gaming Pokemon!

[Espeon 338]

Normally I'd say something like "Don't even get me started on Pokemon," but it's too late for that. Prepare yourselves for a supermassive post: grab some popcorn, get comfy, et cetera. *cracks knuckles*

 

Pokemon and I go way back. I'll do an analysis of each generation and the games that I've played from them, from both a casual and a competitive standpoint.

 

GENERATION 1

Casual

Man, oh man, where it all began. Many of us fondly regard the first Pokemon games, and rightfully so in some respects. Kanto was a fantastic region, and the latter half of the game could be sequence-broken into thousands of pieces. The storytelling was linear in some regards, yet the gameplay also felt loose and free, like it didn't shackle you down and tell you what to do. In fact, some parts of the game (such as the Celadon Game Corner) could be put off entirely until the path they unlocked became relevant (enter Snorlax and the need for the Pokeflute, which was only obtainable with the Silph Scope). As far as starter selection went, they were all pretty damn good: Venusaur had access to guaranteed-crit Razor Leaf and cool stuff like Sleep Powder and Leech Seed, Charizard was good for cool factor and using Fire moves and being useful lategame, and Blastoise was a Water-type, which is never a bad thing. Of course, Yellow got stuck with Pikachu, which is so bad against Brock (everything else, too) that they gave you a Mankey before the first Gym to compensate. Choice of Pokemon was pretty decent, given that you had a starter of choice and could flesh the team out with an Eeveelution, Graveler, Kadabra, Pidgeot/Fearow/Dodrio, whatever really. There were some legitimately challenging parts of the game, such as Sabrina in general (because Psychic was Jesus-type back then). The mechanics were strange as all hell, though: Special was its own stat and was basically Special Attack and Special Defense at once, the only truly 100% accurate move was Swift (even 100 acc moves had ~99% acc because of how it was calculated), critical hit ratio was based on Speed, Focus Energy made crits never happen, Rage misses would have subsequent turns always miss, boosting stats to over 999 would roll them back to 1...strange stuff, these games were. Sprites were lolbad (try to look at Blue Version Golbat late at night and get a good night's rest afterward), some types of trainers would carry whips, the Mediums in Pokemon Tower wanted your soul, and the Lavender Town music had to be changed for the worldwide releases due to accidental binaural beats. Crazy stuff, man. No wonder there are so many Pokemon creepypastas. Also, to anyone complaining of lack of creativity past a certain generation, I'd like you to remember Grimer/Muk, Doduo/Dodrio, Diglett/Dugtrio, Magnemite/Magneton, etc. The first are just piles of sludge, the others' evolutions are basically the same but with more heads. Be real, there has always been a certain degree of lack of creativity, your nostalgia is just too thick to let you see it.

 

Competitive

Oh my gog, no matter what people say about the current Gen 5 meta, it's at least fifty times better than RBY could ever hope to be. Due to the Special god stat and how they messed up the code so that Psychic was only weak to Bug (which only had Twineedle [limited to Beedrillol], Pin Missile [pretty much only on Jolteon, iirc], and Leech Life [lol Golbat and Venomoth]), Psychic types reigned supreme with little to no opposition. Starmie, Exeggutor, Slowbro, and Alakazam were very widely used OU Psychics, and the only Ubers were Mewtwo and Mew. Speaking of Mewtwo, it had Amnesia, which doubled Special in one use. Combine that with Psychic having perfect coverage outside of other Psychics as well as Mewtwo's movepool having Thunderbolt for Starmie/Slowbro and Blizzard for Exeggutor, and Recover if you're willing to forego a coverage move, and you've got something only stoppable by the other Uber's best set: Swords Dance Mew. But enough about Special behemoths (I haven't even mentioned Chansey, Jolteon, and Gengar, lol): what can physically-based Pokemon do? Quite simply, there are four physical Pokemon that are halfway decent, and they are Snorlax, Golem, Tauros, and Rhydon. The first two can blow up, the first one has STAB Selfdestruct/Body Slam/Hyper Beam, the Rocks have STAB Earthquake and are Normal resists, and Tauros has an absurdly strong STAB Hyper Beam and pretty high crit rate. It's pretty crazy and overcentralized not only because of the troll mechanics, but also because of the relative lack of Pokemon available and total lack of hold items or abilities.

 

For more recent generations, RBY Pokemon are still pretty decent choices. Starmie, Dragonite, Gyarados, and Gengar stand alone as the only Pokemon to always be OU, though Snorlax came close and Alakazam always stayed up there. The Dream World really threw a lot of Pokemon a bone, particularly Multiscale Dragonite, Sheer Force Nidoking, Magic Guard Alakazam, Chlorophyll Venusaur, and Drought Ninetales. That's not to say Ninetales is any good even in permasun, but hey, at least it's something. I'm still eagerly anticipating the likely eventual release of DW Zapdos, since it is pretty much the definition of asskick.

 

Generation 2

Casual

Two playable regions = twice the awesome. Never mind the lulzy low levels of pretty much everything in Johto, up to and including the E4. But really, these games were a ton of fun to play. The mechanics were much, MUCH better than those of its predecessors, the general aesthetics were improved (color and animated sprites on entry to battle in Crystal, hot damn), and the selection of Pokemon increased a solid amount. Cool evolutions of Kanto Pokemon were introduced (holy crap Scizor, Crobat, Blissey, Steelix, why are you so awesome). The concept of pseudolegends was carried on with the undeniably badass Tyranitar. Despite the recycled villains, they stayed fresh given their new motive (did they even have a motive in RBY?). Chikorita was, is, and always will be for super-masochists, given how inept Meganium is offensively combined with poor Gym and boss matchups. Totodile was solid throughout the game, performing well against nearly every trainer and getting cool HMs, level up moves, and Ice Punch. Cyndaquil was amazing early on, but turned out to be pretty frail and matched up poorly against a lot of lategame bosses. Unfortunately, a bunch of neat Pokemon were only available in Kanto and other post-E4 areas. It can be frustrating to see two Houndooms before the E4 and only be able to have one of your own way after them. Overall, these games were a pretty huge improvement over RBY not only for the above reasons, but also because there were things to actually do after you beat the E4. You could rebattle trainers, do the Bug Catching Contest, explore Kanto, battle Red, and more, as opposed to catch Mewtwo and that's it.

