My gosh, all those pre-release images bring back memories. I remember how impressed people were with the full-bodied back sprites. It's something I had forgotten about since 3D has since become the series norm, but the battle graphics of gen 5 were actually pretty revolutionary for Pokémon back then.
I also remember on another forum how people were feeling confused at Cheren and Bel's names, but then someone just quietly mentioned how in their language they meant "black" and "white" and everyone was just so amazed! I don't really know why, but that really stuck with me after all these years.
I really did love BW's pre-release period. There were so many new Pokémon so there were a lot of new reveals leading up to the games' release. And even then it left a good number of them secret for players to discover for themselves. There was also something quite appealing about getting silhouettes beforehand. I can't really put my finger on it, since a full image reveal but with no name or Type can still lead to discussion and speculation, but I enjoyed seeing people try to fill out the silhouettes and speculate off of that.
