Unova drifts away from the usual folklore to try something more grown up, and you can feel it.

Let us start with the gut choice, because it surprises: when the community decides on feeling, Pokémon Black drops right to the bottom, ahead of barely two games in a hundred. That is low. Really low. And yet, criterion by criterion, the picture straightens up sharply. The controller feel climbs ahead of more than eight titles in ten, to confirm given few votes, but the signal is there. The art style follows, ahead of seven games in ten. The fun holds the median. Only connection and the desert island slip below the middle line. There is the split: a game rarely chosen on instinct, yet one whose handling and visual eye win you over the moment you look closely. To confirm on so few duels, but the divergence is real.

Next to the other entries in the series, often carried by nostalgia, this one perhaps pays for refusing the memory card in favour of a brand new generation.

So who is it for? You, if you love a more mature Pokémon, pleasant in the hands, daring to build its own bestiary. Much less so if you want the title everyone adores on first reflex.