A function first introduced in Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire, Pokémon Contests provide an extra way for you to train your Pokémon and test their powers. In Diamond & Pearl, they make a triumphant return, under the new tag of Super Contests located purely in Hearthome City. These contests are similar to the previous ones but with a few added extras.
There are still the 5 categories; Beauty, Cool, Cute, Smart & Tough and Difficulties including Normal and Mater Ranks
There are three rounds to determine your success in the Pokémon Super Contests:
Preparing For Contests

In Ruby & Sapphire, what you had to do for Contests was blend Berries into PokéBlocks. However in this game you have to make Pofin, or PokéBread using the touch screen.
These are made, like Pokéblocks, with berries and require you to mix and put the ingredients together using the touch screen. The quicker you make the bread and the better the ingredients then the better the Pofin Quality and the higher your Pokémon's rank


Visual Judgement

This round is similar to the first round in the main games, however instead of just relying on your PokéBlock stats, this time you have to physically dress your Pokémon up with a variety of items to try and get points.

You are given 60 seconds to put a number of items on your Pokémon to dress them up accordingly. You only can have a certain amount of items utilised, however this amount increases with the different rank you are partaking in.

To purchase different items, you can go to the Berry House in Floaroma Town and purchase them for the price of many berries so get growing them. You can also find them in Contact Square.

If your Pokémon looks suitably good, it should get a high mark, but it is also judged on its status based on the Pofin that you have fed to the Pokémon


Dance Judgement

The second round is a Dancing round. The Pokémon that you have entered the contest with either becomes the main dancer or one of the background dancers. Each Pokémon has a turn in each of the four positions so you are not left out.

There are four buttons; Up, Down, Left & Right which can be controlled either with the Touch Screen or with the D Pad on the DS.

The Main Dancer sets the routine that you have to copy by using the two methods stated above. You need to get them exact if you wish to score points. Normal and Super Rank only require 3 different steps, Hyper & Master Rank require 4.

When your Pokémon is the main dancer, it allows you to set the routine that the background dancers go to.


Performence Judgement

The final round runs exactly the same as the main part of the contests in Ruby & Sapphire. You use attacks in here to try and get Appeal Points and beat your opponents. The person with the most points at the end of the 5 battle rounds wins this round

There are differences this time. There are three judges that you can perform to, giving you the chance to select certain judges to try and impress them. Each has their own seperate meter which shows how impressed they are which gives a star if it is maxed out.

The moves are also mostly different to how they were in Ruby & Sapphire so this requires a new strategy but the principle is still the same.

Whoever has the most points at the end from all 3 Rounds will win the contest and continue on