Some notes I have on your review:
- Thank you for describing the original games as "lovably glitch-ridden". So many uptight gamers these days try to scoff at them for being glitch-ridden and condsider how well revered they are a case of Nostalgia Filter, but the truth is there is so much beyond the glitches that makes them so absolutely excellent...and the glitches, when looking at them in a way like you are, are even part of the charm! (Gotta love Missingno!)
- I'd say that "Black and White" is the best since "Gold and Silver" rather than the best since "Red and Blue", myself. With some exception, I found "Gold/Silver/Crystal" to be an Even Better Sequel to "Red/Blue/Yellow", and IMO, it was never matched up until now, when "Black and White" came along (though the funny thing is, I actually like "Red/Blue/Yellow" better than I do "Gold/Silver/Crystal", but that I admit IS a case of nostalgia, "G/S/C" are still the better games.)
- Unova is indeed awesome. To move from a Japan-based setting to an American-based one, like the switch to preteens to teenagers as protagonists, really helps give "Black and White" it's own identity (I loved Pokemon Colosseum for similar reasons.)
- I think the story is the best in the series mainly because it was actually written by one person. The story for "Diamond/Pearl/Platinum" had so many writers attached to it, according to it's credits, and that was a cause of how (IMO) pretentious, confusing, and heavy-handed the Sinnoh mythos and all it's crap was. I love Team Galactic and their storyline, but the rest was just meh. "Black and White" is an improvement in every way: the Zekrom/Reishram legend, for example, is so much simpler yet more effective than the convoluted Creation Trio/Lake Trio/Golem Trio/Arceus legend.
- I'm not quite sure how to feel about "Black 2 and White 2" myself. I guess we'll just have to see.....
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Fifth time's the charm, it seems
I've loved Pokemon ever since the lovably glitch-ridden Pokemon Red And Blue came out in the states. I've tolerated the many crappy new Pokemon of Pokemon Gold And Silver for the excellent gameplay and Pokemon like my two personal favorites, Scizor and Tyranitar. I've endured the tedious Surfing of Pokemon Ruby And Sapphire for the great new Pokemon designs. And I've slogged through the sluggish, bloated gameplay and many weak or terribly-designed Pokemon of Pokemon Diamond And Pearl for the increased story elements and rare gems like Gallade and Weavile. However, it felt to me Pokemon would never recapture the fun I had playing Red and Blue.
And then Black and White came out. From the moment I saw that the protagonists were teenagers instead of the usual tweens, I was ecstatic. And then I saw the new Pokemon designs - although there were a few stinkers, either design-wise or statwise, such as the resident Pikaclone Emolga, there were more than enough Badass Pokemon like Golurk, Braviary, Haxorus, Maniac Monkeys Darmanitan, Eelektross, Excadrill, and Scrafty to go around. And that's not even mentioning that they finally managed to make a cute Pokemon that wasn't annoyingly saccharine to me in the form of Joltik. The little guy's evolved form isn't half bad, either.
And then you have the setting. Unova is easily the best setting since Hoeen, and minus the annoyance of constant Surfing - hell, that brings us to one of the many improvements. The all-important gameplay.
Remember how painfully slow Diamond and Pearl was? Black and White fixes that. The battles move as fast as you can press the buttons, and best of all - hated elements like needing H Ms to progress and T Ms disappearing after they're used are no more. You only need to use Cut ONCE to progress, and T Ms are reusable FOREVER.
And the biggest improvement is the story. This is the first Pokemon game where I can say I was truly satisfied with the story. N is easily the most compelling character in the history of the franchise - and I'm not even a fan of him! And Ghetsis, well... Complete Monster is to nice a term to describe him. He's the perfect villain.
All in all, this is the best Pokemon game ever, and I'm VERY excited for Black2 and White2.