Pokemon X and Y: Winners and Losers

Hello readers, and sorry for our inactivity! During our brief hiatus, the newest installments of Pokemon X and Y have been released, and they were more than worth the wait. While a formal review of the games are in development, I thought I'd address a few thing's people love and hate about the new games, and who lucked out the most in the newest generation, and who got the short end of the stick, in Pokemon X and Y: Winners and Losers.


Winner: Sentimental Hearted Trainers

In Pokemon X and Y, a new feature was introduced, bearing the name "Pokemon-Amie." While this may be a mouthful to say, it is a simple and fun way of connecting with your Pokemon. The premise is extremely easy; just feed and play with your Pokemon, and it will be more and more affectionate. I first tried this with my Chesnaught, as a quick test of something I once thought I would never use. Boy, was I wrong. As I fed my starter more treats, pet his head, mirrored his movements, and played some games with him, I felt something I've never felt with a Pokemon before: a real bond. The little guy was quickly becoming less of a battling tool, and more of a friend.

Loser: 'The More, The Merrier' Trainers

Coming off of the Generation with the largest amount of Pokemon released, trainers who love hordes of new Pokemon may be a little underwhelmed at the amount of Pokemon introduced in Generation VI: an all time low of 69 (*giggles uncontrollably*). While some people are outraged at this minuscule amount, I personally have no problem with it, as it is evident that each and every Pokemon was carefully thought out and designed.

Winner: Trainers Too Lazy to EV Train Before It Was a Game *cough* ME *cough*

I'll be the first to admit that Super Training changed my life. I was once a lazy trainer who would rather run up and down the Skyarrow Bridge than spend countless hours killing Level 3 Lillipups to help my Pokemon's stats. It seemed confusing to track and tedious to actually do. Super Training is the best thing since sliced bread. This conveniently located EV training tool disguises itself as an addicting battle against balloon Pokemon, while easily raising your Pokemon's EV's. While you may be a bit rusty at first, you get more acclimated to the game's playing style as time goes on, to the point where I can get +4 EVs in 5 seconds flat. The games are not only simple, but they also reward special 'training bags,' which also increase your EVs, leading to a fully trained Pokemon quicker then ever.

Loser: Inanimate Pokemon Haters

You know the type. The trainers that flood the forums bashing Vanillish, the infamous ice-cream Pokemon, and company, claiming Game Freak is out of ideas. Their mentality is that a Pokemon is not original unless it is based off of an animal. These Scrooges placed a target of Garbodors head, and snuffed their noses at the Gear Pokemon family. Well, like every generation, Game Freak has released some more creatures that are based off of everyday objects. Given the little amount of Pokemon introduced compared to the number of inanimate object Pokemon created, the haters aren't too pleased. The Pokemon currently under fire storm include Honedge, Doublade, Aegislash, Klefki (arguably getting the most hate), Spritzee, Aromatisse, Swirlix, and Slurpuff.

Winner: Charizard Fanboys

Fan's of the ever iconic Charizard were treated well this generation. After a good size of Charizard fans were disappointed with the "original" Mega Charizard (his Y form was revealed a few months before the X form)  lacking the Dragon typing they've longed for since Pokemon's beginnings, they were suprised with a second, more bad ass Charizard, doning black scales, new wings, and a moustache made out of blue fire, only 10 days before the game's release. And yes, this uber-cool black dragon was a Fire/Dragon type. Now calm down Gen-Wunners, and please stop complaining about how Mega Gyrados was robbed of his Dragon typing (God, these people are never satisfied).

Loser: Fans of the Other Kanto Starters

Those spoiled Charizard fans will never know what it feels like to be cheated out of another cool Mega Evolution. Even though both Venusaur and Blastoise have awesome evolutions, they got the short end of the stick, only getting one each, while fan-favorite Charizard was given 2 for no viable reason. 

