Pokemon Black Version 2

 DS
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 656 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 495 out of 656
  2. Mixed: 76 out of 656
  3. Negative: 85 out of 656
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  1. lordT
    Jul 2, 2014
    7
    As someone who is following the series since the 3th generation i really enjoyed this game, but only if you consider it as a big ass dlc. As you know from my previous reviews I would usually talk a lot about a game but because that i see this game as a dlc, i will only talk about the new content

    The new Pokemon are as always welcomed to the franchise, but actually there is not much    As someone who is following the series since the 3th generation i really enjoyed this game, but only if you consider it as a big ass dlc. As you know from my previous reviews I would usually talk a lot about a game but because that i see this game as a dlc, i will only talk about the new content

    The new Pokemon are as always welcomed to the franchise, but actually there is not much here, just black and white kyurem, keldeo, genesect, and another one that i forgot (you could get the last three in the last games by hacking it with all the move sets so this is also another "Disk Locked Content")

    The new cities and places are my favorite edition to the game, they make unova a whole lot greater

    And finally I actually think that the story is much better here then the previous games but that is just personal

    But overall i recommend you to buy this game only if you are a hardcore Pokemon fan or if you haven't bought the first games    … Expand
  2. Lemons
    May 19, 2015
    6
    The game is good but it is just like a DLC to the previous games. They need to think of something new and interesting. The gameplay is great and I love Pokemon but it is hard to stay interested after awhile
  3. DarthSidious63
    Oct 14, 2012
    7
    If this is the final Pokemon game for the DS it's going out with a whimper not with a bang. I am not saying that Black and White 2 is a bad game it is the same game all over yet again. You start with the same starter Pokemon from Black and White and build up it stats all over again. What I would have liked to see is that you pick all of the starters Pokemon from all the regions such asIf this is the final Pokemon game for the DS it's going out with a whimper not with a bang. I am not saying that Black and White 2 is a bad game it is the same game all over yet again. You start with the same starter Pokemon from Black and White and build up it stats all over again. What I would have liked to see is that you pick all of the starters Pokemon from all the regions such as Bulbasaur or Charmander. When a new Pokemon game comes out for the 3DS GameFreak needs to totally rebuild this series from top to bottom.… Expand
  4. Lokathor
    Jan 19, 2014
    5
    It's a pretty normal pokemon game overall. The 5th generation has scaled EXP so that you can't easily out-level your opponents, which is great for keeping the challenge even, though it's never super hard. There's not too much variety to the post game content, but they did add a pokemon world tourment thing in addition to black/white's battle subway. The story isn't really interesting orIt's a pretty normal pokemon game overall. The 5th generation has scaled EXP so that you can't easily out-level your opponents, which is great for keeping the challenge even, though it's never super hard. There's not too much variety to the post game content, but they did add a pokemon world tourment thing in addition to black/white's battle subway. The story isn't really interesting or anything. You can get more pokemon in-game than you could with the first black/white, but they still expect you to use the stupid dream world for the rest of them, which is an online flash minigame thing that's mostly dumb. It's all sorta just average and "what you'd expect" sort of stuff.… Expand
  5. MadnessisRising
    Mar 6, 2019
    6
    I really love Pokemon black & white. But this edition was kinda unnecessary. The thing which made b&w so special (at least for me) was the brand new world with ONLY new Pokemon. The few new city's weren't that interesting in my opinion. Anyway it's a good game (i mean it's Pokemon!) and a better "remake" than Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon.
  6. ND-Bringer
    Jul 11, 2023
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I really wanted to fall in love with this game, I tried really hard. Most call it the Pokemon game that has it all, and they're right, regarding the post game. But much like Heart Gold and Soul Silver, there is little reason to reset this game, and replay the main story. And unlike those games, the grinding mechanics aren't annoying here, I have no trouble beating the game with well thought out strategy, thematically, the levels can feel occasionally stale.

    Cheren for instance, returning as a Gym Leader sounds like an interesting concept, but his team only consists of boring, first stage normal types. It's very odd, you think with all the returning Pokemon from other games being added to the new Unova Pokedex, the Gym Leaders would have more variety in there teams. And I know this game is supposed to be a deluxe version and sequel hybrid of Black and White, but the cheaper designed levels make me wish that Game Freak simply make a Pokemon Grey Version.

