BLACK OR WHITE Poke’mon Black/White Review I’ve been playing Poke’mon Black for the past two weeks pretty much non-stop. Both versions were up for sale on Amazon for a cool $20 (which btw, you should totally score on some of these deals the site does often), and I threw down for the Black version largely because of the legendary Poke’mon on the front; it’s an electric DRAGON type (the White version had a fire-dragon dual type, but I figured that’s what Charizard was). This is a big deal :P Now that I’ve obviously shown how much of a Poke’fan I am (been playing since the old Red/Blue days), I figured I could sort of give a review of the game. I’m not done with Black, but since the formula hasn’t changed much in terms of story, there’s no need for me to have to finish the game to be able to talk about the fundamental gameplay. Drumroll please! It’s Blog Hero 2’s first review! LIKED Presentation overhaul: The game’s graphics remain the same for the most part, but Nintendo’s gone leaps and bounds to give the presentation a major upgrade. While a facelift might’ve been nice, the new look of the game works really well. There’s even slight semblances of static cutscenes, which was missing from the the previous generation (Pearl/Diamond, also on DS). Comic book style chat bubbles replace the old archetypal RPG text boxes, and there’s even some rather clever use of sweeping camera angles in some of the towns. The overhaul is much more noticeable in the game’s battles, where before, was rather boring to sit through and watch with very minor sprite animations. This time however, the sprites are much more lively, with the Poke’mon now having idle stances and a camera that zooms in and out of the action. It’s been a long time coming, but Poke’mon’s been overdue for an evolution (yuk yuk yuk) in its interface. Revamped battle system: Speaking of battles, Poke’mon also tweaks their tried and true formula by adding in Tag Team Trainer battles and battles involving more than one Poke’mon at a time. This is also a wonderful addition and really opens up the strategic aspect of the game. It is after all, an RPG, and now with the ability to command more than one (up to three) Pokemon, it feels more like a traditional Final Fantasy-esque battle system. Wi-Fi!!!!: Before, if you wanted to do trading or Poke’mon battles with your friends, you had to wire-up your handhelds. With the DS, Pearl and Diamond ditched the wires, but you could really only achieve a local connection. With Black and White, you can now literally battle a friend of yours from halfway across the country thanks to the Wi-Fi connection that’s been included for this generation coupled with a friend code, similar to the Wii. Look for this to be a standard now in all future Poke’mon games, especially since the 3DS is built for this type of interaction. Team Plasma: This is just my personal opinion, but I feel as if Team Plasma are amongst some of the best villians the Poke’mon games have ever seen. We’re all too familiar with the classic Team Rocket “Poke’mon smuggler” baddies over the years, but with the introduction of Team Plasma, we’re given, for lack of a better description, a militant PETA. Yes, they want to liberate Poke’mon from trainers in order to set Poke’mon free, as they were meant to be. While they’re perceived as villians, they pose a rather interesting viewpoint, which sounds to be the right way and gets the player thinking. Are humans and Poke’mon really working together in harmony? Or are humans just using Poke’mon and see nothing in them other than glorified super-pets? HATED Bland creature designs: It was bound to happen in defense of the artist. But after four generations spanning over a decade, the idea fountain is starting to run dry in regards to some of the new Poke’mon designs. Many of them are simply uninspired (or even resemble older Poke’mon) or look as if the illustrator was struggling with a serious case of artist’s block. OVERALL In a nutshell, I love, love, LOURVE this installment of the game. I bought Poke’mon Pearl back in 2007, but I never finished that game simply because it was exactly the same was it was when I played Poke’mon Red and Gold. I skipped out on the third generation Game Boy Advance titles for that reason alone. But upon seeing the improvements made to the gameplay in Black and White, this is exactly the change I’ve been wanting and waiting for that will get me interested in wanting to get back into Poke’mon and trying to catch ‘em all. There’s subtle differences in either version, but not enough to cause a serious fan to deliberate, so feel free to pick-up one or the other. Or both even! \m/\m/\m/\m/\m/ (5 cornas out of 5) It don’t matter if you’re black or white! -“Black Or White” by Michael Jackson

