By Matt
Pokemon Black and White Version were definitely one of the best of the series I have played. I have White Version, and it was amazing from the first minute I picked it up. First, the new battle animations made it stand apart, and since the Pokemon were always moving, it looked much more realistic. The storyline was a new twist, too; instead of having a random Team stealing Pokemon, there was a new approach; Team Plasma told people to free their Pokemon so they would be powerless to Ghetsis.
We’ve all heard of the 3DS coming out and showing 3D graphics for every game, but Pokemon is already 3D on the DS/DSi systems, and well-improved compared to past games. For experienced players, like me, the text moved faster, and it sped up the game for me. It also allowed me to skip unnecessary dialogue I thought irrelevant, and sometimes was too fast for me when I read what people said when they lost.
When I used Soul Silver version for the Poke Transfer, I was amazed by how slow the text was moving, I had to press A constantly so it could speed up. But that’s what happens with every Pokemon game: better features. The Poke Marts were somehow moved into the Pokemon Centers; I found this surprising, but at the same time, time-saving, so I wouldn’t have to bike around looking for a Poke Mart. The fact that some of them sold TMs made it even better. On the topic of TMs the fact that they can be used multiple times impressed me. Now I wouldn’t have to worry about choosing the best moves for certain Pokemon, they can be always reused. For the competitive battler who uses a certain move for a strategy (like Toxic), they can be relieved to find out TMs are not one-time use.
In battle, the HP mark moved slightly faster, taking off some suspense when you worry about being able to defeat a Gym Leader’s last Pokemon, or more importantly, the Elite Four. The group of Pans/Simis (Panpour, Pansage, and Pansear) were surprising to me; they looked like they were some sort of starters, or another form similar to Eevee.
Something that disappointed me was the relative simplicity in catching the Unova legendaries. Since I had White version, I had to catch Zekrom, the black Electric/Dragon-type Pokemon. You had to catch it before defeating N, which was a nice twist. I caught it with two Ultra Balls, compared to other legends, like the bird trio (Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres) or Lugia, where I used about 30-50 (and several different kinds of Poké Balls) to catch them. Using Zekrom proved very important in the battle, since N’s first Pokemon was Reshiram, the white Dragon/Fire-type counterpart. You had to use Dragonbreath, the Dragon-type move, to take it out. (You would have to level it up some more if you wanted to take out Ghetsis’ Hydreigon, which was faster and more powerful than Zekrom).
Despite some of its very minor flaws, I found Pokémon exciting once again, and am eagerly anticipating news of the next region and game.
Tags: Nintendo DS, Pokemon Black & White, Reshiram, Zekrom