Features:

  • Meet the legendary Pokeman - Reshiram
  • Features new Pokemon characters
  • Features important tools which help you to track Pokemon
  • Engage in wild three-on-three matches
Super fun game

Was very hesitant with this gen. This was the gen where Pokemon in my opinion had some very questionable looks and names. However it was a super fun game and there is actually a lot of new Pokémon that are my favorite in this gen. I put a lot of hours in this game and it had a lot of story to be played.

Go for it

I'm an OG pokemon nerd. Been playing since they were on gameboy. Recently just finished the Pokemon Moon game. This game is super good as well. Package was fine. Would buy again if I hadn't already beat the game lol

Still Playing This One

UPDATE: Two Years Later My Son and I Both Revisit These Games Frequently ENough to Make This One of the Best Values Ever for a Pokemon Game Original Review: I have been playing these games with my now-10-year-old son since he was three (I bought used GBCs and color pokemon games and let him figure it out - he also learned to read). Together, we have gone through the Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, the Sinnoh games, and Heart Gold/Soul Silver. I almost didn't buy a copy of Pokemon Black, because the games had been getting kind of stale for me. My son still loves them (as do his classmates - if you have a fourth grade boy on your gift list, and he doesn't already have this? You will be making a little boy ecstatic. Anyway, my son really wanted me to play, and I gave in a bit reluctantly, but, now that I'm playing the game, I love this iteration for the following reasons: 1. I do not want to spoil the storyline, but the antagonists' issues and ethical positions are fairly sophisticated. Team Plasma is actually asking some interesting questions about trainers' relationships with their pokemon. Those questions also apply to our own relationships with other (real) creatures here in our world. 2. The smack-talk from rivals and other trainers is toned way down from generations past. 3. The game helps you along, which makes it much less frustrating (at least for me). For example, before each of the three gym battles I've done so far, you get an opportunity to get a pokemon who has a helpful type and a high enough level to ensure that you don't spend a ton of time fighting and re-fighting the same battles. 4. The graphics are really amazing for a handheld game, and the towns have lots to do besides gym battling, so your kid isn't likely to beat this game in a day and toss it aside. You get your money's worth. 5. There are new battle modes, new pokemon, new ways of interacting with friends in person and over the Wifi Connection. Nintendo also made Black and White just different enough from each other to make it worthwhile to purchase and play both. I deducted one star because my game cartridge arrived glitchy. In the first battle, my pokemon, a female Oshawott could not execute any attacks. Every time I selected an attack, the game went to a screen describing the attack and showing my trainer statistics. I had to shut down the game and restart several times, all with the same result (except never again did I get a female starter), before I decided to try cleaning the cartridge, which worked (use a q-tip and rubbing alcohol gently to clean the game cartridge and let it dry completely). This is the first time since the Gameboy color games (which I bought used) that I have had a quality control issue with a pokemon game. I recommend this game for kids who enjoy the anime and the other rpg and for adults who either want to play along with their children or enjoy gentle (mostly) nature/environmental-themed rpgs. It's fun and has good replay value for the money.

