Oh my, they actually managed to make a 5th Generation after jumping the shark with a Pokémon generally considered to be God (despite being able to be brainwashed into doing the bidding of a 10-year-old kid after being ensnared in a $3 ball purchased from a drug store, of course). A lot of people see the initial few Pokémon newcomers and shake their heads (guilty). So what’s a Pokémaniac to do?

This game is actually a lot more “mature”, I guess you could say, than previous generations. The hero characters look a little older than previous heroes, the rivals have very separate but complementing personalities and goals, and the antagonists, Team Plasma, have a very unsettling resemblance to many cult-like organizations in recent memory. Not to mention N, the most recurring leader of Team Plasma, is quite a character if you analyze him enough. Thought provoking, I guess you could say. I don’t know about you guys, but I can appreciate a pretty deep plot, even in a Pokémon game. In short, they want to liberate Pokémon from their hateful human owners. In order to accomplish their goals, they harm Pokémon. Sounds like that one animal rights organization…ahem.

Game takes place in New Yo–err, I mean the Unova region. Based on an American metropolitan area (e.g. New York), there are many noteworthy changes between this region and regions past. For example, you won’t really be doing that much walking in between cities since they’re closer to one another, meaning less routes. There’s also a strong decrease in the amount of caves you’ll be traveling through, which means while Zubat does have his cave-loving counterpart (any Pokémon outside of the 5th generation aren’t present in the game through it’s main storyline), it won’t be nearly as annoying and headache-inducing. It’s a lot more city oriented, but that doesn’t mean there are any less Pokémon to find sprawling about; this generation brings more newbies than the first generation, making it the largest yet. Speaking of city, it really does emphasize on the grand city life in some of the larger and more dynamic areas. In the big city of Castelia, movement takes place on a 360 plane, with the background serving as the alleyways with lanes of people walking and even chattering, getting where they need to get in the big city, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg in dynamic camera angles. Not that it’s really that technically impressive, but seeing Pokémon with graphics like this really felt impressive, with how fluid the animation was, and all.

Let’s talk about the Pokémon. Your starters, as always, come in 3 varieties: fire, water, and grass, all of which have 3 evolutions as always. Early on you’ll find the the obligatory 3-evolution Normal/Flying line, the Pidgey line if you will. There’s a couple lines that are the Rattata equivalents, along with even a Poochyena-esque Dark-type line, and Electrike-esque Electric-type line early. Before too long, however, type differences becomes quite apparent. The 3-evolution line of Rock-type…well, rocks, is pure Rock instead of the familiar half Ground, removing the Rock/Ground’s two 4x weaknesses while revoking a resistance to Electric. Small things like that. I personally liked this generation because I could actually make a full well-rounded team of 6 with fitting nicknames consisting purely of fighting game titles! There’s enough variety in here, despite the initial faces looking pretty dull and uninspired. So don’t let the poster children fool you, there are plenty of cool-looking ones.

The formula has yet to be altered significantly, thankfully. Start journey, get 8 badges, be champion. While there’s quite a bit of sidetracking in dealing with Team Plasma on your quest to be the best, the basics are still in tact. This game is generally more difficult than your past adventures, which is good, because we’re generally better gamers than we were in the 90′s, right? Sure we are! Surely those easy games haven’t softened you up! Trainer AI, especially gym leaders, are ramped up to stay on the offensive unless the need calls for it. They’re by no means psychics in terms of being able to counter your strategy, of course, but I noticed a significant difference from 4th generation to this. Granted, I tend to run low-level teams in an attempt ot keep it a little challenging; that could just be a side effect of me being 10-15 levels lower than what the game throws at me, but it wasn’t as tedious in 4th generation where I did the same.

