We All Live in a Pokémon World
I’ve been training Pokémon since 1998. I’ve caught them all. I’ve had hundreds of battles and traversed five different regions. Next spring, with the release of Pokémon Black and Pokémon White, I’ll be doing it all over again. I’ve done everything there is to do as far as the Pokémon games go, and I’m not tired of them, even at 26 years old. I doubt I ever will.
The Pokémon games are my favorite franchise in video games. Period. More than Final Fantasy, more than Mario, I look forward to a new Pokémon game above all else. I’ve seen the games evolve (pun intended) quite a bit since their humble black-and-white beginnings, and I’ve loved them since the first time I ever picked them up.
When Pokémon first hit America in 1998, I didn’t think much of it. It was another anime on TV that I for some reason didn’t wind up paying attention to. However, I started going out with a girl with a younger brother and sister who LOVED Pokémon, and as a result so did she. She turned out to be an awful person, but she introduced me to Pokémon, and for that I’ll always be grateful.
I started off with the anime, watching it with her brother and sister at their house when she was busy doing other things. I liked seeing all the different monsters, and the battling always looked neat. They had a lot of the cards, which had a lot of really cool artwork in them. It wasn’t until I played with their Game Boy and played a bit of Pokémon Blue that the hooks really sank in, and they haven’t let go 12 years later.
That Christmas, I told my mom all I wanted was a Game Boy Color and Pokémon Blue. I had wanted a Game Boy for years, but for some reason or another I had never gotten one. This was it, though. No messing around. I NEEDED Pokémon.
The game was fantastic. One hundred and fifty (plus one hidden!) different monsters of differing elements in a complex game of rock-paper-scissors with some of the most solid RPG gameplay to ever be seen in a video game was something I couldn’t resist. I played the HELL out of that game, my 14 year old self taking my Game Boy with me everywhere, even neglecting my consoles to make my team even stronger.
Of course, the video game led to other things. I started buying the cards, and when Burger King had the toys to promote the new movie, every spare dollar I got went to kid’s meals. I actually got beef poisoning from eating so many hamburgers one week. Later I found out you could, y’know, just buy the toys without the food, and it saved my stomach and colon much distress and discomfort.
I would babysit a few younger kids who lived around me, and they always thought it was cool I was into Pokémon. I’d trade with them, give them some tips, even give them some extra cards I had. My little sister’s friends’ younger brothers always wanted to come hang out with me when their sisters would come over. I was still young myself, so it wasn’t THAT creepy.
Pokémon Stadium was released for the Nintendo 64 the week of my 16th birthday, and I didn’t wind up having a party because my girlfriend (a different one) had just dumped me. So I spent my birthday with my Pokémon Blue cartridge plugged into my Nintendo 64 controller (eff yeah Transfer Pak!) taking on the Kanto Gym Leaders with my team in 3D. All of you who are old enough to remember know how freakin’ awesome it was the first time you saw your Pokémon on your TV.
I still get the urge sometimes to plug Stadium back in.
I saved up for Pokémon Silver when it was released, and I played that even more than Blue. When my high school had standardized testing weeks, I RUSHED through so I could play my Game Boy while everyone else finished their tests. Fun fact, though, I still finished in the top 5 percent of my school and top 10 percent of all California high school students on those tests, earning me a scholarship, further showcasing my radness I’m always telling you about.
Once the Game Boy Advance was released and Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire were released, I really hit my stride as a player. The game mechanics got even deeper, and I started paying more attention to stats, varied movesets, and diverse teams. I started learning about EV training and things like that. I was part of a rather large gaming message board at the time, and I spent a lot of time discussing and swapping strategies with other people who were as into Pokémon as I was for the first time.
I had some of my online friends come and visit me, and I got a chance to have my first REAL Pokémon battle. I had played with other people before, but no one who really knew what they were doing. This was the first time I was really tested, and I won. It was a thrill unlike anything I had experienced in a multiplayer game before.
Then Diamond and Pearl were released for the DS, and you were able to battle online for the first time. Now I had even more people to battle. It was then I lost my very first match, after being undefeated for ten years. With Pokémon Battle Revolution on Wii and the random online matches, I’d get plenty of wins and plenty of losses, mostly to people who are cheap and throw down all legendaries. Cheap bastards.
Now the fifth generation of Pokémon games has been announced, with better graphics, new monsters, and a new world to explore. People complain that the games are all the same, and once you’ve played one game you’ve played them all. I know it’s hypocritical of me since I criticize first-person shooters all the time for being the same, but I’ll continue to play Pokémon, regardless of how little the series changes.
Disregarding the subtle changes that casual fans and non-players don’t notice (natures, abilities, the physical/special split), the Pokémon games really DON’T need to change all that much. The formula is rock-solid as it is. It seems so simple on the surface, but when you really get into it, it has so many different levels of strategy and competition to work with.
