It's Go Time!

Right before I started typing, a Clefairy popped up on my radar. Good news, I caught it.

 

As you can tell, Pokémon Go has been pretty much been top of mind as of late. Not just in my life -- the whole world seems to be playing! I remember when it was first announced and knew Pokémon fans would be all over it. But never would I imagine Pokémon Go would have this much of an impact in little over a week.

Y'all have seen the news coverage, the promotions from small businesses and big corporations, and the Snapchat stories of people ranting and raving. But what really inspires me is how much appeal this game has for fans and non-fans alike. The day right after Go came out, I got in the office pretty early -- two of my coworkers walked over to show me their collection. One of them had never played a Pokémon game before, so it was really cool to relive the sheer joy of discovering Pokémon through a new player's perspective. Soon, the office started a chat group and organizing Pokémon hunts during our lunch break. Pretty much everyone got into it -- even my manager! Even if she didn't know its name, she was pretty pumped to catch a Weezing.

You hear that, Weezing? Someone likes you!

Pokémon Go honestly brought me back to my VGC days. Oftentimes, you'll start chatting up with random strangers on these Pokémon hunts. On our second visit to the Capital, we helped a couple of trainers find a Pikachu. A few days later, I talked to a gentleman about a Squirtle he caught, gave some tips to a lady about what to do with all her Zubat candy, and pointed a couple to a Bulbasaur at Walmart. These are people who, under any other circumstance, I might have not said hi to. There's something magical about how a simple game can bring so many people together.

You can talk about the cool AR features and how revolutionary this game is -- it's all good. But the appeal of Pokémon Go for me is the same appeal as any other Pokémon game. It's a shared experience -- something that breaks down barriers and can be understood in any language. Pokémon Go just breaks down that barrier even further. So whether repping Team Mystic (like your boy Smiles), Valor, or Instinct, go out there and make new friends! After all, that's what Pokémon's about.

Pokémon Go with the Pokémon Bros.

  

Setting Sails for Gen 7

Alright, so we all pretty much know the big news. Earlier this year, Pokémon announced Sun and Moon for the 3DS. New generation on the 20th anniversary -- it's going to be big. Now, we know who the starters are:

Who will you choose?

 It was a pretty fun day at the office talking about who we'd pick. Even non-Pokémon fans weighed in! I got texts from friends, Twitter was in a frenzy -- it was definitely a sunny day. But you know what I'm pumped for? Grab a box of tissues and watch this:

YES! Pokémon tugged at the heartstrings with their Super Bowl ad, but even that pales in comparison to this. If they were trying to make me bawl like a baby, mission accomplished. A story about connecting with new friends and strengthen relationships is one that truly resonates with me. Three years back, I ended up buying X and Y because I knew friends were going to play it. Yeah, I went on for months about how they were "ruining Pokémon", but you know what? That's ridiculous! At its core, Pokémon is about connecting with a community.

Since X and Y, I've met new Pokémon fans, and I know these two versions will introduce me to plenty more. Like the boy who moved to Hawaii, I hope to share this journey together. Can't wait to say aloha to Sun and Moon!

It's a whole new world we live in.

  

King of the Poké Fist Tournament

Yeah, I know it's been two weeks since Pokkén's been out and I'm very late on this. What can you do when the real world beckons you? It's crazy -- I remember writing about this two years back when it was first announced. I never would have imagined it ending up like this. Pokkén in a sense is an attempt to create live-action Pokémon battles. Or, that's what I thought at first.

To put it simply, Pokkén's chaotic. The core gameplay switches between two phases: Field and Duel Phase. Field Phase has you fight in a 3rd-person view while Duel pits you in a more traditional fighter like Street Fighter. It's not time or rounds that switch you between the two phases -- it's by hitting your opponent with certain moves. Crazy right? This was the first time I had to sit through the tutorial before I could grasp the gameplay!

Changing between Field and Duel Phase becomes easier over time.

Once you get the hang of things though, the gameplay's pretty simple. Similar to Smash Bros, attacks are usually a button inputted with a direction, so there's no real complex combo system.

This simplicity translates to the overall gameplay. My girl Chandelure pretty much crushed the competition by just barraging the opponent with a flurry of attacks. Early on, you'll realize that the best strategy is to wail on the opponent until you win.

Of course, what's a game without customizable outfits! I look pretty spiffy if I do say so myself.

 

Back at it again with the white vest!

