I love you, Wailord.

Q: Which Pokémon is the largest in all existence, is vital for catching four legendaries, is huggable, adorable, probably wouldn't eat you, and has a menu sprite that looks like a piece of nigiri?


A: IT'S WAILORD!

Wailord rules. Forget Ponyta, Wailord would probably let me and all my friends ride on his back, ferrying me across Hoenn in search of pirate treasure. I could even build a little tent inside his mouth, and he'd keep me safe as we dive underwater and explore the bottom of the sea...together.

I want a giant Wailord snuggle plushie.

Wailord is an unsung hero, only achieving recognition for his ability to breed with Skitty, but think about it—you couldn't get Regirock, Regice and Registeel (and therefore, couldn't get Regigigas) without a Wailord in your party.

I love you, Wailord. Even if no one else does.

Pokémon Pinball RS = Love

While we're on the subject of pinball, I just got a copy of Pokémon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire and I'm already super hooked! I've even caught most of the legendaries already (all except Rayquaza and Registeel, who is probably off sulking because I made fun of him the other day.) My favorite aspects so far:

• Latios & Latias ball savers, and the Spoink ball launcher!
  
• Pichu crawling up to save your ball when you get the permanent Pikachu bounce-backs, and then sadly wandering away when you lose it
  
• Totodile climbing down a rope from offscreen to place an egg in the nest
  
• Spoink hatching from the egg and hobbling awkwardly around the screen
  
• the Spheal bonus stage where you have to use your ball to push Spheals up a slide because they are too fat to climb it by themselves.
  
  
  
  GAH
  
  
• ...and all-around stellar graphics that are a *huge* step up from the actual RS games
  

The best part is, there are plenty of used copies on eBay and amazon for around 5 bucks, so you have no excuse to not play!

Top 5 Tuesday! Bizarre Gen3 Pokémon that should not have achieved sentience but somehow did

Gen3 gave us some weird Pokémon. Gulpin. Nuzleaf. Pelipper. But at least with those ones, we could believe (with relative ease) that such a thing could be up and wandering around. Unlike these guys. I mean, sure, we should be used to Pokémon that are made out of rocks, or clumps of dirt, or...clouds. But these are kind of a stretch.

#5. Nosepass

According to the original PokéDex entry for Nosepass, it actually barely moves at all, so it may not qualify as "sentient", but it still has a face, and does a little dance when you encounter it, so there. It's probably harmless, but it looks like a mini Moai statue and that's creepy for some reason.

#4. Solrock & Lunatone

Terrifying and soulless, you may remember Solrock and Lunatone as the Pokémon who handed your ass to you in the Mossdeep City Gym. These Pokémon supposedly appeared at the site of fallen meteorites. Well, so did Clefairy, and I don't see them trying to kill me in my sleep.

#3. Banette

A sinister, angry plush toy that skulks around dark alleys hunting for children to...presumably kill and eat. Combined with its nightmarish death-rattle of a cry and you've got all the reason you need to not play Pokémon in the dark.

#2. Claydol

Actually kind of awesome if you can get over the fact that it's a living, breathing Haniwa statue that can apparently detach parts of its body at will.

#1. Registeel

All of the Regi-liths, really. Registeel may be pretty awesome and impervious to, well, everything, but it earns some bizarre-points for being a STEEL type with "steel" in its name, but apparently being made of "something harder than any kind of metal". Also for sort of being shaped like a pencil sharpener.