Wow, and I thought Iris had crazy hair before. Ghetsis looks pretty awesome though.

Awesome, very nice.

Looking At: Unova Elite Four & Champion Teams:
So you've beaten all 8 Gym Leaders, time to go face the Elite Four boss rush and then to the Champion. That was until Black & White threw a curve ball and had the villain team storyline actually cross with the game's main goal. While you still battled the Elite Four, as you talked to them before and after the battle you'll get hints that N has not only battled them but probably has challenged and battled the Champion by the time you're done battling all of them. And when you get to the Champion Room you see just that, N has not only battled but beaten Champion Alder and has declared himself the new Champion of Unova which is when the villain team storyline comes back into focus and we have the whole N's Castle, N Battle, and finally Ghetsis Battle. Of course things returned to status quo by the time you re-challenged the Elite Four & Champion except this time they were at much higher levels (which make me wonder, did Alder have a low level team when he battled N or was his Pokemon as strong as when you battled him in the post game?). But any case, Black 2 & White 2 has decided that, while what they did in Black & White was fun, doing it again would seem a bit cheap so we've return to how things were done in the first sentence. Of course, now that previous generation Pokemon have been added to the Pokedex, surely the Elite Four would have changed their teams now with new Pokemon of their type specialty available, right? Well, let's take a look as we compare the B&W and B2&W2 Elite Four & Champion!

INITIAL CHALLENGE:
Before we go through each team, let's just cover the differences which all of them had done to them. As you may recall, the Unova Elite Four provided a shocking change to it's line-up: there was none! In previous generations there was a "first" Elite Four member who was the weakest and after defeating him/she you challenge the next one who's Pokemon are slightly higher leveled until you've beaten all four of the Elite Four and they never changed the line-up. However in B&W they actually gave you the choice of battling Elite Four members in any line-up you wanted. Now because of this, it was decided that every Elite Four would have the same level layout which was pretty much three level 48 Pokemon and then a level 50 Pokemon. In B2&W2, they decided the jump the levels up by 8 meaning now you have three level 56 Pokemon to deal with followed by a single level 58.
One last fine detail, there are two changes involving items you might want to be aware of. Of course, being bosses, they'll have healing items on them. The good news is that instead of having 2 Full Restores they now only have 1. The bad news is that there last Pokemon (the level 58 ) is holding a Sitrus Berry so when they reach below half their HP they're gonna get healed 25% of their max HP.

Ghost-Type Member: Shauntel

The first difference in Shauntel's team from a quick glance is that she replaced her Jellicent with a Drifblim. And now with that said you don't have to worry about any of the other Elite Four members having changed their team, because they haven't... we'll get to them later. Anyway, Drifblim, it's much more offensive but has more weaknesses and less resistances (it does have immunity to Ground-types though honestly you'll probably be too busy using Ghost- and Dark-type attacks). Though for additional fun, Drifblim does have the Aftermath Ability though that's only should concern you if you're using physical Dark-type attacks as if you're using a Ghost-type attack it'd be most likely Shadow Ball that's Special. Going to her other Pokemon, her Cof@grigus is completely the same so handled it just as you did before. She had replaced her Golurk's Curse with Heavy Slam to deal with those pesky Ice-types you might decide to use on it and being Golurk is a very heavy Pokemon expect at least an 80 to 100 Power Steel-type move. Finally her star Pokemon, Chandelure, has replaced Payback with Energy Ball for those Water-, Rock-, and Ground-type Pokemon you might send to battle it. Overall Shauntel's team has become more offensive and ready to deal with any other types you might try using... though Dark-types still seem to be the best choice to use, especially ones that can learn Shadow Ball or, better yet, Dark Pulse.

