First Look: Pokémon Black and White 2

Like every rational creature, I love Pokémon. And why wouldn’t you? Entertaining adventures, ruthlessly addictive monster collecting and accessible but deep battling make for a fantastic handheld game. That the franchise has grown pretty formulaic doesn’t bother me- it’s a nice formula, it works. Nonetheless, it’s pretty exciting when there’s a substantial change to that formula, and so there has been! The next Pokémon release, following last year’s Pokémon Black and White, won’t be a Grey version, or even an enhanced remake of Ruby and Sapphire, as previous form suggests. Instead, we’re getting Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. But what exactly does that mean?

Details are currently pretty sparse, but have been slowly filtering out since the announcement. These, as the name suggests, are direct sequels to Black and White- a couple of years have passed since the events of those games, and while we are revisiting the same region, some changes have occurred in the interim. We’re gonna have new player characters, new gym leaders and a new rival. Additionally, it seems that Black and White’s all-new Pokémon approach has been dropped, and the old school mons will be more readily available. Legendary Ice Pokémon Kyurem has apparently been wrecking shit, as legendary Pokémon inevitably do, and seemingly has multiple forms echoing the Reshiram and Zekrom legendary monsters from Black and White. 

At this point, that’s about all we know. What is interesting is that almost all of these are different from the very formulaic approach the main series Pokémon games have taken to date. Instead of a slightly enhanced third version as was the case with all previous generations, these seem to be pretty decent approximations to new games. They’re also direct sequels- while Gold and Silver took this route, there’s been nothing of the sort in the series since then. Perhaps most puzzling of all is that these are going to be released on the old DS, and not new-hotness 3DS. I never got a 3DS, so it suits me, but it seems very strange- Black and White 1, in the eyes of many, should have been 3DS games, and I would have thought Nintendo would mandate a 3DS exclusive release to drive sales and secure the console’s very slightly shaky market. 

Perhaps I’m just gushing over trivial crap, but what little we know about these new games all seems unusual, especially for a franchise as notoriously static as Pokémon. Personally, I hope these games deliver some of the polish and singleplayer quality that went AWOL between the brilliant Heartgold and Soulsilver remakes and Black and White- I and others sorely missed features like the enhanced interface and walking Pokémon that HG/SS brought to the table. Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 are scheduled for release this summer in Japan, this fall in America, and presumably at some point in Europe. I’ll be sure to keep my readers posted with the latest news on these titles, provided I remember and can be arsed.

In Which I Get Real Excited About Something Probably Meaningless

BREAKING: some guy wore a t-shirt. The ramifications are potentially huge. What? Oh yeah, sorry. A Valve employee wore a t-shirt, and that t-shirt says “Half-Life 3”. Now it’s a big deal, right? Spotted by an employee of Uber Entertainment, developers of the rather good Monday Night Combat, at an industry event, the offending garment is pictured below. 

Half-Life news gets me very excited, no matter how totally inconsequential it is. Four goddamn years have passed since fans were left hanging in the middle of an unresolved narrative by the last game, and Valve have said about twenty words about the future of the franchise in that time. It’s complete fucking radio silence on one of gaming’s most beloved series, it’s become a joke, the new Duke Nukem Forever; I think a little excitability is excused.

This is weird, though. Why the fuck does this guy have a Half-Life 3 shirt? The game hasn’t been announced, they haven’t even finished with Half-Life 2’s episodic expansions. Did he make it himself to wear around the office, get a laugh from his coworkers while they continue to not make it? If it’s official HL3 merchandise that raises even more questions, chiefly- why does official HL3 merchandise exist? Valve are incredibly tight-lipped whenever anyone asks them about the future of Half-Life, and this is the closest to official word there has been. They’re not above simply messing with the fans, but to do so with Half-Life 3 would be cruel; there’s a huge amount of love out there for these games, and their continued absence hurts everyone that cares.

Putting my analytical hat on for a second, since I rarely get to do so for my paranormal detective agency, the shirt looks strikingly similar to one they sell already, bearing the official HL2 logo. There’s a notable difference, though- on that one, the iconic lambda is within the circle and the 2 is without, but here the big ol’ 3 is centre-stage- whether it’s official or otherwise, the designer didn’t want it to be mistaken for the old logo, they wanted people to see that three. I’m no artist, but that makes sense- it’s still distinctly HL, but the emphasis on the three gets nerds like me all excited. Not sure what that actually proves, though. I guess it shows a little more work than simply swapping the number has gone into the logo, which means that if it’s a fake it had at least a moment’s thought given.

It’s hard to tell what to make of this, but I’ll hope against hope that there’s something big coming. Four years is a long-ass time, after all.