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Pokémon Black and White Review
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on 2011-05-16 at 15:22 (15966 Views)
In 1999, Nintendo and GameFreak released the first 2 Pokémon games. Paired with a cheerful anime and plethora of merchandise, Pokémon quickly claimed its spot as a children's phenomenon. Over the past 12 years, Nintendo has continued to release Pokémon games. While the majority of the franchise has continued to remain rooted in the original age demographic that made it successful, the games have continuously managed to evolve and captivate those who originally made the franchise successful. As time has gone on, those players have remained devoted to the minor details that fashion a simple children's game into a more complex franchise. With a fifth generation out, I thought it'd be interesting to examine some of the aspects that make Pokémon Black and White stand above their predecessors.
Whenever a new Pokémon generation is released, one of the biggest complaints is that it is far too similar (identical in gameplay) to previous iterations. While this claim is valid for a variety of series, it seems especially pronounced at first glance when considering the various generations of Pokémon games. After all, none of them have deviated from the same basic formula: pick character, pick (fire) starter, go on journey to catch Pokémon, collect badges, fight cookie-cutter villains, challenge the Elite Four, and then (if you have the patience/desire) effort train a small collection of superior Pokémon. A number of critics hold that the only differences between the different generations are the names of the villains, locations, and the additions of more uninspired Pokémon to annoy you during your journey. While these concerns are certainly not unfounded, those who have continued to play the various games and devote more than a quick glance to each game will notice the changes and improvements each rendition produces.
The foundation of Black and White certainly does not deviate from its lineage. You start in Nuvema Town (a city with seemingly only enough homes for your family, your rivals' families, and the regional professor), get your starter, set out to beat the eight gyms and become the Pokémon champion, and along the way encounter an evil organization that has been stealing Pokémon for their own goals (Team Plasma). Sure, it all sounds fairly unoriginal, but Black and White manage to spice up the formula in ways that make this generation stand out from its predecessors.
Since the original game, we have been fighting the same Pokémon. When you walk through a cave, you're going to fight Zubats; when you surf across water, you're going to be attacked by Tentacool; when you walk through a forest, Metapod is going to use Harden on you. Immediately when you embark on your journey, you notice this trend no longer holds. Players of generation IV will remember that Pokémon from the National Dex would not appear until every Pokémon in the Regional Dex had been seen. However, this still included a number of older Pokémon. Generation V takes this advance and improves it greatly. During the initial journey (up till the end of the main story -- more on that later), no Pokémon from the previous generations will appear. This means that every single Pokémon you encounter for the first 20 to 30 hours (depending on play style, level binging, etc) will be new. While it is certainly impossible to recapture the original feeling that many of us had while playing either Red or Blue, this is the closest a Pokémon game has come to recreating it. Personally I would have appreciated if the requirement to obtain the National Dex from Generation IV had been kept as well, but I suppose that would have been difficult considering some legendaries cannot be seen in a single game (then again, they found a way around this in Generation IV, so..).
Another area where the series has changed this generation is in regard to battles. Each generation seems to introduce new aspects to the battles, and Generation V is no different. This time, triple battles and rotation battles are the new additions. In triple battles three Pokémon from each player battle. However, due to positioning, different positions are unable to attack others. This adds a new aspect as players must adjust their Pokémon based on the position of their opponents. Personally, I’m not a fan of triple battles, but I do enjoy rotation battles. In rotation battles, three Pokémon once again are involved. However, only one engages in battles at once. This means players have to attempt to predict which Pokémon their opponent will use in addition to the type of move. Other tweaks to the battle system include the usage of animated sprites and speeding up the Hp bar. I didn’t notice this till I tried to check something in my copy of Diamond, but the speed which the Hp drops upon taking damage has been noticeably increased. While this is a minor change, it is definitely a welcome one. Another welcome improvement is that TMs no longer disappear from your inventory when used. Gone are the days of teaching a Pokémon a move and being filled with regret later for no longer having access to it.
One of the biggest changes is the fact that the story and Team Plasma actually matter. In most games, story is what drives the experience. This has never been the case for Pokémon. It has always felt like the story was an afterthought to the journey to the Elite Four, and even that was an afterthought to catching Pokémon. True, the later generations tried to expand on the actions of their respective villains to create a more complete story, but at the end of the day that was not what drove the games. Arguably that is still the case in Generation V, but the story has become a much more integral component. In fact, completion of the game does not occur when you beat the Elite Four, but after defeating the boss of Team Plasma. Even Team Plasma has been improved significantly. Instead of being concerned solely with furthering their own objectives, the group believes they’re striving to stop the subjugation of Pokémon by humans. Most children probably won’t pick up on the darker undertones, but to the more mature crowd, the motivations of the supposed villains raise strong questions about the morality of capturing creatures in small balls and forcing them to battle... ...at least until you get to the next battle. Probably because Pokémon is targeted towards children, this dilemma never truly reaches its potential, but it’s certainly a step in a new (and better) direction for the franchise. I will say, at the conclusion, there are a lot of loose ends. Nintendo has shown that they can use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connect to provide access to downloadable features (Victini and Liberty Garden come to mind), so maybe they’ll manage to release some downloadable additions to the story and not just leave its expansion till the inevitable third game.
Unfortunately, graphics is one area where the series has not made significant progress and its age shows. While they did animate the battle sprites and add a few 3D elements to the world, those are more or less the only major changes. Worse, there are a number of situations where they attempted to create impressive scenes, but due to the pixilated nature of the characters, these images fall short (I’m looking at your Sky Arrow Bridge). The 3D elements, while welcome, are fairly rare and honestly raise the question of why they were incorporated if they were going to be so rare.
In the end, if you’re one of those people who buy every generation of Pokémon games, chances are you’ve already picked this one up. If you’re someone who hasn’t played one in a while, Black and White certainly have some features that have improved on their older counterparts so it might be worth it. If you’re someone who thinks Pokémon games are dull, repetitive, or just for kids, you probably thought this read was a waste of time (in which case you’re dead to me). Personally I’ve always felt the Pokémon games provide a satisfying experience. Yes they haven’t changed much over the years, but when you have a formula that works, is it really necessary to change it up? They might be childish and simplistic, but sometimes it’s nice to sit down and play a simple game just for the sake of having fun~
Oh, and as a final note… STOP WITH THE DAMN FIRE/FIGHTING STARTERS!!!
All images are owned by Nintendo (except the banner which is owned by whoever owns the anime).
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