Dark-Type Member: Grimsley

The biggest change that's been done to Grimsley's team is that, instead of his Scrafty being send out first, now it's his Liepard. I mean, they could have given him a previous gen Dark-type that's now in the Unova Dex like Umbreon, Drapion, Absol, Weavile, Crawdaunt, or Tyranitar... yet they decided all his team needed was a "starting pitcher" switch. Speaking of things not changing, Liepard and his star Pokemon, Bisharp, don't get any new moves. However his new "starting pitcher, Scrafty, has replaced Sand-attack with Rock Tomb to deal with that Flying- and Bug-type weakness. Speaking of a Pokemon replacing a move for Rock Tomb, his Krookodile replaced Foul Play to also get Rock Tomb except instead of Flying-types it's Ice-types... oh, and Bug-types. Though honestly, despite not changing any of their moves, Liepard and Bisharp still probably hold a much better fight since they have Aerial Ace to use on the type you'll be sweeping Grimsley with: a Fighting-type (comes free with every Fire-type starter!).

Psychic-Type Member: Caitlin

The biggest change that's been done to Caitlin's team is that, instead of her Musharna being send out first, now it's her Reuniclus. I mean, they could have given her a previous gen Psychic-type that's now in the Unova Dex like Espeon, Claydol, Grumpig, Lunatone, Solrock, Starmie, Bronzong, or Metagross... yet they decided all her team needed was a "starting pitcher" switch. Speaking of things not changing, Sigilyph and her star Pokemon, Gothitelle, don't get any new moves. However her new "starting pitcher, Musharna, has replaced Psychic & Shadow Ball with Yawn & Dream Eater to at least give her some kind of gimmick (not that it'll last long after using Yawn). Speaking of a Pokemon replacing a move, her Reuniclus replaced Thunder with Recover to make it annoying and waste your PP (then again, that's what Leppa Berries fresh from the Dream World's new area, Icy Cave, are for. ). BTW, incase you haven't notice, I essentially copy & pasted what I wrote for Grimsley above since him and Caitlin essentially got the SAME "CHANGES"! All I can say now is that, remember that Dark-type I mentioned to use against Shauntel? Yeah, it's good here too.

Fighting-Type Member: Marshal

Now out of the Elite Four members, Marshal probably got the most changes. Though with that said he still didn't get a new previous gen Pokemon that's now in the Unova Dex like Lucario, Heracross, and Toxicroak (yeah, it's not many, but there were still some!). Anyway, of the Elite Four that team didn't change Pokemon he did get a different change from Grimsley's and Caitlin's "starting pitcher" shtick: his star Pokemon changed! Yeah, the game designers probably realized that a pink and purple, feminine looking Mienshao probably wasn't the best choice so just switched it with the much more masculine Conkeldurr. Such a radical change in his team lineup must have caused a shockwave throughout his team as ALL his Pokemon got new moves! Throh replaced the less PP but very powerful Stone Edge for the more more PP but very average powered Rock Tomb. Sawk fared much better having replaced Grass Knot & Stone Edge with Retaliate & Rock Slide making is a bit more dangerous and accurate. Mienshao replaced Jump Kick & Rock Slide with Hi Jump Kick & Bounce which is sort of a 50/50 trade (should have just switched the "Kick" moves in my opinion). Finally his Conkeldurr replaced Grass Knot with... Bulk Up.

... any Psychic- or Flying-types will do here, though I'd personally go with a Psychic-type as only Throh and Sawk have any moves which can hurt Psychic-types while all but Mienshao knows a Rock-type move. Also make sure to not let Conkeldurr setup with Bulk Up, just keep attacking it until it faints.

