I haven’t written much lately. Looking at this front page, I’ve hardly written anything of substance in the past month! Sorry about that. That’s just like me, saying I’m not going to stop writing and then doing exactly that. In my defense Christina and I have been very busy, she’s been sick and those Blogimations that no one watches are a LOT of work.

Rather than spend another day doing nothing and complaining that I don’t know what to write about, here’s a few quick thoughts on what I’ve been up to.

- I’ve been playing the 3DS a lot lately! I got back into Ocarina of Time 3D. I still insist it’s not a good portable game, but man is it pretty. I also picked up Pokémon Rumble Blast and it’s a really good time. It’s really simple and easy to play and it’s something that I enjoy playing for a little while as I’m winding down and getting ready for bed. If you played the WiiWare original and liked it, you’ll like this.

- Thanks for forumite Hexen, we’ve discovered VGCollect.com. It’s a video game database that allows you to keep track of your collection, and if you own something that’s not listed, you can add it to the database yourself! We have a pretty long list of stuff to add and we’re not even close to done, but you can check out our list so far here.

- Ben Paddon (who is the genius behind GameJournos, formerly GJAIF, don’t ask what it stood for) has started a web show called PortsCenter, where he takes a look at games that have been ported to a multitude of systems, how they’re different and which version is the best. The first episode focused on Doom, with the episode going into detail about why the PlayStation version is the best. It was a great episode and I found the original long-box PlayStation version of Doom in near-mint condition at my local comic shop about a week later. I picked it up and it really is the best version!

Check out the episode on their Kickstarter page, and be sure to toss them a couple bucks so we can see more in the future.

- During a trip to our local anime shop I discovered Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo line of statuettes, where they take icons of American comics and pop fiction and render them in a beautiful anime art style. I bought Jean Grey, and with X-23, Liara T’Soni and Jaina Solo on the horizon they’ll be getting lots of my money. I’ll be reviewing the Jean Grey statuette for Christina’s site Otakuholic pretty soon, so stay tuned for that.

- I’ve talked about the Daizenshuu EX podcast a few times before, and I finally got to cross something off my nerd bucket list because I was a guest on episode 277 to talk about the latest Dragon Ball video game, Ultimate Tenkaichi. Give it a listen, it was a really good discussion! Spoiler, I’m the only one that liked it.

- I think I’m a REAL games reviewer now, because I’ve been getting games in the mail from PR companies! It’s kind of funny that the first game I ever received from a PR company is Grease Dance for Xbox 360, but hey, it actually wasn’t a bad game! I’m such a nerd, though; I saved the packing slip and hung it on my fridge FOR NOSTALGIA.

Not every game I’ve been sent is fun, though.

Also, if you never checked out my first review for KINECTaku for Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, you may do so now.

- This past weekend I was in the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta test. Legally, according to the fine print in the non-disclosure agreement all I can say is 1) there was a beta test and 2) I took part in that beta test. So guys, there was a beta test and I took part in that beta test.

On a completely unrelated note, HOLY SHIT.

- Finally, we got Super Mario 3D Land yesterday. I don’t want to say much because I’m taking it slow (the game is short, so I’m limiting myself to only one World a day) and I want to give it its own post in the future, but it’s an absolute blast and that THIS is the game that will make you a believer in 3D games.

That’s all I’ve got! Regular updates to resume soon. I PROMISE.

Hey, Nintendo. Please put Pokémon Red and Blue on the 3DS Virtual Console. Then, add Pokémon Stadium to the Wii’s Virtual Console, and let us link them up just like we were using the Transfer Pak back on the Nintendo 64.

I have extremely fond memories of both games and I’m willing to throw money at you to relive them again.

Your pal, Joe

(Note: I originally published this article on Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming on March 10, 2011.)