The great thing about Pokémon is that it’s as casual or as deep as you want it to be. You could just pick six Pokémon and go through the story. You could go a step further and build a balanced team to play against your friends. You can start selecting Pokémon with the right natures, giving them specialized stats depending on how you want to use them in battle. You can EV train them, battling them against only certain kinds of Pokémon to grow their stats a certain way. You can go even DEEPER and start trying to breed Pokémon for certain IVs, a hidden stat that determines the cap on certain stats. You can build a team of all attackers, or you can use some monsters for status effects, some for defensive roles, and some as healers. There are an infinite number of possibilities as far as raising your team, and your team will always be distinctively yours.
See that picture at the top of the article? That’s my team, consisting of my six all-time favorite Pokémon. Sure, there are Pokémon who are stronger or better suited for competitive battling, but they’re my favorites and I like using them. I think it’s a pretty solid team all things considered.
Why do I still love Pokémon at 26 years old, older than most people think the games are for?
It’s because Pokémon always manages to capture that part of me that will never grow up. The games always have a sense of exploration and adventure that’s very uncommon these days, and in the same way that people will always love Star Wars, it resonates with that part of me that will always dream of gallivanting off on some grand adventure.
Playing Pokémon against another player gives me a feeling that I don’t get from any other competitive game I’ve ever played. It’s not about reflexes, it’s not about button combos, it’s about all the work you put into your team against all the work your opponent put into theirs. It’s about mind just as much as it is about skill.
Do I think about this a little too deeply? Probably. But as we get older and responsibilities start to grow and free time begins to wane, we all need something to take us back to that time when fun was always our top priority. Pokémon is the perfect blend of strategy for my adult mind, and simple fun for the kid in me.
So when Pokémon Black and Pokémon White come out next year, they might not be very different than all the games that have been released so far. But I’m okay with that. I’m always ready for another adventure.
27 Comments
Awesome post, Joe. I really enjoyed reading this one! I’m right there with you.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. They should have waited for the 3DS to come out so they can release B/W on THERE, not on the DS AGAIN.
soooo.i hurd u lyke mudkipz
Masterfully written. I loved it, as always.
WE NEED TO THROW DOWN, BROSEPH.
Post FC?
1720 5409 6134
You name the time and place. It’s goin DOWN, SON.
The same goes for all the rest of ya’s too.
2880 2264 8787
Tomorrow (Wednesday). 5:00. Our respective houses, seeing as it would be a tad expensive for me to pay for a plane ticket just to WHOOP YOU.
Pokemon will always be a favorite. I remember when it first came out I got a video about the anime in the mail. Me and my brother watched it, and thought it seemed pretty lame. Later, I saw how awesome it was, and spent all my birthday money on it. Stepping into the Viridian Forest for the first time had a certain feeling to it I can’t really explain, and haven’t had since. I lost my Pokemon Red cartridge for about 6 months after just beating Misty, and it was one of the biggest downers I can remember. I went to Burger King everyday as well for the toys. I ended up getting all of them afterwords because Burger King was getting rid of their display that had them all. All the toys are still in a shelf above my head right now.
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff3/HexenDarkside/2.jpg
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff3/HexenDarkside/1.jpg
(There is other stuff on the shelves, too, but you should be able to pick out the most colossal stash of the BK toys)
I then got Pokemon Gold before going on a road trip, and played it the most out of any Pokemon game. Before I knew of IVs and EVs, I did pick up on the fact that leveling a Pokemon legitimately, and not through rare candies gave it more stats (due to EVs.) This was the first game where I got a full team of 6 all to level 100 with no candies.
When I got Ruby, I legitimately tried for the perfect Pokemon. I caught enough mareeps to full fill all my boxes, picked out the ones who had bad natures, then leveled them all 20 levels to see who’s IVs where the best. In the end, I got a monstrous Ampharos who was cream of the crop. This took forever for one Pokemon, however, and with no one else to play against, I kind of quit after that.
I got Diamond, but I really don’t remember it too well. I’m pretty sure I beat it…
In the end Pokemon is a really great game, with a core system. I STILL just really wish they would make a massive one with all the continents and the ability to catch all the Pokemon without events or back trading.
5027 7105 7313
I’ll add everyone else here.
I can’t believe I took you down…
It’s easy to win when you throw down three legendaries, one of which I KNOW was hacked, Mega. So you can talk big, but it doesn’t mean much.
Impressive collection, Hex. Christina and I have WAYYYY too much stuff to have out, especially since we haven’t really decorated since the remodel. We used to be part of a Pokémon collecting Livejournal community, and we got a lot of cool stuff from people there. The piece of merchandise I want more than anything is the Wailord zukan, but it’s so rare I never see it anywhere.
If you guys are gonna throw down, you should probably decide on what kind of tier you intend to use. Uber/Overused is fun in its own right, but you should do some research and raise some Underused/Neverused Pokemon and do some fightin’.
Personally, I’d participate, but I’m barely past Goldenrod and I’m dragging my feet there, and I don’t feel like digging out Platinum to get the stuff I’ve raised there. :<
Bit of a double post here, but I happened to spot Hexen’s post.. not sure how I missed it.
