TM Trouble

A lot of buzz has been going around about new features in Black and White, namely that TMs can be reused. This makes sense; when I buy software or a DVD, it doesn't explode after one use. So now we don't have to stress out about which move to teach to what Pokémon. They can all learn Thief if we want them to! This is a special breakthrough for me because maybe, for the first time ever, I'll actually use a TM.

In the previous 4 generations of Pokémon games, I never used my TMs. Like, ever. Any of them. Not because I couldn't find them, or didn't care for the moves they held, or because I had some stupid notion about keeping my Pokémon "organic". I didn't use them because I was saving them. For what? Naturally, the ultimate Pokémon team that I never actually bothered to put together. You know, the perfectly balanced, fully EV trained, level 100 power team, each with a move set carefully planned to be unbeatable. I was saving my TMs for SuperAerodactyl and GigaHitmonchan.

So any time I'd think, "Hey, maybe this Pokémon would benefit from a new move," and start to boot up a TM, I would reconsider. Once I used it, it would be gone. Gone gone. It wasn't like Rare Candy, where I at least had a chance of picking another one up. With a few exceptions (like ones sold in shops or Game Corner prizes), there was only 1 of each TM in the entire game.

I think my hesitation may be trauma from wasting a TM doing something really stupid in Blue, like teaching Dig to a Diglett, but most likely the problem is rooted far deeper. I do the exact same thing with real life objects: I save them up thinking that they'll be more useful in some future event which, of course, never comes. I was so desperate to be the well-prepared ant (as opposed to the foolish grasshopper), with my giant stash of TMs just waiting to be used in the right moment. Instead I was just a dumbass lugging a giant sack of laser discs around Kanto.

Sidenote: I didn't just do this in the early games. My TM sack in SoulSilver is just as heavy.

Countdown to Black & White!

Just 4 more days! Don't forget to stop by a GameStop store for their Celebi giveaway. You don't have to buy anything, just go lurk in a dark corner, switching game cartridges so you can download 4 of them on all your different games. >_> After you get Celebi, take him to Ilex Forest in HGSS to unlock a cool time travel Easter Egg! Be prepared to battle!

If you haven't preordered already, I highly recommend going through amazon.com. Both Pokémon Black and Pokémon White offer $10 rebates (good for purchases on amazon.com) if you preorder! So you can buy the game now, then buy some accessories (or this adorable Zorua plush) later!

For the record, I ordered White. I will eventually get Black so my boyfriend can play with me, but I wanted White first. My decision was mostly spurred by the fact that the exclusive area (White Forest) looked really cool. >_>

The Weedle Controversy

I was recently ranting about how "back in my day" we didn't have online game FAQs and walk-throughs. We just had to figure out games by ourselves, or shell out cash for a game guide. The first game guide I had was an unofficial guide for Pokémon Red & Blue. It actually belonged to my brother, and we read the shit out of that thing. Last I saw of it, it was literally hanging together by a thread, every page frayed and worn.

While I'm sure I could have gotten through the game by myself, it WAS a handy guide (particularly the maps of Silph Co.), and, for being unofficial, it was mostly accurate. Mostly.

I've already mentioned in my first post on this blog that I was never able to trade in the early games, due to lack of a link cable. Since I would never be able to have a complete PokéDex, I placated my sorrow by—with the help of the game guide—making sure to capture every creature possible inside of Blue. Or so I thought.

Like most guides, this book had a list of the "version exclusives", that is—as I am sure you are all aware—Pokemon from the same generation that only exist in one version of the game. On the list of "Red only" Pokémon was the stupid, stupid, ugly piece of crap worm-mon Weedle. It was no stretch to make the assumption that—since they were found in the same areas—Weedle was Red's token bug Pokémon, and Caterpie was Blue's.

Except that it wasn't. Weedles were NOT exclusive to Red; they were found in Blue in the bug-and-occasional-Pikachu-filled Viridian Forest just as they were in Red, only at a very low rate. A rate so low that neither I nor the jerkhat who wrote the game guide that was my only access to Pokémon information for several years ever encountered one.