Gym types are also a challenge if you’re not prepared; the first gym leader changes depending on who you started out with. The Pokémon you fight against, a monkey that comes in 3 different varieties (one for each starter type), will be the type that beats yours, and unlike your rival who does the same, this one will actually come ready with a same-type move. Fortunately, if you take the time to search for it before, you’ll find the corresponding monkey Pokémon that is effective against it. Similarly, the second gym is Normal type; right before it you’ll find a Fighting-type. Third gym, Bug; you’ll find a Fire-type right before. This is noteworthy since you won’t find an advantageous type against those respective gym leaders long before them (unless you picked the Fire starter in the case of the 3rd gym, of course), so keep an eye out. Additionally, while your rivals start out fairly weak, they quickly grow in strength and strategy. Items are also more frequent for even regular trainers as well, so you should always be prepared with tricks up your own sleeve, as well. Gyms feature some pretty fun puzzles to solve, too, similar to the 4th generation gyms.

As expected, the game features online interactions with friends and strangers through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. You can trade Pokémon just like you could in past games, as well as battle setting certain parameters. Naturally, you can also do this local if the systems are close to one another. Battles have a new element thrown in, however. You can now use items! Using a new system, you’re able to actually use all sorts of items, from basic potions, full heals, even Max Revives and X Stat 6 (literally raises a stat 6 levels!), but there’s of course a catch. In order to use any items, you must first let turns pass. Each item has a set number of turns that the “Launcher” needs to charge in order to allow you to use an item. Naturally, the more effective an item, the more turns are required to pass. A weaker item like a Potion requires 2 turns to be “spent”, the stronger Hyper Potion requires 8 turns, and a Max Revive, 14. Pretty much every in-game battle item is accessible through this system, and many, including X Stat # (they come in normal/1, 2, 3 and 6), are exclusive to this feature. You can turn this off to make for more traditional battles, of course.

A new multiplayer mechanic that also exists in-game is the inclusion of Triple Battles (3 Wailords vs 3 Wailords, it’s quite a spectacle to see, I promise you). Oddly, the in-game variation is quite annoying in that it’s also version-specific. In Black’s version of the Triple Battle, both teams of 3 are thrown out in a rotation system. There’s a front Pokémon that can either attack (or use items and other general commands), or you can choose to rotate and switch to another Pokémon. It generally acts like a normal battle with the exception of Rotation. To me, it serves as more of a distraction and annoyance than it does a new dimension of play; White’s more traditional sounding Triple Battle seems a little nicer. You can play either way on multiplayer regardless of versions, however. Which just adds insult to injury, but that’s just me.

I guess the other thing I should touch on are legendaries. Honestly, aside from Black’s Fire/Dragon Reshiram, I was really disappointed with the legends. White’s Electric/Dragon Zekrom looks to me like a darkened Palkia, and the others are even less…well, legendary looking. There’s one legendary trio that look like Lakitus that suffer from an addiction to steroids and penis enlargement supplements, and another legendary trio that are pretty bland-looking horses. Though I like Victini, if not just for his typing of Fire/Psychic. Despite the couple that I do like, this generation’s offering of the ever-expanding pool of legendaries is easily the worst (1st generation had 5 legends. 2nd had 6. 5th? 13. When 1/12 of your Pokémon are legendary, it really does take away from the meaning of the word, don’t you think?). That’s not to say there aren’t some really cool “normal” ones, though. My personal favorite is the Chandelure line, a Ghost/Fire blue flame candle -> lantern -> chandelier Pokémon, which occupy en masse the game’s equivalent to Lavender Town’s Pokémon Tower. There’s also Ryu/Ken fighting-types Throh and Sawk (they don’t evolve into one another, but rather they’re version exclusive counterparts), grinding gears Steel-type Klinklang (betcha can’t guess what I nicknamed that one), Ice-type ice cream Vanilluxe, all the way to version exclusive counterparts in the forms of dark-clad Gothitelle and cellular Reuniclus, both Psychic-types. Just proves that even after God, Game Freak and the guys still have/had a lot more to choose from.

In all reality, it comes down to a few simple questions. Do you still want to be the very best, like no one ever was? Is catching them your real test, and training them your cause? If so, hey, it’s just as rejuvenating as it was in ’97. Plenty of great Pokémon, plenty of ways to interact with and catch ‘em all. If not…well, this generation won’t be good music to your ears. There’s a great plot hidden under the formula, however. It’ll likely go right above a kid’s mind, but for the young adults like me, there’s something just for us in there, too. Interesting, really. Never thought I’d say that about a Pokémon game.