and a hundred or so new pokémon to collect.POKEMON BLACK 2 & WHITE 2 (2012) – GAME FREAK Black Kyurem – better than White Kyurem. But for those who just can't get enough, Black and White offers yet another lengthy and solid adventure with just enough tweaks to make for a better game. So if you've never had an interest in the series, or you've been burned out on more than a decade of trying to catch 'em all, there's probably not enough to entice you to play.
The changes, though welcome, are subtle enough that many people might not even notice many of them. The latest Pokémon isn't the one that will win over new players. It would've been nice if you could change the function to match how you play the game. It's certainly useful, but if you don't play a lot of multiplayer, it amounts to a lot of wasted space. Here it's used exclusively for managing multiplayer play, so you can connect to other players to battle or trade. Previous games allowed you to switch functions around, using the screen as everything from a map to a watch, but that's not the case this generation. The only real disappointment is the way that the game utilizes the bottom touchscreen. You'll also come across triple-battles for the first time, which add some new strategy to the mix, and the seasons will shift regularly. Now you can teach the moves to as many pokémon as you like. One of the most welcome changes comes from TMs, those hard-to-find special abilities that in previous games were good for just one use. They're small updates, but they go a long way towards making the experience less frustrating. On various routes you'll come across trainers who can heal your team so you don't have to go running back to town. Pokémon centers and Pokémarts have been combined into one massive, Walmart-style shopping experience, saving you a bit of time. The rest of the improvements are geared towards creating a much faster, more streamlined experience.
But for a series like this, so seemingly against change, watching as the camera spins around a winding bridge, or as your pokémon actually animates in battle, is an almost startling, but welcome, change. If it weren't a Pokémon game, these visual changes would hardly be worth noting-they're not exactly revolutionary, after all. The camera will pan around corners and twist around buildings. You'll see the game from a top view, or from the side. You'll first notice it when you travel across a bridge on your way to a bustling city. But for the first time in the series, the game actually uses those 3D visuals for more than just recreating a SNES RPG-style look. The game has the same 3D, yet still retro, look as games like Diamond and HeartGold. They may have potentially good intentions, but it's clear almost from the beginning that Team Plasma are bad guys.Īt first blush Black and White look identical to previous DS entries in the series. Of course, the game doesn't really explore these interesting themes with much depth.
Dressed like Templar knights, they'll trail you throughout your journey in order to free your poor creatures, trapped as they are in a tiny ball. They see it as liberation, saving the pokémon from their oppressive human masters.
They may want to steal your pokémon, but it's for their own good. But Team Plasma, this generation's version of Team Rocket, has more complex demands. Previous villains were pretty one-dimensional, wanting little more than to be pokémon-stealing jerks. But the tone is decidedly darker this time around. Story has never been at the forefront of the Pokémon series, and that's still true in Black and White.