Black and White change things less then its predecessors, but change things for the better, making it hard to go back
What makes Black and White so different from past Pokemon games, is that unlike the previous ones, Black and White has all and only new Pokemon, all 150ish or so Pokemon you will find in the Unova region are brand new and yours for the keeping and exploring, and it is such a wonderful addition that I hope that from now on, every Pokemon game has only new Pokemon, and never any old ones until say post game like Black and White does.
If you recall in a previous blog of mine, I'm sure most don't remember it, I laid my thoughts on why I believe Gold and Silver to be the best Pokemon games, and that blog can be found here:
http://www.gamespot.com/users/Shy_Guy_Red/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25816582
I argued that because the games are the most exploration based of all the installments, which is because of Kanto; that they are the best, and I stand by this.
I've always said that the essence of Pokemon is exploration, and learning. When you're given hundreds of monsters for you to pick and choose who to have on your team, with tons of different ways to use them, battle, breeding, TMs and HMs, contests, etc. these games should be huge on exploration, and it's one thing I wish the series had more of. When you have a huge world with tons of new monsters and trainers to battle and capture and learn about, there should be a lot of exploring and freedom in this game.
And this is what makes Black and White so great. Because you have only new Pokemon, you are given so much to explore in this new world. When fighting trainers and bosses in the game, you will actually not know what type the Pokemon are due to them all being brand new, and you'll actually have to *gasp* take a chance and learn about the Pokemon all on your own through experience, and this is what makes the game feel so new and like a step up from all previous gens.
In Black and White you will catch a lot of Pokemon, I caught far more and had far more on my team than in any past game, due to how many new ones there were, and how unique and well designed they were, you'll want to learn about them, test them, use them in battle, and it just made the game so huge on exploring, I explored every inch of the game on my first playthrough, all patches of grass, to find all the new rare Pokemon, to battle all the trainers and see how they used their Pokemon, to use the infinite TMs to experiment with your Pokemon, there's just so much new stuff to do and explore in this game that you'll be playing this game for much longer than you did the previous games, and it makes it feel like a huge step in the right direction for where the series should be going.
But there's another new addition Black and White have that adds to this factor, animated sprites. In Black and White instead of the Pokemon being still pictures, all the Pokemon have their own animated sprites, and they will move about in a little animation on the battle field and when viewed on the status screen. It may not seem like much, but animating the Pokemon really makes them in a way, "come to life more," and I think this is one reason why I would say Black and White have the best Pokemon designs of any gen, the animations really make all the Pokemon just look so lively and likable and gives them all more personality in how they move. I've decided not to transfer any 1st – 4th gen Pokemon to my copy of Black simply because, 1) there's way too many Pokemon for me to fill the whole dex, and 2) the Pokemon in Black and White just seem so different from all the others, and I attribute that to the animations, which just makes them all seem more lively and better than the past ones, it's so weird to me to see a 1st – 4th gen Pokemon moving in battle because I never have, it's almost like I don't like it at times, but regardless, it's an amazing addition to Black and White that seems small, but really will connect the player to the Pokemon a lot more and will just make the game as a whole much more fun for the player, and I do hope this is in all Pokemon games to follow as well.
Speaking of infinite TMs (well 2 paragraphs above), Black and White also have tons of new additions that really make the game feel so much better and polished and refined that after you beat the game, it's so so hard to go back to playing old Pokemon games, because of how fluid the whole thing works in Black and White. The first as I mentioned earlier is infinite TMs, in Black and White TMs do not run out, but instead last forever like HMs. This allows you so much more freedom in making a unique team and better Pokemon and allows you to just explore and test out all the moves with all the Pokemon so much more, and it really does make the competitive scene especially have so much more depth with infinite TMs, and makes it so much easier to get into.
Probably the biggest addition made to Black and White to perfect the formula, is little to no HM usage. I am not joking when I say this, the only HM needed to beat the entire game is cut, and you only use it once in the main game. Everything else involving the HMs is optional stuff you can do whenever you want, but in the main game, you will practically never need to use HMs at all, and it is just so so awesome. To go through the entire main game with all 6 members of Pokemon on my team, oh man, it makes you feel again like every Pokemon game from now on should be like this, it gives you so much more room to make a big balanced team and make it as unique as you want, and it really helps things a lot. All the frustration of having to run back to grab a Pokemon with an HM, or having to carry a Pokemon you just use for HMs that is an otherwise useless space in your party, all that is gone in Black and White, and it's so good to finally have.
