Friday 11 October 2013

Review No. 61 Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 - DS (3+)

Strong Points:
Even more Pokémon to catch!
Lots of mini games and things to do post-story
Downloadable battles for PWT are challenging.
Nice graphics
Good League
Pokéstar studios are a fun and quite big mini game
Medals to collect and show off
Online infrastructure is good
Join Avenue is a good feature

Weak Points:
Not the best storyline
Linear world
Sprites are pixelated
Musical is awful compared to contests
Not enough high levelled trainers
Some Pokémon are only in certain stores or wi-fi events
Entralink is also bad


In-depth Review:

Release Dates:
Japan: June 23, 2012
North America: October 7, 2012
Australia: October 11, 2012
Europe: October 12, 2012
South Korea: November 8, 2012

Controls:
D-Pad: move player
A: Select command
B (hold): run
Y: key item
X: menu


It is expected for main series to be great and this one certainly doesn't disappoint. It is the most polished Pokémon game yet and has a lot of content. This is also the first true sequel to a Pokémon game so expectations are high.

You start off just like any of the other Pokémon games with going to collect your starter Pokémon and start your Pokémon journey. The story is actually quite good for a Pokémon series game (but still not that great) and without giving away to many spoilers, it does involve someone rather 'special' from the original Black and White games. These games also improve upon the last Pokémon games with 6 new forms for some of the legendries and some more mingames. These minigames include: Pokémon World Tournament, Join Avenue, Pokéstar Studios as well as building upon others like Black City/ White Forest and the Nimbasa Stadiums.

The PWT is an amazing inclusion to the series and allows you to test out your competitive battling on some incredibly highly skilled trainers and, if you got it, the winners of the Pokémon VGC in 2012. Sadly, you can't get these anymore which is a shame.  These are brilliant as while they are incredibly frustrating, it allows you to test out your Pokémon with ease and get BP which can get you exclusive items. However, the early battles only give you 1 BP so it takes you along to to get anything much like the Battle Subway.

Join Avenue lets you control an avenue and invite people to set up shop to help you with things like dojo's and markets. This is a fun little minigame which if not taken lightly, can really speed up the process of training, hatching eggs etc. The Pokéstar Studios allows you to put your Pokémon into their own movie! You can choose how to play the script and what moves to use, then sit back and relax as you and the audience watch your finished movie and your popularity and fame rise. You can also get free items from your adoring fans which is great.

Then there is the Medal Box and personally my favourite addition to this brilliant series. You can collect medals by doing a variety of tasks, from beating the league with one Pokémon to watching a few T.V shows and checking each trash can. You can then show off your favourite medal and go through the ranks. Also, Nintendo have cracked online! Well nearly as the game is on the DS but it is still good with online championships and C-Gears through the online service Global Link.

Sadly, there are some bad points mostly in that the world is very linear. Due to the Entralink still being there you have to basically travel in a circle around it with a very limited amount of islands. While Pokémon isn't known for not being linear, the other games have offered slightly more freedom. Also, some bad features namely the Entralink and the Musical, still remain. Why they got rid of the contests for the musical I will never know but I personally don't find it as fun or addictive.

The sprites are also rather pixelated and if you're like me and always travel on a bike then the music is always on a loop. Even if you don't, the size of the routes means that the music is constantly changing.

Conclusion: overall, these games are amazing and while not the defining leap we've been hoping for (X and Y are coming out soon) should keep you entertained for a long while.

P.S: if anyone like me have completed the Unova Dex or unlike me, the National Dex then please comment. And if you have game time above the 200's then comment as well.

Rating: 97%

Thanks for reading, Satamer.

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