    Maybe if story theme had more interesting elements besides Team Plasma just getting revenge and Hugh trying to get his sister's Pokemon back, I would have been able to keep my inspiration fresh. But because this is a game where the only focus is to defeat Pokemon villains that want to take over the world using the Legendary Pokemon and maybe win the Pokemon League, the trope was becoming really tired at this point, and Black and White 2 were failing to breathe any new life into this popular plot point.

    In the last games, Team Plasma was much more interesting. They were trying to take over the region by convincing everyone that Pokemon were treated like slaves and needed to be released into the wild in order to truly be free. With half of the team being made up of people who loved Pokemon while the other half consisting of power hungry villains. And in order to obtain the Legendary Pokemon, their leader recruits N, and trains him to become the fabled hero of Unova, causing the Legendary Pokemon to actually join them willingly.

    And its gets dicier when a much more threatening conflict is introduced with the defeat of the champion followed by a monstrous castle towering over the Pokemon League, as the King of Team Plasma prepares to command everyone to release their Pokémon for good. But here though, I've seen it a hundred times in the both the games and the anime, the cutscenes showing the Legendaries and the airship attack are nice, but it doesn't change the fact that experienced Pokemon players have seen this many times before.

    The post game is still worth checking out though. The Pokemon World Tournament allows you challenge every Gym Leader and Champion from the entire Pokemon series at the time. Iris isn't there though, she's just too busy not stopping the return of Team Plasma. Yeah, fighting her is fun, but she doesn't do that much as a Champion in reality. This battle facility is still a very enjoyable time, it feels like a modern take on Pokemon Stadium on the go.

    Poke Star Studios definitely inspired a great deal of fan fiction. It's incredible to see a Pokemon game that gives you the ability to battle alien battle ships and demons. And the new Black Tower and White Tree Hollow is a real treat for fans of Battle Frontier type facilities. If your interested in taking much longer Pokemon journeys, I recommend you take this game out for a spin.    … Expand
  7. LordJazbin
    Apr 19, 2021
    6
    The game is good but tutorials are all around this game. Is by far the Pokémon game with the longest tutorials of all time.

    Story is dull and almost nothing happens. But it has good soundtrack, big region and good postgame, main story is pretty short though.
  8. AShinyG1ratina
    Jun 21, 2022
    7
    Some cool features were added in between games (and the UI in this game is by far the best in the series) but much less compelling characters and storylines take this game down a notch from its prequel for me.
  9. ZangBang
    Feb 5, 2023
    5
    UPDATE
    Pokémon Black 2 doesn't have a story as thematically rich and thought-provoking as its prequel's, but it's far from bad as it makes the most of its sequel nature, diving deeper into old characters and ideas and taking them in new directions, whilst also introducing a couple of new interesting plotlines. Gameplay-wise, the new PokéStar Studios facility is the endearing side-activity    UPDATE
    Pokémon Black 2 doesn't have a story as thematically rich and thought-provoking as its prequel's, but it's far from bad as it makes the most of its sequel nature, diving deeper into old characters and ideas and taking them in new directions, whilst also introducing a couple of new interesting plotlines. Gameplay-wise, the new PokéStar Studios facility is the endearing side-activity that Musicals failed to be, offering a really fun diversion and hours of hilarious cheesy dialogue, but the real gem of the experience is most definitely the Pokémon World Tournament. Acting both as an incredible treat for hardcore players looking for a challenge and a fanservice bomb, the World Tournament allows us to meet and fight every single Gym Leader and Champion from the entire series with remixed tracks and new teams in a variety of battle modes. It is undoubtably the richest battle-focused postgame content in the history of the main series. A beautiful way to celebrate and end the 2D era of the franchise.    … Expand
  10. Garde_Mystik
    Aug 30, 2023
    7
    Solid game but in retrospect it's overrated. While Generation 5 comes with a lot of PvE battling content, it's ultimate quantity over quality as there's so much that held it back from its full potential. For one, the story is not so great, as the only real direction in narrative was to show Team Plasma off as terrorists. We needed this game to be about Kyurem. We needed the Unova sequelsSolid game but in retrospect it's overrated. While Generation 5 comes with a lot of PvE battling content, it's ultimate quantity over quality as there's so much that held it back from its full potential. For one, the story is not so great, as the only real direction in narrative was to show Team Plasma off as terrorists. We needed this game to be about Kyurem. We needed the Unova sequels to flesh out further on Unova lore and try its best to complete it all the way. In the end, in 2023, Zygarde got more fleshed out without ever having a game than Kyurem did with two games. Kyurem is also still one of the most misunderstood Pokemon to this very day. Black 2 White 2 are good games, they just aren't good sequels. The fact many people are "optimistic about waiting for Unova remakes to complete the set altogether" expresses part of my point. These SHOULD HAVE been the games to give Unova a proper conclusion. We shouldn't have to wait for remakes to come out in an era where Pokemon probably doesn't care anymore. As we've been with BDSP and Scarlet and Violet, I don't even have faith in Unova remakes to be any good anymore.