To add insult to injury, I only found this out a couple months ago. I have long-since erased my original Blue game (sorry Charizard), so I can't even go back and troll Viridian Forest hoping for the 1-in-25 chance encounter with a Weedle.

Meh. I'm mad, but not so mad that I'm going to track down the author of the game guide and shove a rabid weasel through his mail slot. Anyway, it wouldn't have really made much of a difference if I had had a Weedle; I would have evolved it into a Beedrill and then buried it in my PC, never to look at or touch it again. In a way, I suppose it's better that all the Weedles in my Blue game got to enjoy the freedom that Zubat and Geodude never did.

Facebook page, ahoy!

Now you can "like" the Lavender Town PokéCenter on the Facebook. I hear it's what all the cool kids are doing.

Top 5 of Gen 5!

I am aware that it is not Tuesday, yet I am still doing a top 5 feature. Days of the week don't control me.

Gen5 has been criticized from the very first silhouette leaks of the new starters for having horribly stupid-looking Pokémon. All I really have to say to that is HAVE YOU LOOKED AT GEODUDES? THEY ARE ROCKS WITH FISTS. Also, stop taking a video game targeted towards people 1/3 your age so seriously (like I'm one to talk.) Anyway, these are my five favorite Pokémon from yet-to-be-released-in-America Black & White!*

#5. Desukan / Cofagrigus

Kudos to Nintendo America's translation team for creating a nearly-impossible-to-pronounce American name for this guy. Co-fa-gri-gus? It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. I've always loved Egyptian-style stuff, and this has the added bonus of letting me imagine that Lucy from Elfen Lied is trapped inside a sarcophagus.

#4. Shinbora

Bulbapedia suggests that the inspiration for this Pokémon comes from Nazca lines and Kachina dolls. I choose to believe that Shinbora is the product of a drunken night between a Xatu and like, 3 or 4 Unowns.

#3. Goruugu

This Pokémon is like one of the kind-hearted robots in the Robot Circus that helps Astro Boy come to terms with the fact that he's a hated piece of garbage that was disowned by his creator. I'm not sure if that actually happened in Tezuka's manga, but it should have.

#2. Shimama / Blitzle

It's an electric zebra with a mohawk. Electric zebra. Mohawk. Also it kind of looks like David Bowie, if he was a zebra.

#1. Dasutodasu

Oh god. God, yes. Nintendo obviously listens to my prayers, because they actually designed a Pokémon that is a big bag of garbage. LOOK AT THIS THING. I mean, look at it. It is obviously the product of hours of brainstorming as to what a bag of vomit and entrails might look like if it gained sentience. AND IT IS GLORIOUS.

*I thought really hard about purchasing Japanese copies of Black and/or White so I wouldn't have to wait until March. Then I realized that Japanese DS games cost twice as much as American ones. I also realized that I would have finished it and likely gotten sick of it by the time all my friends were playing it, and I would end up being ostracized as a Pokémon hipster when I inevitably told them, "I already finished that game months ago because I can read Japanese." Then they'd all go off to play and trade together and I'd be left alone. :,(

*sad face*

You may have noticed that all the images on this blog are broken. In the same moment I lost my hosting (I was planning on switching anyway, but I missed the cut-off date), I lost my computer hard drive. -_- And while I had backed up most of my important stuff like my artwork, I didn't back up the images used for this blog.

In other words, I suck, so please bear with me while I get this blog back up and running. Pokemon Black and White is coming out in the US soon! So many new things to critique and make fun of!

AX Report Part 1: Cosplay!

Sorry I'm so late with this! I've been working really hard since I got back from LA (after I took a mini vacation of course!) I'm finally back with reports of all the cool Pokémon adventures I had at Anime Expo 2010. I met a lot of really cool people, picked up some great new merchandise, gave out a ton of flyers and MUDKIPS stamps, connected with a ton of PokéWalkers, and even got to download a shiny Mudkip and Magikarp from one of the vendor booths (more on that later!) I figured I'd start with the best part: the cosplay!

I was really impressed with some of the costumes I saw! Unfortunately I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked, because I was working the entire time. T_T Anyway, click the cut to see the rest of the photos.