It means that players can’t just rely on their tried and true old workhorses like Alakazam or Jolteon, and must get to know the new roster. You won’t see a single Pikachu until well after you’ve beaten the game.įor the most part, this is actually a very smart design choice. The Unova region is set on the far side of the Poke-world – while the other regions were based on locations in Japan, Unova is inspired by the Manhattan metropolitan area – and features an entirely new cast of characters. Every new generation of Pokémon titles has introduced players to a new region of the Pokémon world – Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh – but while they’ve all introduced dozens and dozens of new monsters to catch, you’ve also had familiar faces like Rattata, Zubat and Geodude.
One of the biggest breaks Pokémon Black & White makes with previous games in the series is its setting. It’s hardly the deepest treatment on the subject – in many ways it feels like an SNES-era JRPG – but it manages to tell a compelling yarn nonetheless, and should satisfy fans of the series who have wanted a more involved storyline for ages. Pokémon Black & White‘s willingness to tackle topics like individual freedom, one’s independence, and the potential ethics of forcing cute animals to fight at your personal whims give the game a more somber and more grown-up tone than previous entries in the series.
You don’t get to choose Bulbasaur for a free ride anymore. Even the gym challenges mix it up a bit – the first gym is a three-type shindig that will always have an advantage over whatever you started with. The villainous team is actually a fanatical animal-rights organization who believes trainers who use Pokémon are mistreating them and that the monsters must be liberated from the humans who enslave them. Instead of having just one hometown rival (who always takes the starter with an elemental type advantage over yours, the jerk), you have two – a calculating young man who tackles his journey with mathematical precision, and an absentminded girl whose father doesn’t approve of her leaving on a Pokémon adventure. That core structure hasn’t changed, but the set pieces within it have. Choose one starter ‘mon out of three options (grass, fire or water), go to visit the local Pokémon Professor, and you’re off! You need to beat the eight gym leaders, challenge the Elite Four and their Champion, and on the way you’ll have to defeat an evil organization out to steal Pokémon/rule the world/destroy the world/all of the above. Much of the framework in Black & White is how you remember it if you’ve played even one game in the series: You’re a young boy (or girl) starting off on a grand new Pokémon adventure with your childhood friends. If you’re expecting Black & White to be a radical and revolutionary departure from the series’ past thus far, you’re in for a disappointment. Changes made to Pokémon usually tweak things that didn’t work so well in previous games and add some new features here and there, that will inevitably need to be tweaked down the line. The changes between successive versions are rarely world-shaking and when they are, it’s generally only for the hardcore competitive crowd.
Since the days of Red & Blue, Pokémon has always been a very iterative series. “Huh,” you say to yourself, “That’s not how it was before.” Playing Pokémon Black & White is kind of like going back to visit an old house you used to live in: The structure might be the same, and the rooms haven’t changed much, but there’s new wallpaper and new furniture.