Pokemon Black and White 2 is a Thing, Possibly Dumb

I don't even friggin' know.  The other day, it was teased that there was going to be a 'very important announcement' on Pokemon Smash, a Japanese TV show that is, presumably, about Pokemon, and nobody really knew what to think.  Was it finally the announcement of the inevitable Pokemon Grey?  Was it just an announcement for a new Wi-Fi event?  Was it just showing off a new legendary because why not?  Nobody knew for sure, though it was pretty obvious where people were leaning.  So when Pokemon Smash came on, everyone watched to see just which of their favorite picks would be the one, not knowing that not a single one of them was going to be correct.

Pokemon Black and White 2 was announced for the DS, as in the normal one, not the one with a third dimension, to hit Japan this June.  This is not a working title, this is not a coy "We're making another one, are you guys surprised, but there's no name yet" this is a straight-up sequel or, rather, sequels to Pokemon Black and White and I am personally flabbergasted.  Yes, I went there.  I imagine plenty of other people are as well since this...well, this is just dumb.  I know that's an inflammatory statement and it's completely intentional because it is dumb on two levels.  Not only is a sequel completely missing the point, but there's not even an interesting story for Black and White 2 to pursue.  If you avoid spoilers like the plague, skip to the next paragraph now because I don't even care enough about the story to pretend like I do.  The whole storyline of Black/White is pushed by the resident Team of awful screw-ups who are being lead by an even bigger idiot.  The whole while, their message is "Pokemon aren't tools of War!" and they try to prove it by using their pokemon to fight the pokemon of trainers and if they by some miracle win, they steal the pokemon and try to set it free or something.  It is every shade of stupid.

I guess this does solve the issue of trying to think up 150 more pokemon that people will give absolutely zero shits about, but I just can't see this as anything other than dumb.  I won't say it's a stupid move because it's clearly not; It has pokemon in the title so it will make millions.  It might even be a good game on top of that.  But I just can't imagine where they're going to go with this, besides making some of the cities/towns important again for some reason.  Are you just going to be a new trainer and do the same thing, eventually facing the MC from B/W 1 at the Elite Five Four?  Are you going to be the same trainer from B/W pulling an Ash and throwing away every Pokemon but one and starting again fresh?  I just.....just now realized that the above article I linked says the US Site apparently calls the games "Version 2" which could mean it's just an updated version of the game or something.  But I'll leave the above in for the simple fact that it still could be a sequel.

Hrm.  I guess a Version 2 of that could just mean updated versions of the game, thus negating the need for a "Grey" version while also making twice the money.  Okay, not really that last part, but still.  It would have all the events and extra bits of a third game while also retaining the level of exclusivity for Pokemon and features that the original games had.  Or perhaps switch things off a little so that both versions are still 'necessary', but Black 1 and Black 2 are still different enough.  I don't know, but unless there was a lot of extra stuff, like beyond Pokemon Platinum-Level of things, I don't think it'd be worth it.  I honestly think they could've gotten away with doing it on 3DS and adding token things plus 3D, but we'll see.  I know if they ability to have your lead pokemon follow you, ala Heart Gold/Soul Silver is included, that alone will sell thousands of copies.  Possibly one to me, as well.

This will be worth watching out for, at the very least.  Whether it's just updated versions of the games we already have and (some other people) love, or a true, honest sequel that I don't know how it could possibly work, it'll be something different for Pokemon if just in name alone.  Baby steps at the very least, towards something that they really really need to do, which is shake up the foundations they've built for themselves.  I've gone on and on about it in the past, and while I'll likely always suck it up and buy most of the Pokemon games that come out, I think I'll really start enjoying them once they put more than the token effort into it.  Do something that we haven't seen since Gold and Silver when they had the brilliant idea to let you head off to a different area entirely.  Just something to try and win some of the people back who will say "I haven't played since (color)" rather than having every game be -somebody's- first Pokemon game.