Pokémon Black Version (Nintendo DS)

I'll start by saying the only Pokemon games I have completed, are Red, Blue and Yellow, and I played those on a Gameboy Pocket. That was a good decade or so ago, so I can't, and won't, compare these new instalments to anything more recent than Crystal (which I never finished). With that said, let's get rolling...

In short, I'm dead impressed with Black. The idea seems to have been a reboot of the games and an attempt to bring back fans of the old games who have now grown up. If that was indeed the case then it worked on me! The basic mechanics of the game haven't changed, you still get your Grass/Fire/Water starter choice, you still slowly trudge between towns battling Gym leaders and you still fight a lot of eager trainers along the way who apparently spend their lives in one spot just waiting for you to pass so you can battle them.

However, there are a number of upgrades from the original game, like Pokemon being able to hold items - I understand this was an addition in one of the later generations for GBA - which is useful (i.e. Pokemon can heal themselves, cure Sleep themselves etc), and also things like multi-Pokemon battles, where the other team may have two or even three Pokemon, and the first two or three of your team come out all at once. This is a nice nod to the traditional JRPG with turn-based combat for multiple party members and makes for interesting fights. Another nice touch is that you only see the new Pokemon until you finish the main story. This means that rather than panicking "What's this Pidove thing, can I find a Pidgey instead?!" you're left with no choice but to read the Pokedex entries, look at the move descriptions and basically learn how to play the game all over again. Speaking as someone who's coming back to the series after 10 years, that's a fantastic idea.

When starting the game, you pick a Male or Female character - again, I understand this was a choice added in the later games, but it's nice to see here - and are introduced to your childhood friends. In an interesting twist to the usual "this other kid is your rival and he picked the Pokemon strong against yours" rigmarole, the other kids are your friends (although you still have to battle them). The boy takes the Pokemon strong against yours, the girl takes the one that's weak, so at least you know you're going to beat ONE of them. You encounter them occasionally along your trip. Also, the Pokemon Prof isn't Oak anymore, it's a lady called Juniper. Hooray, a female Professor! The game starts off as standard from there, with you wandering around pretty linear paths catching Pokemon.

It's a great feeling to get into a battle and genuinely not know what you're going to see. The music starts, the screen slides across (the new battle graphics are great by the way; the Pokemon sprites are animated) and you come face to face with... what's that? What type is it? I must catch it! It really brings back the excitement from all those years ago. Not a Rattata in sight.

I've seen some other reviews that criticise how "simple" the game is. It hasn't got a Pokegear, there's no Pokemon breeding, etc etc. What I will say is: That's PERFECT. This game is to bring people back to the series who got sick of all the breeding and move tutoring and phone calls from Mum all the time, and just goes back to the basics: You and your Pokemon against the world.

Speaking as a fan of the original, vanilla games: it can't get much better than this.

Pokemon Black and White are typical of their predecessors. You begin your journey within the quiet tranquillity of Nuvema Town and soon enough in Pokemon style you and your protagonist disturb the peace by having your first battles with your two friends Cheren and Bianca. The pair soon become your rivals throughout the rest of the game, which is a slightly different approach as previous iterations of Pokemon games feature only one rival. But before the battle you must choose a Pokemon and, as per usual, you are given the choice of three. There is the grass snake Pokemon Snivy, the fire pig Pokemon Tepig or the sea otter Pokemon Oshawott. I started with a Tepig simply because it looked cool. Bianca will choose the Pokemon that will be weakest against your chosen type; Cheren will choose the Pokemon that is strongest against your type, but despite type advantages you should have no problem beating your friends.

Pokemon Black and White Gameplay. Soon after the battle with Cheren and Bianca you're sent to the local Pokemon Professor's Lab to thank her for the Pokemon she gave you. Professor Juniper happens to be the first female Professor of the Pokemon franchise, make of that what you will. At the lab she will task you and your friends with the very important job of traversing Unova and cataloging every Pokemon. You are also advised to collect all the Gym Badges of Unova. There are 8 to collect with each Gym specialising in a specific type so it is advisable to train a variety of types for your Pokemon Party. Once all 8 badges are yours you continue on to the Elite Four and the Champion of the Pokemon League, defeat them and you can claim the title of Pokemon Master. Your travels around Unova are not unhindered however; there is always a troublesome team to make your life difficult. Team Plasma are a villainous team whose goal is to free Pokemon from the humans of Unova. Like Team Rocket of old, who I miss dearly, Team Plasma and their wicked antics will pop up throughout the main story.

There are a few differences between the two games one being two different areas. As suggested by the name, Pokemon Black plays host to Black City and features many characters and tasks that do not appear in the other game. Black City's population changes with time, leading to the alteration of its appearance. When you visit the city for the first time the population is determined by the number of days it took you to reach it. In addition to the visual changes, the city's market will sell items to the player at inflated prices, dependent on which Trainers are in the city. The items are rare, with most being either evolutionary stones or valuable items. At maximum population, Black City is a sprawling metropolis with many large buildings and skyscrapers. With a smaller population there are fewer buildings that are smaller in size. To juxtapose Black, Pokemon White houses White Forest. Unlike Black City, White Forest has a variety of wild Pokémon as well as characters and tasks that are not available in Pokemon Black. Just like Black City however, the appearance of White Forest is reliant on the number of people currently liPokemon Black and White Reviewving there. When you first enter the forest the total number of residents is, again, determined by the number of days it took you to reach it. In addition to visual changes, some wild Pokémon will only appear with a certain resident. When White Forest is full it contains large trees, several water surfaces and many patches of tall grass, all there being filled with Pokemon to aid you with your Pokedex. At times when there are few people in the forest the trees are smaller, there are fewer or no water surfaces and patches of tall grass are sparse. As to be expected with two different Pokemon games of the same generation, there are also several Pokemon that are exclusive to each version.

