Pokemon White
Story - 3
Gameplay - 6
Presentation - 9
Lifespan - 9
6.8
I would personally recommend other games in the series instead but it is by no means a bad game. The game undeniably has its flaws but it is a solid entry in the series so even with Pokemon X and Y coming out in about a week, this is defiantly one that I would recommend especially considering that it can be bought for as cheap as £15 on amazon!
Well, Pokemon X and y are barely a week away so to celebrate and commemorate these upcoming games, let’s have a look at last generation’s first game. That’s right, its too old to be considered a high profile review but too new to be considered a retro review but we didn’t get around to reviewing it when it first came out (due to us not existing at the time) now seemed a perfect time to finally give this game the review it deserves.
Story
Anyone and everyone who has played a Pokemon game before already knows this song and dance. The game takes place in the Unova region in which animals called Pokemon somehow inhabit the world alongside humans when they can breath fire and shoot lasers! The human residents of the Pokemon world have also apparently never heard of the concept of animal cruelty as a common past-time in this world is to capture these animals from the wild and battle them against each other in an attempt to become the worlds strongest Animal fighter, I mean Pokemon Trainer. You play as a boy or girl from a small rural town in classic RPG fashion and are promptly kicked out of the house within minutes of playing to start your Pokemon adventure! In said adventure, you will travel across the entire Unova region collecting and battling Pokemon with two goals in mind.
The first being to fill the Pokedex, a handheld device that is basically Wikipedia for all the different pokemon which to be manually filled by catching Pokemon and the second goal of challenging all the different Pokemon Gyms in the world collecting their badges in the hopes of challenging the Elite 4 and becoming a pokemon master. So in other words, the exact same plot of every pokemon game up until now! Come on Nintendo, I know that repetition is kind of your thing but could you at least change some elements so we at least feel like we’re not playing the same game over and over!? In their defence, the game does have the DNA of a decent story arc in the form of this game’s criminal organisation Team Plasma and their MO of freeing pokemon from trainers but otherwise its the same old stuff that we’re used to.
Gameplay
This is, by far, what we’re all here for so lets dig in. The battle mechanics remain mostly unchanged from previous instalments except for the addition of triple battles and double wild battles which is disappointing but understandable considering that you can see from a second of playing the game where all the budget went. There is a very big change in the overworld in the form of changing seasons. Every area in the game has a different look in each season which effects what pokemon appear and may even open up new areas in different area’s as the seasons pass.
When you get tired of fighting to be the best, you can take a break with a variety of side activities with the highlight of these being by far the pokemon musicals, a minigame in which you dress up your pokemon and watch them dance on a stage. It’s a mode severely lacking much depth but the result can be quite funny especially if you try it with some of the bigger pokemon. Barring that, your only other real option is the comparatively under-hyped battle subway which ironically is the much better game mode. You can choose from a variety of battle modes such as double battles where you can team up with NPC’s or even other players. It’s a really fun experience which isn’t in the plot and thus can be easily missed so keep your eyes open.
Presentation
We may have come for the story but this is by far where all the budget went. The game looks far superior to any other pokemon game that has come before it and boasts a ton of new features. The pokemon sprites now actively move in battle and the camera will sometimes pan around the battle which is nice but kind of comes across as them trying to show off all the high tech presentation they put their money into. The environments have a strange 2.5D look with some being full 3D which may look nice but the camera has a habit of randomly cutting away from your character to show sweeping majestic shots of all the level design that the art director worked so very hard to create. I got over the fact that you prioritised presentation over gameplay but Nintendo, I would get over it a lot quicker if you stopped rubbing my face in it by showing all this unnecessary scenery dressing!
Lifespan
Pokemon White, like every pokemon game before it, has a remarkably long lifespan and on your first try, will take you anywhere between 25-30 hours to beat the main story. That being said, to get through it, you will need to be able to get over the lack of a coherent story, the repetitiveness of catching pokemon and the soul-destroying monotony of training them if you want to get any fun out of this game.
