Category: Pokémon

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: November 2014

Another month down, another month saturated with Smash Bros. Two flavours of Smash Bros this time, even! And also some other things. Mostly Zelda. Why do I even own any non-Nintendo machines?

~ Now Playing ~

Super Smash Bros for Wii U (WiiU) – Thank you, Nintendo.

Pokémon Alpha Sapphire (3DS) – Having completed the Generation VII Pokédex in Pokémon Y, I decided to eschew my normal Pokémon tendencies and do a nuzlocke run. It was going really well until my Voltorb died and now I don’t know if I have the will to go on. Poor Vince, he was so young…

Hyrule Warriors (WiiU) – I’d be done this if it weren’t for the massive DLC packs that keep coming out. They add weeks and weeks to the game’s already-pretty-long lifespan. And I haven’t even finished the original Adventure Mode yet!

Wii Fit U (WiiU) – I really shouldn’t bother writing this in, but I’ve been using it a lot lately! Enough that I’ve even gotten passably good at that waiter game that I used to hate with a firey passion. Still, every time I turn it on, I get a sad from remembering that I lost my Fit Meter long ago.

Always Sometimes Monsters (PC) – I don’t even know where to start with this one. It’s a 2D RPG in a modern setting, where you’ve got to wrangle up a bunch of money to pay your rent. There’s more than that, but I feel like going into it would ruin it. It’s a bit slow, but it seems like a good way to spend a few Saturday mornings.

Alien: Isolation (360) – It’s too scary to type anything about it!

Super Mario Advance (GBA) – This was the only GBA game I owned for quite a while, so I played the ever-loving crap out of it. That also gave me great deal of nostalgia for it. I’d love for it to be HD-ified, because it’s my favourite version of Mario 2, but the colours look so faded and it doesn’t fit quite right in GBA resolution.

~ Game Over ~

Super Smash Bros for 3DS (3DS) – I’m not ceasing to play it, but I’ve cleared all the challenges, so I’m calling it beaten.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii) – Probably should have lumped this one and Majora under “Re-runs” because I burned through them both fairly quickly, but I think the “Game Over” category has a little more clout. Or something. I really like Twilight Princess. This is the fifth time I’ve beaten it. To 100% (less the Poes because F the Poes).

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (N64) – I always start writing this feature near the beginning of the month, and initially I’d written a blurb about how I’d like a 3DS remake of this game to happen. Guess what was announced literally that afternoon. Still played the N64 version because I had just dropped $10 on the Virtual Console version. You’re welcome.

Picross e5 (3DS) – Yup it’s another Picross game. And I played it.

Spirits (PC) – Kind of like Lemmings, but less cartoony and more artsy. Also your spirits can’t do nearly as many things as lemmings, and any action effectively kills them. I played through all the levels, but I just don’t care about it enough to bother with perfect clears. I wish that would stop being a thing.

Mighty Gunvolt (3DS) – A cute little 8-bit freebie they gave away with Azure Striker Gunvolt (which I still haven’t played). Four stages and a final boss of very base-level Mega Man-style action. Not totally fulfilling, but a good way to kill twenty minutes.

The Love Letter (PC) – An adorable browser game that I wrote about a week ago.

~ Re-Runs ~

Mega Man X2 (SNES) – I usually play through Mega Man X once or twice a year, but I only go through X2 every few years and almost never touch X3. It’s really too bad, because X2 is pretty good. I just don’t know the optimal way through the game, so it seems like I end up revisiting stages to collect power-ups more than I should have to.

Comics that aren’t mine

I’ve been playing Pokémon Alpha Sapphire here and there between Zeldas and Smash Brothers, though this time I’m doing it a little differently. I’m playing Nuzlocke-style, which means that I can only capture the first monster I see in any given area, and that any of my pokémon that faint are considered dead and set free.

The challenge gives the game a little extra oomph, as it means you have a finite number of Pokémon to work with, and you don’t get to choose them. Good on this Nuzlocke fellow for coming up with an interesting way to keep the game fresh.

