Nintendo Pokémon Black and White

[West]

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The fifth-generation Pokémon game has been announced! At least, the titles for it have -- Pokémon Black and White are the next generation of Pokémon games, to be released this fall on DS in Japan. Nintendo's going for relatively simple colors after things like "HeartGold" and "Pearl." And ... that's pretty much all we know. Of course, given the way the series works, we can all kind of guess exactly how this will play. Or maybe not: a note on the Pokemon home page promises that "every aspect will be reborn innovatively," according to our translation.

The first new creature from this generation has already been revealed as a sort of teaser: Zoroark, the Monster Fox Pokémon. The teaser site indicates that we'll know more April 15.

Source: Joystiq

Even before this announcement, I heard that they were going to try to recreate how the games work. I'm pretty excited to see what sorts of changes they have in mind, seeing as how the games have been pretty much the same thing for fifteen years but with increasingly revamped visuals. It'll be interesting to see changes to gameplay. Can't wait for the new information on the 15th!

What do you guys think? Will re-imagined gameplay breathe new life into a series that many fans believe is becoming milked dry?
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[Martel]

These versions have one chance to impress me. If I see any more crappy evos or prevos, or a massive heap of legendaries, or more things like that stupid fox they revealed, I am done with Pokemon. The series just hasn't been right since the third generation, and unless they think of something incredible to turn it around, I get the feeling this is going to be even worse than D/P/P was.
Still, I know better than to count Nintendo out, so I'm going to give them a chance to prove that they still know how to make proper new Pokemon games. I'm not sure what new form the gameplay could take, and I doubt they'd change it too much, but still...could be interesting.

 

[Daenerys]

At first I wasn't too keen on the names White and Black? A little unimaginative, but upon further thought, they sound quite classy. Although, the problem could be people could think it's racist. Stupid, I know, but it seems to be the main topic of discussion on Gamefaqs Pokémon Black board.

I get the feeling this is going to be even worse than D/P/P was.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I thought Pearl/Diamond/Platinum were the best in the series so far, and I'm confident that these two new games will be even better. xD I prefer being optimistic.

 

[Aerius Sygale]

Pokémon Black and White Versions...huh, I could only guess the third installment in the set will be Pokémon Grey/Gray.

Coming out for the DS in Fall in Japan...but will it be out in time for Christmas in NA? I don't want to have to end up waiting until next year to get one of the 5th gen. Pokémon games. >_>

 

[Ewan]

This sounds pretty cool. Yes it's pokemon but they are actually really fun games. I don't think there's anything similar, at least I don't think so. I've enjoyed the other ones as well.

And the whole racist thing is stupid. It's like when people say Chess is racist because white starts first.

 

[Espurr]

To be honest I would have expected Nintendo to use Black and White as one of the titles for an earlier generation. Anyway it is too early for me to say but odds are I doubt I will buy this. Unless something completely new, innovative, and awesome comes out that really interests me, D/P/Pl/HG/SS will likely be the last generation of Pokemon I will buy.

 

[Rey]

Omg Thats nice. This is actually one of my friend's creation He made white and black version. Well he used to draw images and all and new pokemon stats xD. OkAY that Aside Im actually very excited for this. It looks like it will be good. A black and a white eversion hehe. I think Zoroark will vbe on the cover of black but then again I dont think he is A legend

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

Pokemon Company's announcement of Pokemon Black & White this week was accompanied by the promise of additional information to come on the 15th via an official site update. Expectedly, Coro Coro Comics got the details in advance, complete with first screens.

The handful of screenshots in the magazine show newcomer Pokemon Zorua and Zoroark in action on the battle field, as well as some sweet town and field sections.
It looks like Black & White will be taking the series to 3D, at least for backgrounds. Battle, fields and towns appear to be 3D, with the fields and towns taking place from a 3/4 perspective while the battles retain a similar perspective to past Pokemon games.

(Just to avoid confusion, the "3D" mentioned here is standard polygonal 3D -- not 3DS-style coming out of the screen 3D.)

It's actually a bit difficult to judge the battle system, as the magazine only scored one shot showing Zoroark in the middle of combat. The perspective does resemble past games, with the camera set behind Zoroark while his opponent is visible in the distance.

Joining the screens, the magazine mentions three (or perhaps 2.5) "major evolutions" for the title:

More intense battle scenes
It looks like the Pokemon will engage in more heated battles this time around.

More realistic towns
The towns rise up with high rising buildings. It also seems that the Pokemon Center will have additional shops separate from the reception desk.

Evolution 3
It's unclear what exactly the third evolution is supposed to be about. Under this section, the magazine shows screens of a dungeon and what appears to be the game's opening town.

 

[King Sean]

The game looks awesome Can't wait till it comes out. May breathe even more life into the series like HG and SS did. The more intense battles sound fun

Seems that the makers are putting their all into these games. Wonder how the anime adaption is going to look?

 

[Martel]

I can't really say I'm all that impressed by these screenshots. The DS is capable of much, much more than this, and it just looks like they've taken the DPP/HGSS visuals and tilted them ever-so-slightly, so that they look slightly less 2D and slightly more 3D...I'd hardly call them an evolution.