If you read my article about being a Pokémon Master, you know that I am well-versed in the field of Pocket Monsters. I’ve poured hundreds of hours into each game, catching over 493 monsters, beating thirty-four Gym Leaders, and becoming the Champion of four different regions. I know what I’m talking about when it comes to Pokémon. Therefore, you can take it on good authority when I say that Black and White are by far the best entries in the Pokémon series.

Anyone who immediately brushes these games off as more of the same is sorely mistaken and will be missing out on the biggest leap forward the franchise has taken since it first prompted us to catch ‘em all over fifteen years ago.

By now you’ve read reviews discussing things like the Triple Battles and Rotation Battles… I’m not going to bother covering that. They’ve been detailed countless times since the Japanese launch and I’m not going to be able to tell you something you don’t already know. Both add a fresh take on the battle system and are certainly fun, but I don’ t really see them being embraced by the hardcore battling community. However, if you’re the kind of person to whom the words “No items, Final Destination” mean anything, then you’ll get a kick out of them. They’re a blast.

Staying with the battles for a moment, I have to say that the addition of animations to the battle system completely surprised me. I didn’t think they’d add very much to the experience, but having the Pokémon move around a bit really makes the battles more dynamic. They’ve also added a panning and zooming camera and sped the battles up a bit, so battles are now more intense and a lot more fun to look at.

They’ve also gotten rid of the annoying “low health” beep and had the music change when your Pokémon’s health is in the red, which, again, is a small detail, but it really just makes everything feel that much tighter.

The social aspects of the game have also been GREATLY expanded, giving you more multiplayer options than ever before. Now, as an added bonus, you don’t even need to be in a Pokémon Center to access multiplayer content; the new C-Gear, located on the touch screen, allows you to go into Infrared, Wireless or Wi-Fi options from anywhere in the game world.

Pokémon Black and White take place in the Unova region, a brand new region filled with never-before-seen Pokémon. Unlike the previous regions, which were based on different parts of Japan, Unova takes its inspiration from New York City, and as a result Unova feels very different from any place you’ve ventured before in the Pokémon world. They’ve really amped up their field design, because Unova feels so much more alive than Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh.

The cities are much more convincing than in the older games, which usually had about five buildings and four people walking around outside. The cities are much larger and vary in architecture and have plenty of NPCs milling about, giving Unova a very distinct personality and culture. From the suburban feel of Striaton City to the bustling metropolis of Castelia City, each stop on your journey provides a unique flavor.

Even the external designs of the Gyms themselves differ from city to city, and each one is housed inside a different establishment. Striaton City’s Gym is also a restaurant while its Leaders are waiters, Nacrene City’s Gym Leader is a curator whose Gym is in the back of a museum, and Nimbasa City’s Gym is inside of a roller coaster.

It’s no secret that the Pokémon games aren’t going to be winning any awards for graphics, but the artists at Game Freak have really done well for themselves this time around. The first time I crossed Sky Arrow Bridge and entered Castelia City, my jaw dropped the entire time. Dynamic camera angles coupled with some simply brilliant music make Black and White the most cinematic games in the series.

The storyline of the games has been a very pleasant surprise as well. Sure, you pick a starter Pokémon, earn eight Gym Badges and challenge the Elite Four. It’s not all you have going on this time, though; an organization called Team Plasma is wreaking havoc along the way, but not in a bumbling Team Rocket manner. Headed by mysterious sages and a man known only as N, Team Plasma is out to free Pokémon from their human masters.

I found it very interesting that the Pokémon games, which are built on the idea of catching them all, would challenge the morality of that very concept in their games. I also found it a bit amusing that this storyline takes place in the games colored Black and White, since the issue at hand is anything but.

(One nitpick, though: Team Plasma, who are against the ideas of humans catching Pokémon? Guess what: they’re all Pokémon Trainers as well! I know they have to be from a gameplay standpoint, but still…)

The playable characters are also older this time, appearing to be around fifteen or sixteen years old rather than the traditional ten-year-old Trainers of the past. I never had a problem with the characters before, but aging them a bit did make them more relatable for me.