Also, he wrote and drew many comics about his own poke-adventures! They’re mostly about going through the poke-motions with the altered rules, but there are plenty of laugh-out-loud jokes in there. The art is pretty shabby to begin with, but it’s clearly because Nuzlocke is rushing these out the door and not putting much effort into them. They do start to look much better later on.

The only thing that I don’t like? The comic was abandoned only a few episodes into the White series. Things that end mid-story make me sad. But what can you do? Point of this post: Nuzlocke’s Pokémon: Hard-Mode comics were very much enjoyed by me, and they could be enjoyed by you too. Check ’em out.

There are other comics on his site there, but I haven’t read them yet. Investigate at your own risk.

Creepier than the average uncle

I suppose I probably should clarify a stance or something, but I’ve been trying to avoid any GamerGate-related talk on here because the only thing that’s good for is bringing people down, and I want my blog to be a more positive place. If I’m going to type anything depressing, it’ll be personal woes, not about people being horrible to other people.

For the record, I don’t think that social politics should be part of video games, so I don’t want to get involved. But I do believe that video games should be enjoyable for everyone. Men, women, everyone in-between. They’re not for an exclusive club of socially-challenged nerds. All my life I’ve been waiting for the stigma against gamers to go away, waiting for the day when I could play my 3DS on the bus and not have to feel like I’m being judged. GamerGate is just making it worse. It has nothing to do with journalistic integrity and everything to do with hatemongering. So yeah, I want GamerGate and all their stupid crap to go away.

But that’s just sort of a preamble for what I really want to write about today, because I honestly can’t say much about it: The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo. It’s a text adventure, which might immediately disinterest a few, but keep in mind that it’s short and you can probably reach the final ending within about 20 minutes.

The game starts out all cute and nostalgic, but quickly gets creepy and uncomfortable. It’s probably the most enjoyable Twine game I’ve played, which isn’t playing much, since I’ve only played like three. There are a handful of endings to earn, and the game does a very nice job of hinting towards ones you haven’t yet found. It also provides a very nice option to restart at the point in the game where your decisions start to matter, cutting out all the setup on replays.

I’d like to say more about it, but I don’t really want to spoil anything. The one thing I do want to mention is that if you make certain choices, the game does go down a very GamerGate-relevant path. Yeah, it gets a wee bit preachy, but it doesn’t detract from the overall experience.

I absolutely recommend checking out UWWFN long enough to find your way to the real ending. A good way to kill half an hour, if nothing else. And it’s a browser game, so you’ve got no good excuse not to. Just make sure you do it on a real computer and not your phone or tablet, because the audio component is pretty important.

Oh, and if you’re a big fraidy-cat like me, maybe play in the afternoon. It gets pretty spooky.

One week to go…

Until I can stop annoying everyone with my excitement for the upcoming Super Smash Bros for 3DS. Then I can annoy everyone with my excitement for the upcoming Super Smash Bros for Wii U! Hooray! As a celebration of only a week left of waiting (which will go by very quickly thanks to Gauntlet and Hyrule Warriors), here are some fun images from the Smash Bros demo that I took with my phone. Because the demo doesn’t let you save screenshots like the full version will. I’m sure that all of my Facebook friends will be just delighted when I start flooding their feeds with Smash Bros screenshots again.

Smash Speculation: Shiftry

The amount of Pokémon characters in Smash Bros rises by two in each incarnation. The first game had two, Melee had four, and Brawl (technically) had six. So far, only four are confirmed for Smash 4, and I’m assuming that Jigglypuff isn’t getting the boot, so there must be one more hiding just in the shadows…

~ Shiftry ~

smashshifrty

In Brawl, the Pokémon Trainer character was actually three different fighters that switched off: Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard. They were of water-, grass-, and fire-types. Charizard is now a solo character, and Greninja has stepped up to the plate to represent water-type pokémon. That leaves an empty slot for a grass-type to fill.

