Pokémon Black is a bit of an intimidating game to review. It’s huge beyond imagination for starters. Well, I guess it’s not beyond someone’s imagination since someone made it, but I certainly can’t imagine the length, breadth and depth of it. It’s also the 5th generation of games in the biggest-selling videogame series of all time – a giant monster of a game, hardly pocket-sized.

I can confidently say that Pokémon Black is the best Pokémon game I have played. My history is limited to the DS games, all of which I’ve enjoyed, but this new generation really does improve upon the previous games significantly in being both better for new players (in terms of pacing and guidance) and more interesting for returning pocket monster trainers (due to an entirely new roster of Pokémon, new moves and tweaks to the battles).

Become the Champion, Save the Pokémon

The plot is typical: you embark on your quest to become a Champion trainer, along with two friends who show up at various times along the way. You start with one Pokémon (from a choice of three) but quickly catch more and through fighting battles you grow them into powerful fighting machines so that you can fight more Pokémon and catch more Pokémon to fight more Pokémon. To become Champion (and to be able to control the more powerful Pokémon) you must take on the gym leaders of each town. If you defeat a gym leader in a Pokémon battle you get a badge, and you’ll need eight badges before you can challenge the Elite Four and the Champion of the Pokémon League. All the while there is a strange group of people called Team Plasma who are out to stop people and Pokémon interacting and are fighting battles to take people’s Pokémon away from them. The plot is linear – each location is unlocked in sequence, so there’s no confusion about what to do or where to go.

As you travel around Unnova your Pokémon will fight battles with other Pokémon – either wild ones or ones captured by other characters you meet. Usually in these battles one of your Pokémon fights one of the other character’s Pokémon (or the wild one) in a turn-based battle. Each turn you select a move from a set of four and depending on hundreds of different statistics and numbers (move, speed, accuracy, attack strength, defense, special defense, attacking Pokémon type, defending Pokémon type, the time of day, the season of the year, what colour shirt you are wearing and possibly even what you ate for breakfast) the moves will play out, after which you select another move (or the same move, if you can, and there could be any number of reasons why you can’t).

Once one Pokémon is defeated they can be replaced from your team of six. There are also 2 vs 2 battles where two of your Pokémon battle two others, but in structure they are the same. Capturing wild Pokémon happens in the same way – via a battle, but the idea in capturing is not to defeat the Pokémon but just to weaken it before using a Pokeball to capture the creature within. Once you defeat a Pokémon your winning Pokémon will get experience and with enough experience it will level up, which means it gets a little more health and is generally slightly stronger. Sometimes they will also learn a new move. Level up enough and most Pokémon will evolve into a more advanced form. Despite the fact that you fight so many battles in the game, they’re constantly interesting (as long as you don’t spend too much time grinding) because of the huge variety in their execution and the regular decision making required (which Pokémon to use, which one to spend time in leveling, which move to forget when you learn a new one, which move to use against this type of Pokémon…)

Brand new roster, new moves and features

Black/White is the first Pokémon version since the original ones to have a completely new roster of Pokémon. This alone makes the game more interesting for returning players as you’ll need to figure out which ones you like. There are also some new moves available for use in group battles – these moves interact with other moves if you perform them together, adding to the tactical options of battle. There are also triple battles – 3 vs 3 at once, as well as rotation battles, where 3 battle 3 but one at a time. If you go into the really tall grass you might even face 2 vs 2 battles in the wild. The new locations, new Pokémon and new features, not to mention the new graphical capabilities, make the game feel really fresh.

For returning players, what will keep you interested over the long term is the typical depth of Pokémon lore and the wealth of connectivity options the game has. You can battle against friends or online, communicate or check your compatibility with friends, trade locally or online, sync up with the Pokémon Dream World. That’s not an exhaustive list because I haven’t begun to explore all the options available. You can also bring your Pokémon in from previous games once you’ve finished the main game, so if you feel the need to have all 646 Pokémon in one place that’s how it’s possible. I will satisfy myself with trying to collect the 150 new ones and transferring my paltry collections from Platinum and SoulSilver.

Well paced for newcomers

Is this a good Pokémon for new players? It is far better than Diamond or SoulSilver for beginners in my opinion, having entered into the Pokémon world with the DS. This is, again, mainly because there are a new set of Pokémon, instead of already well-known Pokémon interspersed with new ones. The game introduces you to the various types of Pokémon at a manageable pace, and offers good guidance as to which types will be good against which types as and when you need to know this information. This might be a little painful for old-comers, and I would guess that experienced trainers will find the first half of the main plot a little boring and beneath them, but it does benefit new players (which in Pokémon I would assume is a large portion of each generation’s audience, which I guess is why they call it a generation).

If you bought a DS and you only bought Pokémon Black (or White) you would have enough gameplay in that one game to last you a very long time. The main plot is about 30 to 40 hours, and catching all Pokémon (including evolved forms) will take you considerably longer, which is to say probably about 100 hours or more, and will require significant effort as some can only be gained through trading or special events. If you simply play through the plot you can still enjoy the game thoroughly and not have to worry about all the in-depth complexity of breeding and natures and who-knows-what – it’s a very accessible game for all ages, and at the same time one of the most complex and intricate games out there. It’s certainly not for everyone – those who dislike turn-based battles should stay away, and a certain amount of patience and determination is required (don’t forget to up the text speed and turn off battle animations if you want to remain sane), but it is rewarding and extremely well paced so it never gets frustratingly difficult or boringly easy.

Purchase: