Pokemon Black. Pokemon White. The megaton announcement of the latest in the series.
But there's a problem. With their names.
It's not out in the open, but a lot of internet comments have commented on uhh.....okay, let's just say the titles are slightly racist. I'm not trying to sound offensive or anything, but there's a lot of buzz around the two names ever since they came out. In Japan it doesn't matter a single bit but what then when it's localized for the US? Would the names be changed? One guy suggested 'Dark/Light' instead of the current 'Black/White'. Ugh. How droll. All because of a simple naming issue you take out the pure, original names. There's bound to be some way to either avoid this or totally ignore it altogether. So what if it's Black/White.
Most of the comments are actually made in jest, a lot of jokes around the table, but no real sentiments. No hard feelings there. This simply proves Pokemon fans and gamers in general don't give a ****, it's just some joke that came up because the titles just happened to be 'those' colors. But I'm sure someone else at NOA is taking this seriously. And we could be seeing a potential name change for Pokemon Black/White as it's moved over there. Which would suck.
No one likes unnecessary name changes, just ask the Europeans. Tight censorship gives them castrated, unimaginative game names, say, Kirby: Squeak Squad was renamed Kirby: Mouse Attack, and WarioWare Inc: Mega Microgames renamed to WarioWare Inc. Minigame Mania. Slightly less 'offensive' according to those prudes at the censorship boards, but overall completely worthless. Changing a game's name like that really saps the creative power put into naming the game in the first place. What the hell is wrong with the term 'microgames'? Someone tell me. It's smaller than a minigame, therefore it's a micro-game! So, what, anything that isn't defined in the Oxford dictionary of English can't be used to name a game?
Back to the Black/White version arguement, this isn't the first time something like this has happened in the world of games. There was one game which also used the colors black and white for both versions of it. That game is Megaman Battle Network 3. Black and White were the names of the two versions of the game in Japan.
'White' isn't mentioned, but look at the box. Isn't it significantly whiter?
Over in the US, Megaman Battle Network 3 made it, but the name didn't stay. Black was renamed to Blue, and White remained as is, probably to avoid the same racial connotation Pokemon Black/White could be facing in the future. But Pokemon's problem goes further, in that it's exhausted most, if not all, the basic colors. It can't simply rename Black to Blue because.....well, there's already a Pokemon Blue! Other colors? Pink, Orange, Purple? That wouldn't exactly go together with White, would it? Or the flagship Pokemon species that's bound to be on the box.
Come on, it's just a game. What's in a name anyway? Leave it alone and let Pokemon fans enjoy their stuff. People would have one less unneeded worry on their minds if they did.