It is the 5th Generation of Pokemon games on the Nintendo DS, right before Black/White 2 and X/Y.
But why am I reviewing such an old game? I will get to that in a moment as this game broke my view of Pokemon.
As a child growing up in the 90s, if you were anywhere near my age, Pokemon was EVERYWHERE You had the games, the McDonalds toys, the trading cards, tv show, clothes just to name a few. It was arguably the next big thing in gaming history after Mario and Sonic. What made this so popular? The game was revolutionary. As an exclusive portable title, it was basically an RPG with no mess and no fuss. Easy to play, easy to understand yet packed with so many different features. While I am sure there were other monster style capture games before Pokemon, the way it was done far surpasses everything. Look at all the games available on the Game Boy, and how many can you say matches up to Pokemon Blue/Green/Red/Yellow? Most portable games back then were terrible, but this one shined like a gem. Sure looking back at it now, it is full of glitches, bugs and unbalance, but it definitely set a benchmark as portable games go. (The game is so broken, it is quite funny actually. Aside from the famous "Missigno Glitch" there are many many other ones, some minor such as unintended side effects from moves, like Kinesis lowering accuracy but raising Special Attack, others major as modifying data sets to beat the game in just mere minutes). Even now, I'd rate the game highly but I'm sure a large portion of the game had nostalgia factor. Even the just the music alone is superb. Each city has it's own music and there are numerous other songs for the overworld. This is pretty unheard of for a GB game, and I'm pretty sure it has more variety of music than some recent games.
It's predecessor, Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal, further improved the game, boasting better sprites and animation, and included more features such as in game clock, night and day, breeding/eggs, and even a rewind trip back to Kanto for another round at their gym leaders. The balance of the game was greatly improved, with Special being split into Sp Attack and Sp Defense and introduction of new moves and even a new type.
Gen 3, while maybe not as warmly welcomed as Gen 2, had great improvements on the Game Boy Advance. The world became much more colorful and even more features were added. There was introduction of double battles, weather, and bunch more Pokemon. Some people didn't like the night/day removal but not everything can be perfect.
Next came along the first DS games with Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. I believe this was the game least well received. While the move onto the DS showed and it looked really nice, the game didn't improve much. However one huge change was splitting all types into Physical/Special moves. This made many more Pokemon much stronger as their typing didn't hinder their move pool. Then the next generation came, Black and White for the Nintendo DS.
With the disappointment I felt from playing Platinum (I didn't end up finishing it), I thought I perhaps outgrew Pokemon. I've done gym challenges many times before, catching new Pokemon isn't as exciting as it was, the battles felt monotonous, and everything felt like a chore. So with a bit of disappointment, I did not touch B/W nor had any intentions of playing another new Pokemon game. However, I read somewhere along the lines that B/W 2 was the greatest Pokemon Game created. Now I do not know the source of that statement (nor do I agree with it), but that led me to take interest in Generation 5. So I decided to start with the first one, B/W.
At first, I wasn't really impressed. It looked very similar to Platinum, since they were on the same system. But as I kept playing, something dawned on me. There was something game breaking going on in the series. And that element was STORYLINE. Pokemon has always been a series not based on storyline, but rather on post game content and everything else it offers. But this was revolutionary! It wasn't some half baked story pretending to give a plot, this was the real deal with meaningful and permanent characters that repeats into the story. Not only did this give meaning to the game, but it further helped explain the Pokemon universe.
The main character in the story (aside from you) has to be N
At first I was confused as hell with this guy. He approaches at you at town and challenges you to a Pokemon battle, claiming that he can "hear" Pokemon. What kind of nutter is this? And in fact, you do sort of learn that he indeed is a nut job. A sad product from main villain of the game, Ghetsis.
Ghetsis is N's adopted father, or perhaps more like a guardian. He find N abandoned and took him in. And with some sick manipulation, twists N into giving him a distorted view of Pokemon and People relationships. By only exposing N to Pokemon filled with mistrust and fear towards humans, N grew up learning and deciding that Pokemon and People can't live with each other without harm. Ghetsis planned to use N and Team Plasma to gain control of the world (surprise surprise) by using N and the legendary dragon Pokemon to defeat the Champion and forcing everyone to "release" their Pokemon. So N does indeed obtain Reshiram/Zekrom and defeats the Champion Alder. However, this is where you come in and has final showdown with N. And right before you fight, Zekrom/Reshiram shows up for you and the final fight with N commences. However, after he is defeated, Ghetsis gets pretty upset and spills everything out to N. Then you fight the final battle with the head of Team Plasma. And that is it! The credits roll after final cut scene concluding the story.
