Pokemon Platinum Gets Release Dates for North America and Europe

Nintendo has announced the dates when Pokemon Platinum arrives outside of Japan, where the game has been available since September 13, 2008. The title is set to arrive on March 22 in North American and a full two months later, on May 22, in Europe.

Pokemon Platinum is a very weird beast. It's basically a remake of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl but with a lot of enhancements, most of which were demanded by the player community. The plot will involve Sinnoh and a new and weird universe called the Distortion World, where both time and space become more or less irrelevant. This also makes physics work in a weird way and will present a set of fresh challenges to the player.

Another addition are cold climate outfits for all the trainers and new forms for most of the Pokemons that have been seen in Diamond/Pearl. Of special note is the new Sky form, which is added for Shaymin. The Battle Frontier elements, which were introduced to the series in Pokemon Emerald, will return. Players will be able to go on the secluded Battle Zone in order to enter seven challenges. If these prove to be easy for the hardcore game players, they can also use the Wi-Fi connectivity in order to enter multiplayer battles.

Nintendo is also saying that it has revamped the Global Trade Station. It has styled the Global Terminal and players will be able to use it to trade various creatures, play a lot of mini games and also swap videos of their most interesting Pokemon battles.

If we look at the success games like Diamond and Pearl had when they were released in 2007, Nintendo probably has another big release on its hands. Expect to see the title popping up in all the sales charts soon after its launch in Europe and in North America.