Get it? Leaves?

Now, this is all just speculation (duh) based on trends in both series. And there are tons of grass-type pokémon to choose from. Grass is one of the most prolific pokémon types, in fact. So I picked one. There aren’t many grass-types that i’m overly fond of, and my favourite (Pumpkaboo) isn’t quite grassy enough to fit the spot.

Shiftry really isn’t either, but at least it has some visible leaves on it. Though Shiftry isn’t very popular. A quick bit of research shows that Shiftry is competitively viable, but there are plenty of better choices. Shiftry has only ever been on my team in a Pokémon game once, and even then I only raised it for one very specific fight, but I got to like the little guy.

Shiftry is a combination grass- and dark-type pokémon, and looks like a tengu. These traits would reflect in its moveset. It would probably be fairly quick, but i likely wouldn’t hit too hard, and wouldn’t have many moves that are good for launching. It would probably dart around a lot, and it looks like it should have a pretty good air game. Its leafy… arms? fans? would be its main weapons, but I can see it working in some kicks and maybe even a heatbutt.

That said, I don’t think that Shiftry is the kind of fighter that would have very interesting smash attacks. They’d probably just be stronger variations of its standard attacks. A big swipe with its arms for forward, a crouching spin with its arms outstretched for down, and maybe that heatbutt would be up. See, pretty standard stuff.

What would be fun is if its Early Bird ability was factored in, and it would only succumb to sleep attacks for half as long as any other fighter would. You could also conceivably use the Pickpocket ability, which would give Shiftry a chance of stealing an item that an opponent is holding when Shiftry attacks them. Its third potential ability, Chlorophyll, gives a speed boost in sunny weather, but that might be too situational to work into Smash.

It’s specials would be based on its moves from the Pokémon games, just like all the other pokémon fighters. Its neutral special would be the dark-type Payback. Yet another special that could be filed under counterattacks, Payback would leave Shiftry immobile for a second as it charges an attack. If it’s hit before attacking, Payback does double damage and launches the enemy. Otherwise it would just be a fairly standard hit. Payback can only be interrupted by throws.

Forward special is Feint Attack. Shiftry zips behind its opponent and attacks for moderate damage. This attack can’t be evaded with a dodge, but it can still be blocked. It’s really either this or some kind of grassy projectile like Seed Bomb or Razor Leaf. I was thinking maybe Solar Beam, with the caveat of it decreasing Shiftry’s attack power for a few seconds after being used, but I’m not sure I like that, or that it really fits the character.

I wanted to give Shiftry something really unique, so I suggest that its down special would be Grassy Terrain, which sprouts grass all over the ground in a certain area around Shiftry. When standing in said grass, Shiftry’s damage percentage slowly decreases and it gets an attack power boost. This might be too much of a boon though, and I’m not sure whether it could be balanced well. The healing rate would have to be pretty low, and only one Grassy Terrain could be laid down at a time. It’s not like a Shiftry player could just run around and turn the entire stage to grass. I don’t know how long the grass would persist, either. Maybe somewhere between five and ten seconds?

Lastly, Shiftry’s up special is Leaf Tornado. If used while standing, the tornado forms around Shiftry and then moves forward a few body lengths before dissipating. In the air though, it forms around Shiftry and lifts the pokémon upwards. Coming in contact with the tornado causes damage in either scenario, but it’ll catch anyone it hits if it’s moving horizontally and drag them along until it vanishes. Nothing really special here, but it’s functional and has different uses depending on the situation.

I thought long and hard about Shiftry’s final smash, and the obvious answer is Solar Beam. But I don’t want to use Solar Beam. Instead, I choose Leaf Storm. With this move, a large sphere of leaves whirl around Shiftry and increase its movement speed, and crashing into foes will cause damage. When you come in contact with another fighter, you can mash the attack button to grab them with the leaves and cause continuous damage, with the stipulation that you’re immobile while doing so.