What a HUGE difference to the Pokemon formula! Sure there was still the gym leaders to fight, badges to obtain and Pokemon League to fight, but you never actually fight the champion Alder after the Elite Four, but instead fight N/Ghetsis. This is really really difficult to convey but you have to play the game to really be able to experience it. Not to mention I really gave a short short brief summary of the game. Here are some explanation as to why the story was so good.
The game really explained a lot about the Pokemon universe. I would have to say the major one was role of Gym Leaders. In the other games Gym Leaders do absolute squat in terms of storyline. Team Rocket rampaging around? Gym leaders stay in their gyms just chilling for future challengers. The entire Hoenn region about to submerge in a giant rainstorm? Only one has any balls to do anything. But here, we can see each Gym Leader, actively DOING THINGS. I mean anything is fine. Even something as mundane as Skyla giving people lifts on her airplane is amazing. You can see each gym leader with a characteristic aside from the scripted remarks given at the start and end of each gym challenge. Each Gym Leader actively participates in the story, to take down Team Plasma, and they all seem to know/acknowledge each other. They seem to be protector of each city and that is what I envisioned them to be! Now there is canonical evidence to support this.
And perhaps the most important to any game is presentation. The presentation of the story and the game is fabulous. The game leads you on in the story giving enough to lead you on, yet hiding just enough to make you wonder. I wanted to play the game more. It wasn't just about becoming the strongest Pokemon trainer, nor was it about catching all the Pokemon. The game presented me a reason to play in a compelling story line that no other Pokemon game every did. For example, before the final battle with N, you have to climb up Team Plasma secret castle that magically rises underground encircling the Elite Four building. As you climb up to the castle to fight N, you get to explore the place a bit. And after some inquiry, you can even see that Team Plasma is a bit confused. They are confused by their own philosophy of Pokemon and People unable to be together. Some grew attached to their Pokemon and is unhappy with the inevitable separation. They question if stealing other Pokemon for "freedom" is really the right choice. Others don't seem to care and fully support the Team Plasma view. This really gave a more realistic view and added another dimension to the game Even N, after journeying the world and losing, changes his view and sees that perhaps People and Pokemon can get along. In fact he was struggling with this all along as he saw you on his journey. He saw how happy Pokemon can be with other people. Ghetsis may probably be the only one dimensional character in the game, being the main villain with one singular point of view. The game really outdid itself and delved deep into what Pokemon is about. Every other professor in the previous games always said the same things, be nice to Pokemon, have fun with Pokemon, treat Pokemon with love and care etc. But how exactly does this happen or why does it matter? This was not concretely explained until this game. You can see it happening directly as the game progresses. It isn't some vague, "You treated your Pokemon with love and care" line from Professor Oak. It is game breaking philosophical point of view of the Pokemon universe in action.
Another reason I loved this game so much is the difficulty. Pokemon has never been known for difficulty but I think this was the most difficult of the Pokemon games I've played. Sure I was under-leveled almost always because I didn't grind (dodge every trainer speed run tactics ), and I only had 3 Pokemon to fight with, but the most major influence was the lack of legendaries. Gen 3 basically spoon fed you a legendary after the 7th Gym to make the game so much easier (Kyogre is so strong that once you get it, the only way to die is to get hit with Sheer Cold). I'm sure I could've obtained other legendaries before the final fight, but they were hidden and out of the way, just like it should be. But you get your first legendary in the showdown between N and his other dragon legendary Pokemon. This is so cool and really really creates that final fight ambiance. It also made the game difficult. I ended up dying to the Elite Four at first (Fuck Shauntnal and Chandelure) but made it through. Then I ALMOST lost to Ghetsis. I should've have lost, but I got a lucky paralysis with Dragon Breath lol.
The presentation, challenge, and atmosphere the game gave absolutely put this game over the top. It is my favorite Pokemon game to date and I highly recommend anyone who hasn't to try it out! Yes while X/Y and OR/AS might be more polished, I still think the original B/W is at the top. Now I'm just waiting for the remake
Have you tried Black 2/White 2 yet? While I did enjoy the story in B/W, I liked the gameplay additions in B2/W2 more, though maybe because I was playing on the Blaze Black 2 romhack.
