Pokemon Black/White evolves the franchise impressively and feels fresh yet familiar.
Story - 8/10
The story begins as usual for a Pokemon game. You're a new trainer getting your first Pokemon, getting ready to set off on a grand adventure to become the best trainer. You're given your first Pokemon right away this time; no waiting required, and you even get to battle both of your new rivals, Cheren and Bianca, whom each have one of the starters you didn't pick. Shortly upon reaching the next town and really beginning your adventure, you come across a strange group of individuals known as Team Plasma. Their agenda is very different compared to previous teams such as Team Rocket or Team Galactic. Team Plasma hopes to free all Pokemon of their "oppressive" trainers and "liberate" them. To do this they aren't afraid to steal the Pokemon from the trainers that own them.
You also meet a mysterious young man named N, whom sympathizes with Team Plasma. Over the course of your journey, in between battling Gym Leaders, you learn things aren't as they seem, as N is the boss of Team Plasma, and Team Plasma's secret motive, unbeknownst to even N himself, is not truly the freeing of all Pokemon. By the end of the story, you and N are revealed to be two heroes that must fued using the powerful Dragon-type Pokemon Reshiram and Zekrom, to determine who is right. For the first time in the Pokemon main series, the final battle is not against some "Champion", but rather you have a final confrontation with Team Plasma's leader, and there's even more to the story than that.
The story starts off feeling somewhat samey, and it almost looks like you're just going to experience an upgraded Diamond/Pearl, but when the story begins to pick up you learn there's actually an interesting plot to be found. The heads of Team Plasma, the "Seven Sages", make deep and philosophical speeches that cause other characters to double think why they train Pokemon, and the concept of manipulating peoples' minds and hearts is explored to an impressive degree, especially for a Pokemon game.
While Team Plasma's encounters with you just don't feel as dire or as high-impact as those you have with Team Rocket in Red/Blue or Gold/Silver, Black/White still has a fairly impressive story. What's a shame is that it takes a little while for Team Plasma's plan and the plot to really unravel, so for the first portion of the game the story tends to take a backseat to the excitement of just getting to the next gym, which is the case for the previous Pokemon games. But once they really get involved in your journey and you find yourself constantly butting heads with the grunts and encountering the manipulative sages, the plot really kicks it up a notch and things get pretty interesting. For the first time in years you'll probably find yourself pretty excited to take on the bad guys again and show them they're messing with the wrong kid.
The twist ending to the game really has potential to impress many players, as you'll find your Pokemon League challenge feels far more deep and the atmosphere is more intense. The grand climax where you take on N one last time is a perfect way to end the main story with a bang and not throw players the same old scenario of player VS champion. While by the context of the story you are technically fighting N as he is champion of the league, that's just an afterthought when the matter at hand is the Unova region's future hangs in the balance and it's all up to you to prove trainers and Pokemon belong together. If this doesn't move you just a bit, there's not much else plotwise Pokemon can provide to actually get you involved; this is some of the best story Pokemon has provided in years.
While some other stories were interesting, the villains were usually incompetent, immature, and in some cases even were willing to turn on their leaders in a moment's notice. But here it's a much more serious, much more potent combination of Team Plasma and your struggle with them. If you can be patient with the game long enough for the plot to get into the juicy bits, you're rewarded for it. The feeling one can get playing this story takes some build up, so it lacks the consistancy and impact of Team Rocket's storyline, but nevertheless, Black/White deliver a good story.
Gameplay - 9/10
The Pokemon series constantly pushes forward in baby steps, never taking huge leaps but always progressing smoothly and constantly. From adding new types to rebalance type matchups in Gold/Silver, to changing stat formulas and adding Double Battles in Ruby/Sapphire, to changing the categorization of attacks by separate move rather than type in Diamond/Pearl, each entry has changed enough to provide something new to the series while not interfering with the core gameplay. Black/White not only improve the core gameplay but it irons out a few unnecessary and unwanted pieces of gameplay from previous games.
The main attraction of the series has always been and will always be battles, and Black/White truly capture that spirit. Rather than waste time with things like contests and such, the new games improve battles in various ways, from fully animating Pokemon sprites to making battles play more smoothly and more streamlined. The flow of battle feels fluid and not cut-up like some previous games may feel. The speed of battle is also impressive, with turns flying by and attacks being thrown back and forth with few moments to sit and wait things out. All animations play out swiftly and clearly, allowing you to marvel at the battles enough but not be forced to wait too long before the next turn is here.
