#14. Pokemon Black 2/White 2 (NDS)
Pokemon Black 2/White 2 represent, in many ways, the dichotomy of Pokemon games in recent years- these are well made games that exist to cater to two very different audiences with next to no overlap- the player who plays Pokemon casually, maybe for the campaign, and some multiplayer battling with friends by the side, and the hyper competitive player, who engages in chain breeding, EV and IV manipulation, stat grinding, and basically building up an unassailable team.
Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 actually represented the first time the series outright acknowledged the latter audience, and, being the first (and so far, only) numbered sequels in the series, they decided that they didn’t have to worry too much about easing the casual player in like every Pokemon game otherwise does- they assumed that even that player would at least have played the first Black/White game, and would therefore have some degree of familiarity with the series.
And so, we got a Pokemon game catered to the hardcore. At the time of their release, no other game in the franchise allowed as many effective team building strategies and viable builds as Black 2 and White 2 did. Very few other games had post game content as extensive as Black 2 and White 2 did. Black 2 and White 2 went out of their way to tickle your nostalgia bone, no matter what generation of Pokemon games was your favorite. And they also became the first (and so far only) games in the series to feature a higher difficulty level in the form of a Challenge Mode.
So why are they ranked lowest? Simply because they were entirely unnecessary, and, coming just one year after Pokemon Black/White, also felt too familiar, too much of retreads. We hadn’t had enough time for our memories of Unova to percolate and gestate before we were thrust into the region again, and so, upon traversing Unova’s bridges and developed cities, the reaction was not one of delight, but rather, of weariness.
The games were also spectacularly ill paced, with absolutely nothing of note happening in the narrative until a burst of momentum three quarters into the story, which faltered as quickly as it had started. The story itself was a massive step down from Black and White’s thoughtful and provocative story just a year earlier.
The games also represented stagnation for the franchise- just a year previously, Pokemon Black and White had promised forward movement for the series (at long last), which had been stagnating for years on end at that time. They had trimmed down the fat, gone back to the basics, and represented progress for Pokemon. A year later, Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 were having none of that, and in many ways, they undid a lot of things that Black and White had managed to accomplish.