Winner: IV Breeders

Yes, Game Freak invented a mechanic even more tedious and grueling then IV training. One that you have absolutely no control over, and have to flood your boxes with countless eggs to fulfill. IV breeding was made a bit simpler this generation with the introduction of the Friend Safari and the buff of Destiny Knot. As it is a lot too explain, and a little difficult to grasp, I'll leave it to one of the best PokeTubers I know of, TamashiiHiroka.

While I've named a bunch, there are still many more Winners and Losers of Pokemon X and Y. Leave a comment below on who you think either won or lost, and I may include it. 

Links courtesy of serebii.net and Bulbapedia. Video from TamashiiHiroka, please like and subscribe! She's a great PokeTuber, and puts a lot of work and effort into her videos!

Destiny - Preview

After Bungie made a masterpiece of Halo, they reveal a video of another game that appears to be a Mass Effect esc FPS Role-Playing-Game with an overworld. It has beautiful graphics and looks like nothing we’ve ever seen before; maybe a mix of Skyrim and Halo. Coming in 2014, Destiny promises to be a game like nothing else.

…

I’m sorry, but that’s not all. The creators of Call of Duty, Activision, is also teaming up with Bungie to make this new perfection. Probably the two best First-Person-Shooters on the market, team up to make an entire new world of myths and battles.

A Picture of the Destiny logo and two planets.

The story seems to be about a smaller planet, hovering over a gigantic one, and war is being waged, maybe by the two planets, or by another race, or maybe a civil war? The only games that compare to it are Halo, Skyrim, and Mass effect. I’d say that Mass Effect would be the best competitor and, since it was so successful, maybe Bungie and Activision realized that they could make a game like that, and by teaming up, it’d be twice as successful. Well, whatever they were thinking, they were right.

My first impression was positive- I can’t wait for this game to be available, and you should be excited too. Here’s the trailer!

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon - Review

I was excited when I bought this game; It appeared to have great graphics and fun puzzles that are different each time. Let me tell you: this is not true. Though the game was fun, the image was pixelated by trying to create an image similar to HD, and looked stretched. The puzzles were repetitive; each mansion varied, but the puzzles were easy. Some were difficult, but after a brief moment to think of the limited things you can do with the Poltergust, it was simple to solve the puzzle. I was disappointed by the game, overall.

An image of Luigi walking in on a ghost filled room.

The story was lacking; in fact, there barely was one. The professor tells Luigi that, while studying in peace with the ghosts, they went wild. He believes that it was because a more powerful ghost (which is shown to be King Boo) destroyed the Dark Moon gem, which kept the ghosts peaceful. other than this, the story is just to go to each mansion and recover the Dark Moon pieces from each.

The puzzles were at first, amazing. The first mansion sported the best designs and tricks, but the second, and third, and so on were boring. Collecting the hidden Boos in each stage made me feel accomplished, and redoing missions to get three stars and collecting hidden jewels was also fun, but I cannot stress enough that the first mansion was the only enjoyable series of levels.

Multiplayer was enjoyable, but like the rest of the game, repetitive. There were few options of playstyle. One was finding the exit, one was tracking down Polterpups, which were ghost dogs, and one was getting all of the ghosts in a tine limit. Each was bland and boring after the first play, and the only other varying option was the amount of floors you play through.

The first boss fight was a long, vacant tunnel, and after taking a few steps, a large spider appears. You need to use fire and burn the spider’s web three times to hurt it, and then the fourth time, it will die. It may sound simple, but it was great. First, you must light the web on a torch hanging off of a knight. Then, spin a chandelier with the Poltergust until it hits a piece of the web. Finally, drag a piece of the web down the long hallway to a torch and light it again, and defend it as you bring it down the hallway to light the web again.

Click the, “Continue Reading,” button to read the Wrap Up!

Looking Towards Generation 6

With the highly anticipated release of Pokemon X and Y just around the corner, fans young and old are ushering in the Sixth Generation. Weather you love it or hate it, the Generation Six is hands down the most innovative era this wildly-popular series has ever seen. In fact, the newest Kalos-based games seem like a breath of fresh air from the normal, cut and dry Pokemon game formula, and even feel like a brand new, reinvented series.

