the new generation of pokemon, brings with it plethora of new pokes, but fails to break apart from last year's outing.
but this game falls short miserably, the character sprites are still paper like, which look horrible when the game tries to "show of" an area with 3d effects (like bridges), which themselves don't look all that good, you get the feeling that they just slapped the 3d label so they could charge a little extra.
the battles also changed a bit, adding movement to your pokemon. but it is more like a gimmick, they dedicate themselves to repeat the same movements every once in a while. the camera is also dynamic, but i found it rather annoying, as i sometimes took a little extra time to think which opponent to attack and the camera just flew as it pleased through the scene, blocking the other team more often than not(this became a true annoyance in double battles).
as you begin the game, you soon realize (if you haven't already by now) that there are no old pokemon whatsoever. that means you once again have to figure out who the new "geoudude", "oddish" or "HM slave" is. which is really neat, as it forces you to try every pokemon encounter to find more about them.
but then again, the first routes feel chaotic as there are no type restrictions whatsoever. you might find water, fighting, electric, etc. pokemon in only one route. this makes grinding harder because in the first stages of the game your team is very limited and might even get knocked out by a poke with an advantage over yours. i also imported a foreign copy to get a head start on the events, as the japanese get so many more in comparison to us.
that aside, the game has a very nice pacing, it was made a little easier now, as tms are unlimited now. the bike is even faster than previous gens, there are also certain people who heal your pokemon outside of important areas (like the victory road) which saves you a trip to the poke center.
and speaking of which, P-centers, stores and the gts have been merged together, this little feature saves you time in the long run. and is a very welcome addition. there are less "roamers" this time around, but just like with groudon and kyogre, you trade with your version opposite to get the leader of the trio. which means a lot of problems for gts trading (which has NOT been fixed, there are still people thousands of people asking for mews for most trades).
i do question the very existence of this game. a pokemon game has been released every year for 3 years in a row (platinum, HG/SS, B/W). as this might saturate the market a little. this also forces the players who just got HG/SS to adjust to a new kind of meta-game just a year of it's release. and on a more technical side, the 3ds is slated to be released next year, if they had waited a little longer, there was never a rush to bring this game to the market. they could have improved upon the supposed 3d effects the game has.
to sum it up, this game appeals to the poke addicts a lot more than before. GF have really listened to the complains and tried to fix most, if not all, of the problems of previous gens.but it feels all to familiar by now, expect a few hours of excitement before putting it down for good (or the inevitable poke "grey").