    Another point I have to make is the content itself. The standout features here are the Battle Subway, the PWT, the Pokestar Studios, the White Treehallow, and the Black Tower. While Generation 5 has a lot of content catering to one aspect of the game, it's not necessarily diverse. This game lacks the external features many other generations have. They have nothing like the Pokeathalon, the Poke Amie, Super Training, the Poke Pelago, Pokemon Contests, or anything where you can really see your Pokemon in a different light and get to connect with them more. They have musicals but that's just watching your Pokemon dance for 1 minute after dressing them up, and it's not necessarily anywhere near the levels of the fleshed out content other Pokemon games have.

    The battles themselves aren't the best of quality in Gen 5, as the critical health theme legitimately holds the quality of each match hostage, and the most you're getting out of these games are repetitive cycles of restricted Champion teams. I remember when playing as a kid, feeling frustrated by how held back the AI trainers were in games as late as Gen 5. Unlike with the 3DS games, there's not really a way for you to get a full 6v6 battle against level 100s at all unless you battled friends in real life. Even then, the overall battle mechanics are much better in the 3DS games, as you don't have to deal with endless weather strategies, sleep counter resets, copycat roar, Sky Drop glitch, etc. It gets boring after battling Cynthia and her level 78 Garchomp all the time for example, without her ever keeping up with my level 100s and legendaries. The 3DS offered a tool within those games to greatly help with this in the Vs. Recorder, an overlooked feature that's essentially a sandbox for how you could set up battles for your game. I can hardly care about facing off against repetitive Champion teams in the overworld or in PWT when I can get so much more off later generations of Pokemon games overall, and with better battling mechanics.

    Black 2 White 2 are also the most money-hungry main series Pokemon games before the Nintendo Switch. Do I even have to explain? They installed a key system, which made the difficulty setting version exclusive. Challenge Mode is exclusive to completed Black 2 saves, Easy Mode is exclusive to completed White 2 saves. If you wanted to Challenge Mode to White 2 you will need to link with a completed Black 2 save. This resets upon resetting the save file. The White Treehallow and the Black Tower were also version exclusive. Many people overlook the severity of this in particular. The White Treehallow had Breeders who often carried Chansey and Blissey, making it the most efficient method of grinding levels in the 2D era of Pokemon games. The Black Tower did not have this, because they made the EV distributions of trainers you fought in Black Tower/White Treehallow version exclusive.(HP/Atk/Def - White Treehallow) (SpA/Spe/Spe - Black Tower). Both the difficulty setting and most efficient grinding methods were version exclusive. You were also required to have Black or White to access unique content via Memory Link, and were required to have Gen 4 games for National Dex completion. Black 2 White 2 are certainly not worth the high price they sell for second-hand today when they're tied in these chains.

    Lastly, I have no clue why people call these the most replayable Pokemon games. The story is lackluster and flooded with missed opportunities, and you lose so much off resetting them. You lose PWT progress (which was annoying to get back, and if you downloaded PWT content, it's now gone forever), you lose Pokestar Studios progress, you lose Medal progress (which you can now never complete), you lose the keys, and you lose Join Avenue progress. All the best things about B2W2 require not resetting them.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best DS Game of 2012
1
#1 Most Discussed DS Game of 2012
1
#1 Most Shared DS Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 56 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 45 out of 56
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 56
  3. Negative: 0 out of 56
  1. RPG Fan
    Mar 20, 2013
    78
    They're still good games, but there's nothing overtly special about them that makes them stand out from the rest of the series or, more importantly, Black and White 1.
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  2. Worth Playing
    Jan 10, 2013
    75
    Like the first game, Pokémon Black: Version 2 is a solid title that most fans will enjoy. The addictive qualities remain, and partaking in the quest to meet and capture every Pokémon is still as exciting as it was several handheld generations ago. While the base game is still great, longtime fans will be less enthused by the restrictions, despite the many improvements and included modes. For those looking for their next series fix, this entry will do nicely.
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  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Dec 21, 2012
    70
    Classic collect-them-all RPG offers challenging battles and quite-a-lot Pokémons to train. [Christmas 2012]
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