Pokémon Black & White released a decade ago at this point, and the fifth generation of games still have features they introduced that are a major part of the franchise.

Generations in the series build bonds with specific age demographics as they release, and there is a large section of the Pokémon fanbase that considers the Unova region the best in the series, while others have their favorite generation they’re attached to. Let’s now take a look at five reasons why Pokémon Black & White are the best in the series, and five reasons why they’re not.

10 Not: Linear Region

This may seem like a nitpick to some, but a complaint leveraged against the Unova region is the design of the region itself. To oversimplify, it’s pretty much a circle that does very little to stray away from a directly linear adventure as you progress on your journey of becoming the champion of the territory.

Many of the other regions feature an interesting layout with departures here and there that shake up what players can expect. Once again, it’s not terrible, but, in comparison to the other regions, it leaves a lot to be desired creatively.

9 Best: Interesting Narrative

Pokémon games are known for plenty of things. Some people flock to the series for the wonderful assortment of unique creatures, while others enjoy the grind of a turn-based role-playing game where you level up creatures. Rarely do you hear someone say that they enjoy the series for its story or that the narrative is what kept them interested after all these years.

Pokémon Black & White seemed like GameFreak taking a stab at delivering a narrative that was creative, unique, and above all else: interesting. The ending of the main story is arguably the biggest spoiler moment in the franchise.

8 Not: Forgettable Post-Game

A part of the Pokémon games that can often be hit or miss is the post-game after trainers become champion of a given region. With Pokémon Black & White, despite having an interesting narrative, it leaves the player in a place where they’re slogging through a forgettable and half-baked post-game.

The level of disparity between where most trainer’s teams are when they complete the main story and the first challenges after beating the Elite Four is annoyingly large. Many fans felt that the post-game began with a frustrating brick wall that halted them in place.

7 Best: Animated Sprites

The introduction of animated sprites during battle seems like an afterthought and no-brainer in 2020, but the series went 15 years without the creatures displaying animations in a battle. This gave the battle system a breath of fresh air and made the creatures come alive in a way they hadn’t before.

They’ve only gotten better over time, and, thanks to Pokémon Black & White, it’s a standard in the franchise that is now essential to the experience. Fans will often take additions for granted as time goes on and modern move animations are one of those things.

6 Not: Mediocre Designs

Pokémon Black & White introduced a lot of new pokémon and as a result of that, there was a good number of creatures people disliked. Designers who have to sit down and create new creatures are bound to have some that aren’t as interesting as others, especially when they have to fall within the confines of a mega-franchise.

Pokémon from this generation are often mocked as being wholly uncreative, and, since the release of the games in 2010, it has stained the generation at large for a majority of the casual Pokémon fandom.

5 Best: Only New Pokémon

If the recent controversy surrounding the lack of a true National Pokédex in Pokémon Sword & Shield taught the world anything, it’s that Pokémon fans love to have access to all of their captured creatures.

Pokémon Black & White decided it was in the best interest of the new generation to force players into capturing, using, and evolving the new pokémon and not allow the battling and capture of creatures from previous generations until said trainer beat the Elite Four. This helped Unova feel distinct and forced players into embracing a new generation while ultimately giving them access to their legacy with the franchise.

4 Not: The Memes

It’s hard to be considered the best part of a given franchise when many people on the internet look to you as the inflection point. According to the internet, the Unova region was the point in which the developers and designers at GameFreak ran out of ideas and lost all creativity when designing new pokémon.

Whether they’re talking about the living bag of trash called Trubbish or the sentient ice cream cones called Vanilluxe, the internet at large things the franchise has only gone downhill and have made plenty of memes to prove their point.

3 Best: 150 New Pokémon

Every new generation of Pokémon games has this weird lead-up to its release where fans start to guess how many new creatures will be introduced in the brand new region. Since the release of Pokémon Red & Blue’s original 151 pocket monsters, the series rarely added more than 100 new creatures.

That was until Pokémon Black & White, in which GameFreak introduced the world to 150 new pokémon that called the Unova region home. This was only escalated by the fact that pokémon from previous generations couldn’t be battled or captured until a trainer beat the Elite Four.

2 Not: Set An Unmatched Standard

This is the back-handed compliment entry every strong list deserves. Pokémon Black & White explored so many new concepts, took the narrative seriously, and gave fans the largest number of new pokémon since the original games.

Many of those new and inventive risks never made their way to the subsequent games and sadly gave fans a taste of something they’d never get again. Now that they have a generation under their belt on the Nintendo Switch, fans are hoping GameFreak makes use of all the power the console hybrid provides to take some new risks and evolve the series.

1 Best: Direct Sequels

Most of the time the franchise has followed a cadence where the original pair of games in a given region are released, and a year or so later a 3rd version is released which adds some improvements or additions that weren’t included in the original release.

Not only did Black & White break this cadence, but they were also the first to have direct sequels in both naming and narrative. This was a first for fans, as they were able to hop back into the Unova region years later and see how it changed since the end of their last adventure—that’s something that hasn’t been repeated since.

NEXT: Pokémon: Ranking The 10 Most Underrated Unova Pokémon