You know how sometimes you buy a sandwich, and you get a giant bread roll cut in half and with a slice of bologna in the middle. Well, this week is basically that slice of bologna. Last week, we were bombarded by the likes of Killzone 3 and Bulletstorm, and next week we’re about to get a Bioware RPG along with a couple of baseball games. In this week’s defense, we are getting a new iteration to a venerated series, but it’s hard to get too excited about a game that’s barely changed since its inception.
Remember. Release dates are quite literally made at the whims of the publisher. The following are subject to change without any warning.
Releases To Watch For This Week
Pokemon Black/White (DS)
Sunday March 6, 2011
Is it that time of the year again? Is it time for yet another reason for pokemaniacs to catch a new batch of pokemons again?I guess so. If you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, here’s a quick refresher on Pokemon Black and Pokemon White. You’re a pokemon trainer. You go to the wild to collect and level up pokemons. You go to various gyms with your pokemons to win badges, and before you know it, you go to the best gym in the land to win the last badge, which proves that you are the best pokemon trainer in the world. And also there’s some group of bad guys out to do… something. Not that anyone cares about any of this stuff. The thing that drives most people in Pokemon games is the fact that there’s over 150 different pokemons wandering around just waiting for you to catch’em all, and Black and White will undoubtedly be no different.
Not to say that there’s nothing new here though. Since this is a new pokemon generation, they’ve once again created an entirely new set of pokemons. If that isn’t enough, most of the 500 or so classic pokemon species will be available for your capturing pleasure once you’ve beaten the game. Speaking of changes, the graphics have been updated a little bit to include battle animations for you pokemon and fully 3D environments. Seasons will also play a role in Pokemon on top of the night and day mechanic. The seasons have various effects on different aspects of the game like the rarity of some pokemons or battle conditions. If the battle screen wasn’t crowded enough with 2 on 2 battles, it’s about to get even more crowded with the new 3 on 3 battle system. Like all the previous Pokemon games before, Black and White has some pokemons that aren’t available in one version forcing you to trade with someone with the version that you don’t have, but Black and White pushes that even further to having a unique region for each version, White Forest and Black City.
It’s a bit unfair to say that Pokemon hasn’t changed one bit since Red and Blue over a decade ago, and Black and White does seem to be adding quite a bit of new features. It’s unlikely that this generation will change the pokemon stigma of being the same game over and over again, but given how popular this franchise has been through the years, it must be doing something right.
Coming This Week
Tuesday March 1, 2011
Rango: The Video Game (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS)
You know what’s funny? Licensed video games are actually starting to get better! It’s like our bellyaching for the past 2 decades have finally been heard. Rango here looks to be your average 3rd person platformer/shooter based off of the Rango movie, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t look pretty. It’s also reportedly been in development for over a year, which is a real rarity for licensed video games. I just hope you can stomach the idea of a chameleon cowboy.
Maybe, just maybe, I’ll try Pokemon Black. The last one I touched was Pokemon Red, so I’m sure things have changed since then. Anyone out there wanna get White? I’ll trade with you.
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