Now a part of the series are Triple Battles and Rotation Battles. Depending on the version, you will have more of one of these kinds of battles (more Triples in White, and more Rotations in Black). Triple Battles play out much like a larger Double Battle, with just the added aspect of positioning of your Pokemon being important. Some moves can't reach all the way over to the far side if your Pokemon is on the opposite end. However aside from that, expect these to play out much like Double Battles. Rotation Battles, however, are an interesting spin (literally) on your ordinary battle, but three Pokemon are techincally out at one time and you can switch, without taking a turn, to either of the other Pokemon on the rotation wheel, and attack with them instead. Your opponent can and will do the same, making these battles very interesting and put a strategic spin on the game.
Also a part of Black/White are additions to wild encounters. One such addition is "Special" areas of grass, caves, etc. If one pops up, you can run into a rare Pokemon, often of high level, which you can battle and try to catch or defeat like other Pokemon of the area, but are far more valuable, either in rarity or by the EXP gain you can get from downing one. Specifically for this purpose is a Pokemon named Audino, which can be a throwback to Chansey, which will give the Pokemon that defeats is an insane amount of EXP. Other rare Pokemon you can find are usually the evolved forms of Pokemon you normally find in that area. You can also find higher-level Pokemon in darker grass which usually can be found on most routes that ordinary grass is found.
The EXP curve has been re-adjusted in Black/White, causing low-level Pokemon to gain more experience from higher-leveled Pokemon. This can cause high-level Pokemon to take longer to grow stronger, but it also helps weaker Pokemon keep up the pace. This is a huge help to players that normally don't always battle wild Pokemon or avoid some trainer battles, as they can still level up a few Pokemon and have them strong enough to help progress the game.
Of course, a new generation of Pokemon is never complete without new attacks, abilities, and Pokemon to add to the already large pool. Many new Pokemon have potential to be devastating additions to any serious player's aftergame team, and all the new Pokemon are interesting in their own way. What's more, is before beating the game you can't find any of the 493 old Pokemon in battle, wild or owned by trainers. While this can turn off some players, it truly helps embrace the idea of Pokemon feeling fresh, and because of this anyone with fond memories of Red/Blue can find some nostalgia in finding new Pokemon around every corner. And while an argument could be made about many Pokemon looking bad, this is purely an asthetic complaint and in no way affects the gameplay.
The Unova region is where this new experience takes place, and it is impressively neatly organized. Contrary to previous regions like Sinnoh or Hoenn, the Unova region looks very deliberately laid out, with the beginning of the game being a straight path up to a large peninsula where most of the region is found. The layout makes many areas of the game very convenient to find and easy to get to, and HM use for the main quest is kept to a minimum if used at all, so players irritated with previous games putting an emphasis on having hidden moves to progress will find solace here. The Unova region is full of amazing places like Castelia City or the wirelessly-interactable Entralink. Many of these locations might just be memorable enough to shove away memories of other towns and cities of older games. You can also take part in the Battle Subway which is like the Battle Tower of older games or the Pokemon Musical which replaces Pokemon Contests, either of which can be done at your leisure and are never force-fed to you in the main game.
On top of the upgraded battles, new region, new Pokemon, and everything else are new and upgraded wireless features, done through the new C-Gear. Infrared connection makes trading or battling a friend an absolute breeze, allowing you to be anywhere in the Unova region and be able to give a friend a Pokemon they need or want, or have a quick match. Trading now includes any Pokemon in your PC, so you no longer need to have the Pokemon with you at all to send it to a new home. Online battles can now be set up much easier, and you can have random matches with players acorss the globe as easily as you could do in Pokemon Battle Revolution, and friend codes for these features are not required. Wireless and online battles also can now be made to have a "Wonder Launcher" added, allowing players to use a limited selection of items to aid them.
Even after you beat the game much of Unova has yet to be explored, and there's much to do and much to venture into. You can find the legendary Pokemon hidden around and catch them, traverse the new areas you didn't see before the credits rolled, and meet old faces of past games, and even old Pokemon. You'll even open up the ability to transfer Pokemon from your 4th generation games (Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold and SoulSilver) to Black or White, and this is also made much easier than previous generations as you don't need to wait 24 hous to transfer more Pokemon. On top of all this, the Champion returns to the Pokemon League for you to challenge him, and the Elite Four all get upgraded teams.
