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Honestly, apart from the story and characters, BW1 is sort of unremarkable. Not to mention divisive.
Does anyone remember the Wonder Launcher? Or that browser based Dream World game? The XTransceiver? The Entralink? A-lot of the things that they sold with the 5th Generation went nowhere. After HGSS went nuts with how much they had to offer, old features and new, BW was a regression in some ways.
BW1 was also the start of Pokemon games becoming more story intensive and linear. Unova has a-lot of things to explore off the beaten path, but the map is a big straight line. Older maps felt more organic, with interconnected pathways and new towns sometimes looping you back to older ones. This + the minimalist storytelling meant that you could sort of explore the earlier Regions at your own pace (after a certain point).
Then of course there's the Regional Dex, which turned existing players away. Something they quickly remedied in BW2...
