The Adventure Continues... In Pokemon Black and White!

About 20 days after its release, a copy of it is finally in my hands.

Introducing: Pokemon Black and White.

Having played the last few installments of the game, I picked up Pokemon Black. It was better than I expected.

The 5th generation of Pokemon introduces up to more than 150 new Pokemon to the franchise, and this time, the adventure takes place in Unova Region, which is based off New York City. The game starts off with you and two other friends receiving a starter Pokemon as a gift from Professor Juniper. As with other versions, the aim of this game is to obtain all eight badges of the Unova region and challenge the Pokemon League.

In addition to the aim of becoming the Pokemon Champion, players would also have to thwart the plans of the games' main antagonist Team Plasma, a group that seeks to liberate Pokemon from human oppression.

The game starts off at a very slow pace (for me at least) as Professor Juniper will guide players through the various aspects of the game, such as capturing a Pokemon, so as to allow players new to Pokemon familiarize with the game.

New features included in this game include the seasonal cycle. This means that only certain areas can be accessed and certain Pokemon can only be captured in different seasons. Some Pokemon change appearance according to season as well. Another new feature to note would be the Triple Battle Mode, which increases the challenge of a Pokemon Battle.

After an hour of gameplay, I find the game fun but challenging. It can be quite frustrating for new players, as battles between ordinary trainers can now be quite a challenge even for veteran players too. I was however disappointed by the absence of the mascot of Pokemon -- Pikachu. Pikachu is the reason why many fans are familiar with Pokemon, and Pikachu cannot be found in Pokemon Black/White unless you trade it over from previous versions like Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver. Without this symbolic character, I felt that the game seems be missing something.

But overall, the introduction of new Pokemon and new game features make it an equally awesome gaming experience for old and new players alike.

Before I end this post, allow me to introduce the starter Pokemon of this series:

Tepig - Evolves into a Fire/Fighting final stage. It has the worst Defense, Special Defense and Speed of the trio's final evolutions, but makes up for its limitations with a high HP, Attack and Special Attack. Learns several strong moves to complement its offense-based stats.




Oshawott - Evolves into a Water final stage with an appearance of a sea lion. It is a balanced starter, and can learn all three of the Water HMs, i.e. Surf, Waterfall and Dive. Good for beginner players. Its movepool is decent, with good Water moves like Aqua Tail and Razor Shell, and also stat-boosting Swords Dance and Focus Energy.



Snivy - Evolves into a Grass final stage. Unlike Tepig's evolution line, it is more defense-oriented. It has the worst HP, Attack and Special Attack of the trio's final evolutions, but does have the best Defense, Special Defense and Speed. Pity the narrow movepool though, and its only decent level-up move is Leaf Storm of base power 140, learnt at Lvl.62 (groan).




So after all these talk, I can't wait to continue on my adventure in the Unova region! :D