You’ll also run into two recurring characters frequently, your best friends Cheren and Bianca, who start their Pokémon journeys the same time as you. Cheren basically serves the “rival” role this time around, but he’s much more supportive than antagonistic (and he reminds me of Uryuu Ishida from the anime Bleach). I found Bianca to be perhaps the most endearing character in the entire franchise, and her personal story about growing up and how we deal with what is expected of us is surprisingly touching and profound for a game series that has, until now, focused little on character development.

Of course, with a new Pokémon game comes new Pokémon, and 156 new creatures are making their debut, the most since the original 150 were introduced in the original Red and Blue duo, bringing the grand total up to 649 monsters.

The main draw of any Pokémon game is, of course, the new Pokémon themselves, and the designs this time around are awesome. Of course, there’s the three cute starters (who grow substantially less cute as they evolve) Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott, but there’s tons more. Game Freak wisely made the decision to include ONLY new Pokémon until you beat the game, making it really feel like a fresh experience, forcing you to get to know the new roster without stubbornly sticking to your old favorites. Some of my personal favorites (and this list is abbreviated, I like a whole lot of them!) include Woobat, Crustle, Lillipup, Golurk, Gigalith, Seismitoad, Darmantian, Trubbish, Garbodor, and probably my new top favorites, Scraggy and Scrafty.

Game Freak and Nintendo said they set out to create a Pokémon game that would not only attract new players, but entice players who had perhaps not played a Pokémon game since Red and Blue to give the series another go, and I think they nailed it. They got rid of a lot of the annoying “artificial challenges” of the old games and added little things here and there to keep you going (certain trainers, when defeated, will now heal your Pokémon when you talk to them, saving you a long hike back to a Pokémon Center), and of course the storyline and new Pokémon will be exciting for older players.

I can’t say enough good things about this game. Even I, the huge fan that I am, was almost expecting Black and White to be another verse in the same song, and I was blown away by just how fresh it feels. If you have any interest, even the tiniest inkling, in Pokémon at all, you owe it to yourself to pick up Pokémon Black or Pokémon White. There’s never been a better time to jump back in and start your journey anew.

So for a long time now I’ve been wanting to get a group of people together to play Pokémon. I’ve missed having a group of people to swap strategies with, discuss different movesets and lineups, and battle with. An informal Facebook and Twitter poll later, and I introduce to you, the PK-Mon League.

(C’mon. You know that title is awesome.)

Taking place on the forums, it’s going to be a way for Pokémon fans to enjoy the finer points of the game with other people who are just as into it. With Black and White a little over a week from release, now is as good a time as any to jump back in!

Sorry for not having any updates last week, everyone. Not only was I extremely busy with wedding stuff, everything finally caught up with me and I got sick for a couple of days. I’m feeling much better now and I’m going to try to post regularly until the wedding and honeymoon. It might still be sporadic, but considering the circumstances, I trust you’ll all forgive me!

Anyway, besides the wedding, something super rad has happened. One of the things I like to do is check my Google referrals and find out what people type to get the blog to come up. I like to Google the same things they did just to see what else comes up, and last week it actually led me to something really super awesome.

I came across a thread on the Penny Arcade forums, specifically the PAX boards, about the PAX Pokémon League, or PPL. Apparently before PAX Prime a group of Pokémon fans got together and planned out a league consisting of Gym Leaders, an Elite 4, and a Champion. If you saw a Gym Leader, you could challenge them to one of the DS Pokémon games, and beating them earned you a Badge (everyone made 1” pins that fit the theme of their Gym). If you collected enough Badges you could challenge the Elite 4, and if you beat them you could take on the Champion. A lot of people battled over the weekend, but only four managed to topple the Champion.