I’m sure you’re still wondering why Smash needs a grass-type pokémon. Short answer: it doesn’t. But fire, water, and grass have an important relationship in the Pokémon series, and it would just be super weird for Smash Bros to only represent two of the three. Shiftry is my personal favourite for the spot, but only because Abomasnow and Pumpkaboo wouldn’t really fit into a hyperactive fighting game as well.

Previous: Dixie Kong

Next: Paper Mario

Year of N64 Bonus Round Q2 – Pokémon Snap

It might surprise you to learn that I wasn’t overly kind to Pokémon Snap back in its day. I played the game obsessively to completion, and then dumped all over it for being too short and too easy if anyone asked. Of course, this was my professional Stupid Teenage Gamer opinion, trotted out mostly to save face in a harsh middle school world. Deep down inside, I knew that Pokémon Snap was something special. Something magical.

Pokémon Snap is a short game. There are six courses, which take around 5-8 minutes to traverse, and one shorter special course to cap it off. I dragged my wife along for the ride this time, and while the five hours it took us to clear the game 100% seemed like a leisurely afternoon gaming session to me, she was chomping at the bit to get moving onto something else at around the three-and-a-half hour mark. She did stick it out to the end for me, and the experience was all the more special to me for it. That’s why I love her!

So! Pokémon Snap. What is it? It’s a photography game, which is an unusual kind of game to make, but that’s kind of what Nintendo is all about. You choose a course (unless you’re just starting out) and then you’re plopped into a weird vehicle which guides you along the stage. Pokémon litter the environments, and your job is to take the best darn picture you can of each and every one of ’em.

What makes this more interesting is the way that you can interact with the pokémon. At first, you can’t do anything but take pictures, and you’re at the whims of the game to find opportunities for good shots. As you progress though, you’ll be given a few different items. Apples will draw the attention of pokémon, who will gravitate over to any apples thrown in their vicinity. Usually they’ll just eat the apple, but some pokémon may do a little happy dance afterward, or perhaps even fight over the foodstuffs. You can even throw apples right at pokémon to bonk them and provoke different reactions.

Pester balls are basically the opposite of apples. You toss one at a pokémon and it’ll run away or get angry at you. They probably do other things too, but I can’t be bothered to remember what. The poké flute is exactly what it sounds like, and when you play a tune on it, nearby pokémon will start dancing. As a reference to Pokémon Red and Blue, it also wakes up sleeping pokémon. The poké flute plays several different tunes, but I never experimented with them to see if they got different results.

Stages are all preset, and your movement through them is automatic. If you don’t throw anything at them, pokémon will always play out the same actions every time you visit a stage. The final item, the motor, increases the speed of your vehicle so that maybe you can see what pokémon are doing before you’re supposed to arrive at their point. It’s not overly useful, but it’s nice if you’re returning to a stage for a single pokémon and just want to zip past the rest.

Only 63 of the 151 original pokémon are featured in the game, and not all of them are just sitting around waiting to get their pictures taken. You’ll have to take full advantage of all the tools at your disposal if you want to snap ’em all. Some are easy enough to coax out of hiding, but some of the methods for making certain pokémon appear are totally inscrutable without a guide. You’ll probably make Starmie appear eventually if you keep playing the Valley course, but you’ll never guess what it was that triggered it.

It’s not a particularly beefy game, but what is there is really worth playing. It won’t take you too long to get to the end, but you’ll need to be clever and resourceful if you want to complete the pokémon report. Of course, hours upon hours can be added on if you enjoy trying to take the highest scoring pictures of every monster. Pokémon Snap is a great game, and the perfect way to spend a lazy weekend afternoon.

(If you’re interested, I wrote a thing about the Virtual Console release of Pokémon Snap a few years ago.)