And that's all I'm really going to do for the Initial Challenge. Don't worry, I do plan on talking about the Champion's team for the Initial Challenge, but not right now. The reason I'm skipping it is because, well, you never fought Alder for the Initial Challenge in B&W. The storyline decided it wanted attention so it hijacked the last boss battle for the main game. Now I suppose I could have talked about the N and Ghetsis battle, however the fact that you can heal and change your party (not to mention catch a Legendary Pokemon to add onto your team... most likely) before battling N and then afterwards Ghetsis healing your team before you battle him shows this is not part of the boss rush which the Elite Four & Champion is suppose to be. But with that said, it's time to move from main game to post game:

RE-CHALLENGE:
Like before, levels have been increased from B&W to B2&W2 except instead of 8 it's only by 1 so there really isn't much of a difference. Though keeping with the other changes for the Initial Challenge, they now use one less Hyper Potion going from using 4 to 3 and their last and star Pokemon is holding a Sitrus Berry. But in addition to that Sitrus Berry another of their Pokemon is also holding an item but they're different for each member so we'll discuss them as we approach them.

Ghost-Type Member: Shauntel

Remaining on her quest to rub Jellicent out of her team (though that's mainly because Marlon uses one on his team), Shauntel has swapped it for a Mismagius. Mismagius is a Special-based Pokemon and has moves to support that with addition in knowing Perish Song (though thankfully know switch-preventing moves like Mean Look), but its low HP and Defense leaves it vulnerable for strong and super effective Physical attacks. Golurk has once again replaced Curse, but this time for Stone Edge though it still essentially for the Ice-types. Now sounding like a broken record, her Chandelure keeps the changes it had a.k.a. replacing Payback with Energy Ball. However, as I mentioned a paragraph above, there is one additional change that post game Shauntel has and that's giving her Drifblim, who has the same moves as B&W, a Flying Gem which boosts the power of Acrobatics by 50% (and since the Flying Gem activates before Acrobatics is performed plus counting in STAB that means it has a 247.5 Power... yeah, even though Drifblim has a higher Special Attack, it's Attack stat is still pretty good so this is going to hurt). Her Cof@grigus and Froslass is the same as they were so handle them as you did before.

Dark-Type Member: Grimsley

Making up for not getting any new Pokemon in the Initial Challenge, Grimsley gets two new Pokemon replacing Sharpedo & Drapion for a Honchkrow & Houndoom. Honchkrow is a offensive Pokemon though it weak defensive wise, however in addition to knowing Aerial Ace it also knows Psychic so Fighting-types beware. Houndoom is also as offensive though more on the Special side of things having a pretty good Special Defense though its moves aren't that threatening though it does have Thunder Fang for Water-types. With Sharpedo now gone, Liepard is once again being sent out first. Liepard isn't going out unarmed though, it's now holding a Normal Gem which means that Fake Out will have a 60 Power instead of 40 in addition to Flinching your Pokemon. Scrafty has replaced Brick Break with Hi Jump Kick to try and do some major STAB damage while Krookodile replaced Smack Down & Foul Play with Rock Slide & Crunch, stronger and better moves all around. The only thing that didn't change is his star Pokemon, Bisharp.

Psychic-Type Member: Caitlin

Can't copy & paste this time because Caitlin actually has gotten the most changes this time around. She replaced her Bronzong with Gallade which should make Dark-types weary though Ghost-types have not much to worry about, especially if the Ghost-type has a strong, super effective Physical Ghost- or Flying-type move. Musharna has replaced Psychic & Hypnosis with Charge Beam & Yawn making it even more of a punching bag though if your Pokemon does fall asleep and it's not a Dark-type do remember to wake it up before it can use Dream Eater. Reuniclus is staying with its Recover strategy having replaced Energy Ball for it, and to make its point even more it's now holding Leftovers for more healing. Gothitelle replaced Payback with Shadow Ball which now actually makes it a threat against Ghost-types. Finally her Metagross has replaced Giga Impact with Hammer Arm since it's super effective against Dark-types yet equally immune against Ghost-types plus becoming slower is probably preferable to losing an entire turn. Sigilyph is the only one to remain the same though it's mostly here for filler.