With so many fresh new changes, it’s hard to not be excited for X and Y. With all new 3D Pokemon models, roaming-camera battle scenes, a beautiful overworld, customizable player characters, brand new attack animations, a fun, interactive way to bond with your Pokemon, the first added type in almost 15 years, and the legendary MegaEvolutions, this Generation of Pokemon is addressing changes many fans wanted to see for years.

I for one was sick and tired of the boring, immobile, sprite based battle scenes, where Pokemon using Tackle would move maybe a centimeter across the screen, retreat, and then a white crashing animation would appear over the target. While Black and White made a step in the right direction with a looping sprite animation, but I felt like it was never enough. I found myself playing the outdated console games like PBR and Colosseum, just so I can have a taste of beautiful, fluid attacking animations, where if I commanded my Monferno to use Mach Punch, you bet your ass he ran across that field and punched his opponent square in the face! Nothing made me happier in the release trailer for X and Y to see Froakie dart across that screen and show that Patrat who’s boss!

I am not, nor will I ever be, a crazy pre-gen Poketheorist, who blows up forums with “OMG LIGHT TYPE AND SOUND TYPE ARE SO GUNNA HAPPEN,” “I THINK YOU’RE GUNNA HAVE THE CHOICE TO CHOOSE TO JOIN THE EVIL TEAM,” or any other ridiculous, farfetched new game mechanic, but I did hop onto the character customization bandwagon the first day I saw the trailer. Much to my surprise and happiness, my suspicions were soon confirmed. I am extremely looking forward to this feature, as it makes Pokemon feel more like an RPG, and makes your character feel more ‘you,’ and not some cookie cutter, boring default character.

I am excited to see and use Pokemon-Amie. As a Pokemon fan for over 10 years, I have always found the bond between a trainer and his virtual friend eerily heartwarming. Now with this new Nintendogs-esque feature, a trainer can play with his or her Pokemon, further strengthening their friendship, while reaping the benefits of a higher critical hit ratio, recovering from status effects, and even holding on to 1 HP after taking damage from a move that would normally knock your Pokemon out.

I, along with many progressive Pokemon fans, welcome the Fairy type. It helps make more sense of Pokemon’s typing, adds more depth to Pokemon teams, and best of all, silences the roar of the mighty Dragon, who once ruled the Pokemon battling scene. While not much else is known about the Fairy type at this point, a full type effectiveness chart is set to be released in CoroCoro this upcoming week, which I will be covering extensively.

And finally, the best for last. MegaEvolutions, the most controversial mechanic Game Freak has ever established, has started a war among the already divided fandom. The ‘GenWunners,’ generally older fans who are famous for hating the newer installments of the series, and the ‘GenLuvers,’ fans who love and embrace both, and have no problem with anything new or old, have been fighting for a few years now. In fact, a lot of the ‘Gen Wars’ have died down recently, but this tremendous news launched it to a whole new level. While the GenWunners whine “Fourth evolutions? C’mon Game Freak, you’ve officially run out of ideas,” GunLuvers like myself do nothing but embrace this revolutionary addition to our favorite game series. I’m not saying that MegaEvolutions were needed, but I love the idea of taking an older Pokemon and giving it a new spin. Maybe you have a Pokemon you always wished evolved, like Mawile or Kangaskhan, and now instead of a boring regular evolution, you are given an uber powerful ‘Mega Evolution!’ It’s a great idea, and the marketing will make Nintendo a boat load as well.

A fan made art of 6 of the new MegaEvolutions

Well, those are all the major additions coming to Pokemon in the upcoming games, Pokemon X and Y for the 3DS and 2DS. With so many revolutionary changes coming to Pokemon, X and Y seem less like a new installment in the series, and more like an awesome reboot. What do you guys think? What are hopes, opinions, and thoughts on X and Y? Leave me a comment below!