Impressions on Nintendo’s E3 2014 Digital Event

I only ever watch Nintendo’s E3 presentations, because aside from maybe one or two specific games, I generally don’t give a flying fig about the other guys’ stuff. I always enjoy Nintendo’s shows, but to be quite frank, this year’s has got me the most excited I’ve been in a good long while. Let’s go over it point-by-point.

Oh, and here’s an embed of the full presentation, if you feel so inclined to watch it for yourself. I’ve embedded a few choice trailers later on, too.

The Presentation

The opening and a few little skits in between game-related segments were all done up Robot Chicken-style. And I don’t mean in a style reminiscent of Robot Chicken. I mean that I wouldn’t be surprised if Seth Green and company actually had a hand in creating the animated scenes. It was a dead-on likeness, and the skits used pretty much the exact same type of humour that the show is known for, albeit a little softer to keep it family-friendly.

While the internet seems to have mixed feelings about it, I personally loved it. It was much more interesting than just having Reggie and whoever else up on stage bleating about business strategy or whatever. Reggie’s part was actually pretty short, too, and his animated double stepped aside less than halfway through the show to let the games and their developers do the talking.

Super Smash Bros

The first game up was Super Smash Bros for 3DS and Wii U. It still doesn’t have a real title, and at this point I don’t think it ever will. Whatever. That’s hardly important.

What matter is that Miis have been revealed to join the fight, and they look awesome. There are three types of Miis to choose from: Brawlers, who are bare-handed; Swordfighters, who obviously carry a sword; and Gunners, who have a really cool gun-arm. Not only can you import your Miis into the game, but you can also dress them up in a variety of hats and different costumes. Oh, and they look like they’ll be a lot of fun to play as, too.

Masahiro Sakurai talked about the game for a bit, and then showed a very quick montage of clips, which I’m sure held plenty of new info, but I haven’t gone over it to pick it apart yet. It really doesn’t matter. It’s Smash Bros. The only thing that disappoints me is that the “summer” release date of the 3DS version is October 3rd. In what crazy fantasy world is that considered summer?

At the end of the show, Palutena from the Kid Icarus franchise was also confirmed as a new fighter, with a very anime intro video. I’m not totally sold on her yet, but hey, the more the merrier, right? Her trailer also suggested that Dark Pit will be in the game in some capacity. Whether he shows up as a playable character or just an assist trophy, we don’t yet know.

It wasn’t a part of the big presentation, but a Pac-Man intro trailer showed up overnight. I’m still in a little disbelief, but really, it makes perfect sense. You’ve got Mario, Mega Man, and Sonic all in the same game already. Pac-Man fits right in there with the big names of classic gaming. Of course, Bandai-Namco is also helping develop the games, so… Pac-Man seems like he’ll be a fun fighter to use. If nothing else, he’ll be fun to watch, with all his wacky moves and goofy sound effects. His trailer also confirmed Mr. Game & Watch’s return, which is just gravy at this point.

Amiibo

Nintendo’s entry into the world of selling plastic figures as add-ons to your video games. At first they seem like an evil scheme to bilk you out of even more money, but unlike Skylanders and Disney Infinity, they don’t seem to be necessary to enjoy the full content of the games they link to. Well, not for Smash Bros, anyway.

While Nintendo has plans to launch Amiibos for a handful of different games, they only showed what the figures will do in Smash. There, they will simply contain AI fighters that you can swipe into your game. These fighters will level-up and adjust their playstyles over time, which seems like a really cool feature. I might pick up one or two because they look neat. I’m just relieved that they’re an entirely optional thing.

 Yoshi’s Woolly World

I’ve been waiting for more news on this one very patiently, and the wait finally paid off! There was a pretty big feature on the game and how it was conceived, which was a pretty interesting segment. I loved Kirby’s Epic Yarn to death, and I could not be more thrilled that Yoshi is getting a similar treatment.