Another generation, Another great adventure

I've been playing the Pokémon games since the Game Boy Color days. I didn't know anything about it until my cousin was talking about it. It sounded stupid, yet interesting. Sure enough, I ended up wasting quite a few batteries playing this game. Pokémon is basically built for children. The game isn't that difficult. There's not a lot of moves. It's turn-based. But it holds it's charm and has such an addictive mechanism for children (and adults), that South Park did a great parody of it in the 90's. But enough about the past. The 5th generation of these abused creatures is back, and this time, it's almost the same exact thing! Which is a good thing, if you ask me. Just to give some gameplay background of the series, Pokémon adventures start out with a professor of the island you live at asking you questions, you picking one of three rare Pokémon (grass, fire, water), you leaving your mom - dad's M.I.A. - behind to become a trainer, and then heading out to collect Pokémon data on a device called a Pokédex. The Pokédex is a sort of encyclopedia, giving you information on seen Pokémon and then more information after you capture them. Capturing a Pokémon requires you throwing a Pokéball at a creature during battle, and locking it into place. It's sort of like how the Ghostbusters do it, only faster and less messy. During your collecting, you also go on various side quest for people, battle other trainers, and train yourself to beat all of the Pokémon Gym masters (just think of them as bosses). This is essentially the series in a nut shell. So why is there five generations of the same style game? It might be because Nintendo doesn't need to fix what isn't broken. Pokémon Black/White is a bit different than most of the other games, at least in it's story. Team Rocket, the bad guys of the previous games, are no longer the bad guys. Instead, Team Plasma are the new bad guys, and they're a bit more realistic than the previous villains. Team Plasma closely resembles the animal rights activist we have in every country. They're just a bit more extreme in some manners. They feel Pokémon are mistreated and should be set free. You'll get this message pushed at you during the entire game. Nintendo did a great job at making me hate their guts, because they were extremely annoying when they popped up. I missed Team Rocket when I played, but these guys feel more like true bad guys than Team Rocket ever dreamed of being. The new visuals of the game are top notch to the series. It's great seeing the cities come to life when you walk through them, but it still doesn't change much to the game. If you're really wondering about the newest changes to the game, aside from the Pokémon , look no further than the way the game is a bit more fast-paced. The tweaks they did to the game really shine, as they just make the game feel a lot more fluid than before. Along with that is the more annoying features of the series has left, and hopefully for good. TMs are no longer used up like before. This is one of the more annoying things about the old game, as sometimes it's just a hard choice to make on how to use these moves. If you've never played the series before, this isn't a bad start at all, but you may want to get familiar with the previous installments before getting Black/White, if anything just for the story. The game is so well defined in it's own way that going back afterwards is kind of hard. Trust me, I'm playing through HeartGold again, a game I loved, and there's several little things that make the game feel old. Real old. But if you want a solid experience with online support, this is the game to get. A top of the line title from Nintendo, once again.

The Best Pokemon Game to Hit The Market Yet

Wow...just wow. Not only the best game in pokemon, but the best game for ds i've ever seen. It's very very complex, but not overwhelming. Frustrating at times, but with a little time you can get over those times very fast. the 8 gyms. Are slightly different from previous games. My favorite would be, the stration city gym, where it's type differs from what starter you pick, and it's the hardest, and the first. The grass starter, Snivy, makes that gym the fire type. The guy would have Pansear, a fire type monkey and a lilipup, a normal type scottland terrier pokemon. The fire starter, Tepig, makes that gym the water type. The guy would have Panpour, a water type monkey, and a lilipup, a normal type scottland terrier pokemon. The water starter, Oshawott, makes that gym the grass type. The guy would have Pansage, a grass type monkey and a lilipup, a normal type scottland terrier pokemon. That was just a tidbit of info, and a great feature in the game. Some other great features are: -Game sync, a feature to sync your pokemon game to the internet in order to 'catch em' all' -Infrared Connection, a feature to sync your pokemon to the internet to play with your friends over the wifi. More features than wifi club. -Beatutiful 3D graphics. The 3DS inhances this feature, and on select cites, there are special renders and camera renders. Overall, i would say, even if you don't know pokemon, I would still tell you to get the game. *For younger children, there is a cuss filter. Unfortunatly. it's easy to pass. I've gotten numerous pokemon with innpropriate names from the gts. Another downer on the subject is that you can't change the names of pokemon traded over the gts or otherwise. So, if you have a child 10+ that likes fantasy, puzzles and action, this would be the perfect game.

"like new?" pffftt...

"Condition: Used - Like New - Includes manual, cover art, and packaging. Bonus downloadable content may have already been redeemed. Game data from previous use may be present, but can be overwritten or deleted." This is what was written on the listing for my purchase but the game was not "like new" the case was not perfect, it has the scrathes and things you wouldn't expect from a "like new" product. This was Amazon fulfilled. If that passes as like new, Amazon, then I should change the listings for all the items I've sold. Not to mention that the game did not have the manual or "packaging." The game data was definitely present though and I got a free Reshiram - so thanks for that.

Great continuation to the franchise

Pokemon black is the first game in the 5th generation of pokemon games. It aas revamped certain aspects of the gameplay to make it a better experience overall. There also many newer functions that make trading simpler and faster than ever. The game feels new and fresh while still keeping true to the classic pokemon formula. Here are the main things that make this game great: - reusable TMs, now TMs can be reused so you can experiment with different movesets. They are a bit more challenging to find, but the rewards are great. - C Gear. This takes up your touchscreen and includes infrared functions for trading/battling and NFC functions much like the union room. Also some wifi capabilities for your pokemon. - GTS negotiations(wifi), this is like an edited version of the GTS that allows you to engage in live trading with another trainer from anywhere in the world. You can't directly communicate, but you can sort of indicate what pokemon you want and it is a lot more useful and faster than the original GTS. - Random matchups(wifi), you can now battle anyone instantly over wifi, very cool feature. - No old pokemon until after you pass the game. This forces you to really explore the new generation and is great for getting the hang of things. - Revamped exp. system. It is now MUCH easier to level up weaker pokemon. Basically the game gives out exp based on the difference in levels of you and your opponent now. Overall a great game and I highly recommend it. *NOTE* In this game the exclusive legendaries are Reshiram and Tornadus. You can get Zekrom and Thundurus in pokemon white only.

