Pokémon Black (14 years later)

 

When I was a kid, I loved playing Pokémon. Pokémon Blue was the first version I had the honor to experience and since then, I was hooked with their gameplay, creature designs and story. Later on, I used an emulator on my PC to play Yellow, Ruby and Leaf Green versions. The first generation will be always my favorite but I was open to catch the new ones and explore their regions. I remember drawing the whole 2 firsts generations on a notebook and some other creatures from the 3rd and the 4th.

My aunt gifted me Pokémon Black Version for my Nintendo DS Lite, I don't remember quite well if it was at the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011. Before that, I had seen the game in a magazine called "Club Nintendo", which was very popular! I was really excited to begin my journey into this all-new region called "Unova".

My started was Oshawott, although the other ones looked really cool! I remember training a lot with wild Pokémon before challenging the gym trainers and leader. I really liked the new designs and the whole game felt like a deep breath of fresh air, and I know some Pokémon fans thought the same as me. The graphics and music were amazing (remember, this is a base DS game) and there were so much attention to details, the region felt so much alive! I remember there was some kind of online mode (was it related to dreams?) which allowed you to catch Pokémon with special stats. I got an Arceus lvl. 100 playing it.

Oshawott #501

Gym leaders had unique designs and very interesting personalities, including the Elite Four and the Champion. Even 14 years later, I remember fondly the hard training I had to endure in order to beat each one of them. For me, Black & White, maybe including their sequels too, were the peak of Pokémon. I think that after these games, including their sequels, the franchise lost its charm. This is my honest opinion, because I feel that something happened when they decided to do the full jump to 3D and leave the aesthetic of the 2D games behind.

I'm really hopeful that Game Freak would do an incredible job with the franchise, just like they did before losing their spark. I'm eagerly waiting for a mainline entry (better than Scarlet & Violet) for my Nintendo Switch, or even its successor, that runs smoothly, looks great and give us the experience we Pokémon fans know they can provide.