Review: Pokémon Black and White

The Pokémon franchise has been, arguably, one of the biggest draw cards for Nintendo’s handheld systems for the past 13 years (plus a couple more in the Japanese-speaking world). As someone who has grown up with the generations of Pokémon, continually excited by another batch of new creatures to learn the names and nuances of, it wasn’t really a question as to whether I would pick up the new iteration in the series. Now that I’ve revealed myself as a Pokéfan, I will try my hardest to remain unbiased for this review. As it is also difficult to talk about Black and White without referring to the previous games, we’ll start with a more general overview before comparing to what we’ve been given in the past.

For the unfamiliar, the Pokémon (short for “Pocket Monsters”) universe revolves around the central ideal that there are creatures called, strangely enough, Pokémon which humans interact with on different levels to capture and battle with. There is also the whole “we should be friends and respect our Pokémon” part to it as well, but there’s no real way to convey your feelings into the game… yet.

Both Pokémon Black and White start in a similar manner to every other Pokémon game. You’re about 10 years old and the local Pokémon professor of your small town wants to give you a Pokémon of your very own to start your adventures with. You get a choice between a fire, water, or grass type companion (more on this later) before being thrust into battle with your (friendly) rival, who will always selfishly choose the type which is effective against your Pokémon, to learn how to battle on the fly.

Even for the uninitiated, the battle gameplay in Pokémon Black and White is very simple to pick up and does take some mastering. You can have up to six Pokémon with you at any one time; and each of your Pokémon can learn a maximum of 4 moves each which they learn as they level up, or you teach with the help of Technical or Hidden Machines (TMs and HMs respectively). To battle, all you need to do is simply tap the move you want to use and the game does the rest. The touch screen is the perfect tool in this instance. This may sound stupidly simple and repetitive, but trust me, once you get into the rhythm of it you’ll be hooked. Each Pokémon has one or two types, such as Normal, Water, Grass, Fire, Psychic etc. The real fun is exploiting the weaknesses of the opposing team to score ‘super effective’ moves against their Pokémon.

A little trial-and-error is all that’s needed in the early game to work out what types are good against others – or you can consult a type matchup chart if that’s more your style. Speaking of charts, strategy does definitely play a part in any good game of Pokémon. I, in particular like to have a look at what sort of Pokémon I might like to aim for to try and cover all my weaknesses as the game progresses. Other people just like to wing it and try training different Pokémon as they discover them. The great part is that it doesn’t matter how you play…. as long as you can beat the Elite Four in the end.

The game progresses as you wander a series of routes featuring different ecosystems of Pokémon. When you walk in the long grass (or in a cave, or surf on water) there is a reasonably good chance of coming into contact with a wild Pokémon. Your direct your team to battle it and you can decide to catch it if you want to add it to your collection, or make it faint (there’s no death here!) to gain experience points the Pokémon who helped. As they gain experience, Pokémon level up, learning new moves and sometimes evolving into stronger species. Dotted around these routes are various NPC Pokémon trainers who will battle you if you catch their eye or talk to them and offer monetary rewards and a lot more experience than you can get from battling wild Pokémon.

Dotted throughout the land of Unova are various towns and cities. Eight of these contain Pokémon Gyms where the goal is to defeat the gym leader in combat to earn a badge. Get one from each gym leader and that’s your ticket to Victory Road and your opportunity to take on the Elite Four. These settlements also contain Pokémon Centres, the main hub where you can heal your team, buy new items and use the PCs to switch around your team with other Pokémon you’ve caught but can’t carry with you, as well as various other characters to interact with.

So: catch Pokémon; fight trainers to level them up; win against gym leaders to score badges; beat the Elite Four. This is your basic task. Underneath all this is a rich and complex story focusing on the endeavours of Team Plasma. Their goal: free Pokémon from slavery to trainers. Sounds like a nice thing they’re setting out to achieve…. but by what means. It’s nice to see the overarching story be more than just “Team X wants to rule the world so you fight them a bit and thwart their plans”.

As well as a new approach to the story, there are features making their debut in Black and White. A new type of battle: 3v3 (in White) or Rotation (Black) battles are now available although they are severely underused. Seasons progress as you play the game, with each month bringing in a change to the environment, the Pokémon you may see and the trainers you’re able to battle. There’s also a Pokémon Musical….. it’s pretty much a waste of space.

In general, Pokémon Black and White is friendly to newer players, explaining features as it goes. It pays not to get complacent though as the second gym is really tough. The wild Pokémon you’ll meet on the way are often comparable in level to those on your team (unless you’re really grinding out the levels) and weighted experience means that your weaker team members will benefit more from a battle. Healing stations are well spaced out with various trainers and NPCs acting as healers preventing long runs back to the nearest Pokémon centre every few battles. Saving is your friend. Regular saving will get you out of situations you might want to avoid or bad decisions you might have made in your Pokémon’s training.

This game will take a while to get through. You could probably get to the Elite Four in under 30 hours if you’re breezing through the game. If you’re like me, and like to explore every square and catch every Pokémon you see, forget about it. Plus, there is a whole extra task to undertake after beating the Champion which is a nice change to the “now you need to catch the other 451 Pokémon” which has been the trend lately.

Choosing between the titles may be hard. The main difference between the two are the Pokémon you can catch in each, with a handful only available in one or the other. Each game also features an exclusive area, Black City or White Forest depending on the version. Some like to have a look at the exclusive species and pick the game which as more that they like. Others will make the choice based on which legendary Pokémon on the cover looks cooler. There’s really not that much difference, but it’s nice to coordinate with your friends so that you can arrange some sweet trading deals!

