Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Shining Pearl: Which game should you buy?
Sales History
The original Diamond and Pearl came out in America way back in April 22, 2007. And despite the two games being almost identical, by the end of that month, in eight days, Pokemon Pearl had sold 712,000 copies which, is impressive as long as you don’t look at Pokemon Diamond which sold 1,045,000 copies in the same amount of time. Despite the two games being practically the same, Diamond managed to sell 333,000 more than Pearl.
Why does that matter towards your decision?
Trades
People looking to “catch ’em all” live and die by trades. There’s going to be some Pokemon you have a hard time catching and sometimes all you can do is hope for a good trade. But to get a good trade, you need to have something enticing. Having certain Pokemon that almost 60% of the player base won’t access to, increases your odds. I guarantee having an extra Palkia or two is going to net you a rare shiny.
But will that continue? Now that Pokemon has been out for over two decades, we should be able to figure people are more aware at how alike the two games are.
But think about certain things working against Shining Pearl.
First off, the color scheme. Because the world is dumb and we’re Pavlovian creates of habit, something blue sells more often than something pink. Especially in toys and games. Don’t believe me? Walk through Target’s toy section at some point.
Also, there’s the naming convention. We’re more likely to say Diamond and Pearl because that’s how they’re always listed. For evidence of this, ask someone to say the cardinal directions and see if you can find someone that doesn’t say them in the order of north, east, south, and west. We say “wind and rain” but “rain and wind” feels odd to say. Chicken and waffles sound delicious, waffles and chicken sounds like a cartoon I’d probably want to watch about two moronic house pets.
But let’s see if there’s any truth to this. Let’s turn to “puts on top hat for the inside Funhaus joke” Google Trends!