Anyway, I found a thread that was calling for new Gym Leaders for PAX East and so Christina and I signed up. We will be official Gym Leaders for the PAX East Pokémon League and I COULD NOT be more excited. This is the kind of thing I’ve always hoped for. The chance to take on challengers all weekend, being able to test my skills with a limitation put on me, being able to give out ACTUAL BADGES… it’s all really, really awesome.

I’m going to specialize in the Poison type, and I’m working on breeding the last member of my team right now so I can get EV training and get them all squared away. I wanted to do Poison because they’re very defense oriented and I thought it’d be a neat challenge to try to play to their strengths and focus on defense and status moves rather than an all-out offense. Whoever manages to beat me at PAX East will earn the Biohazard Badge.

Christina is going to be the Ice Gym Leader, and honestly her team is going to be tough to beat. Ice is a tough type to focus on but I think she’s put together something very interesting. She’ll be giving away the Snowcone Badge.

I’m not going to really give out details on my team or anything but if you WON’T be attending PAX East and you want to help me test out my team, head over to the forums because I’d love to get as much practice in with this team as possible. I’m not looking to decimate anyone who challenges me, but I do want whoever earns my Badge to have to work for it. The nice thing is, though, that if it does tend to get one-sided, the team I have would be easy for me to start pulling punches and let my opponent catch up a bit. I also plan on doing a little bit of role-playing like in the anime and give Badges to anyone who puts up a really good fight.

I’m also going to wear a purple zip-up hoodie with Weezing’s skull and crossbones on it. It’s gonna be badass. I can’t wait.

(EDIT: Apparently Serebii got a cease and desist letter from Nintendo demanding they take down their images of the new Pokémon, since they admitted to using a ROM to get the images in the first place. Since I thought it was funny to hotlink to Serebii’s images when they disallow right-clicking on their site, I didn’t save them myself. I’m on the hunt for pictures, so until then, this article loses a lot of its appeal. Sorry!)

(EDIT 2: Images are back, including all the new Pokémon in one image at the end of the article!)

Pokémon Black and White are finally out in Japan, and there was much rejoicing. One of my favorite things to do upon the Japanese release of a new Pokémon game is look through the full list of all the new monsters. Initially, I had my hesitations about the designs in this game, but there’s a lot I really like this time around. I’ll show you some of my favorites and why I think they’re rad.

Be warned, though, if you’re trying to avoid spoilers until the North American release, you don’t want to read any further!

Also note that I have not played the game, nor do I have a ROM. I detest game piracy, and I love the Pokémon games so much I don’t want to spoil my first experience with them by playing them in Japanese anyway.

Yanakki – Grass

Christina suggested I nickname him “Grass Monkey” which I thought was pretty clever (as a play on “Brass Monkey” by the Beastie Boys, you uncultured swine). I like his initial form because he looks like a monkey growing broccoli on his head. There’s a trio of grass, fire and water monkeys this time around and this guy is my favorite of the three.

Koromori/Kokoromori – Flying/Psychic

I had to list the pre-evolution on this one because he is just so plain awesome looking. Look at that guy. He’s a fuzzy eyeball and LIFE IS GOOD for him. They’re pretty crazy looking and I like that. I’m really looking forward to the inevitable console companion game because I can’t wait to see him in 3D.

Dageki – Fighting

I LOVE Fighting types, and they’re getting a lot of love this generation. This guy is awesome. Other Pokémon run around naked. This guy runs around with a full karate gi on. On top of that, his body looks like it’s made out of some kind of crystal. I wonder if that’s his angle, like he punches with fists as hard as diamonds. Seriously though he was one of the first Pokémon I saw when the info started flooding out a couple of days ago and I really liked him.

Iwaparesu – Bug/Rock

He’s a hermit crab who said “Hey, eff just carrying a shell. I want to lug around a HUGE SLAB OF EARTH just to show how badass I am.” It’s like he’s constantly bench pressing a mountain. What a tough son of a bitch. I’ve never really been in love with any Bug types but this guy just shot to the top of the list.