I enjoy that Pokkén doesn't take itself seriously. Like I mentioned, you mash buttons to win. But the battle animations -- they're absolutely ridiculous! Just witness all the anime flair!


Anime!

 

ANIME!!

ANIME x 1,000!!!!

Even the assists are crazy. Farfetch'd didn't make it in as I hoped, but he shares the same honor of being an assist like Reshiram and Yveltal. And a clever nod to Sejun Park -- Pachirisu knows Follow Me!


Pokémon legends.

When Pokkén was first announced, I thought of it as a serious game. Instead, we got a goofy, over-the-top fighter, and I couldn't be happier! Many games, especially fighting games, try to take themselves seriously. Pokkén Tournament is a breath of fresh air for those who want to, well, just have fun!

I Can Do That

Exhausted after a long week, I almost didn't make the three-hour trek home. I had everything packed and ready to go, but paused momentarily at the door. It would have been easy to take it easy and rest up for the weekend, but I quickly dismissed the thought -- I could do it. I could make the drive. Besides, it was the least I could do for my parents. As expected, my mom was thrilled to see me for her birthday (which coincidentally is the day Mewtwo was born).


My mom and Mewtwo aren't related.

The following day was also a big day -- the Super Bowl. The game was more background noise for me, but there was one commercial I wanted to watch. I've already seen it, but I wanted to see my folks' reaction. After all, they were the ones who allowed me to go on this crazy Pokémon journey in the first place.

The 20th anniversary commercial made its TV premiere, and it was everything I knew it would be. Inspiring, motivational, uplifting -- judging from my mom and dad's reaction, it seemed to have captured their imagination. Of course, my dad and brother made some small quips about our past VGC days, but it was all in good fun.

What resonated with us was the phrase "I can do that." I remember saying something similar to myself when I started the drive home. I remember saying something similar whenever I have a ton of assignments and try to squeeze one more in. Heck, I'm saying it right now as I type this up, trying to stop myself from falling asleep on the keyboard! Everyone in the commercial saw someone do the impossible and challenged themselves to accomplish greatness for themselves. That's how I felt at least, so I wanted to share that with my parents.

So, in the spirit of Pokémon's 20th anniversary, I'm going to train on. That means making new posts, as opposed to the one last year. That means getting out there to face new challenges. That means pushing my limits even further to achieve new goals. It's a huge commitment, but I'm ready to be the very best like no one ever was. Soon, I'll change "I can do that" to "I did do that."



Let's make this year one to remember, trainers!

Little Prep for Little Cup

Yes, I know that half the year’s almost over and this is my first blogpost for 2015. You might be wondering, “Smiles, what’s the hold up?” Well, it’s this little thing called life. Between work, moving to a new city, and all sorts of other craziness, I haven’t had much time to play Pokémon. I know right! It makes me angrier than a Primeape!

Missing out on way too much Pokémon, I needed to fix that pronto! So when the latest challenge was announced, I was determined to compete.

I’m familiar with Little Cup, but I honestly haven’t played it since Stadium 2. Basically, only Pokémon who are the lowest line in their evolutionary family are allowed. So that means you can use Pokémon like Charmander or Bidoof, but not Kangaskhan or Pachirisu. With not much time to work with, I went with the simplest team building strategy: Use everything that’s banned on Smogon’s Little Cup! Hate all you want, but it was an effective strategy.

…Or I thought it was anyways. As fate would have it, I didn’t have time to get a full party of six ready and had to settle what was in my box. So after a quick scramble, I got my bad girls ready for battle!

Introducing the Gross Sisters!

The basic team borrowed some elements from my past strategies. Since Scyther was the hardest hitter, her job was to cut down as much of the opposing team as possible. Afterwards, I’d U-Turn to Murkrow, who’d set up Perish Song to end game. Tentacool was more or less there to take hits, and also because I had no other Pokémon ready. The other three in the battle box were just filler to confuse the opponent. At a glance, the team had a big weakness to electric moves, but I hardly saw any Electric-Types.

I knew that I’d be encountering many Scythers and Sneasals, but I was quite surprised to run into things like Onix! While 45 base attack and 70 base speed doesn’t seem impressive, that’s quite a powerhouse for Little Cup standards! Tentacool actually served as a decent check, but a costly misprediction sealed up the game.

But nothing could have prepared me for the Minister of Doom, the Archangel of Destruction, the Harbinger of Death.    

Priority Acrobatics hurts

After a series of losses, I got the hang of things and knew more or less what to expect. With a better grasp of the metagame, I was able to pull off some decent wins - - with Lady Luck’s help of course.

