It’s taken 14 years for Nintendo to release a legitimate sequel to the popular Pokemon franchise, but the wait is finally over as Pokemon Black and White Versions 2 are upon us. Rather than release the now standard special edition of the current generation of Pokemon (i.e. Pokemon Platinum  being released after Diamond and Pearl), Black 2 and White 2 act as both remake and successor to 2009’s Pokemon Black and White. Catching Pokemon is as fun as ever, but the series is really starting to show its age.

Story

Pokemon Black 2 and White 2’s plot takes place two years after the events of the first Black and White. The land of Unova has moved on quite well from the threatening danger imposed by the dastardly Team Plasma and their leader N, but wouldn’t you know it, those bad guys are up to no good again. They’re still talking about liberating Pokemon from trainers, even after their first attempt at this fell way short, but you’ve got to give them credit for their dedication.

As this game takes place in the same land as the previous games, you’ll run across many familiar faces and places, including your old rival Cheren (who’s been moving on up in life the past two years, as he now runs his very own gym) and the sprawling city of Castelia. Even with the new elements added to the mix, Black 2/White 2 feel very dated. The games follow the exact same formula they’ve followed for years now, and while that isn’t particularly a bad thing as it has been the groundwork for this hugely successful series, getting the feeling of “Been there, done that” happens far too frequently.

Exploring new areas, finding new Pokemon, battling trainer after trainer, and becoming the champion of the region is starting to feel stale so many years after we first did this on the original Game Boy. The fact that this game serves as a sequel to the previous games’ story doesn’t help either, because the joys of exploring a brand new region, and more so discovering brand new Pokemon (of which there are two), are taken away. Though the Pokemon series was never known for any sort of grand narrative, having a plot this thin will leave fans craving a lot more.

Gameplay

The fundamentals of Pokemon have not changed from the original Game Boy games: You are given a pocket sized monster to be your companion and are tasked with not only becoming the greatest Pokemon trainer in the land, but also collecting each and every Pokemon you can find and completing the encyclopedia-like Pokedex. Black 2/White 2 follow the same premise. Wandering through the tall grass, finding a new Pokemon to weaken and catch and further strengthening your team is as fun here as it has ever been thanks to the tried-and-true formula the game has become known for. The rock-paper-scissors elemental attacks each Pokemon uses gives each battle a good amount of strategy, and deciding which stat boosting or health rejuvenating item to give each Pokemon to hold gives an added layer of depth to gameplay. Overall, if you’ve played any past game in the series, and especially if you’ve played Black/White, you’ll feel right at home.

A handful of changes and additions help make this game stand out from its predecessor, albeit in very miniscule ways. The Pokemon World Tournament lets you battle gym leaders and Pokemon Champions from every past game in the series, stretching all the way back to the gym leaders and Elite Four from the original Red/Blue games. Though it’s almost entirely fan service, it is exciting to see trainers from years past make a collective appearance in one game. The Pokestar Studio is a film studio that lets you participate in and create films starring your Pokemon. By syncing the game with your Black or White save data you unlock special flashbacks and dialogue options with characters that appear in both games. Synching the games gives you a better sense of the story but isn’t necessary to understand the plot and only comes as an added bonus and not anything particularly significant. By doing this you can also import your Pokemon team from the original Black/White, thus allowing you to further develop and hone your team’s skills.

As with other games in the series, after completing the main story and progressing through the region, you unlock a handful of new zones to explore as well as the National Pokedex, which allows you to catch Pokemon from past games in this game. The new features are nice extras to the overall game, but don’t add anything significant to the series and come off as mere diversions instead of game changing additions. The game feels too similar to Black/White; running through the same areas and fighting in some of the exact same gyms as the past game are too new to be nostalgic and feel lazy on the developers’ part. Like I said before, the game is starting to feel old in its ways as there is nothing new or noteworthy distinguishing this game from past games beside aesthetic changes and minor tweaks.

