What's so good about Black/White?

[TheLastBlade]

I'm pretty much having a hard time liking this game... I find that whatever changes made into the game was merely cosmetic and had to upgrade for the worst (Triple/rotation battles) and not taking lessons (HG and SS) from past games. I'm pretty much the only person in the world who truly hates this game. Can you people explain to me why it's considered "The pinnacle of the series"?

[KingBroly]

The story. It was something that you actually wanted to see through in a Pokemon game, which was nice.

I also think the Pokemon designs were a lot better than what they had been in previous gens, but still pale in comparison to Gen 1.

Finally, for me at least, it told me that unless something major happens with the way the series worked, it was a good conclusion to my Pokemon Adventure; something I had been apart of since the very beginning.

[Serebii]

It has the strongest narrative of any Pokémon game

The new Pokémon are imaginative in both design and features including type, stats and movepool.

It builds upon every single aspect from past games

[Sailing_Day]

The story was a leap forward from previous games. Also, graphically it did vastly improve on what previous games offered, the environments were beautiful for a DS game, and the battles were great with the (finally) fully animated sprites.

That said it is still one of my least favorite games in the franchise, so you're not alone. I didn't like the Pokemon designs, and to me they were a step backward from Generation IV. The game is still just as formulaic as ever, and the improvements to the story and battle system were rather marginal and weren't the big leap the series needed to keep from getting stale. Although well intentioned, the dream world feature is kind of clunky, and they went out of their way to completely ignore many of the huge improvements that they made with HG/SS. I wouldn't consider it the "pinnacle" of anything.

[Mako]

To build upon what other above me have said. The story was really good when comparing it to the other Pokemon games. It wasn't the usual Team *insert team name here* attacks and you have to rescue the world. It was more complex and made you think a bit. Are people using Pokemon for their selfish needs in battle. Could we compare it to dog-fighting/ cock-fighting which are illegal? To me, it was a nice advancement.

Overall, the Pokemon designs were not the best, but they improved from last gen which was good. I especially liked all the dragon Pokemon this time around. Plus, they only let you use the new Pokemon until much later in the game; which made it feel new and fresh.

The graphics were improved upon, the animations of the Pokemon were improved upon, menu design improved upon, we finally got unlimited use of TM's even if they cost more, there are less HM's that we need to use, we finally have seasons in the game, the new region is pretty cool, there are some nice new moves/ abilities, and some other minor stuff.

That being said, I have no idea why they got rid of Pokemon being able to follow you around. I always thought that was a cool feature... I also don't understand why they got rid of gym leader rematches and trainer rematches. There is no Safari Zone / Game Corner to gamble in. They got rid of the trainer animations from HG/SS. They should have had an option to turn the music to 8 bit. Some other minor gripes as well...

Overall Black and White are great games, but I still think HG/ SS are still the best in the series. Until they make a Pokemon game where you can visit every region in one game, my opinion will probably remain the same. There was just so much stuff to do in HG/SS including that epic battle against Red.

[MAGNUS-8M]

I really like the graphical and general-engine improvements myself. Going between SS and Black, SS feels very framey and weak in presentation. Black is very quick and responsive, smoother framerates all around, the 2D-scaling for the '3D battles' is impressive, and the more mature-sized in-game character sprites felt very nice...SS's single-grid-sized characters feel so weird to me now. Of course, I'm sure everyone agrees that HG/SS's end game was packed with much more to do, but I also like that most of the pokemon from previous games are either available in the unlocked extra areas, or found through the Dreamworld, and that definitely helps those of us who don't have access to friends-who-actually-play-pokemon or extra versions of the fourth and fifth generation games.

[TheLastBlade]

Admittedly, the designs work infinitely better as 3d models. 2d sprites are extremely ugly and uninspired. Seriously? I'm fighting a goddamn ice cream cone and a Pokemon that looks the same except with something added to it... I honestly don't see how it's an upgrade over generation 4.

[Koopzilla]

I really liked it. Most things about it is better (graphics, story, battle animations, more PC boxes, quicker easier trading, dream world...) I'm not sure I'd call it my favorite though. Mostly because I didn't like the Pokemon designs (nothing beats first gen) although I did eventually find a team of 6 that I really liked. It forced me to use Pokemon types I don't normally use though but it worked out ok. Also I was extremely disappointed that Pokemon could no longer follow you around, I absolutely loved that about HG/SS. Removing trainer rematches sucked too, I wish they would bring back the Vs. Seeker from Pearl/Diamond. I also didn't like that you can't transfer items over on your Pokemon.Even with these problems I still thought it was a really good game

[Jazzy]

I personally didn't find the story to be much better than that of any other Pokemon game. I felt that some things were a step down (not having your Pokemon walk with you anymore when everyone loved that feature, for example, or not being able to play cooperatively in multiplayer), while other "improvements" seemed pretty useless to me, like how zoomed out battles look now, or the C-gear which I tried and failed to get any use out of. Sure, the graphics and music were good but that's not all it takes. Plus, you can't trade normally with other DS titles and have to move your Pokemon to B/W permanently? So dumb.

I enjoyed it, of course, because I love Pokemon, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as HGSS.

[CrispyGoomba]

Plus, you can't trade normally with other DS titles and have to move your Pokemon to B/W permanently? So dumb.

But trading Pokemon from Emerald to Diamond/Pearl did the same thing...It only makes sense to do that because B/W is 5th gen where as HG/SS/Pl/D/P are 4th gen.

Let's just say it was possible.

So I give my Pikachu in Diamond to White. I teach Pikachu a new move that they added in White. I return it to Diamond. Now, how would this work out? NINTENDO LOGIC!

[Sailing_Day]

But trading Pokemon from Emerald to Diamond/Pearl did the same thing...It only makes sense to do that because B/W is 5th gen where as HG/SS/Pl/D/P are 4th gen.

Let's just say it was possible.

So I give my Pikachu in Diamond to White. I teach Pikachu a new move that they added in White. I return it to Diamond. Now, how would this work out? NINTENDO LOGIC!

Did everyone forget about Generation II already? It worked perfectly fine then.

There were actual hardware reasons you couldn't go from II to III, but since then they've really Gone out of their way to make it as annoying as possible to transfer your Pokemon over to a new generation game.

[MoldyClay]

But trading Pokemon from Emerald to Diamond/Pearl did the same thing...It only makes sense to do that because B/W is 5th gen where as HG/SS/Pl/D/P are 4th gen.

Let's just say it was possible.

So I give my Pikachu in Diamond to White. I teach Pikachu a new move that they added in White. I return it to Diamond. Now, how would this work out? NINTENDO LOGIC!

Did everyone forget about Generation II already? It worked perfectly fine then.

There were actual hardware reasons you couldn't go from II to III, but since then they've really Gone out of their way to make it as annoying as possible to transfer your Pokemon over to a new generation game.

This.

Generation IV and V have no reason to not communicate with each other back and forth.

Gen II just said "You can't take that Pokemon with you", and that worked fine with not being able to trade Spiky Eared Pichu from HG/SS to any other game, so obviously they can do stuff like that still.