A big breath of fresh air in a stale game. The best Pokemon to date by far.
Graphics: Game Freak really outdid themselves this time. There's a huge (by Pokemon standards) 3-D city to explore as well as numerous other locations (bridges, staircases, ect.) that use these improved graphics. The Pokemon world as a whole feels more real and alive as a whole due to trains, car traffic, and lots of pedestrians some cities. Pokemon animations are a lot more lively as they move in combat, whereas there was just a static animation in previous gens. Also, you carry around a phone with you this time and when used you get to witness a short anime drawing of your characters talking together on the phone and it would be nice if they used it all throughout the game.
Sound: Unfortunately, this is an area that still needs a lot of improvement to push the series forward. The chirps of the Pokemon still sound like you are playing Pokemon Red/Blue and a lot of the sound effects. The music is mostly the same tracks you are used to with some new upbeat ones I liked a lot. The big issue is there is a lot more dialog in Pokemon Black/White than in any previous Pokemon games I can remember and it is not very interesting or compelling. With voice acting and anime cut scenes for more parts of the game, this would cut down on the obnoxious amount of dialog.
Controls/UI: The controls in Pokemon Black are the same as they have always been for better or worse. Want to have more than one key item/potion/repel/etc. mapped so you don't have to dig through the menus constantly? Too bad. How about using the L and R buttons to cycle through items, and while holding L or R you could press up or down to cycle through item category? Nope, that UI would cut 5 hours of game play time. Seriously though, I hope Nintendo improves this in the next Pokemon. Oh and how about an ability to sort items alphabetically please?
As far as battle UI goes, there is still annoying dialog like "it is still raining", "Dewott is still asleep", etc. that the animations could show constantly, instead of during or in between turns. You also now (maybe it started in Gen 4?) have to press fight to bring up your moves, instead of past gens that brought up your moves and you could press B for items or running away; it is just a minor annoyance though.
Game play: Here is the bulk of the game and what weighs heaviest in a Pokemon review. Anyone who have played previous versions of the game will note that Pokemon Black has so many small but important game play improvement features that they will wonder why it took Game Freak so long to implement them. Here is a list of improvements:
-Your Pokemon no longer take poison/burn damage outside of battle
-Trainers/Gym Leaders Pokemon are now around or below your Pokemon's level instead of way higher.
-Fishing is gone! All water Pokemon are either on land or can be caught by surfing on the water.
-Two rivals that are your friends and choose the 2 starter Pokemon you don't, so you get double the rival battles, which I love
-Limited HM usage. That's right. There are very few areas you will need an HM slave in Pokemon Black in order to complete the game. FINALLY. You still need them for a lot of extra stuff towards the end of the game, but still a huge improvement.
-TMs can now be used infinitely and are handed out in the game like candy (There are some you have to buy still and for heavy amount of money)
-There is a doctor or nurse in just about every route, cave, tower, etc. that will heal you infinitely if you beat them in a battle. This is amazing because you don't have to go back and forth to the Pokemon center like in previous games.
-The PokeMart is now built into the Pokemon center in every town
-Every single Pokemon is new (if not a rehash of a previous gen's Pokemon)
-Team Plasma (Pokemon Black's antagonist group) is more human and less sophomoric or like a Saturday morning cartoon.
-Two experience shares and a lucky egg which gives an extra 50% exp to the holder
-Routes are more varied and interesting with less if any HM usage needed
-There are less gimmicks in the game like beauty contests, pokewalker, berries/poffins, casinos, ect. and more fun things to do
-Pokemon types are fairly balanced throughout the game and you will find types in areas your traditionally would not.
-You are given a lot more free items than ever before from a free fresh water at every gym, potions, pokeballs, and TMs on routes and items in town.
Of course, despite all of these improvements, there is still one big problem with Pokemon and that problem is the lack of challenge. This is the easiest Pokemon by far, (the improvments I listed have a bit to do with it too) but it mainly due to the ancient trainer AI. In fact, in Pokemon Black, I don't even think the AI switched out Pokemon once. I would love to see some of the strategies competitive Pokemon players in real life use in the game as well as gym leaders/trainers that use all 6 Pokemon slots. I mean there are still fisherman, hikers, ect. everywhere in the game, even Team Plasma uses only a handful of Pokemon in the game that are set for them. On top of that, why do gym leaders limit themselves to one type of Pokemon? Kind of an outdated concept. The game is just too easy because of this. Thankfully there are still "Ace Trainers" that can be challenging and of course the Elite 4. Also adding to the easiness of the game is the fact that they give you a free strong pokemon before the first gym that is the weakness of your starter. They also give you TM's before certain gyms that counter the gym leader. I think I have only done one triple battle and one double through the 8th gym so don't expect too many of those unless you walk through the tall grass which can give a wild Pokemon double battle.
Pokemon Design: This is a special section devoted to the designs of the Pokemon themselves and their evolutions. One major issue I have with the game is the recycling of previous gen's Pokemon. While they may be technically new, you can see how they are modeled after previous gen's Pokemon to a T. I am also disappointed with the number of uninteresting pokemon in the beginning of the game. I mean it is basically pigey, rattata, weedle, luvdisc, pickachu, shinx, magnmite, jynx, abra, drowsy, geodude, sandshrew, machop, hitmonchan, himonlee, polywag, budew/caterpie mixed, paras, koffing, spearow, wingull, and the list goes on. Some look/are different enough to fool you others are almost carbon copies. Also, I am surprised we still have one and two evolution Pokemon in the game. Why not make all non-legendaries have 3 evolutions and be viable? Some Pokemon in the game are incredibly weak because they only have one or two stages of evolution. I would like to see about 250 Pokemon or so in the next version so I have adequate choices for my team because almost all types feel a little bare in choices.
Overall, the series is headed in the right direction and I applaud Game Freak and Nintendo for creating the best Pokemon yet.