Multiplayer

Training your team and battling friends is arguably the best aspect of any Pokemon game and Black 2/White 2 have taken strides in the right direction in terms of multiplayer. The C-Gear makes a return (with a sleek new redesigned interface), serving as your connection to wireless and Wi-Fi Pokemon battles. With a friend in the room, linking up and battling is as simple as saving the game and turning on wireless communications and starting up a battle. Playing other trainers via Wi-Fi, however, is a bit more tedious.

To play online you have to follow the same instructions as the past game, meaning you’ll need to register your game save online, add friend codes if you want to battle actual friends online, and jump through more hoops than necessary to simply challenge another player around the world. Though it’s time consuming, playing online is still a fun alternative to simply training your team, as you will find the greatest challengers online. And as with every game in the series, you’ll have to trade Pokemon between the two versions of the game in order to catch ‘em all. The multiplayer portions of the game have remained largely untouched, which isn’t all that bad because the past game got them down very well.

Visuals and Sound

Besides a few tweaks here and there, Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 look and sound like Black and White. The sequel does feature some notable enhancements, such as fully animated sprites for each trainer you come across, meaning every Youngster and Pokemon Ranger you fight will move and do a small gesture at the beginning and end of each battle. I know, it’s sad when that is something notable for the series.

The game’s soundtrack is largely made up of remixed tunes from the past games. That being said, I still feel the goose bumps on my neck as the intense music plays during the final battles with the Elite Four, or when you catch each and every new Pokemon. Each new generation of Pokemon usually bring a handful of new changes to the table, but Black 2/White 2 don’t offer much that hasn’t already been experienced two short years ago.

Bottom Line

There is nothing wrong with the Pokemon formula: catching wild creatures, improving your team, and becoming the strongest trainer in the land are just as fun and addictive as they were before. But with Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, the game is starting to feel stale. The Pokemon series has been living off its laurels for some time now, and the series is in need of change. For the Poke-Maniacs out there, these two games are easily the definitive versions of this generation, but only because they offer a few added side missions and graphical enhancements. For anyone that played and enjoyed the two games before, Black 2 and White 2 can be skipped without question.

6.5 / 10

This morning, Nintendo published a press release to announce that their latest handheld system, the 3DS, will have sold about 4.5 million units when its first birthday hits on March 27. The 3DS’s predecessor, the DS, had sold 2.3 million units in its own first year of life.

The news must come as a relief to Nintendo’s stockholders, who were panicking last summer as the company announced it would post its first loss, with sluggish 3DS sales taking the blame. Once Nintendo cut the system’s price in August, sales picked up vigorously, and for the last few months, the 3DS has reigned supreme as the top selling system in the marketplace week after week.

“Nintendo 3DS closes its first year with a lengthy list of accomplishments but we’re still just scratching the surface,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime in the press release. “With a massive lineup of first- and third-party games and more on the way, a budding library of entertainment options and an engaged and growing installed base, Nintendo 3DS has an incredibly bright future. We’re just getting started but this platform is built for the long haul.”

It’s important to note that the figures described in the press release come from two different sources: the sales of the DS come from the independently run NPD, while those of the 3DS come from Nintendo itself. While I don’t think the company’s inflating its own numbers, it’s merely a detail that bears attention.

If the prophesies of analyst Michael Pachter are to be believed, Nintendo’s still not out of the woods financially, despite these successes. It’s important for the company to toot its own horn and keep investor confidence high, especially moving toward the 2012 release of the Wii U, a system that many people have expressed mixed feelings about. Of course, plenty of people had similarly mixed feelings about the Wii, and it turned out that it became the top dog for most of its lifecycle.

In the end, it’s hard to predict just what will happen, but one thing is clear: 2012 will be an interesting year for Nintendo one way or another.

I used to love Pokemon. And then I grew up and became to cool for the franchise. That said, I can’t help but pay attention the latest news concerning the franchise, and am equally enthralled by the standard games to the odder and more interesting spin-off titles like Pokemon Snap. However, Pokemon x Nobunga’s Ambition is one game I never thought I would see as the Pokemon crossover event of the decade.

