Going to work on a review for this in the upcoming few days, now that I've had some time to collect my thoughts and get through Christmas. What I said earlier still stands - it wasn't the best Pokemon game, but it's an improvement over the original B/W.
A lot of people would disagree though. If you're looking at features and what the games have done for the Pokemon universe, they are probably objectively the best. A lot of my offline friends who play Pokemon are way more into BW2 than I am because they think it's the best thing to ever happen to Pokemon. Personally I agree with you though. I'd much prefer HeartGold and SoulSilver over BW2 any day. But again, that's looking subjectively rather than objectively, because HGSS have sentimental and nostalgic value for me. The thing I loved about BW2 was that they are the games that BW should have been. They essentially went back and fixed the many things that were wrong with the original games and did a complete do-over from the horrible mess that Black and White were. I like it when people have the balls to acknowledge and fix their mistakes.
These games are personally my favorite ever Pokemon games. I loved Emerald, died for HG/SS, but these take the ultimate prize. Black and White were fantastic, but these games gave a lot more into the plot, the stories of all the characters, and really turned it into an adventure rather than the usual "go in a circle to get ultimate power" kind of crap every game has done. It has the largest pre-National Dex Pokedex ever, PWT which is great in itself, includes a lot of favorite legendaries, a lot more battling options than one Battle Tower, gives an option of Gym Leader rematches within the PWT, and is just all around awesome!
Okay, here's what I think. I loved GSC to death. Seriously. Even when Ruby and Sapphire came out, I went back and played Gold again. Twice. Times 7. I loved it so much, because it gave me something I love in Pokemon: continuity. So when I found out they were genuinely giving us a DIRECT sequel, like.. on purpose? I went ape. And when it came out, and I played it- sold. As much as it shocks me to say it, I think this outclasses Gold and Silver for me, it just ticks ALL the boxes. They pretty much give us everything we could have wanted: battling other region's leaders, more pre-Unova Pokemon before the league, and so much more. There are so many things right with B2W2 that I can't even conceive the wrongs. Done.
I think my biggest problem with the game was...it's still Unova. I'm really not a big fan of that region at all, so even with putting in old Pokemon, a lot of the flaws of B/W still remained.
Just started playing this yesterday. My only criticism so far is the first gym leader. He uses a Patrat and a Lillipup which is pretty underwhelming for a gym leader. I've already fought a handful of trainers who had those Pokemon so Cheren just felt like another trainer to me. He should have had something special, something I hadn't seen yet. Brock had Onix, Falkner had Pidgeotto, Roxanne had Nosepass, Roark had Cranidos...Cheren has nothing.
Yeah, I hated that about him. Even the trio had the elemental monkeys, as pathetic as they were. Cheren has no "signature" Pokemon like most gym leaders have.
Hey guys, Best Buy has Black 2 and White 2 for only $14.99 this weekend. It's in-store and online, and if you choose to get it online, it has free shipping or in-store pick up. Just figured I'd let you know in case you were interested. I'm about to go pick up White 2. :P
I picked up White 2...couldn't pass it up at that price. I'll be transferring Challenge Mode from Black 2 and playing the whole game like that once I finish this White playthrough. Looking forward to seeing if it's any more difficult than the original or if it's still a cakewalk.
I started this and dropped it like two days later. I'll get back to it but... nothing was drawing me in at all yet.