Fighting-Type Member: Marshal

Marshal follows Grimsley's numbers of roster changes and replaces Breloom & Toxicroak with a Medicham & Lucario. I don't know why he chose to replace one of his Pokemon for Medicham, aside from it's Ability Pure Power which doubles its Attack and it having all the Elemental Punches, which I'll admit ThunderPunch and Ice Punch will be good for Flying-types, I just think a Breloom is better. However getting a Lucario makes more sense, especially if you give it the same moves as Cynthia's but swapping out Close Combat for Shadow Ball so that it's dangerous against Ghost-types. Anyway, with Breloom gone it's Throh who's back to going out first though it replaced Retaliate & Grass Knot with Stone Edge & Payback to have some defense against Flying- and Psychic-types, respectively. Sawk is also getting something but it's the item Muscle Band which gives all its Physical attacks a small power boost. Conkeldurr repeats what it did in the Initial Challenge except it's Payback that's being replaced for... Bulk Up.

... well now that it doesn't have a Dark-type move you can use safely use your Psychic-type to take it down before it sets-up.

Champion Alder (B&W)/Iris (B2&W2)

In case you've been living under a rock these past few months, no, you're not seeing things, Iris has replaced Alder as Champion in B2&W2. Gee, an 8th Gym Leader apprentice going on to replace the Champion, that has never been done before *coughWallacecough*. However, unlike the switch from Steven (who uses various of types though has a focus on Steel-types) to Wallace (who uses only Water-types meaning you could probably take him down with just a Grass- and Electric-type), this switch actually does feel you're being given more of a challenge. In order to fully understand what I mean, let's go over both Champions now:
Alder is similar to Steven as he uses various types but also has a type that is given more focus then others, with Alder this being Bug-types. 3 of Alder's Pokemon are Bug-types (Accelgor, Escavalier, and Volcarona) meaning Fire-, Flying, and Rock-types are very helpful against Alder, Fire- and Rock-types having an added bonus with one of Alder's other Pokemon, the Ice-type Vanilluxe. Though I guess you can also use a Fighting-type against Vanilluxe so that you can double-up against Bouffalant. Druddigon can be a bit of a surprise as it's actually his only Pokemon which doesn't share a weakness with one of his others though with how slow it is you can usually get in an Ice- or Dragon-type attack in before it can do anything. Finally I'd be remissed if I didn't give special note to his star Pokemon, Volcarona, who can become very dangerous with Quiver Dance though with a low Defense and quad weakness to Rock-types a Physical Rock-type move will take it down with no problem.
Now you'd think I would compare Iris with Wallace being I just compared Alder with Steven. WRONG. In fact I would also compare Iris with Steven, even more so than Alder as both Steven and Iris do admit they prefer to specialize in one type while Alder tries passing off as a Blue or Cynthia. Now with most Dragon-type trainers you'd be safe using Ice-types, however Iris thought ahead and has a Archeops and Aggron on her team which both know Stone Edge (oddly enough, her Aggron doesn't know any Steel-type moves which are also Super Effective against Ice-types). Not to be outdone by non-Dragon-types, her Hydreigon (yes, she uses one as her FIRST Pokemon and during these rematch battles it has the same exact moveset as Ghetsis's Hydreigon! The only difference is that it's higher leveled then his...) has Fire Blast, her Druddigon has Fire Punch, and both these dragons have Focus Blast. Oh, and incase you're thinking about going in with a Dragon-type, Iris also has a Lapras which knows Blizzard (and Sing). Let's not forget to mention her star Pokemon, Haxorus, which has Guillotine meaning if you have any Pokemon below level 78 they might get OHKOed. Speaking of that, much like the B2&W2 Elite Four before her, Iris has two of her Pokemon holding items: Druddigon is holding a Life Orb which increases its move's Power by 30% (in exchange for losing 10% of its max HP every turn) and Haxorus is holding a Focus Sash which means you won't be able to OHKO it right as it comes out (at least without removing the item) so brace for an attack from it (remember, Haxorus has a high Attack stat and also knows Outrage, and with it getting STAB to the already high power of the attack you can imagine it might indeed be able to knock out a Pokemon with one hit).

