underground: fossils, statues, Secret Bases and Hideaway hunting — hours of game on its own. Sinnoh itself: Mount Coronet, snow routes, and one of the best map designs in the series. Quality-of-life fixes done right: HMs live on the Pokétch, no more HM slave in your party. Cynthia. Still the final boss fight people measure every Champion against.

Your first few moves

1. Get the Explorer Kit and live in the Grand Underground — Hideaways fix Sinnoh's famous Fire-type shortage.
2. Talk to everyone in Eterna City and Hearthome; several key items hide behind NPCs.
3. Cynthia's Garchomp is a wall. Bring Ice, Fairy and a plan, not hope.

Before you jump in

The standing complaint is real: these remakes follow Diamond & Pearl, not the upgraded Platinum — so Platinum's Battle Frontier and tweaks are missing, and the chibi look splits opinion. Metacritic users land at 5.1, critics at 73. If you want Sinnoh exactly as 2006 left it, only prettier and smoother, this is precisely that.