BLACK OR WHITE

Poke’mon Black/White Review

I’ve been playing Poke’mon Black for the past two weeks pretty much non-stop. Both versions were up for sale on Amazon for a cool $20 (which btw, you should totally score on some of these deals the site does often), and I threw down for the Black version largely because of the legendary Poke’mon on the front; it’s an electric DRAGON type (the White version had a fire-dragon dual type, but I figured that’s what Charizard was). This is a big deal :P

Now that I’ve obviously shown how much of a Poke’fan I am (been playing since the old Red/Blue days), I figured I could sort of give a review of the game. I’m not done with Black, but since the formula hasn’t changed much in terms of story, there’s no need for me to have to finish the game to be able to talk about the fundamental gameplay. Drumroll please! It’s Blog Hero 2’s first review!

LIKED

Presentation overhaul: The game’s graphics remain the same for the most part, but Nintendo’s gone leaps and bounds to give the presentation a major upgrade. While a facelift might’ve been nice, the new look of the game works really well. There’s even slight semblances of static cutscenes, which was missing from the the previous generation (Pearl/Diamond, also on DS). Comic book style chat bubbles replace the old archetypal RPG text boxes, and there’s even some rather clever use of sweeping camera angles in some of the towns. The overhaul is much more noticeable in the game’s battles, where before, was rather boring to sit through and watch with very minor sprite animations. This time however, the sprites are much more lively, with the Poke’mon now having idle stances and a camera that zooms in and out of the action. It’s been a long time coming, but Poke’mon’s been overdue for an evolution (yuk yuk yuk) in its interface.

Revamped battle system: Speaking of battles, Poke’mon also tweaks their tried and true formula by adding in Tag Team Trainer battles and battles involving more than one Poke’mon at a time. This is also a wonderful addition and really opens up the strategic aspect of the game. It is after all, an RPG, and now with the ability to command more than one (up to three) Pokemon, it feels more like a traditional Final Fantasy-esque battle system.

Wi-Fi!!!!: Before, if you wanted to do trading or Poke’mon battles with your friends, you had to wire-up your handhelds. With the DS, Pearl and Diamond ditched the wires, but you could really only achieve a local connection. With Black and White, you can now literally battle a friend of yours from halfway across the country thanks to the Wi-Fi connection that’s been included for this generation coupled with a friend code, similar to the Wii. Look for this to be a standard now in all future Poke’mon games, especially since the 3DS is built for this type of interaction.

Team Plasma: This is just my personal opinion, but I feel as if Team Plasma are amongst some of the best villians the Poke’mon games have ever seen. We’re all too familiar with the classic Team Rocket “Poke’mon smuggler” baddies over the years, but with the introduction of Team Plasma, we’re given, for lack of a better description, a militant PETA. Yes, they want to liberate Poke’mon from trainers in order to set Poke’mon free, as they were meant to be. While they’re perceived as villians, they pose a rather interesting viewpoint, which sounds to be the right way and gets the player thinking. Are humans and Poke’mon really working together in harmony? Or are humans just using Poke’mon and see nothing in them other than glorified super-pets?

HATED

Bland creature designs: It was bound to happen in defense of the artist. But after four generations spanning over a decade, the idea fountain is starting to run dry in regards to some of the new Poke’mon designs. Many of them are simply uninspired (or even resemble older Poke’mon) or look as if the illustrator was struggling with a serious case of artist’s block.

OVERALL

In a nutshell, I love, love, LOURVE this installment of the game. I bought Poke’mon Pearl back in 2007, but I never finished that game simply because it was exactly the same was it was when I played Poke’mon Red and Gold. I skipped out on the third generation Game Boy Advance titles for that reason alone. But upon seeing the improvements made to the gameplay in Black and White, this is exactly the change I’ve been wanting and waiting for that will get me interested in wanting to get back into Poke’mon and trying to catch ‘em all. There’s subtle differences in either version, but not enough to cause a serious fan to deliberate, so feel free to pick-up one or the other. Or both even!

\m/\m/\m/\m/\m/ (5 cornas out of 5)

It don’t matter if you’re black or white!

-“Black Or White” by Michael Jackson

  • 04.17.11