And I guess that's it for the Elite Four & Champion Comparisons... OR IS IT! Remember I didn't mention the Initial Challenge Champion Iris battle so, being we're comparing and contrasting, why not look at both the Initial Challenge and Re-Challenge Champion Iris battles:

CHAMPION IRIS:

The first thing you'll notice right off the bat is that Iris has the same team for both challenges and, to add to that, Druddigon and Haxorus are holding a Life Orb and Focus Sash, respectively, for both challenges. But aside from some moves being the same between Pokemon that's where the similarities end. First off, Iris only has 3 Full Restores in the Initial Battle while having 4 in the Re-Challenge. Obviously, the levels between her Pokemon increase by 19 levels going from 57-59 in the Initial Battle to 76-78 in the Re-Challenge. With such a level jump you would also expect the moves to shift around a bit so let's take a quick look at that. First we have Hydreigon (and yes, it's level 57, I guess the moveset for its Re-Challenge isn't the only thing Iris seemed to have copied from Ghetsis...) who has Flamethrower and Charge Beam in the Initial Challenge before switching them out for Fire Blast and Focus Blast in the Re-Challenge. Druddigon is her Dragon-type that got the most move changes, having Rock Slide, Flamethrower, and Dragon Tail for the Initial Challenge and replacing them for Fire Punch, ThunderPunch, and Outrage in the Re-Challenge (what, no Ice Punch? ). Both Archeops and Aggron simply replaces the Rock Slide they have in the Initial Challenge for a Stone Edge in the Re-Challenge. Lapras is her non-Dragon-type that got the most move changes, having Surf, Ice Beam, and Thunderbolt for the Initial Challenge and replacing them for Hydro Pump, Blizzard, and Thunder in the Re-Challenge. Finally her star Pokemon, Haxorus, got two move changes: X-scissor and Dual Chop in the Initial Challenge to Guillotine and Outrage in the Re-Challenge. Overall Re-Challenge Iris is stronger however she is also less accurate (unless the computer decides to cheat...).

And I guess that's it for the Elite Four & Champion Comparisons... OR IS IT! Actually, it is. Hmm, I wonder what to talk about now? Maybe about the bonus strong Trainers? Possibly. How about a quick discussion on some miscellaneous changes that no one is going to really care about. No doubt a perfect topic for one of my ramblings. Oh, I know! Serebii just finished posting up ALL the PokeStar Studio movies! So how about next time we head Pokemon's Hollywood and see what movies we'll be starring in and what their idea of a "battle" is...!

Hey, heads up. I'M ABOUT TO UNLEASH MY LINK OF THE BLACK 2/WHITE 2 ANIMATED TRAILER. Let's go make fun of N's voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTsd0iU97s

Not surprised the voices are slightly different this is a universe where pokemonis ultrabadass. N's voice was pretty bang on, loved it

agreed with Cheren's voice give the guy a cough drop it does get better when he says "music to my ears"

Mei and the guy player were pretty cool the voices suited them, notice Emboah was the only starter not to have it's name said aloud?

you could just hear the male character saying DAMN when the shadow triad disappear

Corless scares me his voice is so obviously villainess it destroyed myquestion if he was a badguy when I first saw the trailer.

Hugh was awesome! I so wish this was the anime!!

Loved how it started with NOT ACTUAL GAME PLAY what do people expect to get that level of detail on a ds/3ds?

I'm going to watch the trailer alot more then I probably should its SO COOL

So happy the english dub was good

More voice actors from the dubbed trailer announced.

Elesa -Sarah Natochenny (Zebstrika, I choose you!)

Shadow Triad Member - DAN GREEN ("We will accomplish our goals, NO MATTER WHAT THE CARDS")

Lisa Ortiz is confirmed for voicing Mei.

According to the voice actors, they were asked to record this at the last minute with whoever was still there at the time.

I guess that explains why, like in the Japanese version, Bianca and Elesa are voiced by different people.