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Final Expansion Pass 2 Game #6/Blog a Day #22

Hello everyone, how are you?

It's the year 2012, the Nintendo 3DS had released a year prior and the DS is/was already in its twilight years. With all of Nintendo's development teams and partners focusing on the new handheld, the next logical step is to halt development of any DS game and move it to the 3DS, right? Wrong. If you are Game Freak that is. And today we are going to talk about the very last Pokemon game(s) on the DS, or at least the one I had. Let's journey across the land in Pokemon Black 2... 

 

 

                                           Someone here did the Fusion Dance

It was 2012 and by then I was already into the 3DS and its games. By then it was starting to get a decent library of games and pretty much Nintendo was focused on its new handheld and obviously prepping for the launch of its ill-fated Wii U. So it came as a surprise that the next Pokemon games were releasing on the DS. I can see as there are many reasons for this. For one, the 3DS was still in its infancy, meaning the sales for it weren't there just yet as many still haven't upgraded. The other is by releasing it on the DS, it doesnt alienate both those who own a DS or 3DS which I feel was the perfect middleground. So how is the game?

Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 are direct sequels to 2011's Black and White and take place 2 years after the events of those games. So if you jump into the sequels you are going to miss a few things in terms of plot. Without spoiling much, some of the characters from the previous games have new roles here and the story deals with the aftermath of the previous games.

One of the new features in the game is the Unova Link. What this does is that it alows you to accces a number of handy new features in the game. With this you can access online function which are now offline, you can connect to the Mystery Gift function to unlock special event Pokemon, which is offline as well. It also allows you to connect to the 3DS and the Pokemon Dream Radar and that allows you to transfer those Pokemon to your game. And lastly, the Memory Link, that allows you to access character flashbacks provided you have another DS and a copy of the first Black and White.

 

             

                                      Some characters have new roles in the game

There's also new areas in the Unova region that you couldn't access in the previous games as well. I really loved that there were some new towns and areas to visit and explore. One of my favorite areas in the games were the Hidden Grottoes. In the Hidden Grottoes, you can encounter special Pokemon that could have hidden abilities.

But I think by far the best feature in the game is the Pokemon World Tournament. In this tournament you could battle trainers from the previous games like the Gym Leaders and Champions. For a fan, this is what could be considered the ultimate fan service since it just brings all those characters back and you could battle them. That's really cool.  

"But Captain N, where can I play this game?" Well it's a DS game so you can play it on any of the iterations of the DS and 3DS as well. But this being an older Pokemon game means that it suffers from being out of print, which means that getting a copy at a decent price is next to impossible. If you can track a used copy at a decent price, go for it but I think it would be best to wait for when they get eventually remade.

 

                

                                           Is that the guy from the Air Gear anime?

Final Thoughts: Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 are definitely the definive versions of the Generation 5 games. I also see them as a culmination of all the games in one. It brings the best of what each game had to offer and it puts it all together in one game. The core gameplay is still the same, but that isn;t a bad thing in my opinion. The music in these games are among the best in the series as well, I really loved it. There's a ton of content in these games that it will take you a while to go through it all. I also enjoyed all the new features that they added. They really went all out with these games

I will say this, I do feel like the plot of the original Black and White was better in many ways. It was the first games in the series to have a much more deeper plot. I also do like that in those games you were locked into all the new Pokemon from Unova, you wouldn't run into any past favorites like Pikachu till you reached the post-game. It gave you a chance to get acquainted with the new Pokemon. But I also loved that in Black 2 and White 2 you had much more variety in choosing a team of Pokemon. I also loved the new content in these new games like the new areas to explore.

I see these games as the end of an era. These were officially the last mainline games to use sprites and 2D graphics. These were also the last mainline Pokemon games to release on the DS as well as the last first-party titles to release on the system as well. Looking back at it, it does feel sad since the Pokemon games on the DS was probably the most fun I've ever had with the series and I feel that to me, the series peaked during that era. Sure, the series has stumbled after once they hit 3D but I'll always be a fan of the series despite those missteps.

 

              

                         I always think of Winnie the Pooh when I see the word bother

Whether it's Truth or Ideals, I believe both can work together in harmony. You can also believe in one while acknowledging the other.

That's it for game #6, we will now be entering the top 5 so hope you look forward to that. Another thing to note is that today's date is 2/22/2022. That's pretty interesting, I mean it's just a random fact, nothing really important to this post but I just wanted to point it out. Thanks for reading and...