There's more exclusives to each version this time around. Exclusive to Black Version is a more technologically advanced Opelucid City and a city called Black City filled with trainers that love to battle and will challenge you each day if you speak with them. There's also more Rotation Battles and very few Triple Battles in Black Version, as opposed to the opposite case being true for Pokemon White.
When all's said and done, Pokemon Black/White could use a bit more excitement gameplay-wise and a bit of touching up could be useful, but the gameplay remains rock-solid and entertaining throughout. A new standard for the series has been set, and hopefully future titles live up to it.
Presentation - 10/10
The way wireless communications are done, the way the Unova region is laid out, and the way the menus are interacted, everything is presented very well and, a few small blemishes notwithstanding, Black/White look very well put-together and visually clean and attractive, more so than any Pokemon game before it. The PC system and status screen are touched up from HeartGold/SoulSilver while the bag is a much more neatly sorted out version of Diamond/Pearl/Platinum's bag.
Sorting things out is a breeze since there's a button on some of the pockets that will sort out your items for you. The shortcut button has even been expanded into a full-out "Ready Button Menu", allowing you to register as many items as you want to it and then, with the press of the Y button, select one of your registered items on the list and use it on the fly. And you can even register a few shortcuts from the pause menu like the Pokemon status screen or bag to this shortcut menu, making things even easier for some players. The C-Gear on the bottom screen is fully customizeable and also displays the current time and your DS's battery life, and on the battle screen the current weather condition is even displayed if there is one.
Graphics - 9/10
The Pokemon series needs a bit of touching up graphically but even so, Black/White is pleasantly designed, with the Unova region being a beautiful, bustling region filled with interesting places to go to and every route oozing with the prospect of adventure. Sprites of Pokemon are fully animated and move throughout battle, and the camera will make dynamic cuts during attacks to put more oomph in the visual presentation.
The scenery is eye candy, and the sprites overall look decent, but zoomed-in sprites look a bit low-quality and a few areas of the game lack the impressive scale some other areas do. While Black/White isn't top-of-the-line visuals, they look great and are never an eyesore. Attack effects still look great and menus all are more visually pleasing than previous games, to boot. These are the first games to fully embrace 3D visuals in the main series, as well.
Sound - 9/10
Usually, Pokemon games have great action sequence music but little going for them with out of battle music. In Black/White, the soundtrack overall is great, and with a few exceptions the entire list of musical tunes are all memorable and good enough to hum to. Even some town themes will get you going and prep you up.
Battle music is amazing all around, with even the ordinary wild encounter music being fun to listen to. N's battle theme is impressive and the remixes of old tunes like a few old champion battle themes and the Pokemon theme redone mix well with the new tunes. The quality of the music is much better than the previous generation, and actually breaks into DS quality music.
Sound effects have been either replaced with a better-sounding sound effect or have been improved in quality. The beeping that plagued many players' experiences with Pokemon low on health is now remixed into a full battle theme that is not half bad and the confirm and cancel sound effects no longer sound 8-bit and trapped in the days of the original Game Boy. It's hard to dislike the soundtrack, as it turned out very good.
Tilt - 10/10
Pokemon is always playing up the ability to go back to it and play more and more of it, and the new games don't disappoint in that category. There's so much to do and so much fun to be had, you can find yourself playing it over and over again and not be bored. I honestly don't recall the last time I had this much fun with a Pokemon game, but it's been a very long time, possibly as far back as Gold/Silver. The new Pokemon, coupled with the amazing Unova region, provide hours and hours of fun, and with the easy-to-navigate region pioneering your adventure, you can guarantee to spend a long time on this game.
The Breakdown:
Pros and Cons
+Great presentation, gameplay, graphics, and sound
+Amazingly fun to play
+Wireless features are more convenient than ever before
+Story is more engaging than stories of recent games
+New Pokemon and attacks add more options for hardcore players
-Story takes a while to get into
-Same old "be the best" goal by the end
-Some new Pokemon lack originality
Overall - 9/10
Pokemon Black/White shouldn't be missed if you have even a passing interest in the Pokemon series. Do not let the new Pokemon designs deter you from what can and probably will be an awesome experience that is far better than many of the Pokemon games of the previous few generations. While Black/White could use a bit more touching up on some small parts, it delivers better than anything else up to now, especially since Gold/Silver, and it's hard to be disappointed by solid gameplay backed by great presentation, graphics, and sound. If nothing else, the main story is still worthy of playing, even if you don't plan to catch PokeFever and play the game for hundreds of hours. And that is an accomplishment that some older generations couldn't really achieve on the level Black/White has.