Thanks to so many improvements, Black and White may be the best adventures yet.

User Rating: 9 | Pocket Monsters White DS
[UPDATE 3/6/11] This a review of the JP version, therefore all names have not been respectively changed to their local (English in this case) names, this will be changed soon.

One of the most anticipated games of the DS is here, but how does it stand up?

Pokémon Black and Pokémon White are finally here in Japanese at least (the version in which this review will be based off of,) and became one of the most anticipated games for the Nintendo DS to date, striking record-breaking Japanese pre-ordering sales along with game sales in the country. Personally, when the game was in development I was highly skeptical about how the game would turn out since it is in fact the first core game in the franchise to come out on the same handheld system in almost eleven years (if you exclude the remakes and the extension games, which I personally do.) Since the game has been out for almost three weeks and I have played the game through twice, I believe it is now appropriate for me to do a review.


I will begin on the game's presentation. Once you begin the game, you can already tell that GameFreak had already managed to make the game feel fresh while having it being on a system where two version-based games have already came to tread. Oddly enough, the game does feel like it is made with a different game engine than that of Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold and SoulSilver. Due to how the game handles several things more differently than its predecessors.

The game starts up with the typical introduction, but the odd thing I noticed right away, was the option to play the game in either Hiragana/Katakana or Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji (probably mostly for preference.) I am curious on what Nintendo of America is going to do with this, whether to make it a different language, or just get rid of the option entirely. After that, you get introduced by professor Araragi, who tells you about the world of Pokémon in mild detail.

I found the way that your starter is obtained in the game pretty amusing as well, as this time they are given to you by Araragi to you and your two childhood friends, Belle and Cheren (Belle will choose the starter weak to yours, and Cheren will be like the typical rival who will choose the starter that yours is weak against.) This makes the beginning interesting by introducing two rivals for the first time (excluding Ruby and Sapphire's Wally due to only fighting him a whopping two times throughout the entire game. Both times are not even very significant at all.)

The game's menus have for the most part been polished, despite the problem I have with the Pokédex due to that I seem to like the HeartGold and SoulSilver layout the most out of them all, but it is still manageable. Some may agree, and some may not.

I find Isshu's design odd, yet interesting. It is the first game in the entire series to progressively go into a large circle, without at all needing to use surf depending on the passages you take through the region. Last thing I would like to talk about in this category is the more unique plotline that the games deliver to the series. The "team" in this game is called Team Plasma, and unlike the other teams who wish to dominate the world, Plasma believes that Pokémon are more like friends and should be segregated from humans as much as possible. A mysterious character named N, shares the same ideas as Team Plasma and will sometimes battle you on several occasions in the beginning of the game, but later on it turns out that N is in fact a member of Team Plasma, and decides to go on his own to make his own wishes come true.


Though the graphics may seem like they are just the same as that of HeartGold and SoulSilver, you soon realize that the graphics actually seem like they're taking the DS to the max. The introduction title is fully 3D-rendered, and even sometimes the cities are just mind-blowing in terms of their building designs.

We see that in battle, the sprites are now entirely animated frame by frame. The backsprites are also now full body for the first time (despite that the pixels are pretty much visible, and sometimes make the sprite look not very pleasant dependent on the Pokémon's size from what I have seen.) The animations for the most part fit well with the Pokémon that they are being used for and typically do not seem too bad despite some of the lackluster sprite work that some monsters are unfortunate to have.

The over world sprite work however, did get a slight boost. To me they seem to be fairly bigger that the ones from its other DS predecessors which seems to allow the sprite to contain more detail. Either this, or since HeartGold and SoulSilver the designers at GameFreak have been getting better at designing over world sprites. One of the two is fine.

The cutscenes are absolutely stunning in this game. The summoning and callings of the legendary dragons at the end of the game pretty much were the best 3D cutscenes I had ever seen on any other DS game I had played, and that really seems to be saying too much.

Depending on the Pokémon, the sprite may look like it is poor in terms of design. From what I have noticed, this oddly enough mostly concerns Isshu Pokémon more than anything else. Some of the new sprites for those existing before the fifth generation have some pretty good new sprite work, but some others suffer from the re-designing.


The soundtrack the game has is phenomenal for the series. To be honest, this is to me the generation out of them all with the best music, which is saying maybe a little bit too much. It all comes together perfectly and smoothly. However, I am disappointed that a remix of the champion battle of Red/Blue remixed never made it into the final product, yet found in the game's data (due to it being my favorite track out of the game.) The legendary theme also has finally been properly executed for non-main game legends since it actually fits very well.

Also noticeably the newer Pokémon always seem to be getting higher quality cries than the others, and are properly placed on the right Pokémon 97% of the time. From what I have seen, this was never really a problem, but I felt like it was something fairly worth pointing out.


