Hyping Up the PokeMans

I wanted to avoid being interested in Pokemon X/Y or as some might know it as, the sixth generation of Pokemon. I played a lot of generation four and loved it, but I might have burned myself out on it before generation five came around. I honestly could not get into generation five. I still don’t necessarily like it, even though, having played more of it, there are a lot of features I DO like and hope they carry over, but plenty I would change or change back for major improvements. That said, I figured with the game only a couple months away and my pre-order hesitantly put in, let me list the top ten reasons why I think the next generation will be the best and most innovative since generation two.

Mega Evolutions, Fairy-Type, Super Training, Trainer Customization, Horde Battles, Mega Mewtwo

10. Sky-Battles

 - The basic concept is that this is a battle that takes place in the air and only flying Pokemon (and I’m assuming those with levitate) can participate. This is an interesting idea and one I’ve always wondered why it has never happened or why we never get to have random encounters while using FLY in game. Surely, we’d encounter a Fearow or something on the way back to Pallet Town and get to fight it and its gang of Spearow like Ash did in the cartoon. Regardless, this is a unique idea. Still have to wonder why non-water Pokemon (and especially FIRE POKEMON) are allowed to fight while we’re on the ocean though.

9. Wonder Trading

 - This would rank higher if more of it was explained, but due to a lack of explanation as to how this works, I’m keeping it low because it sounds like a cool idea, but implemented poorly, it could just be a waste. Wonder Trading, for those who don’t know, is going to be a new trading system where you put your Pokemon up for a trade and you just get some random fucker back. Now, immediately, I assume you’re all thinking the same thing I did, “What about those jerks who put up low level garbage or hax pokemon?” To that end I say, Nintendo and Gamefreak have been working on this for a while and I’m sure they have a system to reduce that issue. All I can say is that I’m hoping more people are mature about it and just use this system the way they are intending us to, and not to simply troll people. But I know that’s asking for a bit much.

8. PANGORO

 - I really wanted to rank Pangoro higher because I’m really psyched that we’re not only getting a new pokemon that looks like a Panda, but he also looks like a complete badass when fully evolved. Not to mention I like the idea of a fighting/dark type as I love me both fighting and dark types (though not as much as my beloved steel types). I’m really hoping this isn’t like Rampardos where the preview images make it out to be a total bad ass and it ends up playing like garbage when the game finally comes out. Regardless, I’m going to catch me one of these bad boys and love it to death.

7. Mounts

 - There’s always been one thing I’ve wondered about the Pokemon games since the beginning. Actually, a lot of things. For example, what do people eat as a meat product? Where are any of the bathrooms? What non-Pokemon related jobs are there in this world? Why can my Charmander still be used in a battle when I am currently diving? Where do ghost Pokemon come from? And, of course, why can’t I ride my Rapidash, Arcanine, or other mountable Pokemon down the street instead of a fucking bike. Well, it looks like this time we’ll get to experience that first hand. Unfortunately, it looks like it might be limited to a couple Pokemon at most, but it’s a start. Someday I’ll get to ride my Arcanine… all night long.

6. Horde Battles

 - This is another one of those things that we still don’t have much information on. But according to what we DO know, this is a battle type that will let players fight up to fight Pokemon at once. This doesn’t explain if we get to use all five as well or what. But I like the idea as it could be an interesting way to level up Pokemon quickly. It could be a unique way to find more rare-Pokemon. There’s a lot of potential ideas coming up here. Plus, it could make battles that would otherwise be easy much more difficult, which I felt was the biggest issue with generation five being too damn easy and constantly holding your hand (removing poison damage outside of battle). I can also see this being something annoying if it happens too frequently or without warning to someone who is ill prepared or just got out of a bad scrape to begin with. If it’s anything like the wild double battles I’ve seen in previous generations, it’ll be limited to certain areas or when traveling with another trainer, which I guess is a start.

5. Mega Evolutions

 - Many will argue this should go higher. But, like many things already mentioned, the information on the “Mega Evolutions” is incredibly limited and we’re not sure what all will happen when in use. There are a few things we do know (or have some idea of anyway). For starters, it looks like it might require the use of a certain item to activate. Secondly, and this might be a mistranslation, but these “mega forms” are temporary and only for battle. I’m hoping that second part isn’t true because I really like the looks of Lucario, Ampharos, Blaziken and a few others and I’d rather just keep them like that all the time if possible. Plus, it is uncertain how big a boost these will be (but you can imagine that if it really is a hassle to use them that it’ll be worth it). Once more information is released, I can only imagine that this will actually become a bigger deal. But I will admit that I like it and I like the designs we’re seeing from it. I can’t wait to actually try this out for myself.