Zuruzukin – Dark/Fighting

YES a Fighting type immune to Psychic. Also he’ll have attacks SUPER EFFECTIVE against Psychic. Plus he’s so rad looking! He’s like a zoned out lizard guy. His ability is “Earthquake Spiral” which I have no idea what it does but it sounds awesome.

Dasutodasu – Poison

HE IS A LIVING TRASH BAG OMG. If anyone says “The designs this gen are terrible!” I will politely tell you to eff off because THERE IS A LIVING TRASH BAG. He’s awesome. I like Poison types a lot and this guy just has too spectacular a design to be ignored. HE IS A TRASH BAG.

Baibanira – Ice

Pure Ice types are rare and I like that this one is an ice cream sundae. Just a heads up, if I play any of you online, as soon as I send this guy out I will start singing the ice cream man music through voice chat.

Gobitto/Goruggo – Ghost/Ground

Again I had to post both because the base form is so cool looking. Ground/Ghost is a neat combination and I love this guy’s design. The first form reminds me a lot of Metalhead from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Kirikizan – Dark/Steel

Pretty much the only reason I like this guy so much is because he looks like Ultraman. I think that’s reason enough.

So check out the list and match it up with this image and tell me what some of your favorites are!

Aside from Super Mario Galaxy 2, which I can’t play until we get our Wii back from Nintendo, there’s really only two games I’ve had any interest in playing lately: Pokémon and World of Warcraft. I’ve been trying to think of WHY these are the only two games to keep my attention, and in the process I’ve come to realize what my motivations are for playing video games at this point.

Right now, I don’t have a lot of free time. I’m an adult with a full-time job, I live with my fiancé, I’m trying to run a blog and I have obligations and errands and things. When I sit down to play a video game, I want to make sure I get something out of it and I’m not just wasting my precious free time. What I’m really looking for now when I sit down to play is a sense of accomplishment.

“But Joe,” you’re probably thinking. “You don’t want to feel like you’re wasting time but you play World of Warcraft?” Yeah, that’s true. I should probably start off by saying I am NOT one of those stereotypical WoW nerds. I play casually (in fact, the only time I really play is when Christina’s not home, and it’s rare that I’m home and she’s not) and I’m not a part of any hardcore raiding guild or anything. I play because I enjoy the world and the mythology, and a game with so many tasks to complete gives me a sense of accomplishment.

Right now in the game I’m level 77. I’m trying to hit level 80 and be “ready” before Cataclysm, the next expansion, hits this year. It’s a goal I’m working towards, and when I meet it, I’ll feel accomplished (I know it’s a stupid thing to feel accomplished about but shut up, this is a gaming blog dammit). In the meantime, there’s all kinds of other smaller tasks for me to complete. For example, today I completed between 15-20 quests, ran through five dungeons and made (and spent) some money.

It seems stupid, but for me, these small goals are good motivators and make me feel more relaxed during my leisure time, which is kinda the whole point of leisure time in the first place.

I’m also hitting Pokémon pretty hard as of late. I’ve done a lot in Pokémon over the years. I’ve beaten all the games, EV trained countless Pokémon, and completed the Pokédex. Right now, as I mentioned in the last podcast, my goal is to complete a Living Pokédex, which means I will have one of each of the 493 Pokémon on one game all at the same time. After reorganizing and pulling all of my Pokémon off of My Pokémon Ranch, I realized I’m not as close to completing it as I though I was (I’m only missing around 120, which isn’t all that bad all things considered). Still, it’s a task with a clear goal that I’m enjoying trying to accomplish.

My gaming “moods” tend to change often, so who knows how long this will last. Right now, though, I’m enjoying spending my free time accomplishing meaningless goals and not acting my age. It’s pretty therapeutic, actually!

All kinds of new information on Pokémon Black and White was leaked today! Scans from a leaked copy of CoroCoro magazine revealed the three starters, as well as designs for the new Trainers. I know I’ve been talking a lot about Pokémon lately (not just here, but on the Twitter, Facebook and forums. Sorry!), but in the interest of being current I wanted to talk about it again today.