I was in doubt in terms of GameFreak being able to manage making this different in terms of how the game feels and works. Turns out it managed to give me the feeling of when I first played my Japanese Pearl Version back in 2006, but it also seems better than that. The amusing part is that it was after all one of the most anticipated games of the Nintendo DS, and GameFreak wanted to make the new DS generation obviously to go out with a bang (the Ruby and Sapphire remakes, that is if they even come during fifth gen's life, I really can't consider that a remake as a generation on it's own.)

Compared to the fourth generation games, nothing really big has changed for the control scheme. The only thing I can really think of that is different is the pause menu. In both generations four games the menus changed (comparing Diamond, Pearl and Platinum to HeartGold and SoulSilver,) and this game is not very much of an exception. The menu opens by pressing X, and looks almost the same as the HeartGold and Soulsilver pause menu. A minor inconvenience I noticed right away was that you can no longer use the running shoes without needing to use the B button, which was selectable in the pause menu. But like I said though, it's just a minor inconvenience to me.

Battles also get an upgrade in terms of their design. Along with the already mentioned sprites, the battles have also adopted a 3D environment. A lot of the attacks are now 3D figures instead of sprites, and new the game manages to run everything in the battle very nice. Aesthetically Pokémon battling is looking better than it has ever before. Like every new installment, the game's NPC AI seems to be always increasing in every new game released (from the NPCs always having a ¼ chance of bringing you down with a brutal attack, to how it is now where the NPCs are capable of countering your moves.) This can be frustrating in the long run, however, when the NPC realizes that it has a stat-boosting move and can threaten your team. The game's difficulty in delivering level grinding spots does not really make this more easy either.

The Gym Leaders from my playthroughs are set to a fair level. Usually the leaders have a roster that can be easy to overcome, and maybe not. I underestimated the final gym leader due to her last Pokémon being heavily overpowered, but was reduced by a moveset that makes it seem pitiful. The other gym leaders typically have a perfect level curve so when you get there, there is no likelihood most of the time where you are demanded to grind to be able to win, with the exception of the elite four the game packs. Sometimes this applies with the "rivals" in this game when it comes to Cheren. N just seems to be too easy no matter what. The Wi-Fi is much, much better in this game. There are now random battles, in which you of course, find someone randomly to battle, and you choose three out of the six in your roster. The GTS and its fellow inhabitants from the previous DS games have returned, but now finally have been put into the Pokémon Centers, which makes it a lot more accessible than they originally were, exclusive to one city only. Unfortunately I have yet to try the random Wi-Fi so soon I will revise this review with my thoughts on it. The online play also seems to be less lag-free when in a battle, and I have yet to enter problems contacting with registered people in my friend roster. I will eventually change this section once the Dream World is opened for use by players, but for now it's not usable at all. In fact I never really got the memo on how it works.


The replay value of this game is really, really difficult to explain, in my opinion it's the part where the game suffers. It mostly depends on how you play the games in general actually. Finishing the main game is rewarding, but the postgame feels really empty to me. All there is to do is catch all the remaining legendries that you could not originally catch due to the final gym city being blocked, also completing the loop of Isshu that way, and after that there is really nothing to do besides playing Wi-Fi with friends or at random. Usually there was something to do at the end of game in the past generations. Gold/Silver had Kanto to explore, Ruby/Sapphire at least had the Battle Tower, and Diamond/Pearl had a new island to explore and tons of other legendries to catch to go with it along with the new battle tower. But I suppose a small postgame is better than no postgame at all, though. However, the game is capable of more hours being able to get logged in because of the fact that there are now 649 to catch, the most ever introduced since the original 151, keeping you entertained for potentially months and months depending on how much how much help you can get with trading.


For cons for the most part, I really only have two big ones. Both I most likely mentioned. The first is that while the ending of the maingame was satisfying and mildly lengthy for the series, the postgame was really short and did not have very much at all to do. My second is that in the beginning of a Wi-Fi battle, you are able to see your opponent's entire team, and they can see yours. This makes the metagame possibly more easier for both sides since each person know the containments of each other's teams. But at least they are not able to see your stats, moves, nor your item. Vice versa for the players apply.


Over all, Pokémon Black and Pokémon White are just some of the examples of how GameFreak is still at the top of their game. Managing to make an awesome final generation for the Nintendo DS series, yet we may still have the Ruby and Sapphire remakes coming our way soon eventually. I have to admit that I was proven wrong like I was with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts when that finally released when it caused riots with Rare's fanbase. Any fan of the franchise should pick it up. If you didn't like Pokemon before, then there is a slim chance that Black and White MIGHT change your mind, if played with an open opinion.

Presentation: 9/10
Graphics: 9.5/10
Sound: 10/10
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 7/10

Overall score: 9/10