4. Mega Mewtwo!!!

 - I was really tempted to make this number one, but with Mega Evolutions not in the top three, I guess I had to keep him down here instead. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he has the best design in the entire line up of “Mega Forms” but I’ve always loved Mewtwo and I cannot wait to see what kind of monster he’ll be once the mega form is unleashed. That said, while we’re still on the subject of “Mega” pokemon, I just want to say I think the name for them is really stupid. Why not something like “Awakened,” “Unleashed,” “Limit Break,” or just anything else. Just throwing “Mega” to the front of their name is really dumb.

3. Trainer Customization

 - If I learned anything from playing the Saints Row IV Inauguration Station, it is that I have a problem with loving character customization options. I literally could spend a whole day just making characters and have fun. I did that a lot for D&D. Hell, I played a small bit of Sims 3 with an ex-girlfriend and the only fun part was just making the characters with her. Regardless, the next Pokemon games will give a much GREATER degree of player customization and it’ll be great to finally be able to play as something other than a white girl (or dude) in a generally non-white location (like the earlier games and their basis in Japan. I only hope many NPCs will have some pallet, clothing, and style swaps as well for a lot of variety.

2. SUPER TRAINING

 - Another dumb sounding name, but probably the feature of the game I’ll abuse the most unless character customization has a boob-size adjuster as well. Super Training is a collection of mini-games which will allow you to boost up “Effort Values” of Pokemon without the bother of normal EV training. There has not been a confirmation on whether you can only boost with this so much or if you can just substitute normal EV training for this. Either way, this is still a good alternative to raising up speed EVs than having to fight another 100 fucking zubat.

1. FAIRY TYPE

 - You might be asking, of all the game changing features being added, why is fairy-type’s introduction being hyped up so much here? Well, let me tell you, I remember back when Dark and Steel were introduced and they weren’t that big of a deal due to a lack of Pokemon being those types and a lack of good moves being either dark or steel. It wasn’t until the glorious generation IV when these two types started becoming the major powerhouses of today (with some notable exceptions prior to IV). And while I can’t expect the fairy type to enter the metagame with a big boom, I imagine their impact on the metagame and the balance of power among the various pokemon on the various tiers will be significant and I am very much looking forward to this shaking up Pokemon as we know it. This is what I wanted last generation and didn’t get it. It’s about damn time we got a new type to have fun with here.

Yep, over a year ago, I was done with Pokemon and when generation six was announced, only showing a handful of screen shots that showed nothing new other than the 3D models and design, I was admittedly upset with it all. I was bitter about how generation five was for me and how I couldn’t enjoy the good aspects without wading through all the stupid shit that was the really boring story. But with all these new aspects being added to generation six, I think things will be much better than it was before. Having not played a lot Pokemon since dropping generation five, I don’t have to worry as much about being burned out on the experience. I can focus on learning an all new metagame for competitive level play. I can enjoy old favorites like Mewtwo, Blaziken, Lucario, and more getting some new abilities and upgrades. Overall, I’m actually hype for the next generation of Pokemon. It took a while to get here, but I’m glad that there’s enough going on to make me change my mind.

… now if only Nintendo would change their mind on a fucking MMO. Then we’d be in business.

The Cyclical Problem of the WiiU

I was going to write something more open ended and fun that discussed the idea of games being art and why we haven’t gained the same level of respect outside of our gaming community from non-gamers. But because I’m relatively pissed off at some recent news (or more like a recent news trend) I’ll talk about that instead and annoy you with my ranting and raving for a few minutes.

The biggest question that people ask at some point in their life other than “Will you marry me?” is “What came first: the chicken or the egg?” It’s a question presumed to have no real answer, but if you look at the evolution of birds, you’ll see that, in fact, eggs existed long before the actual chicken did. So whatever two animals mated to produce the chicken obvious created the egg first from which the chicken was produced. Thus, the egg had to come first. Others will argue that since it wasn’t a “chicken egg” that said argument is invalid. The chicken had to come first to lay the first chicken egg. But the question wasn’t asking specifically about the “chicken egg” and that’s not the point of this article anyway, so shut up. The point is many things in nature and in life are cyclical in nature and that many things come down to two sides blaming the other for why things don’t happen.

Take the WiiU’s recent lack of games lately. Most publishers/developers (some say one, some say the other) outside of Atlus, Ubisoft, and SEGA have refused to make games for the WiiU for the simple reason that it doesn’t have a large install base. This is a large reason why EA has neglected to bring up any games for the console. This is a large reason why we really haven’t seen many games period for the WiiU despite it being more capable than the current consoles on the market. Now, let’s be fair, there are probably other reasons along with those. BUT the fact remains that this is the reason that companies decide to tell us and, anymore, it’s lost all meaning.