On February 20 2015 00:52 eviltomahawk wrote: Have you tried Black 2/White 2 yet? While I did enjoy the story in B/W, I liked the gameplay additions in B2/W2 more, though maybe because I was playing on the Blaze Black 2 romhack.
I did play B/W 2 It did revert to the traditional Pokemon formula, but I enjoyed it, although not as much as B/W The legendaries just dropping in front of you was funny lol
I hated that they included a sewer level though I have never played a good sewer level in any game
Nice, I haven't played a Pokemon game seriously beyond B/W (I started but did not get very far on B/W 2) and while nothing can top the originals for me (Well, the FireRed remake), I have extremly fond memories of Diamond as it was the first time I had played the series in a long time.
Some of my fondest memories are battling/trading on Red v Blue in school with my friend, the games were banned so we used to go and sit in the school library with large tomes covering our GBs, pretending to read!
On February 20 2015 00:59 Edpayasugo wrote: Nice, I haven't played a Pokemon game seriously beyond B/W (I started but did not get very far on B/W 2) and while nothing can top the originals for me (Well, the FireRed remake), I have extremly fond memories of Diamond as it was the first time I had played the series in a long time.
Some of my fondest memories are battling/trading on Red v Blue in school with my friend, the games were banned so we used to go and sit in the school library with large tomes covering our GBs, pretending to read!
hahahaha That's great!
Yeah those link cables were awesome The cute animation you saw when the Pokemon traded across was really cool
Did pokemon more popular with #152 - #250 new units? I loved pokemon with passion with the first 151 pokemons (played game boy and cards). After I heard about new units, my interest died quickly. How many units they are now?
On February 20 2015 00:59 Edpayasugo wrote: Nice, I haven't played a Pokemon game seriously beyond B/W (I started but did not get very far on B/W 2) and while nothing can top the originals for me (Well, the FireRed remake), I have extremly fond memories of Diamond as it was the first time I had played the series in a long time.
Some of my fondest memories are battling/trading on Red v Blue in school with my friend, the games were banned so we used to go and sit in the school library with large tomes covering our GBs, pretending to read!
My fondest memories of Pokemon are me playing with my friend wirelessly during the winter; he ran away with his DS when he started to lose, so I had to pursue him outside the building which literally ended up in physical chase amidst the snowfields...
He managed to get the battle disconnected when I only needed to give one or two more hits Who knew physical endurance was necessary quality of pokemon trainer in RL as well?
On February 20 2015 03:22 Dingodile wrote: Did pokemon more popular with #152 - #250 new units? I loved pokemon with passion with the first 151 pokemons (played game boy and cards). After I heard about new units, my interest died quickly. How many units they are now?
There are 649 including the newest X/Y series
And, yes I'd say 152-250, Gen 2, was even more popular Everyone loved Gold/Silver/Crystal
On February 20 2015 00:59 Edpayasugo wrote: Nice, I haven't played a Pokemon game seriously beyond B/W (I started but did not get very far on B/W 2) and while nothing can top the originals for me (Well, the FireRed remake), I have extremly fond memories of Diamond as it was the first time I had played the series in a long time.
Some of my fondest memories are battling/trading on Red v Blue in school with my friend, the games were banned so we used to go and sit in the school library with large tomes covering our GBs, pretending to read!
My fondest memories of Pokemon are me playing with my friend wirelessly during the winter; he ran away with his DS when he started to lose, so I had to pursue him outside the building which literally ended up in physical chase amidst the snowfields...
He managed to get the battle disconnected when I only needed to give one or two more hits Who knew physical endurance was necessary quality of pokemon trainer in RL as well?
hahahahaha Now it's like you're really in the action
Yes! Someone else gets why BW was the best pokemon game since the originals!
I also appreciated the fact that the pokemon you can obtain before beating the game are all new. That really added to the freshness of the game overall.
On February 20 2015 05:33 Plexa wrote: Yes! Someone else gets why BW was the best pokemon game since the originals!
I also appreciated the fact that the pokemon you can obtain before beating the game are all new. That really added to the freshness of the game overall.
Good catch!
I think it's the only game to do so? Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Kalos all had repeats
Nah people hated Hoenn because there was too much water, so reasons to hate things on this franchise can vary o_o
But i heard there one of the DS pokemons that was motherfucking imbalanced for competitive play this maybe this is the reason. @OP:
I have a huge backlog off different games and i consider Pokemon finished for me (i stoped on RSE gen) but your post made me consider playing some of the DS gen games.
