I just  finished the first part ot the game (council 4 and the direct following) in one week and 32 hours of play.

It's the ultimate version of Pokemon

- The game is a lot more challenging than any other Pokemon version with champions and boss using clever tactics and attacks to hurt your Pokemon. Some of them are very challenging and you may very well tast defeat unlike in Diamond and Pearl. Levelling is a must do.

- The graphics are very good and the capacity of the DS is used a lot better than in D&P.

- The all brand news Pokemon are very well made for the majority and really it adds surprise and a sense of discovery. It is finally very positive to have only new Pokemons until the last part of the game.

- The text of the game is very well written and the scenario is deeper. It is now a true scenario, the villain team is more interesting than in any other Pokemon game.

- The game has more content, there are a lot more opponents available, they are stronger, and you will fight a lot reccurent opponents, your 2 friends and mister N which appear often. The area are also well designed. The mega city is very impressive the first time you explore it.

- Less gimmicks, the special capacities like strenght, cut are less used and just in some key part. That allows you to take out of your team the Pokemons with these capacities and to tale them back for one purpose.

- New fights options: The trio fight is completely new and add again a new strategic dimension. There are two type of trio fights, one with three Pokemons at once, the other with 3 Pokemon rotating and here you have to calculate before the attacks you will lauch in fonction of the rotation. This is not used a lot in the game but you have that option for fight with friends.

- I have not used a lot the connectivity options, I just used the wireless to fight and extchange. I haven't used Wifi and Pokemon Dream World yet.

That's it fot the moment. But the game is far from finished. I have still a LOT of Pokemons to catch if I want to come close of finishing simply the first Pokedex and there are still cities , cave, and ground to explore and quest to do after the council of 4.

To give a short exemple, right after the end title, I started to go toward a previously not accessible area from a road and I found my self dealing with trainers having Pokemons at the level 62-65.

The game is really great.

You can play it on 3DS.

As far as i go (5th gym) its a great game, i love the sense of discovering it gaves

Im seriously considering picking a DS up with this and Soul Silver. Only thing holding me back is i have plenty of games to complete at the moment.

Only new pokemon till the last part of the game? =/

That sucks, I'll have to be using pokemon who I almost certainly (unless they manage to be completely unlike those from R/E and D/P) will hate with a passion.

The 3DS is fully retro compatible with DS games so it won't be a problem.

I have bought Soul Silver and it was good to replay that great game but I think that W&B are better. They feel more fresh have more features. I enjoy this game as much as I have enjoyed Silver back when I played it on gameboy.

Rath, that's the thing, no more resting on laurel, you have to build a whole new team from the ground and it's exciting.

Too many old pokemon? Complain about lack of originality and Zubats everywhere!

Loads of cool new pokemon, no repeats? WHERE'S MY GOD DAMN ZUBAT!

Seriously, all the new pokemon are cool and names are witty. You'll love them and wish they were there before

I agree, its the best pokemon game ever, and also pretty challenging. I love it and would reccomend it to anyone

I complain about how the new Pokemon (at least in D/P and E/R) were not cool and original, they were awful. They had none of the flair and originality of the first generation, which carried on at least a bit into the second generation. I haven't played B/W yet, but unless things have completely changed from the previous two generations I don't give the pokemon much hope =/.

Game itself will still be fun of course - though once again unless things have changed a lot I doubt the mechanics are really very different than R/B. Pokemon is probably the game series with the least change in mechanics/graphics ever =P.

I agree, the pokemon in those games were pretty dire. 

But, for the most part, the new pokemon are pretty ingenius and all so awesome! Nice mixture of types, and whilst I disliked them at first, I grew to love them

It's nice that they decided to completely change the way they decided to go about in B/W

I personally adored Gen III Pokemon and some Gen IV Pokemon, but that's just me.

These Pokemon look great to me, though, to be honest, they're anything but original. Almost all of them are direct rip-offs of the original 151. I mean, a lot of them are the same types with very similar backgrounds.

Things have definitely changed, though, at least as far as "change" is concerned with the franchise. It has taken away some of the awfully repetetive stuff from all previous generations. I cannot, however, argue with the last paragraph, D:.

Now, I'm playing Pokemon Black so far and yes it is a good game. BUT, the honor of the best DS game, HANDS DOWN, goes to Mario Kart DS. Nothing else comes close. That includes Pokemon....sorry.