Pokemon Black & White 2 Review

Pokemon is a franchise that has been running for a long time now, dishing out great games that generally please the community, with a few exceptions (this would include Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, which I bear a strong hate towards). For the latest release, we have the next installment in the Generation V series which many Pokemon fans, including myself, have been very excited for. This would of course be Black & White 2 (BW2 or B2/W2). Black & White 2 follows the same style as the Generations have done before it. Since it is the third installment of the Generation, lots of extra content has been added. It’s the same as Pokemon Yellow, Crystal, Emerald etc. where tons of new things were added in. The difference between them and BW2 is that instead of just one game, two were introduced, leaving players with more of a variety and choice. Also, the version exclusives is more dramatic in this game, adding things like items and area exclusives for each version, which not all other games have (usually just a difference between the Pokemon), making it feel like it matters more what game you choose.

The Good:

• Great in-game animations (outside of battle) that Black & White briefly touched upon, whereas BW2 adds lots of little cut-scenes which makes the game more enjoyable to watch and even play.
• They added in animations with the sprites also, which is a nice surprise, as this has never been done before in the Pokemon games. It doesn’t really make a difference to the game, but it’s a nice touch.
• Probably one of my favourite things that BW2 added was the ability to catch Pokemon from other regions, prior to beating the Elite Four. This made a big difference for players like me, who hated basically all the Pokemon in the first new routes in Black & White (Patrat, Lillipup, Purrloin). For instance, you can catch Riolu, Mareep, Azurill before even beating the first gym!
• They worked more with camera angles also, which added to the feel and atmosphere  of the entire game and scene.
• As previously mentioned, the sheer amount of new content that was introduced was incredible and definitely made the game more valuable, opening up new areas and more freedom in what you can do.

• The plot line in this game, just like in Black & White was pretty incredible (this is solely my opinion). BW2 really topped it though, as it was the first third installment in the game series that was in a different time period than its predecessor, which made it so that the evil “Team” could strike back in the same Generation (unlike Gold Silver Crystal and Red Blue Yellow, as that was the same, but in a different Generation). The plot line was extremely strong in this game and I found it thoroughly engaging and fun to play. And thank God, Team Plasma’s costume changed into something that actually looks pretty wicked.
• Being able to fuse two Pokemon together (in this instance Kyurem and Reshiram/Zekrom) is pretty awesome in my opinion, and while those were the only Pokemon that you could fuse, Nintendo may take it somewhere further and possibly add it into Generation VI or the Ruby, Sapphire remakes (if they do those, which is very probable).
• Some awesome new battle animations were added, like Flare Blitz, which was also nice to have a contrast between the animations of the two games (BW2 and Black & White).

The Bad:

• Much like Black & White, I wasn’t a huge fan of the music. In my opinion it didn’t even come close to the likes of Gold, Silver, Crystal or Red, Blue, Yellow and I found the bike jingle especially annoying (again, just my opinion). Really it was just a let down in general.
• Some gyms weren’t especially challenging and were very easy to simply plow through if you had the right technique and Pokemon.
• Too many Legendaries were available to catch. Now this can be considered a good and bad thing. The good is that you can get all of your favourite Legendaries and use them to take down all the baddies. The bad is that it takes out a large challenge in the game. The very point of Pokemon is to catch every single Pokemon that there is, and that requires hard work, especially involving Legendaries. You would have to transfer your Legendaries from one game to another game to another game, before you finally have them where you want them. In BW2, you can catch an insane amount of Legendaries. At least half of every Legendary excluding Mascot Legendaries and Unobtainable ones, which for me, is just too many. I caught a few, but after a while, I just couldn’t be bothered. You imagine getting lots of Legendaries and every single one in a game, but when you actually have the chance and you do it, you don’t always feel as accomplished as you would have hoped, because it wasn’t as difficult as you thought or hoped it would be. Of course that’s purely what I thought and felt.

• Some battle animations look bland and quite dull, and some animations changed for the worst compared to some of the earlier games on the Gameboy Advanced, like Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald (Quick Attack, Crunch, etc.).
• The entire games pacing, while good and engaging, still feels quite slow. This may because of the 3D form of viewing and battle animations, but it just feel like the entire game is slower than it used to be on the Gameboy consoles.
• The games' rival, Hugh, isn’t really a rival in my opinion. When I first saw him, I thought that he was going to be one of those cool, relaxed rivals like Blue or Silver, because he looks exactly like that sort of character, yet he helps the player a lot and he just doesn’t give off a feeling that you want to hate him. When I first played Pokemon, I hated Blue/ Gary, because he was just an ass, plain and simple. He didn’t care about anything, he was relaxed, he taunted the player etc. Not exactly the same with Silver in Gold, Silver, Crystal, but the players didn’t have a friendly relationship, whereas in BW2 they did, and basically every other game after Gold, Silver Crystal has also had.

Black & White Vs. Black & White 2

The games are the same, yet completely different. BW2 has the same exact feel as the games before it, and you would definitely associate them with each other. BW2 did add some major changes that really helped boost the gameplay and even longevity of the game. Now occasionally companies, when they want to make a game longer, add lots of annoying, unnecessary gameplay into their games, to help make the game longer, like needing to grind or adding impossible sections. In BW2, the content that they added in, was actually really fun to play, since a lot of it involved new or changed areas, which were fun to explore and play through.

The largest change that they made was obviously adding two games instead of just one, and also, they reversed the places of the Mascot Legendaries, meaning Kyurem/ Zekrom was acquired in Black 2 and vice versa whereas in the games before BW2, it was found in White. Black & White added the area exclusives into the game, but Black & White 2 took it a step further, changing areas and items depending on the version. The best example for this is Reversal Mountain. In B2 it’s filled with water, whereas in W2 it’s filled with lava, and different items are acquired such as the Poison Orb & the Flame Orb.

Conclusion:

Black & White 2 definitely introduced some awesome new features, some that will almost definitely revolutionize the next games that will be coming out. In conclusion, BW2, in my opinion was a great success and is definitely worth your money. If you haven’t played Black & White before, but you’re considering getting this game, my recommendation is go for it, as you can pick this game up and understand the story line perfectly without having played any of the other games. Overall, Black & White 2 beats it’s predecessors by quite a bit, and is definitely worth a buy. 

For me, I give it an A-!