POKEMON BLACK AND WHITE were the first core series games of generation 5! they initially released in september 2010 (march 2011 for us NA folks!) and introduced 156 new pokemon, bringing the national dex to 649! in june 2012 (JP)/october 2012 (NA), sequels titled pokemon black 2 and white 2 were released, set two years after the first games of the generation.
unlike previous entries, BW/B2W2 are set in a region far away from the other main games - unova, based on the new york city metropolitan area and upstate new jersey! both states i have never been to. BW also do not feature any pokemon from previous games until you beat the postgame, meaning you're limited to unova's 156 native pokemon! they fixed that in B2W2 but holy shit

the gen 5 games are known for having very high critical reviews while the fanbase tore into anyone who liked them at release! this is because they are good games and the pokemon fanbase is never happy. they're also known for having polarizing pokemon designs, minigames and side areas that are either the most infuriating/boring/pointless thing in the world or extremely fun (like pokestar studios in B2W2!), and a pretty solid storyline across both sets of games! you could even say that, at release, the fanbase's opinions on the games were pretty black-or-white.

my memory is shit but i'd never forget these games. except for the time when i forgot a cutscene i saw in an edit/romhack as a child wasn't actually real.
i was 7 when the original black and white game out, in the 2nd grade. this was the first time i was here for and following a game's release, since i had gotten into the series around when HGSS released. i still very fondly remember the starter silhouette leaks and how people scrambled to come up with ideas for what they could look like, and then the starter evolution designs speculation. this was before i could use social media, so i was getting all of my information from youtube and various forums that allowed children on them.
what's not to love about gen 5? well, the experience calculation is annoying but that's not even that bad. BW/B2W2 have some of the best music in the main series games [IN MY OPINION], insanely good cinematics for 2d games (i can't find a compilation of the ones in B2W2.), and one of the most batshit yet compelling stories. the "main villain" is some autistic grooming victim vegan white guy and the real main villain is that guys shitty father who verbally abuses him on screen and then tries to kill you in the sequels. ghetsis is the first villain to try and kill the player on screen. would a 65bp attack from a level 55 130 base sp.atk pokemon with STAB kill a human child?

an extremely fun fact about me: i wasn't diagnosed with autism until i was 15. meaning i spent 15 years thinking there was just something wrong with me and that i deserved everything i got because i was "wrong." at 7 years old, i was very unaware of this, but it was still in the back of my mind - there's something wrong with me and i know it. i talk too fast, too loud, i like weird things, i think weird, i don't like people, i like animals more. and do you know what black and white gave me? a character who talks too quickly, thinks in mathematical formulas, likes childish things, and prefers the company of pokemon to people. and so, i latch on to N hard and don't let go of him until the next games come out. i am so serious when i say i was obsessed with N as a child and i wouldn't fully process why until 2024. as a child, i saw a pretty androgynous young man who is clearly autistic and has explicit trauma regarding his abusive father and couldn't connect why i liked him so much, so i interpreted that as an intense romantic attraction. i now realize 1.) i kin him 2.) i was relating to him in a way i couldn't understand because i was 7 and 3.) i was getting proto-gender envy.
this is also the game that made me get over my childish fear of gay people. i was raised by homophobic early 2010s internet instead of my parents, so i picked up the early 2010s homophobia... and then these fucking games come out, people go crazy over N and start making ship art of him and hilbert. (yeah they named the male protag hilbert. that is not a name people have.) i'm not kidding when i say pokemon yaoi made me stop being weird about gay people. female 2 fujoshi 2 male transition baby!