I wouldn’t exactly call myself a Poke-fanatic. While I have spent a good deal of time playing the Pokemon TCG, I haven’t spent longer than an hour playing one of the core games in the series. Chalk this up to the fact that I was in high school when Pokemon got popular, and for some reason thought that I had better things to do than “Catch ‘em all.” Say what you will, but despite this, I always had a fondness for the little Pocket Monsters. I love the art design of most of the little buggers, I naturally dive for every Pokeball I see in a bout of Smash Bros., Pokemon Snap was the first N64 game I got on the Virtual Console, and I have always yearned for a Pokemon MMO like every other Nintendo fan out there. For some reason or another, none of this has ever translated to me taking the time to actually play one of the core games in the series. All of that may change with Pokemon Black/White.

Even though Black/White has made its way into stores in Japan, Nintendo is just now starting to roll out the red carpet for its arrival on North American shores. As part of this, the company invited GameXplain to its offices to check out the near final build of the game, and I gladly  obliged. It was a gorgeous day at the marshlands of Redwood Shores; a perfect time to lock myself in a room away from the intrusive rays of the sun with only 600 or so of my new best friends to keep me company.

There is so much new to this latest installment in the series (already the fastest-selling franchise entry in Japan) that it’s almost a daunting task to describe this monolith of handheld gaming, but I will do my best. The most immediately noticeable thing about this game is the graphical upgrade that the title has received. The worlds are, for the first time in the handheld series, all rendered in some pretty impressive 3D. This isn’t quite the gorgeous 3D worlds of Dragon Quest IX, but it is still appealing in its own right. The main city in the game has some stunning vistas complete with dynamic camera angles and sprawling landscapes. Despite the 3D worlds, the characters are all still sprite-based, but even these have gotten a significant boost this time around. The Pokemon in particular have never looked this great. Each and every Pokemon has unique idle and attack animations that really bring them to life like never before. I was pretty shocked when the reps on hand said this applied not just to the 150 completely new Pokemon, but all of the previously available Pokemon, as well.

That’s right, Pokemon Black and White offers up an entirely new selection of 150 Pokemon for players to catch, and that’s just in the main adventure! On your primary quest through the game, you will only be using and encountering the new Pokemon. Think of this as a way of putting all players regardless of their familiarity with the series on an even playing field. Everyone playing the game will go through the same learning period as new players did when Red and Blue first came out way back when. This sounded great to me, as my knowledge of Pokemon evolutions is limited to a vague certainty that Abra evolves into Kadabra and that Alakazam is a terrible name for a Pokemon. The fun doesn’t end there though. Like I touched on before, players will have access to the entire back catalogue of Pokemon (nearly 500) as well, but only after completing the main game. This gives a whole added incentive to keep playing the game even after you’ve finished the main storyline, as you won’t be even a quarter of the way to catching ‘em all at that point.

Since you’ll likely be playing this game for a nigh infinite amount of time, the kind folks at Nintendo have inserted another new feature to help convey this passage of time (in addition to the day/night cycles): seasonal cycles. For every month of time that passes in the real world, a full season will change in the game. Certain areas of the map will only be accessible during certain seasons and some Pokemon can only be found in a given season as well. The world will change appearance to match these passing seasons, with leaves turning orange in Fall and snow covering the landscape in Winter.

Another new feature in Pokemon Black and White is the inclusion of Triple Battles. During these face-offs players choose three Pokemon who must all fight together. Players position these Pokemon in a row and then send them out to battle their enemies. Where you slot a Pokemon in this row affects where they can attack with Pokemon on the flanks only being able to reach the enemy’s middle Pokemon and the Pokemon directly opposite them. Whichever Pokemon you put in the middle ends up being your primary fighter as it can attack anyone on the enemy’s row, but can get attacked by anyone as well. This adds an extra dimension to the battles, making them more like traditional RPG fights with each of your Pokemon taking on a more clearly defined role in the battle. There was an as-yet unannounced other new battle type in the game, and I can only hope it is similarly exciting.

On top of this wealth of new gameplay options, I was excited to see an awesome evolution of the social features seen in previous titles. The bottom screen of the DS takes on the role of the “C-Gear,” your access to all of the various wireless capabilities of the game. These are divided into IR, Wireless, and Wi-Fi. The IR is where most players will probably find themselves clicking more often than not as it is here that you can battle other players, trade Pokemon, swap Friend Codes, and play the Feeling Check mini-game. The Friend Code swapping was pretty cool to see in action, as you’ll no longer have to type in your buddies’’ ridiculously long codes to add them to your list. All it takes now is holding your DSes next to each other when this function is selected. The Feeling Check mini-game tests your compatibility with other Pokemon players with questions similarly generic to what you can find in the Everybody Votes! channel on the Wii. Still, if you take the time to try and find compatible Pokemon fans out there you will be rewarded with various items.

The Wi-Fi features in Pokemon Black and White are similarly expansive. Not only can you randomly battle other players from across the world, but you can offer Pokemon for trade complete with a bartering system. This is on top of the ability to battle anyone from your friends list. In addition to this, there is a neat little link between the Pokemon game and the website dubbed “Global Link.” This allows you to sync your game up with the Global Link site at any time. There you can play mini-games, customize your house, earn items, and scope out the progress of other Pokemon players out there. It all sounds quite revolutionary for the series, and like it could really be the “Web 2.0” realization of the Pokemon franchise.

At this point, I’m only really scratching the surface of what this game has to offer, which I’m sure is great news to all you die-hard Pokemon fans. I haven’t even gotten into the new legendary Pokemon for this game, Reshiram and Zekrom, nor the morally nuanced storyline of the Pokemon eco-terrorists, Team Plasma, nor the video chat features of the Xtransceiver (pronounced “Cross-transceiver”). Still, that will just give us all something to look forward to when this game makes its North American debut March 6.