My favorite Pokémon game!

I was lucky i found this at such a good price, bought it as a gift for my brother but i will be playing it as well haha. It arrived pretty soon, the game looks like new and it works just fine so far. The only thing missing was the paper manual and cover art but that was stated in the info before buying so that's okay.

Same Formula still feels new, some version differences

I already submitted a review for Pokemon White regarding my thoughts on both releases. This one will describe more my thoughts comparing the 2 versions. For starters, I really like both Black & White. I played Red version when I was a kid and up through Gold/Silver, and then came back to Pokemon when White/Black were released. The visual differences between the two versions aren't huge and are only apparent in a couple of areas (Opelucid City). I don't know why Black version is more popular - the legendaries really aren't that different (Dragon/Elec in white and Dragon/Fire in black) and out of the version exclusive pokemon the White version has a couple of better choices (Levananny over Petil, Braviary). The White forest gives you access to a LOT more pokemon too, and Black version just has a city for battling. I also greatly prefer the look of Opelucid city in White. Rotation battles (in black) are really the only thing I don't like - it's hardly any strategy and basically luck. Triple battles (white) are much better. That being said, both versions are a lot of fun! The storyline's a bit different too which gives the series a fresh new feel.

Possibly the best in the series

Having been a fan of the games since I was a kid and first received Pokémon Blue, I've been following the series since its inception here in the States. Previous to the release of Black & White, Gold, Silver, & Crystal were easily my favourites. Although Diamond, Pearl, & Platinum were great games with plenty of new features that supported Wi-Fi and international play anytime and anywhere one had an internet connection (with the DS this isn't always an easy feat), it never quite had the pizazz that Johto had (needless to say I adore HeartGold & SoulSilver). Anyway, this new game has an entire new feel to it. I think that Nintendo realized that a good portion of their fanbase is now my age (18-24 area), so they decided to make the game a little more "mature." The game is obviously still aimed for the whole family, but there is a different feel to the story (there actually is a real one) than ever before. The story has depth, the characters have personality and depth, and the Gym Leaders actually participate in the game rather than just sitting in a big building waiting for a ten year old who got his/her first Pokémon that morning to whoop them. The supporting characters follow you throughout the Unova region as always, but they are much more engaged. They accompany you on side-quests, they fight alongside you against the bad guys, and, of course, they challenge you to battles throughout the game. Pokémon Black & White have also added plenty of new variety to the game. This ranges from the diversity of characters like Professor Juniper who is a woman, Gym Leader Lenora who is African American, & there is a plethora of foreign language speaking citizens of Unova (Spanish, Italian, German, & French [probably the most populous] come to mind). There are several Pokémon that are unprecedented as well in type and appearance. The Pokémon of Unova are very love or hate. There are many that I absolutely adore such as Victini, Serperior, Hydreigon, Excadrill, Krookodile, Zorua, Bisharp, Unfezant, and so on, but there are also some that I don't think ever should have made the cut. They're either just simply hideous or they aren't very appealing. All in all, I really enjoy the new Pokémon. I feel that this can attributed to the fact that Nintendo & Game Freak almost make you like the new Pokémon. If you have not heard, there are no Pokémon from the previous 4 generations in Black & White before you have beaten the Elite Four. This sounds like a miserable breaking away from the Pokémon that we all know and love (Umbreon & Dragonite :D), but it turns out to not be that bad. At first I was extremely skeptical, but I realized that the new 156 Pokémon are more than capable of populated the Unova region. It also gives you a chance to become acquainted with the new Pokémon rather than just resorting back to the ol' tried & true. Enough about the Pokémon and on to the features. This is where Black & White shine above all else. Black & White have incorporated features to utilize Wi-Fi connectivity as well as local communications. As for local, the new feature called the C-Gear allows you to use an infrared connection to connect with another Trainer. This connection allows you to battle, trade, exchange Friend Codes (for online play), and do something called a Feeling Check. The most important aspect of this is that you do not have to run back to the Pokémon Center or anything. You can simply tap the IR portion of the lower screen and have at it. The C-Gear also has a feature called passerby. This feature launches the DS' local wireless communications and searches for other C-Gears in the area. For example, when I am sitting in the library on campus playing, I can see on my C-Gear how many other detectable C-Gears are in the vicinity. When another C-Gear is detected, you