Pokemon still has it.
When you communicate with your friends that have the game you must have a friends code. You are not able to look up the name of the person and find them. Another problem is if you have no other way of communicating with them then it is pointless. You must both be on wifi at the same time. A player should be able to send a message to a distance friend so if they are playing they will get the message and head to wifi center. I found out a player could trade pokemon across the world on the new pokemon ds game. Truth is that it is crap. You can only trade for pokemon that you have seen. So you cannot trade any pokemon that are from the original games unless you have the original game or if you have some how seen it. I would have loved to have a magmar, jynx, or electabuzz but no, I HADN'T SEEN THEM BEFORE.
Overall the game is still the same. Start with one pokemon, catch new pokemon, get badges, catch the legendary pokemon, and then the elite four. Also you can never forget that annoying tunnel that is right before the elite four.