Right, lets get the easy stuff (that I forgot to post, sorry) out of the way first. Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition, the strategy DS game that gives all the waring characters of the Nobunaga’s Ambition franchise some Pokémon to fight with, WILL be geting an english translation. This is suprising as the Nobunaga’s Ambition series is vastly unknown outside of Japan. That said, so was the Mystery Dungeon series when Pokémon got introduced to it and it became a worldwide hit. In America, the game’s going to be called Pokémon Conquest and here’s a shot of the box art:

The US will be getting the game released on June 18th. The game has also just recently recieved a rating for release in Austalia, indicating a Pal Release. The game will be getting a G rateing but interestingly its been rated under the title Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition, so whether the game will change its name closer to release or if its being released with its Japanese name is currently unknown. What’s also unknown is any details on a European Release, chances are high, however there’s no details for Europe yet.

Right, lets get onto the really cool stuff. CoroCoro magazine has started to surfice on the internet and this month, Lots of Black2 and White2 news is inside. Pokémon Smash is due to reveal this info this Sunday in Japan, historically its not revealed much more so this is all the infomation we’ll probably have for a few weeks, but Pokémon Smash is due to have some video action of B2&W2 so we’ll hopefully be able to link you to that at the weekend.

So that’s the world map… and there’s a fair bit of Ice covering it. Why? Maybe because Kyurem has done something to the world, Maybe its something to do with Global Warming… or maybe its an effect to hide parts of the map so we can be surprised later on. Why would we need to be suprised. Well despite that B2&W2 are still set in the Unova region, the games are actually set 2 years after the first and as such, there’s been a few changes around the place. We know that there are new area’s of the map, as well as changes to existing places, Route 4, for example, not only has the road between the Nimbasa and Castelia been completed, but there looks like there’s a setlement popped up. And the moat that surrounds the Entra Link has dried up. There’s a lot of minor differences between this artwork and the original Unova Artwork, including Liberty Guarden, where Victini is found… maybe Victini wont need an event this time around?

other info from this page, Black Kyurem and White Kyurem’s both height and weight’s are revealed. Black Kyurem is 3.3m tall and 325 kg while White Kyurem is 3.6m tall and 325 kg. We also know that Black Kyurem will know Freeze Shock while White Kyurem will know Ice Burn.

Lastly on this page, details on the new Unova Pokédex. In Black and White, it was hinted that some, if not all, of the none Unova Pokémon had escaped from the transfer lab. Well now they’re becoming Nationalised as a lot of Pokémon are added to the Unova Dex. Cranking up from 156 to 300, its adding pokemon such as Psyduck at 026, Riolu at 033, and Metagross at 246 (with thier evolutions at assuming the numbers next to them). The dex is also adding Arcanine, Lapras, Eevee, Mareep, Tyranitar, Buneary and Weavile (along with thier Evos, presumably) amongs others old and new in the dex.

The next page shows characters. On the right are the two new trainers, male and female, that you’ll have to chose from in Black2 & White2… While the guy in the red shirt on thier left is the new Rival. Aparently in one of the boxes he’s quoted as saying ‘From now, I’m going to rage!’ – so he’s going to be a bit more anger managment issues than the last rival. He is, however, still a childhood friend of the rival. The girl with the guitar will show up in an Anime Episode in Japan in June, She’s Homika, a new Poison Gym Leader. Her gym is aproriatly a Club where live bands play.

Although you could see these two new characters on the last image, this is a better shot of these two. The tanned guy in the tight blue swimming costume is Shizui, the new Water Gym Leader. Akuroma is the new researcher, who’s looking into Pokémon Strength (probably in general and not the HM move as I first thought when I read that) – he’s described as a bit mysterious.

One of the new towns will be Hiougi City, its on the south West of the map and shown in images at the top left of the scan above. It’s going to be the new starting city for our new trainers. Its got a cool lookout area, and contains a Trainer School and a Pokémon Center. Again, changing the rules of Pokémon games, no player has started off in a City, or had a Trainer School or Pokémon Center in thier home town… so 3 new firsts in one place! The bottom of that page shows off some of the new buildings around Unova. The coolest one, an underwater tunnel you can walk through, with Mantine that floats by over head… even if there are no other fish that float above you – that is awesome in my book!

The issue also contained little info about the next Pokémon movie, Kyurem & The Sacred Swordsman Keldeo, and the Pikachu Short, Meloetta’s Sparkling Recital. Nothing major here, but it does highlight Meloetta’s secondary form, the Pirouette Forme, so that’s cool

That’s all we’ve got for now. Any more pops up we’ll throw it up and hopefully, at the weekend we’ll have some video of Black2/White2 in action.