can have rather limited correspondence with that detected Trainer, see where in the Unova region that person is located, how long they have played the game, and see how many people are in the Union Room among other small things. Needless to say, this can be a bit of a battery drain, but it is an amazing feature and I love it. Most impressively, the C-Gear stays active when the DS is closed, so other Trainers can detect you while you're just walking around. Wi-Fi connection is also leaps and bounds ahead of previous generations. Black & White finally feature Random battles. These Random battles allow you to connect to the server, pick your preference of battles (Singles, Doubles, Triples, Rotation [awesome!!], and Launcher [I'll get to that later]), and link up with somewhere from anywhere around the globe for a battle. It is something I thought should've been implemented in Generation IV, but it is enjoyed nevertheless. The Global Trading System (GTS) is still around and it is much more accessible as well. It can be accessed from any Pokémon Center in the region. The biggest feature of Wi-Fi is arguably the possible connection to the Global Link. The Global Link is a website created by Nintendo & The Pokémon Company that allows you take part in mini-games and so forth while syncing with your game. The Global Link also gives access to the Dream World. The Dream World is actually a pretty detail intensive subject so I'll just give a brief overview. The Dream World is a place where you can send a Pokémon, we'll use my Snivy for example, and that Pokémon can engage in activities in the Dream World. These activities include befriending Dream World Pokémon, growing Berries, and so on. My Snivy would be able to befriend other Pokémon in the Dream World and these Dream World Pokémon typically have different Abilities than the regular Pokémon. Berries also don't grow in the Unova region, so my Snivy will have to grow them for me in the Dream World. At the time of this writing (March 29), the Dream World is not currently active here in the States. It was set to be launched on the 30th, but, due to the recent catastrophes in Japan, the worldwide release of the Global Link has been postponed (my best wishes to all of those in Japan coping with all of their worries). A few things that I would like to point out about the game that I was displeased with were the lack of Wi-Fi connectivity in the Battle Subway, the lack of a Time Machine-esque feature, & the fact that Pokémon no longer follow their Trainer outside of their Poké Balls. The Battle Subway, in the same vein as the Battle Frontier of past games, allows the Trainer to bring a set amount of Pokémon to battle consecutive Trainers for Battle Points (BP). The Battle Subway features battles for Single and Double Battles. In Pokémon Platinum, one used to be able to connect with a friend via Wi-Fi and create a "Tag Team" for playing in the Battle Frontier. This feature has been removed and I am very dissatisfied by this. I loved this feature, and my brother and I used it very frequently since we live in different states. For those who do not know, Generation II (Pokémon Gold, Silver, & Crystal) offered a feature called the Time Machine. The Time Machine allowed the Trainer to trade from Generation II games back to Generation I games (Pokémon Red, Blue, & Yellow) with the exception of new Pokémon and any Pokémon that know new moves (such as a Beedrill that knows Rage). Since Pokémon Black & White are the first Pokémon games to make a double appearance on the same system as the previous generation, I feel that trade between Black & White and Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver should be possible. At times I still play HeartGold & SoulSilver, so I would like to be able to trade Pokémon back from my Black Version or White Version for use in Pokémon HeartGold or SoulSilver. It is a little frustrating that I can't do this, but it's one of the reasons that I loved Generation II so much. As for Pokémon not being able to walk around with their Trainer, this is a little self-explanatory. I loved this feature from HeartGold & SoulSilver and I am saddened that it was removed. I would place money on the bet that the third installment of this fifth generation will bring back Wi-Fi connectivity in the Battle Subway as well as having your Pokémon follow you around. Sadly, this will be enough for me to buy the new game and start my adventure all over again for the third time. All in all, this game is very fun to play. It is one of the best Pokémon games and definitely one of my favourite games overall. This game is great for everyone including the casual player and the hardcore gamer. For casual players, Pokémon Black & White offer a very fun environment for one to immerse himself or herself into. For the hardcore gamer, Pokémon offers many metagame opportunities that include competitive battling, intricate breeding systems, and a game that can be played virtually anywhere and at any time. I have only taken the time to highlight a few of my favourite features, but I hope this convinces those who have not yet purchased the game to go ahead and pull the trigger. Good luck in the Unova region! Now back to training my Pokémon... FC = 1721-2533-8212 for those that already have the game. Either send me a message or

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