Another great addition to the formula are Nurses and Doctors, these are special trainers that you usually find somewhere about 2 fifths through a dungeon in the game. When you battle and defeat these trainers, they will heal your Pokemon to full health whenever you talk to them. This means that you can actually go through an entire cave without having to run back to the Pokemon center to heal, in Black and White you can actually go through the whole thing in one go due to these nurses and doctors, and I just love it, again, it makes progressing through the game feel so much easier and better, and makes it so hard to go back to playing old Pokemon games, you can go through all dungeons with no Pokemon but the 6 on your team, and never having to run back to heal.
Black and White have also added 2 more types of battles on top of double battles; triple battles, and rotation battles. Both of which add tons of strategy to battles and make the game as a whole have much more variety and are just great battles to have. Sadly, game freak implemented these terribly. Both Black and White have about 5 or so triple AND rotation battles in each game, with White consisting of only 1 rotation battle and the rest triple, and black consisting of only 1 triple battle and the rest rotation, it's a shame that these unique battles weren't used much like in Ruby and Saphhire, but ah well, and I really wonder at times why they cut off rotation battles for white only owners, and vice versa. However, on the plus side, you can play both Triple and Rotation battles online all you want, which is nice.
And of course I have ignored it for far to long, the new look the games have really make them just look so much better than past Pokemon games. The way the camera is more behind you than above you, the way the Pokemon are now animated sprites, the way the camera outside of battle is also more behind you than above, and the many beautiful scenery the games have to offer will really make you enjoy the look of the game, and find it hard to go back to old games. That first battle with Bianca at the start of the game literally blew my mind when I played it, it just looks so new and evolved. It's a wonderful addition to the formula while still keeping things the same.
Another small new addition the games added that really add greatly to the whole game, is how often you find Pokemon. Remember in the other Pokemon games how you always found Zubat and Geodude or some evolution of them in caves? And how you managed to constantly find evolutions of Pokemon you already met and caught in patches of grass? Well Black and White changes this up a ton by making Pokemon much more different from area to area, and it is a wonderful addition! Instead of only catching Pokemon in the first half of the game, and then running from all the other Pokemon in the wild in the second half, you'll actually continue exploring and catching new Pokemon throughout the whole game, and it is such a great change. The feeling of finding new Pokemon you've never seen, catching them, using them, and learning about them isn't just at the start, your team will constantly change as you encounter new Pokemon throughout the entire game.. From my experience, my team changed far more often than it ever has in a Pokemon game, because I kept catching new guys I wanted on my team from start to finish, and it's real great, and never makes the random battles feel annoying since you will rarely encounter Pokemon you already have earlier in the game in the wild.
And most importantly, it adds even more to the exploration you will constantly do throughout the entire region due to you constantly finding new Pokemon, which again makes the game feel a whole lot more fun to play as and a better Pokemon game overall.
On a somewhat of a more personal note, Black and White by far have the best characters and story of any Pokemon game, and while this isn't saying much, it's so nice to finally see Game Freak taking an interest in the story and its characters. Team Plasma is much more interactive than all other previous teams, and the main villains of the game are also much smarter, clever, and just more evil in general compared to past Pokemon games, and it really almost feels like a Zelda game at times with its story, and it really makes me look forward to what Game Freak does next with its characters and story in Pokemon. While I did find the ending of the game a bit of a let down and one that really left for more to be desired, it was still great to see Game Freak take a huge step in the right direction with the story and characters.
In terms of presentation and all those little stats Black and White is ace. The new graphical styIe makes the game look very new and unlike all other Pokemon games, and the soundtrack is extremely well done, like the other Pokemon soundtracks before it. The difficulty is spot on, while the game still isn't difficult, it's at least harder than most Pokemon games, if you died at all on past Pokemon games, you will die on this one. The length is very well done, with tons to do, and whole lot to do after beating it, probably more post game than any game since Gold and Silver, you will spend so many hours playing through this game and all the post content.
Battles in general have also been sped up which is a plus, you can go through the battles much quicker when wanting to run away or when battling trainers, and it again adds to the overall feel of the game, making it feel much better overall than other Pokemon games.
