Review: Pokemon Black and White (Nintendo DS)

Pokemon. Ever since it appeared in the late 90's it has been a favourite of kids and geeks everywhere. Its unique brand of RPG mechanics that expertly combine simplicity with depth, which also succeeds in itching every gamers propensity for collecting things has seen it become wildly popular, with enough merchandise to stretch to the end of the universe coming along with that popularity (OK, I exaggerate, but it often seems that way). Along with the merchandise there has been a steady release of a new generation of paired releases every few years that add a new geographical area to the franchise and also around 100 or so new Pokemon. Black and White is no different in this regard, but developer Game Freak has done wonders making these new games feel much fresher than the description implies, whilst also still keeping to the series rich heritage and gameplay mechanics.

In common with other Pokemon games, your journey begins in a small village in a secluded area of the game's region, Unova, where Pokemon Professor Juniper just happens to be based. Along with some friends, you pledge to journey across the land, searching far and wide to find and understand each Pokemon, cataloging them in a sort of Pokemon encyclopedia, the Pokedex. At the same time, as a trainer, it is your goal to fight and defeat the 8 gym leaders in order to challenge the regions Pokemon League and become Pokemon Champion of Unova! Of course, starting off in a lonely and secluded village means picking one of the three well designed starter Pokemon (Snivy, the grass snake, Tepig, the fire pig and Oshawott, the sea otter Pokemon) and leaving home to begin assembling your awesome team of Pokemon to help carry out this task.

So far so similar. But as you begin to play the game you'll realise that compared to previous iterations, the battles are lightning fast, and for the first time, the Pokemon move in battle as opposed to previous static sprites. As a result of this, battles are more exciting and engaging. Whilst the mechanics of the battle system remain the same as previous entries, Game Freak have added wild double battles and triple battles to spice proceedings up a little. All these innovations combined with infinite use TM's meaning you can tweak and tinker with your Pokemon as you see fit makes the already winning formula battle wise even more compelling.

The 'making things fresh again' mantra has extended to the choice of Pokemon themselves. No longer will going into a cave result in an endless string of Zubats and Geodudes, oh no, because all of the Pokemon featured in the main game are entirely new, and very well designed they are too. This extends beyond aesthetics - long time Pokemon players have derided the sameyness of fighting the same Pokemon time and time again and knowing their quirks and weaknesses. Gone are the days of instantly knowing a Pokemons typing from previous experience - this makes you think again and experience the wonder of learning and finding them for yourself.

Game Freak has also worked hard to improve the aesthetics since the last generation. 3D graphics are used with much more gusto than before, and in certain parts the camera swoops around and shows a true 3D perspective. Seasons also feature - every month the entire look of Unova changes, from green to brown, and from rain to snow. A long time weak point of Pokemon games are confusing, ugly and badly designed menu screens - this has been improved and everything looks cool, and more importantly functions well, which is essential in a game with so much micro-managing to be done.

Connectivity options have also been vastly improved. No longer is internet trading only available in one building - it's integrated into every Pokemon Centre. In fact, for local battling and trading, there's no longer any need to trek to a Pokemon Centre, as thanks to the C-Gear on the touch screen, Infrared can be used to instantly connect to other players and get that battle itch on.

So Black and White is an evolution then, not a revolution. It plays better, looks better and integrates with other players better, but it's still the same old Pokemon underneath the flashy surface. That said, when a game has such a sheer amount of content and plays so well, it's no mystery why millions of people still want to catch them all.

BUY IT