Thirteen Games To Blow Your Mind Off In 2011

POKEMON BLACK AND WHITE (DS)

Three things about Pokemon- one, that it is the second highest selling game franchise of all time, next to only Mario. The cumulative sales for Pokemon games amount to 207 million copies sold worldwide, a number so mind bogglingly big that if the sales of Pokemon games formed a nation, then by population, that nation would be the fourth largest in the world.

Secondly, Pokemon Black and White, the latest installments in the long running series, have sold nearly five million units in Japan alone since their release their barely three months ago, a testament to the series’ incredibly lasting appeal, and to its incessant perfection and refinement of a nearly two decade old formula.

Finally, the Pokemon series is also possibly the most stagnant series in gaming. Over fifteen years and four main installments later, and we are still, in essence, playing the same game as we were back in 196 when the games first delighted us all.

It’s that last issue that developers Game Freak seek to rectify with Black and White, the fifth main entry into the series which Game Freak has promised is a ‘fresh new take’ on all the aspects of the Pokemon universe- a reboot. And judging from the Japanese build of the game, which we’ve taken the time to go through in its entirety, and the critical hysteria that these games have generated (becoming only the fifteenth game in history to score a perfect score from Famitsu), they seem to have done a great job of it. There’s so much that’s been changed with this newest installment- the story, for starters, is genuinely intriguing for once, and more morally ambiguous than past efforts. The gameplay itself has seen many changes, and we now see the inclusion of a full fledged online mode, co-op gameplay, 156 new Pokemon, a new graphical engine that finally breaks away from the isometric confines of its forebears, and a generally more cinematic take on the Pokemon world.

For the first time in so many years, a Pokemon game looks genuinely new, genuinely fresh, genuinely exciting. For the first time, it looks as if the series is ready to spread its wings and outgrow the dated design that has served it so well for so many years. Of course, it might be a false alarm, and maybe what we’ll get with Black and White will be a highly polished game with incremental upgrades to the formula, but everything that we’ve seen so far- and the Japanese build of the game- seem to indicate that that isn’t the case.

Pokemon Black and White will be the DS’s swan song, that much is evident. As the 3DS is released, and consumer and development interest is shifted to the new kid on the block, it is highly doubtful that the DS will ever get an offering as monstrous (see what I did there?) as Black and White Truly, this represents the last big budget blockbuster game for the quirky two screened handheld. But if indeed this is the DS’s last stand, then bravo, what a way to make an exit.