Announced yesterday at Jump Festa, Nintendo, Game Freak, and Tecmo Koei announced Pokemon x Nobunga’s Ambition, which takes Pokemon‘s familiar little monsters and pairs them with Sengoku Period feudal Japan in a turn-based strategy game a la Final Fantasy Tactics. That’s right, it’s the Pokemon RPG you never knew you wanted! Even odder, the game is coming out in 2012 for the DS, not even the 3DS. Take a look at the trailer above, hope it comes out of Japan, and pray that the next proper Pokemon game will be for the 3DS.

Source Serebii

It’s a party weekend, so lets do something for fun tonight. Fresh from Japan is a surprisingly good looking trailer for the upcoming Phoenix Wright movie. Wouldn’t it be great if the best videogame movie ever was this one? I would love the irony, with a funky little DS title inspiring a decent film as opposed to games like Silent Hill. Directed by Takashi Miike (of Ichii The Killer fame) so there is a good chance this could see some traction here in the States. Anyway, it releases in Japan on February 11, so give it a watch, m’kay?

Source Joystiq

As of September, the NPD group reported that the Nintendo DS passed the 50 million sales mark in the United States alone. That’s a whole lot of Nintendogs to go around.

Just for comparison, the PlayStation 2 crossed the 50 million line in the US back in 2008, so it’s had some time to set up a picnic and slice the pie. Still, damned impressive for a handheld.

And, for the inevitable other half. The 3DS has performed decently in America, keeping track with the DS’ sales to date. It’s currently sitting at 1.4 million, so we’ll see what holiday 2011 does to that number.

Whoever thinks homebrew is just for piracy needs to be shown this spectacular effort by smealum. It’s a barebones release though, only featuring terrain generation, the ability to add/remove blocks, and map streaming (which means it supports very large worlds). No saving yet, nor any of the other neat little quirks that have been added to Minecraft.

You can still make a scale-model Eiffel tower if you really, really want to. Just keep the DS plugged in.

I’m sure Mojang has already considered porting the game to DS, but hey, now they know who tops the short list of who they should hire to tackle that project.

[via DS-Scene]

Once Upon a Monster isn’t the only way to get to Sesame Street. Now, the toddlers among you can exercise with Grover on your Wii or, oddly, your DS in Sesame Street: Ready, Set, Grover! The game is designed to be fully playable by toddlers with no assistance and includes exercise games such as “Grover Says.”

The best part? The Wii version comes with a terrifying Grover Wiimote cover that conceals all of the unnecessary buttons. The DS version includes one of those abhorrent jumbo click styli. The only reason I can think to buy this is to use the Grover cover in my next session of We Dare, now that’s sexy!

Nintendo sent out a press release today trumpeting the numbers they racked up over the weekend. 900,000 DS systems and 600,000 Wii systems found their way from store shelves into attics, closets, and other likely hiding spots over the shopping weekend, eagerly awaiting a coat of gift wrap and a spot under a tree. Application of rudimentary math means that Nintendo has shifted 1.5 million systems over the weekend, which has got to put a little spring in the Japanese company’s step.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has identified this holiday as critical to the company’s business in the coming year, as it will likely be an indication of the continued market for the DS and Wii in their current forms. Strong sales will probably push back Nintendo’s release of any sort of Wii successor, and they’re probably angling to sell as many DS units as possible before the 3DS releases and drives down the perceived price point.

Odds are we’ll be getting similar releases from Sony and Microsoft soon, so it’ll be interesting to compare those numbers – especially between the Move and Kinect.

Wii exclusive titles rarely get sequels, so de Blob: The Underground shows some spunk by following up 2008′s de Blob. As revealed by Nintendo Power, the sequel will support two-players, feature 2D side-scrolling segements, and the mandatory “new moves, new foes.” The Wii version will be developed by de Blob crew Blue Tongue Entertainment, while Halfbrick Works will handle the DS version. The original de Blob was one of the few intensely charming and enjoyable titles that didn’t butt heads with the Wii’s low tech spec, so I’m interested to see where the new title goes.

Via Joystiq