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The plot still has your usual main character and his friends/rivals get his/her first Pokemon. You have the goal to beat 8 gym leaders across the region of Unova to battle the Elite Four the strongest trainers in Unova and the champion. Along your journey, you get involved in a team’s questionable plan called Team Plasma. Their goal is to release Pokemon from their trainers because they believe that trainers are being selfish using Pokemon in their command and Pokemon should live with humans equally without forcing them into anything. You also encounter N, a mysterious person that is the leader of Plasma countless times during your journey.
The gameplay has the usual turn based battle system we see from the other handheld games with new features. They have moveable animations in battles instead of being still from the past games. In this game, you can battle in triple battles and rotation battles where you can switch your Pokemon and attack at the same time. The effect valve(EVs) where you defeat a Pokemon that has a stat like I beat it that has a attack stat you get that added and you go up until 508 remains the same with new items to increase it y one. This game introduces the seasons cycle where after a month went by in real life. It changes in the game and it has a effect in the region. At places you can see the leaves fall, or the snow covering everything, and it’s affects on what wild Pokemon are in the grass. Like the battle tower in the past games, you have the battle subway where you can take in single, doubles, multi battles, and wi-fi battles and each one that’s not wi-fi battles after a certain amount of wins. you battle the master of that one subway for BP. BP are points for each seven battles you win and you use to get useful battle held items. Lastly there is a Pokemon Musical where you dress up your Pokemon while choosing the right ones for the show since each one is different. In the show, you use the touch screen at the right time when you are dancing to steal the spotlight. At the end of the show you get props depending on your Pokemon’s performance.
Now let’s get into the multiplayer/wi-fi modes. The Global Trade Station makes a return as now it’s in the pokemon centers. In GTS now you can make negotiations with whoever you trading as you both chose and see what they agree or disagree on. A new feature also at Pokemon Center is random battles where you don’t need FCs to battle anyone from around the world. In wireless mode, you have the C-Gear which lets you use features like the Xtransceiver which lets you talk and see people in real life. For those wanting to play very close you have the Infrared connections where you can give out your FCs, trade and battle. Also you can go to a place called the Entralink where you can connect to a different person’s region to trade, battle, or take on missions that give you effects to use in a short amount of time. A very big feature is the ability to connect to the Pokemon Global Link a website that uses wi-fi and lets you do a good number of features on there. You can access your rank data on the Global Battle Union that shows how you doing in Random Wi-Fi battles. It starts at a certain amount of points that increase or decrease depending how well you do in battles. Lastly on the GBU, you be able to compete in competitions from over the world within a number of set rules. Also you can get promotions you take like a Lucario giveaway or other content. Lastly you can send your Pokemon to the Dream World which you look over them online. When they are in the dream world, you be able to make berries you can send over, and mini games that let you befriend pokemon which you can send to Black and White.
The things I enjoy about this is the overall fresh feeling I got when playing this. You don’t see any old pokemon like Zubats and such. All you encounter are new Pokemon until after you beat the game which make the experience feel new in a way combined with the new features like moveable animation during battles. The battles are still fun to play with tons of Pokemon, new moves, new additions to try out and it helps that the effect valves makes it more interesting. While the story may not be deep as other RPGs, I will say that I like that they made this more story driven than usual with interesting ideas that adds to the experience. The one thing about the series I like alot is the replay value, there is alot of content to do post game whenever it either making that good team by the effect valve method, catching all Pokemon, or getting yourself into the new features. All of these features keeps you addicted for quite awhile. Remember the TMs you have to use carefully, well now you can use it anytime you want without losing it making it more convenience and less annoying when making a team. Now for the things I didn’t like and that people may not like, this might depends on the person but people may not like the designs on the new Pokemon while I don’t mind the new gen Pokemon on the most part myself while I agree that some designs are abit odd for example Vanilluxe. I kind of wish they added a option to be able to have rematches with gym leaders and trainers for more options.
Overall, Pokemon Black still have the addicting feel we know and love with tons of new features, a more interesting storyline, and a fresh feeling due to the ideas to have new Pokemon until post game. I recommend this to fans and to newcomers that like to try out this series.
On a random note, the next review is The Last Story on the Wii.
10/10