The thing is that Kirby’s Epic Yarn was a pretty huge deviation from the normal Kirby formula. It was an entirely unique game with a beautiful visual style. Yoshi is even prettier, but seems to be hewing pretty close to the Yoshi’s Island style of gameplay that we’re very familiar with. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because Yoshi’s New Island turned out pretty darn well on that front. I would like to see Woolly World go in a different direction, but I’ll just have to put my faith in Tezuka.

I also really want a crochet Yoshi now.

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker

After playing Super Mario 3D World, I found that I wanted an entire game based on the Captain Toad stages really badly. I even made a Miiverse post or two to that effect.

Not once did I ever think that Nintendo would actually make that game.

But there it is, in all its glory. You know what? Not once have I ever thought that I’d be drooling over a game starring Toad, either. But here we are. I often don’t care about Nintendo’s weird little spin-off games, but the Captain toad levels in 3D World were just so much fun that this is going to be an absolute Day One purchase. I’m still not clear on whether it’s going to be a full retail release or a smaller eShop game, but either way, “Holiday 2014” can’t come fast enough.

The Legend of Zelda Wii U

It’s not even far enough into development to have a real name yet, but God damn did the teaser look gorgeous. And it’s in-engine, too! I love the idea of making the world more open so that you can tackle challenges in whichever way you like.

What’s most immediately interesting though, is that Aonuma suggested that the character in the teaser may not be Link. After seeing it, I immediately turned to the wife and asked “Is Link a girl this time?” The character is considerably more feminine than Link has ever been. It’d be quite a neat twist if Link were a girl this time. Or if Zelda turned out to be the hero!

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

Remakes of the third generation Pokémon games. There isn’t really a lot to say about them yet, but I think I’m probably quite a bit more excited about these than most. Sapphire Version was my re-introduction to Pokémon after several years of having let the series pass me by, and I hold it quite dear to my heart because of that. Most people just seem to think that Gen III was trash though. Nuts to those guys. Gen III gave us Blaziken and Walrein and Altaria. I really like Gen III, is what I’m saying.

Also, Mega Swampert is a totally boss, Hulked-out monster. I love it!

Bayonetta 2

I had no interest in Bayonetta 2 at all until yesterday. I’ll admit that I was forcing myself to be indifferent to it because I didn’t play the first game at all. I still didn’t much care for it until they showed that the first game would be packaged in with retail copies, and that you can dress up Bayonetta as Princess Peach, Link, and Samus.

Two games for the price of one? Fun, sexy cosplay times?

This is why I only care about Nintendo’s presentations. They know how to push my buttons.

Hyrule Warriors

I’ve never played a game in the Dynasty Warriors series, and I plan to keep it that way. However, I will buy pretty much anything relating to Zelda, so I’ve been watchign this one with a keen eye. And a much keener eye now that Zelda has been confirmed to be a playable character. I honestly don’t know if I’d rather play as her or Impa, who is a major badass here. Honestly, Link just looks so plain and boring in comparison.

It might not be a big problem when the final product arrives though, as Aonuma said that the game will have tons of characters to choose from. There are four revealed now, and I’m pretty excited about what they’re still hiding up their sleeve.

Not having ever played a Warriors game of any description before, I also get the nice bonus of this being a totally new style of gameplay for me. Running around a battlefield, chopping hundreds of monsters to bits? Taking on huge Zelda bosses in a more fast-paced environment? Playing co-op with the wife? Yes, yes, and yes! Sign me up already!

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

Kirby: Canvas Curse remains one of my most beloved games on the original DS, and I nearly blew a gasket when I saw that there’s going to be a Wii U sequel.

That same gasket then succeeded in blowing when I realized that the graphics are all done in an adorable claymation style.

Xenoblade Chronicles X

I don’t much care for how gosh-darned anime it looks, but if it’s as engrossing to play as the first Xenoblade Chronicles, I’ll gladly plug another 150 hours into this one. And the Nopon are back, so hooray!

Ugh, but seriously. It’s so freaking anime. Gross.

And I hope the final title is something a little less… dumb.