While only having three Pokémon severely limited my options, I did pretty well. I barely squeaked out a win with a 10-8 win. Ranked in the top 30% isn’t bad either, but there’s always room for improvement. Still, it was great getting back into competitive play and learning about a new metagame. Despite the lack of prep time, my girls carried.

Walking away with a 2,151 rating isn't so bad, but I'll do better next time!

Yes, I Play a Children's Card Game (In Video Game Form)



It's finally out!

After school, my friends and I would take our Pokémon binders up to my treehouse and marvel at our collection. Mainly buying packs to look at the pretty pictures, we hadn’t the faintest idea how to actually play the Pokémon Trading Card game. Usually we’d put down cards and yell out attacks without any regard to energy costs, evolutions, or prize cards. For years, I’d continue to buy packs just to look at the pretty pictures until Pokémon released TCG Online back in the Black and White era. Realizing how much fun the actual game was, I quickly gathered my stockpile of old cards to build decks. Needless to say, there aren’t many players that stick to the old base set. The best place to get my old-school fix was with the Gameboy Pokémon TCG game, but was more elusive than Mew thanks to its rarity and unusually high price. That is, until now thanks to its release on the 3DS Virtual Console this past week.

Pikachu, the Science Pokémon.

The story of the Pokémon TCG game is pretty simple. You’re a card player sent on a journey to collect the 8 medals from club leaders to challenge the 4 grandmasters and eventually defeat your rival to inherit the legendary cards and become the champion. Wait…isn’t this basically the same story as Red and Blue? At least there’s no evil team trying to steal people’s cards, but Imakuni’s creepy enough to be considered evil in my opinion. And what the heck is up with the Science Club? Every other club is based on a Pokémon type, but I can’t wrap my head around why they would have a science-themed club. Don’t tell me they plan to release a new Science-Type Pokémon.

Navigating the menus takes some getting used to.

The Pokémon TCG game serves as a decent intro for the card game. At the beginning, Sam the lab assistant plays a practice duel with you. The practice duel goes through the basic steps of how to win, but since I played the card game before I just breezed through it. One thing I noticed was that the tutorial wasn’t as thorough as I’d expect. For instance, the practice duel doesn’t go into details about special conditions like paralysis and poison. There are some guides outside the practice duel that you can read in-game, but who wants to do that! The practice duel is mainly handy to familiarize yourself with the interface. The Gameboy can’t fit the entire play area onscreen, so it’s somewhat harrowing to navigate through menus without some practice.

Like my adventure in Pokémon Red, I started my journey by picking Bulbasaur…or in this case the Bulbasaur and Friends deck. Fun fact, this deck contained Venusaur, my all-time favorite card. I mentioned it on a past post but I have a Base Set Venusaur in real life that I got from the same friend I use to have treehouse battles with. Originally, the idea was to get Venusaur out as quickly as possible and abuse Energy Trans to switch Grass energies around. Unfortunately, evolution wasn’t the solution as setting up took way too much time. I’d find myself on the receiving end of Blastoise’s Rain Dance infused shenanigans before I could even evolve to Ivysaur. I’d have to adopt a new deck, and that meant abandoning Venusaur.

It's not me, it's you. Sorry buddy.

 

You can't escape my Special Punch!

A while back, I remember reading about a “Haymaker” deck and thought about building one for myself. Basically, Haymaker decks consist of big basic Pokémon like Scyther, Electabuzz and Hitmonchan. While it might seem like an odd combination with no real type synergy, a Haymaker deck is quite devastating thanks to its quick setup time. Pokémon in a Haymaker deck feature strong attacks with very little energy cost, so Hitmonchan can start hitting right off the bat for 20 damage. While that might not sound as impressive as Charizard’s Fire Spin for 100, keep in mind it takes a minimum of 2 turns if you got all the right cards in hand. By the time your first Charizard is ready to go, Hitmonchan knocked out 3 other Pokémon and you now trail significantly behind in the prize card count. Because of their aggressive playstyle, Haymaker decks pretty much shut down every other strategy. The early metagame of the TCG was dominated by big basics, which is kind of a reflection of today’s metagame with cards like Mewtwo-EX. While there are better cards and new rules to help counter big basics, the early metagame certainly wasn’t balanced. Pretty much every Pokémon was Hitmonchan’s punching bag. And to think, back in the day I had every card needed to make a formidable Haymaker deck in real life!



You're lucky you have a good theme, jerk!

