all games are not created equal

Even though Prof. Layton is a simple puzzle game, I enjoyed it a whole lot more than I am currently enjoying Pokemon Diamond, and it's because of one thing: pacing of gameplay. 

Pokemon Diamond is deep down a fun game where you can adventure around and do a ton of things.  But what really kills it is the battles and how long it takes.  In a battle, sometimes it just takes one move to kill off an enemy, but because of all the random wasted seconds here and there, it can take something like 30 seconds from battle start to end to hit an enemy once and kill them, and this is with all of the extra effects turned off.

This would normally be ok.  Only problem is that in the game, you are always fighting.  Wanna go from one place to another, well, you might have to go through some tall grass and oh no, some crappy wild pokemon is there to waste your time.  I really do want to enjoy the game, but when I have 25 minutes on the train to work to play, I want to be able to play the game and not sit there waiting for the battles to finish.

Prof. Layton was for the most part great for short trips.  You could pull up a puzzle and work on it for what time you had.  The only times where it just felt like you were wasting time was when you had to search around for puzzles.  Even then, it wasn't nearly as aggravating as all the wasted time in Pokemon Diamond.

If I could breeze through a one-hit battle in 5-10 seconds, Pokemon Diamond would be a great game.  But since I can't, I'm having a really hard time making myself finish the game.

This is a really obvious comparison, and it doesn't just go for the 2 games stated, its for the entire first generation vs. the newest generation.
I never thought I'd say this but what the pokemon games DIDN'T need was better graphics, that took away the authentic feel of the game, not to mention they need to stop making new pokemon.. I mean...how can you 'catch 'em all' if they keep making more...And the new pokemon names are generic, unoriginal, and lazy..I mean..Half of the time it looks like they put two descriptive words together...
I feel pretty passionate about this one...because being a little kid when pokemon came out gave me a strong since of pride for the orginials and the game...So maybe I'm biased..but I truely believe the orginals were 10 fold the new ones..(Pretty much past johto) were bad (Though, being as hypocritical as I am..I'm playing Pokemon Diamond currently..just because DS doesn't read past advance..and I want to play a pokemon game..so I'm not TOO picky right now :D)

The first-generation Pokemon games hold a special place in my heart; I was in middle school when the games hit, and everyone played Pokemon. I remember getting Pokemon Blue and a Gameboy Pocket for my birthday, and I remember the first time I was crushed in a link battle because my friend knew the infinite item glitch. The original 151 certainly had their charm, but we mustn't allow nostalgia to gloss over the game's flaws.

The graphics in Red were pretty poor even for its time. While the character designs were excellent, they weren't executed very well in-game. The close up of your pokemon in a battle was blocky and often not very recognizable. The battle effects were bland as well.

Mechanics-wise, the games are essentially the same, but Diamond is much more balanced. Remember Mewtwo and the Psychic type? What was he weak to? Bug and Ghost. But there are only a few moves of those types and they are pitifully weak. This has been ameliorated by the introduction of the Dark type and better moves.

Diamond has all of the charm of the original and only adds. Two-on-two battles are fun and require different strategy. Some of the new pokemon are duds (did we really need Bidoof, yet another Rattata clone?), but the gems make it worthwhile (who can resist Piplup!). Diamond also has the advantage of a decade's worth of advancing technology. The DS and its wifi capabilities multiply the game's lifespan a hundred-fold. Global competition gives you more reason to train your team and develop new strategies.  Online trading makes catching all 493 much more feasible if that is your goal.

I could go on, but I have to go breed more Charmanders. Never before has eugenics been so fun!