Pokémon Pearl -- Initial Impression.

Yeah yeah, I said I was going to try to knock out a bunch of the backlog this summer and then I turn right around and pick up and start Pokémon Diamond. A game that's been as addictive as crack to an entire generation and one that's the very definition of a time-sink. What brought this on one might ask? I originally spent like forty-five minutes with Pokémon Red back when it initially hit. Messed around with my nephew's copy. I was surprised at how traditional and meaty an RPG it seemed to be at the time. I intended to pick up my own copy and never did. And for various reasons and a lot of bad timing I never managed to pick up a copy from any of the generations of Pokémon games. The series proper is now in its fourth generation with Diamond and Pearl. And the current generation have been out for well over a year and I fully expected to let the fourth generation pass. But I continually play Phantasy Star Universe with Jessica and she's continually going on about Pokémon this and Pokémon that. I ended up gifting her Pokémon Ranch on the Wii which has spurred the latest round of Pokémon discussion. All the while Magus has been going on about how he loved the first one and has likewise always meant to jump into one of the succeeding generations but for some reason also never got around to it. He had been saying he was going to get the upcoming Platinum version of the Diamond and Pearl series. On really nothing more than a whim I purchased Pearl. And if everyone was going to be discussing Pokémon then it brought Magus to the conclusion that this was the time to jump back in. So that's the why of it all, at least. Now what am I expecting of Pokémon Pearl? A pretty decent RPG really. Not much more than that. Will it be like the infamous first hit of the crack pipe wherein you're instantly addicted for life? Will I absolutely have to catch them all? Kids have killed themselves over Pokémon in Japan, Great Britain, and the United States after all. Admittedly disturbed children of course, but still. Time will tell...