Pokéfans pre-order in their thousands, as Diamond and Pearl near their American launch!

The latest installments of the legendary Pokémon franchise are released over the pond on the 22nd April, and with just days to go, Nintendo has revealed that a whopping 533,000 copies of the games have already been reserved.

The two new titles are the first "proper" Pokémon games for the DS, and feature the classic gameplay of the Red/Blue, Gold/Silver, Ruby/Sapphire titles which have appeared on each successive Nintendo handheld to date. 100 new creatures, online battled, improved graphics and the return of the popular day/night system have seen a huge surge in interest.

It doesn't look like the Pokémon are dying out any time soon...