After cutting the competition with Scyther, clobbering my way to the top with Hitmonchan, and (insert dumb electric pun) with Electabuzz, I managed to beat the 4 Grandmasters when SURPRISE SURPRISE, my rival Ronald already beat them and I have to defeat him to inherit the legendary cards. I used to think Gary was a jerk, but this guy takes it to a whole new level. Seriously dude we’re playing a children’s card game, no need for the smack talk. I kicked his sorry butt anyways thanks in part to his wide array of Normal-Types that are extremely weak to Hitmonchan. After about 10 hours of my weekend, I claim the overhyped legendary cards for myself and my journey is over.

Looking back, Pokémon TCG felt a little too easy. Granted, a Haymaker deck really is overpowered, but I just didn’t feel satisfied with my victory. With Virtual Console titles on the 3DS, a lack of multiplayer features means you’re stuck challenging the same computers so there’s not much variety in battles. Still, it was a joy to visit this blast from the past. I gained an appreciation for the fun, albeit broken, origin of the Pokémon TCG.

Get Ready for the Next (Pokémon) Battle!

Namco and Pokémon officially announced their marriage of fighting games and Pokémon, two of my favorite things in video games, and I couldn’t be more excited! Pokkén Tournament, a mix of Tekken gameplay with Pokémon, is planned for an arcade release for Japan in 2015. There’s no confirmation of a console release yet, but judging by Namco’s history of releasing fighters like Tekken on arcades first, it’s safe to assume a console release is inevitable. Worried that Pokkén Tournament will remain a Japan-exclusive? Pokémon Conquest was a cross-over between Pokémon and Nobunaga’s Ambitions, which is a rarely known series outside of Japan. If that got an international release, I’m sure Pokkén Tournament will.

 The first trailer show Lucario and Machamp duking it out in the countryside. A flurry of punches an Aura Spheres are thrown in this otherwise peaceful backdrop. While Pokkén Tournament’s fighting style is similar to Tekken, there also seems to be a hint of Dragon Ball Z fighting games like Raging Blast. In one scene, Lucario’s back is completely turned to the camera as he wales on Machamp. While characters in Tekken can circle around an opponent, their back never turns completely against the camera. Taking cues from DBZ fighting games might be a good way to balance the projectile-based attacks used in Pokémon.

Side-by-side comparison of Pokkén Tournament and DBZ Raging Blast

 

Ready to bust a move! Credit to Zweilous on Tumblr

Character selection make or break a fighting game, which Namco in the past has handled well. We already know that Lucario, Machamp, and Blaziken (teased at the Pokémon Game Show in 2013) are confirmed, so there’s definitely an emphasis on Fighting-type Pokémon. With that in mind, Hitmontop and Heracross would be my top choices for contenders. Yes, I’ll admit my choice is biased due to being my favorite Fighting-types, but they would bring welcome diversity. Hitmontop just screams Eddy Gordo! Heracross could play a mixed set, utilizing physical contact moves like Close Combat in his normal form, and then Mega Evolve to use more projectile attacks like Pin Missile.



If he can fight in Smash Bros, he can fight here

Hopefully, Pokkén Tournament will expand its roster to include more than Fighting-type Pokémon. It’d be a shame to miss out on powerhouses like Charizard and Tyranitar. It wouldn’t even take much to imagine their moveset. They got claws, they got a big tail, Charizard can fly and breathe fire, Tyranitar can throw rocks and cause earthquakes, they got all they need to be perfect fighters. Other hopefuls for me include Greninja, Mewtwo, and Shiftry.

*UPDATE: Pokkén Tournament producer Katsuhiro Harada confirmed via Twitter that other types besides Fighting will be represented. There's hope for Charizard! 

Tekken does a great job of including joke characters like Kuma and Roger Jr. and still making them play well. At first, I couldn’t think of a Pokémon that would work well in this game while being somewhat of a joke. Then it hit me, like a stick to the head.

 

Farfetch'd!

 

It’s not a farfetched concept to imagine. Farfetch’d could use his stick to attack, kick up dirt with Sand-Attack, and peck things with his bill. The hype would be unreal if Farfetch’d won EVO! While the final decision of characters is up to Pokémon and Namco, a man can dream. But Farfetch’d would be pretty sweet.

While there isn’t much information, I’d expect in the coming months to hear more about Pokkén Tournament and what the King of the Pokémon Fist Tournament will bring. I’m excited about the first Pokémon fighting game, and know it’ll do well in Namco’s hands.