It’s Time To Catch Them All Again: Why Pokemon Black and White Will Be The DS’s Swan Song

There’s so many story changes this time that this entire feature could be devoted solely to those- for instance, our rivals and friends actually act as party members this time around, since we seem to hook up with them in nearly every city we go to. We have more run ins with Team Plasma and N, and all of those are ominously significant, none of those are ridiculous like the Honey stealing plot in Diamond and Pearl. A major surprise waits for you at the end of the Pokemon League, where you find out that the threat you thought you’d eliminated is in fact still active, and working from within the League to take you all down. I could tell you more, but I really am trying to avoid spoiler territory here.

In other words, just take my word here- Pokemon has finally grown up. There is actually some substance to the plot that makes it worth it to trudge through all of Isshu. While you still shouldn’t be expecting any chainsaw wielding space marines, or scantily clad lesbian women that you can engage in off screen sex minigames, this title represents what is far and away the most mature Pokemon game yet.

EVERYTHING PLAYS DIFFERENTLY TOO

The changes made to the story pale before the drastic changes made to the gameplay. Everything has been substantially reworked, both under and over the hood. A part of this is because of the game’s increased focus on cinematism and storytelling. Most of it is because this is a complete reboot.

First, let’s go through the relatively minor additions- these include new battle types, such as triple battles, which involve each team pitting out three Pokemon at a time in the arena. Triple battles get an added level of strategy because they limit each Pokemon being able to attack only the Pokemon to its immediate right, which means that the order you send your Pokemon out in is of paramount importance, something that never really mattered in double battles. Then there are rotation battles, which allow you to change your active Pokemon without losing any turn, adding yet another layer of strategy to the mix.

More drastic changes include the inclusion (finally!) of random online battles to the series, to complement the more full featured friend code based online battling. Online trading remains as good as it ever was, but the thing that really makes Pokemon Black and White’s multiplayer features shine is its inclusion of co-op gameplay. Yes, that’s right. Co-op. In Pokemon. Whereas co-op in Pokemon is limited to some trivial sidequests, it remains fun, it remains engaging, and it moves the series closer to the dream of the ultimate Pokemon MMO that we all hold so dear.

But the greatest change in Pokemon Black and White is one that is sure to incite outrage amongst the fanbase…

There are only new Pokemon in this game. Let me rephrase that- none of the preexisting 493 Pokemon can be encountered in this game. Confused? Let me rephrase that again: in Pokemon Black and White, it is impossible to catch any of the existing Pokemon. You have to play with the all new 156 Pokemon that this game introduces.

Before you get up in arms, just understand that all the old favorites are immediately available as soon as you finish the game’s thirty hour plus story mode, and the games feature full backwards compatibility with the previous Pokemon games as well, which means that all the Pokemon that you collected on your DS carts can be brought over to these games. In a sense, the creators wanted you to understand that this is a fresh beginning for the franchise, which meant that none of the old Pokemon could appear in this game, series mascot Pikachu included. However, they understood that excluding old Pokemon entirely would anger the fanbase, so they added them in, but only when their inclusion would cease to hold any meaning for all but the competitive battlers (who would be the only ones who’d want support for their old Pokemon teams anyway).

The impact that this has on how the game plays is unimaginable. For the first time since Pokemon Gold and Silver, the new monsters seem to have some personality and flavor, and we end up getting fond of them by the time the end credits scroll, a mammoth thirty hours after we boot this game up for the first time. Everything feels fresh and everything feels new again, and for the first time in over a decade, we can feel the thrill of discovery that Pokemon Red and Blue provided us with, back in full form.