Mario Maker

It’s exactly what it sounds like. A Nintendo-sanctioned program that lets you build, share, and play your very own Mario levels. It’s really nice to see an official version after the various illegitimate PC editors, but it’s kinda sad that it only includes assets from Super Mario Bros and New Super Mario Bros. So none of the more interesting stuff. Oh well. I’m sure that assets from other games will become paid DLC, and I’m sure that I’ll be more than willing to fork over that cash when the time comes.

Splatoon

A wholly new game for Wii U, and a team-based online (third-person) shooter at that! It’s a goofy paintball game though, so it’s kid-friendly, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be any less fun. No, in fact, this is the first shooter in years that has my full attention.

The gimmick here is that you can cover the arena in you team’s colour of paint, and your avatar can turn into a squid to swim through and hide in that paint. It looks like there’s a certain level of strategy involved, and that just swimming and bouncing around the stages will be a whole lot of fun. Honestly, I think I could actually spend as much time playing this as I did Unreal Tournament. And let me tell you, I played a lot of Unreal Tournament back in the day. I think it probably still holds the record for PC game that I’ve put the most time into.

All of that was enough to take in, but there were plenty of other games that didn’t make the cut and were only seen on the show floor. Everything on 3DS that isn’t Pokémon, for example. Also a new Star Fox game and a couple new projects that Miyamoto is working on.

Immediate buzz is that Nintendo won E3 this year, and if I had seen anything from any of the competition, I’d be able to agree. If nothing else, the Wii U has a friggin’ excellent bunch of software in the pipe. Hopefully that’s what it needs to turn its lagging sales around. Mario Kart 8 was a massive shot in the arm, and a showing like this can only make things better.

Yeah, so. 2015 is going to be a pretty expensive year. If you start to see me hanging out on the streets in the seedier parts of town late at night, it’s probably because I need to bring in some extra income so that I can buy all these darned video games.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: April 2014

In March I tried to focus on fewer games, getting my count of beaten games up, and cleaving away a small portion of my backlog. But then April came along and I have just been all over the place with my gaming; playing on every platform, new games, old games, half-beaten games. I guess it’s like that rubber-band effect that happens to people who try to lose weight the wrong way.

This month’s list is huge, but at least I beat a lot of the games on it. Lately it seems like I’ve been favoring a system of working on one or two long games, while supplementing that with a bunch of smaller games that can be beaten over a couple evenings or a single afternoon. It’s a good system, and I wish I’d thought of it years ago. Maybe then my backlog wouldn’t be so enormous.

~ Now Playing ~

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate HD (360) – Unlike many, I quite liked the first Lords of Shadow game, but the 3DS sequel seemed so tepid that I skipped it. Luckily, Mercurysteam saw fit to release an HD version for $15 only a few months later, which then went on sale, and that sounded good enough to me. And, yeah, it’s pretty much as mediocre as the reviews make it out to be. Oh well.

Continue reading Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: April 2014

Applause for Pokémon

On one hand, I generally hate pop music mashups. They’re almost always stupid and more often than not I hate both of the songs they’re made out of.

On the other hand, I love it when two totally opposite things blend together absolutely beautifully.

That said, guess how I feel about the video embedded below. (Hint: I try to mostly only post about things I like.)

Pokémon Battle Trozei

It’s been many years, and many generations of Pokémon now, that I’ve said that all I want from the franchise is one Pokémon game where you can catch them all. Of course, by that, I mean where every single monster lives in that game, and you don’t have to worry about trading up from previous games or Nintendo’s event hullabaloo to get them all.

Well, I got what I wished for, though it’s not exactly the way I imagined it would be.

Pokémon Battle Trozei is a Pokémon game where you can, in fact, catch every existing species of Pokémon without having to jump through a bunch of silly hoops. But also it’s not really a Pokémon game in the traditional sense. It’s a block-matching game in the vein of Puzzle & Dragons or Puzzlecraft.