Probably one of the most interesting differences is the presence of two new battle types. They come in the form of Rotation Battles, my personal favourite, and Triple Battles. Triple Battles are simple, if you can imagine the Double Battles from some of the previous games and simply add two more Pokemon onto the screen you've got a Triple Battle. A Rotation Battle on the other hand is a little bit more complicated, but not too much. Essentially you have three Pokemon each on the field placed on a turn table. You may switch between those Pokemon at any time without losing a turn; some very interesting can be developed during these battles. If Triple Battles tickle your fancy you'll want Pokemon White, if you're after Rotation Battles you'll want Pokemon Black.

To summarise, Pokemon Black and White are two very solid and enjoyable games. Their graphical boost is welcomed and it is clear that Game Freak have pulled out all the stops. They provide Pokemon Black and White with some impressive, but arguable unnecessary, 3D aspects. The main example of this comes in the form of Castelia City. Game Freak included new graphics on the Pokemon themselves too. This may mean little to some but I was very impressed by the fact that the Pokemon now look asleep when they fall victim to Hypnosis, etc. They now even have their individual animations during battle. They are of a calibre to satisfy the oldest of Pokemon fans and to attract a new gamers to the pokemon franchise, all in all, very good.

As a third and final year University student I probably should never have bought this, because I will almost inevitably fail my degree as a result. I guess that doesn't say much about my time management, but it must speak volumes about the addictive qualities of the game. No regrets.

After having played the Pokémon series for a large chunk of my life, this is the first time I had gone into playing a game in the series almost entirely blind to new features and new Pokémon alike, and I'm really glad that I did so. First impressions of the game were that there is a lot more focus on creating an immersive storyline, though this presumably isn't for everyone - some people would rather just get on with it and do their own thing, however for me and many other avid fans of the series, this adds an interesting new dimension to the game. Your character interacts much more closely with other recurring characters throughout the game, most notably the two friends that you start your journey with. Admittedly the pair have annoyed me on the odd occasion, but for the most part it is an interesting change.

There are definitely some exciting new offers as far as the Pokémon themselves are concerned, however at this point in the game (just completed my fourth gym) I have noticed a lack of balance in type offerings compared to in other games - there seems to be an awful lot of dark and ground type Pokémon very early on, for example, whereas usually types such as grass and water would be more readily available. This definitely changes things up a bit from previous games, but more grass and water types (for example) would probably offer a better, more balanced starting point for younger players. Or maybe that's just me looking into things too closely. But either way, the game seems to have become noticeably (but not massively) more challenging seemingly as a result of this, which I do not personally see as a problem.

One negative I have noticed, however, is that a few of the new Pokémon offerings do seem a little too similar to their predecessors, such as a flying/normal pigeon Pokémon (a la First generation's pidgey) and the two evolutions, and the predictably naff rodent Pokémon littering the starting area as usual. I understand that there is now literally hundreds of Pokémon so ideas for the creators won't be flowing as readily as they once were, but some of the new generation are a little bit too close, and it just seems a bit lazy.

In terms of aesthetics, the game at first doesn't seem like too much of a leap from Diamond, Pearl, Heart Gold and Soul Silver (or basically any of the games released since the transition to the DS), however the differences gradually become more and more obvious, starting with, for example, coming face to face with the characters for the first time as they speak to you through the new video phone, and building up to exploring the world in completely new ways, viewing the whole region from atop of a large bridge and heading into a large city (Castelia) filled with skyscrapers which we must explore in a completely new manner. This is such a long way from where the Pokémon games started out, but these aesthetic changes are visually stunning and exciting.

As far as battles are concerned, they are now a great deal more dynamic, and the bottom screen is now a lot tidier than it was for previous DS versions. During the battle, the top screen shifts focus between the two teams depending on who is attacking or receiving damage, and the Pokémon react appropriately in response, flinching or closing their eyes to sleep. I noticed that one disgruntled viewer complained about pixelation on the battle screen, and it is definitely noticable, but this is owing to the fact that when the focus is on your team the view requires the Pokémon to appear larger than the standard sprite size. I'm sure this is something that could have been worked around, but it really isn't a big deal in my eyes and overall the battle screens are a huge step forward.

The new games are noticeably more geared towards interacting with other players, and whilst this is great, the details of this take up the entire bottom screen whenever you are not battling, which seems unnecessary and, frankly, ugly in comparison to the sleek attention to detail in every other aspect of the game. Though it is possible to be paired up with players from around the world for battles and trades (though at present random pairings are not yet active, though friend codes can be used), the developers should have considered that this simply isn't for everybody, potentially making this constant presence of online options pretty irritation. For those who are interested in interacting with others, however, there has never been a better time to play Pokémon, with numerous options including integration with the internet browser based Pokémon global link. I have yet to explore any of the online options, however they definitely look exciting and promising.

Overall, so far, I am thoroughly enjoying this game. Though it is definitely not without it's flaws (as detailed above, hence 4 out of 5 stars), it is a sufficiently big leap forward to be refreshing, exciting and compelling to the seasoned Pokémon trainer, and a great start to those unfamiliar with the series. There are now so many different bonus features to the game (outside of the storyline) that there will be something to capture the attention of virtually everyone, offering new ways to explore.