You know, this is looking pretty sweet, hope there are some gameplay innovations, though I haven't played any of the DS releases.

White & Black.

They fight crime.

(actually, I'm not sure which is which)

The boy has significantly more black in his design, and the girl has a lot of white, so maybe that's it.

Why give them "official" names if they are nothing but avatars that have no personality, have no direction or opinions of those actions, and all they say is "..." anyway when you play as them. You even have the option of giving them a completely different name. Then again, I don't see how Pokemon fans can think the protagonists have any "character" at all and rant and rave as if they have one to begin with.

Silly me. I'm just thinking outloud. :<

And I hope we get something other than slightly different camera angles, because otherwise it's Game Freak rereleasing the same game again but with different visuals. Here's hoping for some innovations.

why innovate when you could put out the same thing with only minute changes and still sell millions?

There's literally NO competition in this field, they really have no reason to continue pushing the envelope of game design when they can introduce new and mostly cosmetic features in one version, take them away in the follow-up version and then reintroduce it in the second follow-up to thundering applause. And this is exactly how the Japanese audience likes it. When Square-Enix announced that the 8th Dragon Quest title was going to be on the PS2 and have a fully modeled 3D world and battles, many Japanese fans FLIPPED THE $+%% OUT. Something to do with altering tradition, they said. They perceived change coming to their beloved RPG series and they were appalled. Thankfully, many were appeased by Level 5's work on the game and now they're pretty much okay with it....

... only to again FLIP THE $+%% OUT when Dragon Quest IX was first announced to be somewhat of an online multiplayer action RPG. This time the creators were spooked and decided to scale back their ambitions and put out a more traditional 'quest' game w/ turn-based battles and some online connectivity.

That may be, but it doesn't stop me wanting.

i no, rite?

From a competitive battling point of view they did innovate quite a bit from one gen into the other.

In Gen 1 due to programming glitches and lack of decent ghost and bug-type moves Psychics dominated the scene.

In Gen 2 we had the Special stat split into Special Attack and Special Defense, meaning that Pokémon that used to have a great Special stat may now be stuck with "just" a high Special Defense and a low Special Attack. Moreover two new types were introduced, dark and steel, that served to balance the game and end the psychic supremacy. Gen 2 also introduced hold items, weather effects and breeding.

In Gen 3 abilities were introduced, making each Pokémon a bit more unique. The addition of natures allowed one to choose a certain Pokémon based on which stat they wanted to max out, furthermore the concept of IVs and EVs got an overhaul, the possible values differ from the previous gens and there is now a cap on EVs, meaning that a lot more fine-tuning is required when training your Pokémon for competitive battling.

I could train a Salamence with a +speed nature, 31 IV speed and max out the speed EVs. Other people might go for a +attack nature and spread out the EVs equally between attack, speed and HP.

Better hold items introduced; whereas gen 2´s best hold item was probably Leftovers, gen 3 introduced the first Choice item (Choice Band) and several stat-boosting berries.

Gen 4 had the physical-special split. As opposed to before when moves of a certain type (e.g. fire moves) were always either physical or special, now each single move is either physical or special (flamethrower is special, fire fang is physical), this allowed many Pokémon to expand their movepool. More choice items were added (Choice Specs, Choice Scarf).

Not to mention that with the introduction of more Pokémon and more moves the possible strategies increase with every generation. The "annoyer" tactic, very popular back in the G/S/C days, is pretty much gone now. In Gen 3 SkarmBliss was a popular way of walling all enemy attacks often ending in a stallfest, in gen 4 new ways of getting past these walls were possible, the gameplay is now almost dominated by sweepers (last time I checked).

Whats this about the Water starter having a penis on his chest?

Whats this about the Water starter having a penis on his chest?

It drank too much one night and the grass starter drew a penis on it's chest after it passed out.

That was just Rish being an ass. It's clearly a clam.

The impression I got of the competitive battling scene is that it's dominated by stealth rock. Whole teams seem to be made up to set up/counter it. I think it needs to be toned down for B/W.

Hrmph, placing bets now on half the legendaries requiring events that'll most likely never come state-side, and if they do will only be in two or three cities that most players won't be able to get to.

Yes, I'm just slightly bitter about the utter lack of events for the tickets in Gen III. Thank God for Game Sharks and Action Replays.

Fraggin' Nintendo making it impossible for me to get Deoxys, Ho-oh, and Lugia legally.

And just how are they planning to top Arceus?  Create the Pokemon equivalent of Satan?  How do you go beyond the creator of the world?

Missingno, the souless destroyer Pokemon.

Create the Pokemon equivalent of Satan?

Wasn't that Giratina?

Create the Pokemon equivalent of Satan?

Wasn't that Giratina?

This.

Is it? I thought Giratina was just the guardian of the Distortion World.

On Bulbapedia, it doesn't mention one way or another that it's necessarily evil. It's Platinum Pokedex entry mentions that it was banished for violence, but aside from that, there's nothing to suggest that it's Poke-Satan. Violence could be applied to all Ghost-types, though.

Satan was banished. Hell is sort of a "distortion world". :roll; I think it's about as Hellish as Pokemon is willing to get.

But yes, Missingno is the real opposite.