Why We're Excited for Pokemon Black/White?

Back in April we asked you, the readers, what changes you wanted in the new Pokemon games, and boy did you tell us. There were a ton of responses, and we printed the most common ones, but we haven't heard much about the newest Pokemon Games to follow up. Until now.

The newest issue of CoroCoro magazine touched on a lot of new features, and some of them match up with what fans have been demanding for years. So we're readdressing some of the issues, highlighting why Pokemon Black and Pokemon White may just breathe new life back into the series.

The Story
Now we don't know much about how Black/White will play out, but so far it looks and sounds a lot like the normal Pokemon scenario. That said, the new antagonist character seems pretty interesting. The mysterious N is someone who wants to liberate Pokemon from human control. He wants a total separation between people and Pokemon (hence the black and white). I'm not sure about you but I think the idea of someone emancipating Pokemon is an awesome idea. Granted this is likely through unjust means and will result in some message about how Pokemon are respected members of society but it could also mean the end of Pokemon as we know it! Either way this is not the same old villainous team scenario, and if done right, shows a level of maturity that Pokemon has needed for a while.

Is That a New Geodude and Zubat?
Look, we know Crobat is an amazing Pokemon, and any serious competitor has one in its team, but we're still so sick of seeing Zubats and Geodudes in every cave ever. But among the many Pokemon that have been revealed so far is Koromori, a new bat Pokemon. Basically he's a round, goofy looking puffball with bat wings and a single fang. And while I'm not completely sold on him, at least he's not a Zubat, and I'd much rather see him pop up in the first cave I enter. In addition to the bat is the somewhat adorable ground gator, Meguroko (see above), who is cute enough for me to forget all about ol' rock face guy.

New Multiplayer Features
People have been clamoring for a Pokemon MMO (which would be awesome), but in the meantime I'd settle for some multiplayer that was more than mini-games and battles. That makes me very excited about things like High Link mode. High Link will contain an overworld hub, which players can access over Wi-Fi (kind of like the Union room). There they can do missions and help out other players. The extent of this is still unknown, but with games like Dragon Quest IX offering full multiplayer it makes a lot of sense for Pokemon to seriously beef this up.

Along those lines are features like Pass By mode, which is a Tag mode that allows players to transmit data with other copies of the game while they're not playing. Again, we don't know much about it, but I personally love Tag mode features in games, and Pokemon makes the most sense for it considering how many millions of people play it.

Your new phone gadget got a lot more useful.

Oh and did I mention DSi/3DS specific features like video chat? Yeah, there's flippin' video chat. Up to four people can link up, and draw on each other's faces. I'm going to assume that this is local wireless only, since I doubt Nintendo wants to be the first company to bring the horrors of Chat Roulette to the DS.

Upgrading the PC Box
I hate the PC box. It's clunky and hard to use, and while HeartGold/SoulSilver improved on it, it's still not fully utilized. Black/White includes an infrared feature that will allow players to do things like start quick battles on the fly, and even trade Pokemon right out of the PC box. This makes trading 800x more appealing to me, especially if I don't have to keep entering and exiting the Union Room and can instead trade with people quickly and efficiently.

And It Looks Good, Too!
The video trailer for Pokemon shows off a lot of stuff never seen before in the series. Sweeping camera effects, fancier attack graphics, and full character portraits for dialogue. It's not a major change, but all of these things combine to make a Pokemon game that looks better than any other. It's what this game should have looked like in 2006.



We're excited for Pokemon Black/White, and the more we hear about it, the more excited we get. Nintendo of America has stayed pretty tight lipped regarding the English version, but in the meantime we'll keep bringing you news and previews for the Japanese version.