Pokémon Black & White

I’m a big fan of Pokémon. I’ve been a fan since 8 September 1998, at the age of fifteen, when the English dub of the anime first aired on television. I normally watched Fox Kids at six in the morning during the week for the daily episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. I had an old black and white TV my parents gave to me as a hand-me-down of sorts; this was the type where one had to turn on the TV and let it warm up for several minutes before a picture appeared. During this time, I would start preparations for breakfast, which included emptying the ice trays into the bucket in the freezer and refilling the trays with water, then I’d get the water and coffee grounds for the coffeemaker and start the machine. The coffee was only for my parents, of course.

On this particular day in ’98, when I returned to my room, I was astonished to not see Sonic, but rather the intro of some bizarre cartoon I’d never seen before. I watched, confused. What the heck was a “poh-keh-mahn”? Who was that kid – Ash, was it? – who wanted to become a Pokémon master? What’s a Pokémon “master”, anyway? And what in the world was that rodent who acted like a giant mouse with an attitude (and electricity)? I kept watching, of course, and by the end of the episode, I was in tears and a huge fan. I watched every episode, tried to doodle Ash and Pikachu; when the cards came out (and I worked a job more than a year later), I bought packs of cards and marvelled at the artwork, I talked about Pokémon all the time, on and on.

I was hooked.

There was talk about video games but psh, who had the money for a Game Boy, much less the games themselves? No one I knew had either one… no one had the cards either, really. I was the only one in my tiny cluster of school-only friends who loved Pokémon. But it was okay, I was used to being the only fan of something like this; a handful of years prior to this, I’d been totally obsessed with Toy Story (yes, the first movie), and absolutely no one I knew was as big a fan as I was. I’m not sure I knew anyone who’d even seen the movie, though it’s possible they had but didn’t want to admit it.

The first Pokémon game I ever bought – forget about my parents buying me this stuff, are you mad? – was Pokémon Yellow in 2002. When I was nineteen years old. I’d purchased a Game Boy Pocket to go with it and played and played that game like crazy. I was dumb enough to sell it some time later, but in 2004 or so, I’d bought another copy to play on my Game Boy Colour. Oddly enough, it didn’t come with a label, only the words “Pokemon Yellow” (without the accent) written in red Sharpie.

At the time, I’d printed out a picture of the title screen of the game and literally taped it to the cartridge. Left it that way for more than a decade, too. As you can see from the above photos, in 2018 I finally bought a reproduction label, removed the printout and tape, cleaned the marker off and put the label on. It looks much, much better now.

Over the years, my interest in Pokémon has come and gone, but around 2007, I was into it again big-time. I absolutely loved the Diamond, Pearl and Platinum games and the anime based on it; Dawn was my favourite character by far and admittedly I became a huge Pearlshipper (the fan-created romantic relationship between Ash and Dawn), I drew lots of fanart, et cetera. My interest in the anime finally ended for good around 2009, and I intentionally stayed out of the loop on the storyline and characters. It just got too repetitive and dull for me. However, I still loved the franchise, and I was extremely excited for the latest entries in the video game series: Pokémon Black and Pokémon White for Nintendo DS.

These games were released in Japan in September 2010, nearly six months before we would get them Stateside. As each character and Pokémon were revealed in the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, I’d attempt to draw fanart of each one. I’m aware of my inability to prove it now, but at least in terms of Deviantart, I was the first one to draw fanart of many of the Unova Pokémon, including Sandile, Munna, Pidove and Darmantian. I absolutely loved the female trainer, Hilda/White, and had made a fan club for her on Deviantart before her name was ever revealed. I also drew lots of fanart of her in various poses, using a pose reference website so I could have an excuse to keep drawing her. I memorised the Japanese names of each Pokémon and human characters, and I recall my disgust at the absurd number of puns used for the English names once they were revealed. When the game released in Japan, I downloaded a ROM of both games to play on my computer. I couldn’t read a thing, of course, but I was familiar with the game’s interface and basic method of play that it didn’t make much difference. Any Pokémon I caught was given a nickname of their Japanese name, written in Romaji so I could tell which one was which.

I was absolutely obsessed with these games, and with good reason. Although they were on the DS, the graphics were a step up from Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. There was a much better 3-D feel to the game, with rotation and scaling in various parts of the game; the Pokémon sprites were animated nicely, with continual movement throughout the entire battle; the scene – and some Pokémon – changed with the passing of seasons, which was a delight to see. It was a big improvement over Generation IV, showcasing what the DS was capable of before the 3DS came along.

North America got the games on 6 March 2011. I was living in Pennsylvania at the time and had recently started an early morning job at a department store, so I had some money. The idea of pre-ordering a game didn’t occur to me at the time, as I’d never bought a brand-new game on launch day. Even my copy of Pokémon Emerald, which I’d purchased new in 2005, wasn’t a day one buy.

So what did I do on launch day for Pokémon Black and Pokémon White?

I drove with my mom to Toys R Us in the next town over and stood in line roughly ten minutes before the store opened. When the doors opened, I walked with the others to the video game section and bought both games. The line was thankfully short, and surprisingly, only one person had pre-ordered the game. Not only was I the only one who bought both games, I was also the only AFAB (assigned female at birth) person. In 2011. I was surprised but kept that surprise to myself as I paid for both games – even got a little freebie, not in the picture below, for the purchase – and returned to my car. I was so, so excited to finally have the games in English and could play them without the aid of my computer.

The first chance I got, I tore into my Pokémon Black game and started playing it, grateful for the ability to read the text and have a better understanding of the game’s story. I poured a lot of hours into the game, having an absolute blast with it. When I got the ticket in-game to catch Victini, I was ecstatic and spent at least twenty minutes listening to the awesome battle music whilst trying and trying and trying to catch it. I eventually succeeded and it became a key figure in my party. I loved guiding the female trainer, who I named White in my copy of Pokémon Black, through each town and marvelling at the sights and sounds whilst catching all the Unova Pokémon I could and level grinding my Pokémon. It was so much fun.

Years later, I was excited for the release of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y on 3DS, and later still, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon also on 3DS, but I don’t think I’d ever been as totally excited, completely obsessed, with any series of Pokémon games before or since Black and White. Currently, my interest in Pokémon has greatly declined, especially with the disappointment of Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield – I feel like the only person who genuinely adhered to the boycott, and not because of “Dexit” – though my interest has started to grow a bit with the announcements of the Diamon and Pearl remakes, in addition to the Pokémon Legends: Arceus game. But it’s nice to look back with fondness on those days of my excitement and obsession with the Black and White games, and occasionally, I’ll pick up one of the games and pop it into my New 3DS XL (that I bought refurbished, ha) for a bit of fun times.