Anyway, it’s fairly easy to find an IV calculator and figure out how good your Pokemon’s IV’s are even at low levels. I believe the higher your Pokemon is in level/stats the easier it is to get a more accurate number, but IV’s are fairly important as a competitive battling component as it pretty much decides exactly how close to the cap on your base stats you can get before EV’s.
I don’t bother with IVs. That’s a bit TOO involved for me… I’m fine just getting a good nature and then EV training. Also when I battle, I don’t mess around with tiers, either. I picked my six favorite Pokémon for my current team, which range from OU to NU. I still feel like I do pretty well with them. I battle to win, but not at the expense of having fun.
The only “rule” I typically try to use is no legendaries, because they’re usually pretty unbalanced.
If you ever get you stuff set up in a display manor, take a picture of it. I really love displays in which things are set up cluster style, as you might have guessed.
If you want to get real technical, Legendaries are good because they have naturally high base stats across the board (where-as every other Pokemon has one, two, three stats they specialize in that’re higher than its other stats, which are usually mediocre). That’s most of the reason why Pokemon like Mew, Jirachi and Celebi aren’t considered Uber and are considered OU.
They’ve got 100′s across the board, which balances itself out since a balanced Pokemon usually has a hard time competing against a specialized Pokemon, and because of the even spread, all you can do is pick stats to boost with EV’s and hope for good IV’s based on its particular role.
Anyway, I usually don’t mind playing against Legendaries, since most of the individuals that run them don’t have good natures on them, and the EV’s are scattered from in-game random leveling. Only constant for Legendaries are that they tend to have automagically high IV’s, which makes them difficult to fight even with bad EV training because their base stats reflect their high IV’s. ;P
I typically avoid legendaries, but Mew’s ability to learn TMs is just too useful. It’s hard for me to get any other Pokemon who I can train and nature to have low speed, use Trick Room, followed by Explosion to bring out my specialized one-shotters breed for low speed.
Deoxys is also very unique in that his defense form is my favorite for the ol’ Raise your evasion/Lower there eveasion/Recover/Damage based on level trick.
I’m sorry if I seemed like I was boasting. I didn’t mean to.
That was my friend’s game, and those were his only EV’s.
Meh.
Oh, and none of the Legendaries were hacked. After one of my friends couldn’t save the battle record, he accused me of TEH HAXXORZ, and I looked at my party.
The Typhlosion was LVL:100
Caught In Kanto.
With a Master Ball.
In the first Route.
And he was met at Level 100.
Do the math.>.>
So, now I have my team which will be ready as soon as I can get my friend to EV them due to my Laziness.
XD
That Ho-Oh was SO hacked. The only way to get Ho-Oh until HG/SS was from Colosseum, and they can’t be shiny.
Anywho, even the “600″ legendaries (Mew, Jirachi, Celebi) I tend to avoid, considering the average number for any given stat is 85, all six of their stats are above average. I don’t complain about Jirachi, though, since it has the same base stat TOTAL and typing as Metagross, and Celebi for its typing and shallow movepool. Mew, though, is just too much.
So this is happening right?
I know it’s Wednesday at 5 but I can’t get my DS to connect to my router for some reason. We may have to reschedule this.
Also, in regards to tiers, UU is where it’s at, dawg. OU is just as it’s name implies: Overused. Although quite a few PkMn are in OU, most of them are UU, thus I play UU most of the time.
Are we gonna use the IRC? If so, I’m having a bit of trouble connecting to #pkbloggin.
Guys? Joe?
Well, my Mew is breed/natured for low speed simply so it can survive one attack, trick room, then explode, so it’s above average stats aren’t really used much
I’ll remember to switch in my Ghost when I see your Mew Trick Room, Hexen. Loose lips sink ships, friend.
Anyway, Mew’s movepool is tremendous because it can learn any attack, but you also have to account for STAB. An ideal sweeping Mew will have Nasty Plot, Psychic, Ice Beam and a fourth attack for greater type coverage depending on what you’re intending to fight, but I don’t honestly think that any Mew is much of a threat. It’s got diversity, it’s got all above average stats, but its single typing is a double-edged sword.
If you have a good, fast Ghost-type sweeper (Gengar, some Mismagius builds), you can Shadow Ball and OHKO a Mew, and all three are in the same tier, so finding a Gengar or Mismagius in a typical OU team is hardly uncommon. Not to mention, there’re plenty of sweepers with good Dark-type moves like Tyranitar and Weavile who would chew up a Mew and spit it out.
Anyway, Pokemon is rock-paper-scissors with deeper strategy and customization, so when you build a competitive team, you have to consider its weaknesses, each Pokemon’s role, and how you’ll counter common Pokemon found in the tier you’re playing in.
Personally, I’d pick Jirachi for hax before I’d pick Celebi or Mew, because Psychic/Steel is an extremely solid typing, if Metagross and Bronzong are any indication.
Well, I really don’t have a team to play against you, so my loose lips really didn’t sink any ships, that’s just a strategy I’ve used in the past.
Though, I do like your propaganda reference
Fair enough. Personally, I don’t have a team on HGSS yet. I usually go through the game, do all the extra stuff, then start working on a comp team. Haven’t gotten that far yet.