On the flip side, I’ve seen responses to many reviews and articles related to upcoming and already released games on the WiiU. Quite a few always spout the same, “This game sounds great. But I don’t want to buy the WiiU for just one game.” First, the fact I see this on MULTIPLE games already shows that their statement has a huge flaw with it. Second, you realize that there aren’t a lot of great games on the console because of people like you refusing to take a chance and buy it? Again, this is another line of thinking that no longer means anything to me simply because of how often it is brought up in response to “A New WiiU game”.

What we have here is a cyclical relationship. Companies refuse to make games for the WiiU, stating that there aren’t enough people with WiiU’s to justify making it. And we have gamers saying that there aren’t enough games being made on the WiiU to justify buying it. Both HAD a valid excuse, but both are clearly in the wrong and neither is giving in to help fix the problem. I actually got into an argument with one of the people who made the “there aren’t any games for it” argument by pointing out this flaw in logic. But apparently I was alone in my idea because a few others argued against me asking why they should be the ones to take the first step in this issue.

The problem is no one SHOULD have to take the first step because this SHOULD NOT be a problem to begin with. Companies should have been making the games for all the platforms to begin with and then adjust accordingly based on early sales numbers for future releases. Instead, what we’re getting is a failed cyclical problem that neither side is willing to help fix. What’s worse is that this problem doesn’t affect EITHER of them. You know who this actually hurts? It hurts Nintendo because their consoles aren’t selling fast enough for them. It hurts those who publish on the WiiU because while they’re making sales, it isn’t enough to please their publishers. It hurts the gamers who love the WiiU because we aren’t getting all the games we would love to play. And what’s worse is that those of us getting the shit end of the deal can’t do anything about it but complain to those sides to stop doing what they’re doing.

The real shame is that the WiiU is a solid console. From what I’ve done on it, I’ve preferred the WiiU experience over most any other console (save for the Gamecube). I like the idea behind the controller. I like the internet system they decided to go with. I like their virtual console that took forever to set up. Yes, there are faults with it, but it’s vastly superior to the competition at this point and the lack of support from damn near everyone overshadows all the great aspects of it.

But why bother bringing this up? This isn’t news. This isn’t surprising at this point. Well, the straw that broke the camel’s back this time was Warner Bros. recently announcing a multiplayer aspect to the upcoming Arkham Origins game. It seemed pretty cool and I remember thinking, “This could be fun to play with friends mixing the WiiUPad and the TV.” Unfortunately, I may never get the chance to enjoy it because according the WB, the Multiplayer mode will NOT be included in the WiiU because the “Multiplayer Base is too small.” And why do you think that is, WB? Could it be because there aren’t a lot of games released on the WiiU with multiplayer components? Could it be that the ones that are already have games on other consoles and people didn’t want to buy a port of a game they already own? Could it be your logic is completely fucking irrelevant and that you should give us the full game experience or fuck off?

And what’s annoying about that is that Warner Bros, not more than a month ago, said they were in full support of the WiiU and willing to develop games for it. This shows the exact opposite ideal. Sure, they’re developing games for it, but they’re giving the WiiU audience a lesser experience and helping to contribute to the stagnation of growth on the WiiU console’s install base. They’re two-faced (ironically) opportunists that will jump ship the first sign things aren’t looking good for them. I don’t even care about multiplayer features. Especially in a Batman game when they’ve never had or needed multiplayer on those games. If anything, multiplayer would likely detract from the game. What makes me mad is we’re just not getting the full package of the game on the WiiU, yet, you can be sure that we’ll still get charged the full fucking price for the game because that’s how business works. Let’s charge $60 across the board, even though the WiiU owners are missing some features the other consoles will get. No one is going to care.

I was going to buy it for the WiiU, like I’ll buy all my multiplatform releases. Because, as I’ve said, the WiiU is a great console that deserves to get more games for it. But with this news, unless the game is actually cheaper to buy than the other versions, I will just not buy it. I don’t care if I can just get it for PS3 or whatever. I won’t support a company that’s going to tell us it’s our friend one second, and then refuse to give us a helping hand when we need it the next. I’ll buy Arkham City again for the WiiU instead or just some other game entirely. And when I say cheaper, I mean it should be $40 at that point. I know it won’t be, and I’ll settle for the more likely $50 price tag, but for as expensive as I’ve heard multiplayer is, the game should be significantly cheaper based on that knowledge alone.

So, I’ll end with this. Warner Bros, I love you guys because you have done some great things in the past. You published the previous and spectacular “Arkham Games” and you even published the superb “Bastion.” But this is something I won’t stand for, despite the good things you’ve done before. I certainly hope I’m not the only one with this sentiment and that you either get your act together on this one before we’re forced to make the hard decision to not buy what would be an otherwise magnificent game.