Pokemon Black/White Version 2 is the best edition of the longstanding handheld series to date, but developer Game Freak sorely needs to bring its online functionality into this decade.

It’s not often that a long running series has the capacity to surprise. Pokémon is one of the older franchises around to still be cranking out original content, with more Gameboy and DS titles available than can be counted on both hands. The Pokémon series has followed an established pattern: a new generation of game is released to a baying audience, and then followed up with a mid-generation special edition. It's a system that has been followed since Yello was released all the way back in 1998.

These special editions rarely offer anything more than a little fan service, adding a couple of cosmetic flourishes and the odd bit of extra content to help sooth the hardcore Master into buying another version of the same thing. It could be seen as cynical, but hey - you gotta catch ‘em all... To have Pokémon White/Black Version 2 show up as a mid-generation title that is also a proper, direct sequel is something of a surprise - and a welcome one at that.

Two years ago in the timeless, ever-shifting Pokémon universe, a hero rose to prominence by defeating the nefarious Team Plasma, a modern re-working of the series’ original bad guys, Team Rocket. While Team Rocket were up to no good in the hopes of raking in riches, Team Plasma had a more environmentally aware PETA kind of vibe to them. The philosophical questions that rack every 12 year old Pokémaniac’s brain were brought to the forefront of the game’s central plot - is it ethically right to trap small creatures in a magical ball-shaped prison in order to pull them out and make them fight to utter exhaustion?

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