Unlike other popular mobile block-matching games, PBT is pretty simplistic. Other games have crafting and town-building and monster-fusing and all sorts of other fancy features that serve mostly to keep you addicted. PBT whittles it down to the basic puzzle game, where you drag the little Pokémon-shaped blocks around to match them up and clear them from the field. Outside of that, the only thing you’re doing is filling up your pokédex.

It’s not just a simple Bejeweled-alike though. Granted, it does seem to be when you first start playing, but gradually, more features will open up that make Pokémon Battle Trozei stand out in the sea of samey block-matchers.

Throughout the game’s many, many levels, your goal is to catch the Pokémon that inhabit each of them. Doing this is accomplished by matching blocks, which will deal damage to the target Pokémon’s HP. Combos of successive matches with add up more damage onto an attack, and when the target’s HP is depleted, they’re caught and added to your roster.

The Pokémon don’t just sit back and take it though. They will launch an attack of their own every once in a while, depleting your HP. Stronger Pokémon can even break through into your playfield, and they’ll zoom around in there, decreasing the space that you have to play in, and knocking out any blocks that they come in contact with. When you battle a strong Pokémon, or play a level that features a larg number of the creatures, things get frantic quickly and can really come down to the wire.

Being a Pokémon game, there are a few familiar gameplay features that make their way into this puzzle game. Type-matching is still a thing that happens, and you can score super-effective hits against your foes if you use the right type. If you use a type that isn’t very effective though, damage will be decreased. Once you progress a few stages into the game, it’ll let you choose a helper Pokémon from your roster of captured monsters to bring into a stage with you. Normally, the Pokémon blocks that appear in a stage are a random selection, but the ‘mon you choose as your helper is guaranteed to show up.

Some Pokémon also have a special ability that will activate when you match them, but these seem to be very few and far between so far. About a dozen stages in, I’ve only caught three: Serperior, Emboar, and Samurott; all of which have the same ability to deal more damage when your HP is low. The tutorial also shows that matching Chanseys will heal you instead of attacking, but I haven’t seen Chansey in regular play yet.

Ditto is a special block, in that it doesn’t invoke an ability, but you can use it as a wild card. It can be matched with any other block, and even multiple different blocks at once, but they only drop in under special conditions. What those conditions are, I’m not totally certain. All I can say for sure is that they seem to show up exactly when you need them.

To keep you playing even after you’ve caught every Pokémon in a stage, your performance is ranked by how many points you earn. Getting the elusive S Rank is deceptively tough, requiring some really top-notch skills to earn. To even dream of S Ranks, you’re going to have to get good at Trozei Chance, which is activated when you match 4 blocks, and then 3 other blocks right afterward. When you’re in Trozei Chance mode, the screen gets all flashy and you only need two like blocks to get a match. If you’re good, you can clear out the entire playfield, and earn big points as well as continue your combo chain.

The game world is divided into zones, with a handful of stages within each. Burning through each stage as quickly as possible isn’t the best way to proceed though, as extra stages with special Pokémon in them will open up if you complete certain requirements. So far, those requirements seem to be exclusively “catch all the Pokémon in the previous stages,” but they might grow more diverse later on.

Early on, you unlock a special zone known as the Safari Jungle. The Pokémon in these stages change daily, and they’re much longer than any of the regular stages. Simply getting to the end of these stages before the wild Pokémon deplete your HP can be a trial in itself, but it’s a quick way to fill out your Pokémon roster.

Pokémon Battle Trozei falls into the same trap that any block puzzle game does: it’s very repetitive and can get really boring if you’re just playing to get to the end. If you’re in it more to hone your skills and earn higher scores and better ranks, it can be just as addictive as any good puzzler. What’s even nicer is that it doesn’t have all the weird features of a mobile puzzle game that distract your from the core game. Also there’s no arbitrary play limit built in to soak more cash out of you. Once you pony up the $8 to download the game, Nintendo isn’t going to hit you up for a cent more.