360 gaming blog.

Finally the time has arrived; the new entries in the Pokémon series Black and White are upon us.

I have had mine on pre order for well over a month and it got dispatched today so I’m hoping it will come tomorrow.

I know lots of gamers my age have lost interest in Pokémon. I was the same too, for nearly ten years I abandoned it as it wasn't cool. Its popularity worldwide has never waned and it is actually becoming more successful year on year. Pokémon Black/White sold over 2,600,000 units in the opening week in Japan alone.

Even with other mega gaming franchises growing stronger every year Pokémon is still the biggest gaming brand in the world, mainly thanks to sales of branded items.





Anyway to the new game. Set in the Unova region, this is the first Pokémon game not to have a region based on Japan. Instead it takes inspiration from the west, most notably Manhattan, New York.

I admit I was one of the fans against a 5th generation of Pokémon initially but after reading so many great things about this new game from critics and fans I am sure I will enjoy this as much as last year’s remakes of Gold/Silver.

The list of Pokémon has now grown to 649! Inevitably having so many Pokémon means there are some that are similar or some just are plain horrible. But an Ice cream Pokémon is an epic win in my mind, I don't think many fans have the same opinion as me but that is why there are so many so that people have a choice on what they want to catch.

And so to the starting Pokémon. As usual you get given a choice of a grass, fire or water type. I went with fire in Soul Silver so I’m going with water this time. Also the fire type is a pig... and the grass type is way too smug (it's called Snivy but it's known by the name of Smugleaf by the community)

It seems with this new game that Game Freak is intent on making lots of small changes to game play after people constantly comment on how every Pokémon game is the same but with a different skin. This game introduces triple battles, lots more 3D scenes (not the 3DS type), a greatly improved battling and trading system, video chat and a tag mode where people who have the game with them may walk past another player, even if they both have their DS turned off it will save their details and you can connect to them at a later time. Also the story is meant to be one of the strongest in any Pokémon game.

So if you have a DS but feel you are too old for Pokémon, maybe give it a try. Pokémon games are rated as some of the best on the DS for a reason. Trust me, within a few days you will be addicted.

Ryan.