Pokemon: Black Version 2

In 2012, Pokémon: Black Version 2 and White Version 2 by Game Freak directly continued the events of the first game, becoming one of the few direct sequels in the series' history rather than another restart with a new region. The story takes place two years later, once again in the Unova region, which has undergone a noticeable transformation – new towns have been added, the map has expanded toward new areas in the north and south, and several key heroes and villains from the previous game return, including the mysterious N and the remnants of Team Plasma, which has since splintered.

The game introduced several innovations that later became commonplace throughout the series, such as the Pokémon World Tournament, where the player can battle famous champions and gym leaders from previous generations and organize their own tournaments, or the Join Avenue feature, which allows building and managing your own shopping street through communication with other players. The database of available Pokémon has also expanded noticeably to include creatures from earlier generations right from the start of the game, easing one of the main limitations that troubled players of the first installment.

The sequel therefore doesn't feel like a mere addendum but like a full-fledged expansion and refinement of an already strong foundation, with higher difficulty, a more elaborate progression structure, and the presence of a new rival named Colress, whose ambitions reach far beyond simply collecting badges. The game also offers optional difficulty for battles against gym leaders, so more experienced players can request tougher opponents with more thoughtful strategies, while newcomers stick with the classic setting. Visually and technically, it represents a mature peak of what the older DS hardware could extract from the series before it moved to genuinely three-dimensional graphics with the arrival of the 3DS. For many fans, it remains to this day one of the most well-balanced entries of the entire series on DS and is often cited as proof that a direct continuation of the Pokémon story can work just as well as traditional new regions. Why play it: For a direct continuation of the story and a noticeably expanded, more player-friendly version of the Unova region.