Pokemon Black and White announced

By Robert Purchese Published 9 April, 2010

"Every aspect reborn innovatively."

Pokemon Black and White has been revealed by the Pokemon Company.

This new generation of monster catching will be released on DS across Japan in the autumn.

The official website (via Joystiq) promises that in Pokemon Black and White "every aspect [of the IP] will be reborn innovatively". We'll know more on 15th April, apparently.

The only other scrap of information released so far was a profile of Zoroark, a Monster Fox Pokemon from the game.

A European release isn't likely until 2011, given Pokemon's track record. Plus, Europe has only just welcomed Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver into shops, and both are excellent.

Head over to our Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver review to find out why.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • Red_Bool #1 2 years ago

    Interesting. I'm still playing Platinum together with my son. Excellent game, but not much has changed (gameplay-wise) since the last time I played Pokemon (Silver on the GBC). Looking forward to the "innovations"...

  • Crazyreyn #2 2 years ago

    Strange to be releasing this on DS and not 3DS. Could have been a killer launch title. I wonder if it will be forwards compatible with new features?

  • twh104 #3 2 years ago

    (Insert predictable Peter Molyneux-related Joke here)

  • ZeroAX #4 2 years ago

    @Crazyreyn

    yeah but remember when GBA launched close to Silver/Gold everyone was buying GBAs to play the new pokemon games on widescreen (I bought it for advance wars :D).

    but then again Silver/Gold was a huge deal. pokemon ain't so big anymore. it's still big but not as big as when the first true sequel came out

  • mfnick #5 2 years ago

    Confirmed - They will actualy hit each other in battles now & get covered in so much blood they put Kratos' antics to shame!

    Cant wait!

  • chukcyQ #6 2 years ago

    I am white, but I love black women...

  • Vice.Destroyer #7 2 years ago

    Interesting dilemma, chukcyQ. Which will you choose?

  • Cid #8 2 years ago

    There's only one way to find out...

  • Lusterpurge #9 2 years ago

    I'm getting the superior white version.

  • Slipstream #10 2 years ago

    So for the first time in Pokémon you can create a black avatar?

    What do you mean it's Japanese?

    So he'll definintely have an afro?

    SOLD!

  • KDR_11k #11 2 years ago

    That's gonna be fun with racism claims in the US...

  • FogHeart #12 2 years ago

    The next time I'm with someone who is drunk, I will make them try to say that strapline.

  • raion #13 2 years ago

    I hope they're going to heavily rework the interface. With all the tons of useless items you collect in the later games, it's inexcusable that the only way to look for the item you want is to slowly browse from top to bottom, one by effing one. Page up, page down, automatic sorting alphabetically or by type or by use... ground breaking stuff, eh?
    And why do we have to go through that many menus to switch between active Pokemon and stored ones? We have a touch screen! Just display the party on the left, the box on the right al let us drag and drop!
    And while I'm at it, every single damn time I go to have my critters healed the airhead lady has to talk half an hour and ask me if I really really want to heal them. Are you kidding me? OF COURSE I want them healed, why else did you think I came here for, huh? Meaningful conversation!?

    What? Oh, yeah. Nah, I'm not into pokemon anyway, yeah, kiddie stuff. I'm gonna go over there and do manly stuff.
    Edited by raion at 09/04/10 @ 12:50

  • alcides #14 2 years ago

    Let me copy paste that from my list of "answers to biaised clichéd misconceptions"

    "Pokemon 3 added special abilities that do stuff like allow kangourex to hit ghost pokémon with normal type attacks, let Zigatoon pick up gold nuggets and stuff randomly, make any attack that isn't super effective virtually useless against the critter that has it... It also added natures that influence the stats greately. And of course 2on2 battles.

    Pokemon 4 added the differentiation between physical and special attacks within any given type, where previously any given type was either dependent on physical or special abilities."

    The game has changed. Tremendously.

  • malexous #15 2 years ago

    Black and White are quite fitting names if they really are innovating.

    First games not to have a colour in the name! (I think, a part from spin-offs)

    I have played Yellow and LeafGreen countless times. I haven't wanted to get into the later games because of the EV stuff. (I'm not generally an RPG fan and like them to be simple).

  • Stratix #16 2 years ago

    Nah, I wont bother with it. I'll wait till they bring out pokemon grey instead.

  • LazyDan #17 2 years ago

    @alcides

    You're missing the point. People who say Pokemon hasn't changed are referring to how the game looks the same, plays the same and feels the same. You see Kangaososanakhan being able to hit ghost types as a big deal as you're obviously a hardcore fan and probably are meta-gaming it (EV boosting and other such activities.) That means nothing to the average player.

    Look at Final Fantasy 1 and Final Fantasy 13. They share similarities but are vastly different games. Look at Zelda 1 on the NES and Link to the Past on the SNES and then Twilight Princess on the Wii and Spirit Tracks on the DS. They're all vastly different games - none feel anything like the old NES one because they have fundamentally changed graphics engines/gameplay mechanics.

    Pokemon is still an RPG played from the exact same looking top-down perspective, with an almost exactly the same plot, with world maps which only look slightly re-arranged between each other, where battles are non-timed turned based affairs between teams of up to 6 pokemon who each can only have 4 moves. You go around and get 8 badges from 8 gym leaders spread across various towns. There will be several caves you have to pass, eventually you'll be able to surf and fly, and there will be a 'capital' city which is larger than the rest. It's topped off by fighting the elite four, and along the way you'll fight your 'rival' a few times and clear team rocket out a few times. They ALL follow that formula.

    A tremendous change would be battles having move timers (ala Final Fantasy 6/7), or allowing you to throw out any combinations of your pokemon in any fight (with penalties for say, throwing out all 6 to fight 1), being able to have more than 4 moves per pokemon, or completely changing the graphics engine, or allowing co-op play etc etc. Any kind of major innovation or change would be welcome, and this is what it sounds like they're talking about doing. Which is excellent.

  • Pastici #18 2 years ago

    I've really been in teh mood to play Pokemon recently, I've not played it since Red on the original GB! Do you think it would be worth waiting for this one or just picking up a GBA/DS one?

  • alcides #19 2 years ago

    @Lazydan

    Yes but I thought I'd grab the "pros" (short) end of the stick and leave the agony of listing all the "cons" to someone else.

    Now we have a fair account of pokémon's problem with innovation.
    Thank you.

  • smelly #20 2 years ago

    MAKE A BLOODY HOME CONSOLE VERSION YOU IDIOTS!

  • ISmoke #21 2 years ago

    Dear, Mr Miyamoto.

    I iSmoke, sodomonly swear to purchase a Nintendo Wii if you force your company to release a fully flegged Pokémon game to your home console. I have been an avid fan of the series since the first red and blue versions (MisingNo ftw) and I have been begging for an experience till this day. So go make me my fucking game you lazy shit.

    Caio