Still, I look forward to seeing what they're going to pack into this game to make it stand apart from DPP, as well as the promised new Pokemon. I have to wonder how many of them are going to be evos, prevos and legendaries and how many will actually be all-new...and whether they'll be any better than that awful fox thing...

Its still too early to judge, though. Although it hasn't made a terrific first impression...

 

[Black Butler]

i invented battle systmes like that in my head,and then it exists.Omg with 5th gen out soon,it feels like the 4th gen was just out last year lol it went fast!

It looks like the gaming of this will be brought up to a whole new level of experience,yay,this is a must get.Man whats going on,modern warfare 3,gears of war 3,and then this??!!

 

[Yuffie's Materia]

Here is a scan of one of the new pokemon:

On the right is the first stage evolution and the left is the second. This looks like it might be in Pokemon Black and Maybe a White version of this Pokemon is White.

 

[Exoskeleton]

The titles of the games sound a little racist but if the game takes place in a new region I don't care!

 

[Zhen Ji]

Black and white, sounds funny....
However that's looks much better than the newer ones at the moment. Hopefully this version will add stuff out of the norm which most pokemon games depend on.

 

[West]

Wow. I'm actually... pretty disappointed.

The switch to 3D areas and towns isn't as big of a game-changing thing as they made it out to be. In fact, it's one of those things that I really thought they could've done with D/P/P. They're getting around to doing it pretty late. And that screenshot of the big city with the Pokémon Center looks like a completely bland, uninteresting city with all the buildings being completely gray and the Center sitting there standing out like a sore thumb.

The battle screenshot looks largely the same as what we've been doing for years, except with a slightly different camera angle. And it looks like the sprite of your own Pokémon is too big, and the pixels really stand out. Hopefully they'll polish that up and make the sprites smoother before release, otherwise it's going to be very ugly. But since there hasn't been mention yet if the actual combat has been changed in any way, here's hoping they've got something up their sleeve.

So far, I'm really not impressed by this at all. They just moved the camera angles, and other than that it looks like the exact same game. I'm looking forward to more news on changes, though, because if Nintendo wants more of my money, they'd better be putting more effort into these changes.

 

[Robbiedbee]

It is interesting that this is the first time two generations have been on the same platform, which is interesting. Obviously this is mainly due to the massive success of the DS, but I kinda wish they'd have waited for the next handheld console. I realise that new generations are released roughly every 3 years, so we are due one, but waiting that bit longer might help recharge the creative batteries of some of the guys over at Gamefreak.

4th gen was pretty good in my opinion, but the legendaries and the starters were poor. Furthermore, the majority of the competitive Pokémon from 4th gen were evolutions of Pokémon from previous generations.

Anyways, I know they are promising radical changes, but the series doesn't really need that. The battle system is already decent, and I think the top-down, 4-directional navigation even works fine to be honest. I think they can improve it by making the world you play in much bigger. They have 493 existing Pokémon to play with, so they don't need to stick Geodudes in every cave and Magikarp in every Ocean. They could really do something epic in my opinion without having to strain themselves too hard creatively.

 

[Channizard]

This may not be on the DS. It actually sounds like it's in perfect execution for the 3DS (tentative name for now), 'a new revolutionized DS that's supposed to have 3D graphics without the need for 3D glasses'. Yes, that is it's selling pitch.

And really, Nintendo has kept each new Generation to a new platform, so I think that this is what they may be planning... bundling a new Pokemon game with a new DS is a perfect marketing point of view. Y'know, after you forget that you just bought a new DSlite or DSi or DSXL because one or all are soo0o0o0o0 awesome.

 

[Diana]

Look awesome, I will definitely get it when it comes out. I always do anyway

[Mod Edit: Can you please put more effort into your posts in post count sections. One liners are classed as spam and may be deleted in the future without notice. Thanks. =)]

 

[Linnaete]

Pokemon Black & White....it certainly sounds like a retro-kind of turn after the jewel names we have had. I don't mind it at all - it's short and simple, though it will probably be inevitably slammed at by various people for being *sigh* racist.

Where are we going to enter now? The fifth generation? Oh, good. At last the programmers and designers at Gamefreak are moving to make the overworld seem a bit more 3D. I must admit based on the screenshots, it really does give the towns a new look - they actually look like cities now rather than a bunch of houses. However, the bland grey high-rise buildings do seem lazy. It would be less of an eyesore if more colour and details are injected into that.

From what I've read, I don't see anything very revolutionary either. Yes, they've done some revamping of visuals and camera angles, and they have no doubt thrown in over a hundred new Pokemon. That....seems to be it. It still sounds very conventional and dull to me. It's up to the battles to see what they've really thought up of. If it's still the same as it is, I can't see myself being excited enough to buy this.

 

[Ewan]

The titles of the games sound a little racist but if the game takes place in a new region I don't care!

What's racist about the game titles? The pokemon games have always been named after colours. Black and white count as colours. Where is the racism?