(Also, Serebii webmaster guy. Disabling right-clicking on your page stopped being cool in like 1997. I stole your pictures anyway out of spite. Deal with it.)

So we have the new starters. We have Seductive Lizard, Fire Pig, and Abomination. I’m being a bit harsh, but they really do seem like the least inspired set of starters thus far. We’ve already had a grass lizard starter before, and the new water starter has the exact same silhouette as Piplup. The fire pig is the most original design, and for that statement to be true you know something’s wrong. Anyway, their Japanese names are Tsutaja, Pokabu, and Mijumaru. They all have significance, but the only one I know off the top of my head is “buu” is the Japanese onomotopaea for a pig noise.

(I found this comic on Kotaku that made me feel bad right after I wrote this. Beware, rough language.)

I’m going to try to keep from making a final judgement until I see their evolution lines, because hey, I’m not going to be battling people competitively with an unevolved starter, but as it stands right now I begrudgingly take the fire pig. But now that I think about it his final form is probably an awesome lava boar. Which is rad. Okay, this can work.

Then we have the new trainers. I like them a lot! CoroCoro says they’re older than previous playable characters have been, which is pretty cool. They look about the same age as Wes and Rui from Colosseum, which can only mean good things because even though the gameplay of Colosseum sucked, the storyline and setting were a lot grittier than the handheld games have ever been. I like the girl trainer a lot because she reminds me of Christina. Her hair gets all wavy like that.

I don’t really know what kinds of changes they can make to the battle system, though. The physical/special split of Diamond and Pearl was really the last major overhaul I think would be possible. As far as I’m concerned, right now the mechanics are perfect.

I would, however, like to see some new type combinations. You know, just to spice things up a bit. We definitely need more Fighting types. Why not Dark/Fighting? Fighting/Ghost? The possibilities for type combinations are endless! Just, no more Dark/Ghost types. Sableye was rad and looked cool, but he was really weak. That’s fine. Then we get Spiritomb, who is like a defensive beast with no weaknesses and it pisses me off. Plus he looks dumb. There, I said it. The fine folks over at Smogon (which is basically the largest collection of Pokémon battling knowledge in the entire internets) have been creating Pokémon with new type combinations for their custom battling program, and they look awesome. Fire/Grass? Yes please.

I’d really like for them to do something with HMs, too. I’m sick of getting pretty far away from a Pokémon Center only to run into a boulder that I can’t move, or a wall I can’t climb, or a bush I can’t just kick over by myself, and then having to slog all the way back to the Pokémon Center, having to leave one of my USEFUL guys behind so I can bring something that serves no purpose other than those things that I should be able to do anyway. It’d be one thing if the HM moves were actually USEFUL in battle (Surf and Waterfall being the exceptions, of course) but right now they’re nothing but an inconvenience.

They need to do another console companion game, but make it as awesome as Stadium 1 and 2 were on the Nintendo 64. Put in fun minigames. Put in a “classroom” mode like in Stadium 2 so you can learn the finer points of battling (because honestly, I did learn a lot from that mode back in the day). And for the love of all deities everywhere, PUT IN RANDOM ONLINE 6 VERSUS 6 BATTLES. Battle Revolution did what the DS games didn’t and let us have random online matchmaking, but only 3 vs. 3, forcing you to gimp your team and hope you picked Pokémon that were better than the three your opponent picked. It killed the strategy aspect of a regular 6 on 6 team, and while I’ve still put over 100 hours into online battling on that game, it could have been much, much more satisfying.

I obviously love Pokémon very much, as I’ve stated numerous times in the past. I look forward to Black and White as much as I have any other game in the series. I’m not tired of the formula yet, because the formula WORKS. I just hope that they can really make this the PERFECT generation, because they’ve been getting oh-so-close lately.

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.