What is Pokémon Black and White?

Pokémon Black and Pokémon White opened Generation V in Japan on September 18, 2010, reaching Europe on March 4, 2011 and North America on March 6, 2011. They are a first in the series' structure: a brand-new generation launched on the same Nintendo DS hardware as the generation before it, rather than waiting for a new system. Everything else about them is built to feel like a fresh start too.

The region is Unova, the first based outside Japan, drawn from the New York City metropolitan area. The roster is the largest ever introduced: 156 new Pokémon, five more than Generation I, bringing the total to 649, and until you finish the story and receive the National Pokédex, not one Pokémon from an earlier generation can be caught in Unova. None of the 156 is an evolution of an older species, either. The reset is total.

The presentation leapt as well. Battle sprites are fully animated now, moving constantly instead of posing, and two new battle formats arrive, Triple Battles and Rotation Battles. A seasonal cycle turns with the calendar month, changing the region's look, its wild Pokémon and even the length of its days. Team Plasma, preaching the liberation of Pokémon from their trainers, gives the story its argument, carried by the strange, truth-seeking N.

Version differences grew teeth in this generation: Opelucid City is futuristic in Black and traditional in White, and the same ground east of it holds Black City in one game and White Forest in the other. Black and White sold 15.64 million copies, second only to Diamond and Pearl among the DS games, and earned the series' first direct sequels.