Pokemon Black Version & Pokemon White Version Volume 1: The Official Pokemon Strategy Guide [Paperback]

My 9 year-old son and I have purchased the Prima Guides for all of the past Pokemon games and loved them to shreds, so buying another one for the new Black & White games was a no-brainer. This time around, however, Prima has released two different versions of their guide: a paperback version with the walk-through and Pokedex split into two books, and a hardcover "Collector's Edition" version that appears to be all-in-one. Which to buy?

We ended up opting for the paperback books, primarily because I couldn't imagine my son lugging a large 400-page hardcover around night and day. We'll have to wait a month to see exactly what's inside Volume 2, but here's what's included in Volume 1:

* A 2-page map of the Unova region

* A list of special weekly and daily events

* A primer for Pokemon training... this is very similar to what's found in the previous Guides, except that it's been updated with graphics and examples from the current adventure. Being Pokemon experts, we almost skipped right over this, but I'm glad we didn't as it contains a lot of great information about new ways to find Unova Pokemon, Pokemon with special evolutions, details about weather and season changes, and other tidbits about all of the things that make this game new and unique.

* An 180+ page walkthrough of the game, covering the very beginning of your journey right through your Elite 4 battle and beyond to Black City or White Forest... again, very comparable to what's been published in previous Guides. Half of me hates using this part of the Guide - it always feels like cheating - but the other half is glad I don't have to watch my son weep everytime he gets stuck and doesn't know where to go or what to do next.

* A brief section on Pokemon with form changes or special conditions for evolution

* A listing of all the Trainers you'll encounter on your journey

So, what's missing? Well, there's no Pokedex. There's no list of moves or abilities and no list of items. Pretty much anything you'd like to flip to the back of the book to look up isn't actually there. I assumed I'd have to wait until Volume 2 for all of these things, so I'm not too disappointed about that, but I AM a bit taken aback that there isn't so much as a simple list or index of the new Unova region Pokemon anywhere in this volume. That, I think, will be sorely missed, even once we have Volume 2 in hand. So, overall, a very useful reference book, but I'd heartily recommend planning to buy both volumes once available or going with the Collector's Edition instead.

For those who have bought Pokemon strategy guides before, this should come as no surprise, in that they seem to be following the same formula as the guides for Soulsilver/Heartgold. Volume 1 here is a 256 page walkthrough of the Pokemon Black and White games, complete with maps, a daily list of events available in the game, a pictoral list of trainers to battle, etc. What is conspicuously missing is the complete list of new pokemon from the Unova region. For this, apparently, we will have to wait for Volume 2, just as we did with Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver The Official Pokemon Kanto Guide National Pokedex: Official Strategy Guide. So with that in mind, it is what it is - a helpful strategy guide, but not the manna of pokemon information I was hoping for.

This guide is very pathetic. The only good thing I can say about it is.... well, nothing.

Prima has disappointed me lately with their 2-part Pokemon guides. They say it's to keep you from lugging around a ginormous book, but we all know it's just a money ploy. My main complaint with this guide is that it doesn't list items in a comprehensive way. It just says "here's an item, pick it up, and here's a list of what it could be." It also lacks a true TM/HM list. It lists them in alphabetical order, but we don't want that. We want them in numerical order. I realize this is probably in the second volume, but I shouldn't have to buy a whole separate book or search the web just to find a TM. In conclusion, I don't like this guide.