But man my DS list is gigantic and take a lot of time to finish some of the games (like the Etrian series).
On February 20 2015 07:51 Starecat wrote: Nah people hated Hoenn because there was too much water, so reasons to hate things on this franchise can vary o_o
But i heard there one of the DS pokemons that was motherfucking imbalanced for competitive play this maybe this is the reason. @OP:
I have a huge backlog off different games and i consider Pokemon finished for me (i stoped on RSE gen) but your post made me consider playing some of the DS gen games.
But man my DS list is gigantic and take a lot of time to finish some of the games (like the Etrian series).
Yeah there are so many games on the DS hahaha I still have to finish the Phoenix Wright Series
On February 20 2015 06:17 Cricketer12 wrote: Platinum was amazing BW were the WORST pokemon games ever
1. Sapphire/AS/Y/Firered 2. PMD: T/D/S 3. Platinum 4.everything else 5... 6.Black and White
Out of curiosity why did you dislike B/W so much?
Just wanted to hear your opinions
I found that whilst Nintendo tried to experiment with Pokemon as a whole through BW (which is not necessarily a bad thing), it was poorly done. The pokemon themselves were uninspiring at best with a few notable exceptions (excadrill for example), the story was perhaps the only well done part, but the partners/rivals were the most annoying of any game, (however they really have been bad every since gen 3 and beyond to be honest), it honestly looked really ugly, especially compared to platinum which came before and X/Y which came after, the idea of your pokemon being out of focus during battle really bugged me and castalia was horrible. It was simply an uninspiring game, although N and Ghetsis are some of the most remarkable inventions in all of pokemon
I should also mention that i did not enjoy HG/SS that much either, so in the eyes of many i am an oddity preferring 3 and 4 to 2 and 5. I should mention D and P were pretty average, but PMD: EoT/D really made me fall in love with gen 4 (as they are spinoffs that came around the same time as gen 4 i group them up with the main games), if you want a story, PMD2 is the greatest in the pokemon universe. I mainly attribute this to two things. One the incredibly amazing soundtrack which perfectfully amplifies the emotions felt in certain moments of the game (ill spoiler examples: + Show Spoiler +
Moments like finding the time gear on the lake, when grovyle sacrificed himself, when you fade away
) and the fact that for the first time you can really feel the gravity of the situation in a pokemon game. I never felt inspired by the teams in pokemon games, though i enjoyed the confrontations, I never felt pressured by their agenda or whatnot, PMD is the total opposite, it is in fact the only pokemon game that the word sacrifice ever pops up, and I will not blame you if you tear up at some point whilst playing it. The remake, PMD: EoS was even better with spinda's cafe and the shaymin storyline.
On February 20 2015 07:51 Starecat wrote: Nah people hated Hoenn because there was too much water, so reasons to hate things on this franchise can vary o_o
But i heard there one of the DS pokemons that was motherfucking imbalanced for competitive play this maybe this is the reason. @OP:
I have a huge backlog off different games and i consider Pokemon finished for me (i stoped on RSE gen) but your post made me consider playing some of the DS gen games.
But man my DS list is gigantic and take a lot of time to finish some of the games (like the Etrian series).
I liked the new Pokemon in B/W with the exception of the starters I disliked the water and grass and they all seemed very underwhelming in terms of power (except Tepig/Emboar) Oshawatt was cool, until his 2nd evolution which looks like a downgrade in every way lol
Visually I thought B/W and D/P were similar, but B/W tried to add a lot more 3D videos and motion. I appreciated it and thought it was good. Like when you first cross that bridge into Castelia City, the way the camera pans out and you get a full view of the bridge and the city skyline, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Also knowing this was on the DS, I couldn't fault it for the lack of graphics. Maybe they could've programmed it better, but they were really trying to stretch the limit of the DS. I do agree Castelia City kinda sucked lol But having a downtown/skyscraper city in the game was really cool concept
And yeah on the rivals/companion, they kinda sucked since Gen 3 (looking at you Wally) I just considered N as the rival character. I kinda ignored Cheren and Bianca for the most of the part lol I didn't think they were too terrible though. Atleast they got character development Hugh remained exactly the same all through the game in B/W 2, ranting about his stolen Pokemon :l Atleast you only fight him like 3 times hahaha
Haven't played any of the Mystery Dungeons so can't really comment on them, but I was only really comparing to the main Pokemon series But maybe I'll try them out!