The world you walk around in has some lovely 3D styling, it’s just a shame they didn’t wait to release this title on 3DS. I can understand why though, as they’ve opted to stick with the classic 2D sprites for the characters and Pokémon. This does mean that when shown in close-up (such as when battling) your Pokémon have a pixellated look about them. While initially I was disappointed, I’ve come to see some charm in it; the game knows where it’s come from. The battle animations on the other hand have been stepped up a notch to being a little too over-the-top for my tastes. Even with the animations turned off (which will save you hours in play-time in the end) sometimes I felt there was too much pomp and not enough circumstance.

The sounds and music: wonderful. Fans of the series will notice familiar themes and sound effects, many of which have been remixed to give them a new feel. I particularly enjoyed the dynamic soundtrack while battling; more intense music for tough times when your Pokémon was close to fainting as well as different themes for important battles throughout the game. This adds such great atmosphere to your battles, particularly with the Elite Four. Such suspense and tension!

What’s the point in being able to train awesome Pokémon if you can’t show them off to your friends in a fiery battle. Multiplayer features are here but I honestly have not spent that much time with them. There are features to trade and battle with friends (using the dreaded, but admittedly safe, Friend Codes) in a variety of different modes. The main reason I didn’t have much of a go here is that the DS/DSi only support WEP encryption for connection to Wi-Fi and I wasn’t going to change my router settings every time I wanted to play online. Oh, and there’s also a video chat function if you have a DSi…… but it has local support only so you need to be in the same room. Go figure.

I have a lot of thoughts on how Black and White compare to the previous games in the series. Particularly Heart Gold/Soul Silver which have been the pinnacle in the evolution of this franchise. It’s hard to improve on the practically perfect, and while there were a couple of gripes, I feel the game developers were successful in this instance.

Steps Backward

• The menu system: the user interface in HG/SS was the best ever. For the first time you were able to just tap and save your game, open your team list, your bags, etc. For some reason, we’ve reverted to pressing X to open the menu, then getting your stylus out to select things. Instead we’ve got an always-on C-Gear taking up the touch screen when not battling which is really pointless.
• Since you’re not really using the touch screen outside of battling, you can’t tap to advance speech. Again, slightly annoying to be putting down or repositioning the stylus so you can A, A, A, A through a lengthy conversation.
• It’s no longer possible to have your running shoes on all the time. If you want to go faster, you must hold down B. Gah! I want to go fast all the time.
• I always liked to name my rivals. They’ve done away with this feature but it’s not really a big issue.
• Your leading Pokémon doesn’t follow you around anymore. *sadface* Purely aesthetic, but sorely missed.
• For a new feature, there were just no enough 3v3 battles (or even 2v2 battles for that matter). It’s nice to have a variety and chance to try different techniques once in a while.

Steps Forward

• 156 all-new Pokémon! Even if some of them are a bit Farfetch’d (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) it’s exciting to have a whole new bunch to learn the nuances of.
• Most Pokémon can be caught in the wild, negating the need to raise a whole bunch of crap Pokémon that all you want to do with is evolve and stick them back in your PC.
• Names of Pokémon and characters are no longer in all uppercase.
• As well as your starter, you are given a free elemental Pokémon before your first gym battle to combat the weakness of your first. This may be a little hand-holdy but very handy considering the first Gym leader is selected based on your choice at the start of the game.
• You can now use Technical Machines as many times as you want. Seriously. Again: You can use TMs as many times as you want on any Pokémon that can learn it. This is my favourite thing. Now it is simple to change a Pokémon’s moves on-the-fly without the fear of losing a single-use TM. Combined with the Move Deleter later in the game, this feature is invaluable in preparing for certain situations.
• Pokémon Centres now contain PokéMarts. One stop shopping!
• Not only is the new bag system easy to use (once you get to it from the menu), it can sort things oh so easily.
• Related to the previous point, there are now less areas that need specific Hidden Machines to get through. No more keeping a Pokémon with Cut around just in case.
• When walking in dark grass, sometimes two Pokémon will emerge, this is also used to great effect to hide higher-level Pokémon in areas you might not be able to access straight away.
• Rustling grass, dust clouds and aerial shadows pop up randomly which contain more uncommon Pokémon and sometimes items to help you along.
• No longer do you need to keep trainer’s phone numbers in your PokéGear for a rematch or to be annoyed with their lame stories. The only people that call you now are story-related.
• Pokémon Gyms are very well designed and even if the puzzles aren’t that tough, definitely a welcome challenge.
• Fishing is a thing of the past….. until you finish the main story.

Pokémon Black and White definitely has it’s shortcomings in terms of it’s user interface, but there are so many neat improvements that it is possible to overlook them. For newcomers to the series, who might not necessarily know that it’s features are improvements, the newest addition to the Pokémon franchise of games is a perfect place to get into it all. As usual, Nintendo and Game Freak have delivered an enormous game, worthy of your time. There is so much to do that no matter how you like to play, whether it’s catching them all; training the strongest team; or just exploring the world, there’s something here for you. Veterans tired of the tried-and-true formula may find this title just more of the same, but those that are excited about a whole new world to explore and new Pokémon to learn about should jump at the chance to adventure in the land of Unova.