mZuzek

User Score
8.3

Presentation - 8.0
Gameplay - 7.5
Value - 9.0

Roughly two years after the release of Pokémon Black & White, Game Freak gave the series its first proper sequels in the form of Black 2 & White 2. Just like in real life, the games were set 2 years later, featuring many new areas, characters, returning Pokémon from previous generations and an entirely new story - an actually black and white one this time.

The games start with a bang, immediately introducing an interesting new rival in Hugh, a noticeably changed person in Bianca, and just a really cool opening sequence in a new city with quite a great theme. However, it doesn't take long for it to start showing its issues: the interesting Team Plasma of old are now resigned to just being your average Pokémon thieves; the pacing is nowhere near as good anymore, as large periods of the game go by with little to no story. It's a far cry from the story that defined Black & White so well, with some rather lazy writing and nothing much going on for the majority of the game.

In a sense, it's almost clear that the developers were trying to rectify non-issues people had with Black & White at the time. People didn't like not being able to catch old Pokémon in the new games, so Game Freak brought them back. People thought the story was too intrusive and wanted more freedom, so Game Freak made it less important and more over-reliant on tired Pokémon clichés. People wanted a better post-game with more things to do instead of a dense main game, so Game Freak focused their efforts on offering better additional post-game content.

And as cool as it is to have as much post-game as these games do, and as nice as it is to use older generation Pokémon on your team, and all that... It takes away a lot of what made Black & White great in the first place. Take away all the uniqueness those games had and their bold approach to the Pokémon formula, and you have Black 2 & White 2: another cookie-cutter Pokémon game, that just so happens to be set in the 5th generation.

That's not to say it's without its merits, of course. As far as cookie-cutter Pokémon games go, these are still definitely among the best out there, with a boatload of content, a great region and soundtrack, fun and fast gameplay, and still a somewhat decent story with a couple of mildly interesting characters in Hugh and Colress. The overall package is rather good, but it's undeniable that the late-game, story-heavy climax involving Team Plasma is what stands out the most, and its only a shame that the rest of the game, including the lackluster ending, doesn't follow that format.

(converted to 8.3 out of 10)

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