Seasons is another addition added with Black and White, and is extremely minor at that, as it hardly changes things when the seasons change other than the looks of the world and a few Pokemon in a few areas, it's disappointing that the season changes once every month, most players won't get to see all 4. I would hope that in future installments if it returns they change it to seasons being changed every week, which I think would make things much better, and also would hope they can add more changes with seasons other than the very minor ones it has in Black and White.
The wi-fi capabilities have received an upgrade in Black and White, you can now battle random trainers online which is a nice touch, though you may battle super strong trainers with hacked Pokemon that will destroy you, but it's a start. :P
And last but not least, one tiny addition Black and White added is the new format for exp. You know exp, which you get after battles? In Black and White, the Pokemon will gain more exp for being at a lower level than the one it fought, and vice versa. This is real awesome because it makes training Pokemon so much easier, using the exp share for a level 1 Pokemon and defeating a level 70 Pokemon in the Elite 4 will net you say 20 levels of growth from just 1 Pokemon, it really makes training as a whole so so much easier and faster to do, which will encourage players to train as many Pokemon as they can and create the craziest teams ever, and I love it.
So now that I've discussed all the new things Black and White brought to the table, are there any flaws? Any problems that the game also had? Well yes of course, there are a few things Black and White didn't do so well.
The biggest problem I had was touch screen controls. Heart Gold and Soul Silver, the Pokemon games that released in 2010, used touch screen controls for just about everything, and it worked very well, and really made the control usage feel like a step up from Diamond and Pearl. Black and White however, have touch controls similar to that of Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, and as a result it feels like a step back, and I really missed the controls of Heart Gold and Soul Silver.
The ability to rebattle trainers, which started in Gold and Silver with the telephone, and returned in Diamond and Pearl with the Vs Seeker, is no longer in Black and White, and only certain trainers can be refought. It's not that big of a deal though since there are plenty of trainers to fight daily, but it would have helped the replay value a lot more if say the Vs Seeker from Diamond and Pearl returned so you could refight trainers.
As I said earlier too some of the added additions to the game weren't executed very well or could have used some work, triple and rotation battles in particular. The Bag organization is still troublesome as well and I really wish they would divide it up more to the way it is in battle with HP/PP restore items having their own section, status restore items, battle items, etc. as it would make them much easier to manage when you want to use say a repel out of battle, and have to sort through all these HP and status and battle items.
Another complaint I had was the Battle Subway. The Battle Subway was added to Black and White as the thing for competitive players, i.e. the Battle Tower of Battle Froniter. The Battle Subway at its heart is just a longer version of the Battle Tower, and I still wonder why Game Freak continues to put the Battle Tower in its Pokemon games when the Battle Frontier is infinitely better, and I was quite disappointed that we got nothing like it in Black and White. That being said, the subway is still a nice new look for the Battle Tower and is at least better than the Tower.
But aside from these complaints, Game Freak has hit it out of the park with Pokemon Black and White. While the games don't add any huge new game breaking feature to the formula, the game adds tons and tons of little additions to polish and perfect the Pokemon formula in such a way that it will be so hard to go back to old Pokemon games after playing it.
Pokemon Black and White are arguably the Pokemon games to take the smallest step from the core formula in terms of changing things up, however, Black and White are also the Pokemon games to take the largest step in the right direction, bigger than that in any previous game, putting it on top of the Pokemon chart as one of the best Pokemon games Nintendo has ever made, and a purchase all Pokemon fans, and possibly just any gamer in general, should pick up, it will be well worth it.
+ Only new Pokemon gives the game a much more exploration based feel
+ Sprite Animations bring Pokemon to life
+ HMs are almost non-existent for the whole main quest
+ Story and characters are, while not very well done, a huge step up from previous entries
+ New look for battles and pokemon centers and bridges are very cool to see first hand
+ Infinite TMs
+ Nurses and Doctors in dungeons
+ Find new Pokemon throughout the whole game frequently
+ New exp system that works much better
+/- Triple and Rotation battles spice things up well, but there are way to few of them, and separating the 2 for versions was a terrible decision
+/- Seasons are a nice addition like day and night, but the seasons change at a pace that is far too low and with too little difference
- Touch Controls aren't as efficient and effective as they could have been
- Bag still troublesome to go through
- Battle Subway while nice, is no Battle Frontier, and we've had that since Emerald
Overall Score: 9.0