There's A Lot of Ridiculous Junk In Pokemon Black and White

In case you missed some (or all) of it, here is a recent survey of all the new ridiculous junk Nintendo has recently announced for Pokemon Black & White:

- In addition to 3-on-3 battles against other trainers, you may also run the chance of random 2-on-2 battles against Pokemon you run into in tall grass and such. They're getting dangerously smarter.

- Multiplayer has a "miracle shooter" game variant where trainers gradually build up points as the turns progress. These points are required in order to use items, lending another element of strategy to online.

- Another multiplayer option is "rotation battle," where three of your Pokemon are placed atop a sort of large turntable and you're able to rotate them front and back quickly. Given that positioning becomes important in 3-on-3, this ought to shake things up a bit.

- At one point you get a chance to ride the "Battle Subway" within the game. In this event gimmick, you aren't allowed to get off the train until you win seven battles in a row against the other challengers. At the end you earn battle points depending on your performance.

- A Pokemon Musical house allows you to dress up your favorite Pokemon and have them dance to a music in what's sure to be an embarrassing minigame to get caught playing by your girlfriend.

- As widely reported a little bit ago, creatures from old Pokemon games don't show in Black/White until at least after you finish the game once. Once that happens, you'll be able to play another minigame, called Pokeshifter, that introduces your "old" Pokemon to B/W if you win it.

- In addition to the normal passage of time, Pokemon B/W goes through all four seasons in order. Pokemon can look different depending on the season, and some of them show up more or less often based on the time of year.

- Pokemon Global Link is a website that you'll be able to access by uploading your save data from B/W. Meant to be the world your Pokemon are dreaming of while asleep, it allows you to raise a virtual garden, trade items, download Pokedex skins and new Pokemon Musical numbers to the game, and send mail to other users via predetermined phrases.

Whew! That's a ridiculous amount of junk! Japan gets to tackle it all September 18, but Americans have to wait until next spring, sadly.

Orginally published on 1UP.com.