It don't matter if you're Black or White

Over the years there have been several Pokemon games, Listing them can be an endless task. Pokemon is a part of a genre that hasn't changed much in the last 10 years. Random battles, turn based, monsters, spikey hair, and girly looking men are a near necessity when making this type of game. Pokemon Black doesn't change this. A Bad thing?  Not necessarily.

 There are redeeming qualities of Pokemon black that many will look over and just simply say "been there done that".  Pokemon battles are still fun and addicting. Getting that satisfaction of getting your favorite Pokemon to evolve to his final form or just catching him period can be great. Things that are good about the lack of change in Pokemon is that GameFreak has pretty much perfected its craft. Making an addictive game for all ages.

But honestly the battles and catching my favorite Pokemon of the past are not the best part of the game. Nicknaming makes this game great. Finding hilarious or disgusting ways of naming your Pokemon can be fun and rather satisfying. Naming a Lickitung, Carpet muncher or Liketolicky can be hilarious and the fun never ends when there are 500+ Pokemon in the game. In this game I have always nicknamed my Pokemon not one is a Patrat or a Kyurem (legendary ice dragon) rather one will be Stoner or Ice D(after Ice T). Sitting at the nickname screen for 5-10 minutes thinking of a good nickname is a regular occasion in my game.

One thing Pokemon doesn't do great is it's online. It's not that its hard to do but the online doesn't seem to work the way its supposed to. Having 3 different ways of trading or endless convoluted titles for things that could otherwise be named simply Wi-Fi connection or Battle arena really brings down the games catch 'em all tag line. Trading can be a hassle in which the game freezes in the Club room or the DS’s don’t communicate to each other properly. Other features like the Pokemon Dream world or Pokemon Global link really don't explain themselves.    First time i connected to the dream world the game flashed a serial # of some sort and then i tucked my Pokemon to sleep. Didn't realize I have to login on my computer to access this feature. It just seems rather obscure thing to do when it's Nintendo's main push for this game.

                            
Another weakness of this game it's formulaic story. Pokemon, like many other JRPGs, the story hasn't changed in 20 years. Pokemon's story is you start have choice of 3 Pokemon and you train. Somewhere along the line you fight your best friend and win. Soon after you find some sort of gang that wants to do some selfish need with Pokemon and you go to the Elite 4.   Nothing changed since I played my last Pokemon game which was Crystal. They made the legendary Pokemon much easier to catch, since most are within the storyline, but it also reduces the satisfaction of getting all of them since well they're not hard to miss.
 
Pokemon Black or White are great games if you haven't tired of the same game for the last 20 years. I haven't played since Pokemon Crystal on the Gameboy color so my experience was pretty awesome. I've so far spent 120 hours in my game currently and haven't even gotten to the exclusive stuff of my version(Black City). This game is without a doubt addicting  but it also has its faults. In the end, I'll always have my Hobag.