On February 20 2015 09:03 JSH wrote: I liked the new Pokemon in B/W with the exception of the starters I disliked the water and grass and they all seemed very underwhelming in terms of power (except Tepig/Emboar) Oshawatt was cool, until his 2nd evolution which looks like a downgrade in every way lol
Visually I thought B/W and D/P were similar, but B/W tried to add a lot more 3D videos and motion. I appreciated it and thought it was good. Like when you first cross that bridge into Castelia City, the way the camera pans out and you get a full view of the bridge and the city skyline, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Also knowing this was on the DS, I couldn't fault it for the lack of graphics. Maybe they could've programmed it better, but they were really trying to stretch the limit of the DS. I do agree Castelia City kinda sucked lol But having a downtown/skyscraper city in the game was really cool concept
And yeah on the rivals/companion, they kinda sucked since Gen 3 (looking at you Wally) I just considered N as the rival character. I kinda ignored Cheren and Bianca for the most of the part lol I didn't think they were too terrible though. Atleast they got character development Hugh remained exactly the same all through the game in B/W 2, ranting about his stolen Pokemon :l Atleast you only fight him like 3 times hahaha
Haven't played any of the Mystery Dungeons so can't really comment on them, but I was only really comparing to the main Pokemon series But maybe I'll try them out!
You definitely should, admittedly the graphics aren't the best, but I feel like they add character, the originals were pretty good, (red and blue) but time and darkness I feel surpassed them in every way, gates to infinity just looks horrible
On February 20 2015 07:51 Starecat wrote: Nah people hated Hoenn because there was too much water, so reasons to hate things on this franchise can vary o_o
But i heard there one of the DS pokemons that was motherfucking imbalanced for competitive play this maybe this is the reason. @OP:
I have a huge backlog off different games and i consider Pokemon finished for me (i stoped on RSE gen) but your post made me consider playing some of the DS gen games.
But man my DS list is gigantic and take a lot of time to finish some of the games (like the Etrian series).
but, but, ORAS is best...
while oras is the best(dat delta episode) B/W changed everything (because they were making a new gen for the same device so they had to change up a lot of stuff)and I truly enjoyed the story, hell, the very fact that I enjoyed the story proves how good of a game B/W was.
plus the best things about B/W were the little things like music changing on the last pokemon on the gym leader and the town themes, seriously sitting in nimbasa town or driftveil city and just listenning to the theme was just amazing. oh and of course this.
On February 20 2015 07:51 Starecat wrote: Nah people hated Hoenn because there was too much water, so reasons to hate things on this franchise can vary o_o
But i heard there one of the DS pokemons that was motherfucking imbalanced for competitive play this maybe this is the reason. @OP:
I have a huge backlog off different games and i consider Pokemon finished for me (i stoped on RSE gen) but your post made me consider playing some of the DS gen games.
But man my DS list is gigantic and take a lot of time to finish some of the games (like the Etrian series).
but, but, ORAS is best...
while oras is the best(dat delta episode) B/W changed everything (because they were making a new gen for the same device so they had to change up a lot of stuff)and I truly enjoyed the story, hell, the very fact that I enjoyed the story proves how good of a game B/W was.
plus the best things about B/W were the little things like music changing on the last pokemon on the gym leader and the town themes, seriously sitting in nimbasa town or driftveil city and just listenning to the theme was just amazing. oh and of course this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrn5TXjl_dM
nimbasa and driftveil did have amazing music, but those were small trinkets in what I felt to be a boring pokemon game, of course if you have a different opinion power to you, and as a recommended it to JSH, since you value good poke music i would recommend pokemon mystery dungeon explorers or time/darkness/sky
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/uVsaMid.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4Bu2mHT.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/BqXrGON.png)
), and I only had 3 Pokemon to fight with, but the most major influence was the lack of legendaries. Gen 3 basically spoon fed you a legendary after the 7th Gym to make the game so much easier (Kyogre is so strong that once you get it, the only way to die is to get hit with Sheer Cold). I'm sure I could've obtained other legendaries before the final fight, but they were hidden and out of the way, just like it should be. But you get your first legendary in the showdown between N and his other dragon legendary Pokemon. This is so cool and really really creates that final fight ambiance. It also made the game difficult. I ended up dying to the Elite Four at first (Fuck Shauntnal and Chandelure) but made it through. Then I ALMOST lost to Ghetsis. I should've have lost, but I got a lucky paralysis with Dragon Breath lol. 
![[image loading]](http://pldh.net/media/dreamworld/584.png)