 

Competitive

This is probably the metagame I know the least about. SkarmBliss was unleashed upon a world unprepared to deal with it, and ResTalkers like Snorlax and Suicune were nigh-unbreakable. Physical attackers were definitely the best-prepared to go on the offensive, though, given that Blissey actually had Softboiled and all Skarmory had was Leftovers. Speaking of which, items! There wasn't a single Pokemon that didn't love Leftovers, but at least the idea was developed and we now have tons of sweet items. The schism of the Special stat was definitely for the best, too. Other cool stuff introduced: Hidden Power and new moves, which both helped ensure that no Pokemon would be stuck with only STAB and Normal-type move coverage, or in some cases, just Normal-type moves without STAB. Dragon Rage was no longer the only Dragon-type move, and although special base 90 Outrage isn't too great, at least it's something and better than the base 40 Twister or base 60 Dragonbreath. Bug-types (well, only Heracross, but still) got Megahorn as a good STAB. The concept of weather was introduced, with Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Hail, and Sandstorm all providing a 5 turn field effect. Dark- and Steel-types were pretty big new things as well, bringing the total number of types up to 17.

 

Gen 2 Pokemon are overall pretty great in the Gen 5 metagame. Scizor remains very high in usage, Blissey still walls a bunch of special attackers, Skarmory still walls some physical attackers, Celebi is wonderful against rain...speaking of which, Politoed summons infinite rain. Tyranitar also summons infinite sanstorm. That's pretty much 'nuff said. A bunch of Johto Pokemon are forces to be reckoned with in UU as well, especially Heracross and Porygon2, which now has access to Eviolite-boosted defenses. Dream World as a whole was less kind to Johto Pokemon, although most of the useful ones had good abilities anyway. One of the only notable non-Ubers in regards to DW is Raikou, which gets Volt Absorb. Lugia and Ho-Oh, on the other hand, get Multiscale and Regenerator respectively, which are both pretty top-tier abilities on anything.

 

Generation 3

Casual

Hoenn is my personal favorite region, Emerald my favorite game. The scenery is amazing, with very diverse landscapes and unique areas. The path through the region loops over itself a few times, leading to discoveries of many new paths to take. Pokemon variety is great (until you hit the water routes and it's all Tentacool and Wingull), leading to a ton of cool options for a team. Teams Magma and Aqua were fairly sympathetic and both actually believed they were doing the right thing. Treecko was not too bad, considering Grass STAB turned out to be useful with all the Waters you ran into. Torchic kicked the entire game's ass up until Mossdeep, at which point your team should be more than capable of helping you out. Mudkip was one of the best Water-types, not only due to its early availability but also because it never lost usefulness and had a great type. There were many new Pokemon introduced, some cool and others not. Postgame was totally awesome in Emerald due to Battle Frontier, one of the best things to happen to Pokemon in my opinion. There were also a lot of legendaries to hunt, always a plus.

 

FireRed and LeafGreen are Red and Blue with updated mechanics and the Sevii Islands postgame. Hellz yeah. Colloseum, XD, and Mystery Dungeon Red & Blue were all really fun. I especially enjoyed XD, and hope there will be another Shadow Pokemon game in the future.

 

Competitive

Physical attackers got a lot better. In addition to access to Swords Dance and some powerful moves already, they got Choice Band and Dragon Dance over special attackers now. Nevertheless, SkarmBliss remained a powerful combination, as Skarmory now has Spikes to spread residual damage. Blissey pretty much made special attackers a non-factor unless they had Trick or big Subs and Calm Mind. ResTalkers still were dominant, especially Crocune and Curselax. Overall, the meta was very defensively oriented. Cool new things include the aforementioned Choice Band, Lum Berry, and new moves like Calm Mind and Brick Break. Oh, and abilities turned out to be pretty game-changing, especially permaweather abilities. EVs, IVs, and natures were introduced too, meaning the same species could perform more than a couple roles very well. @Roop, this stuff may seem confusing at first, but if you take the time to learn the ins and outs, it's not bad at all (not that you seem to want to learn, but that's fine too).

 

Pokemon from Hoenn are mostly good in Ubers and the lower tiers. In regards to OU, there's Metagross, Salamence, Lati@s, Breloom, and Jirachi, which are all pretty great still. Ubers has Pokemon like Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Blaziken, and every Deoxys forme that's not Defense. Dream World really gave some Pokemon a huge boost (lol), such as Blaziken and Sharpedo with Speed Boost. Breloom got Technician, which just may put the Bulk Up and SubPunch sets out of business. Seriously, Techniloom is cool.

 

Generation 4

Casual

Sinnoh was an eccentric region. It twists and turns and has some things from Hoenn taken to extremes (ecosystems like the Great Marsh and Snowpoint). I liked how it seemed focused on the central point of Mt. Coronet. Team Galactic as a whole had no idea what Cyrus's intentions were, with some of the higher-ups actually questioning his intentions and whether or not he had gone too far. Cyrus himself was pretty wacked out and off the deep end in every way, but he got there in a way that makes sense. Galactic's goals felt actually threatening to everyone and everything, and I haven't even played Platinum. Turtwig is pretty much typical Grass starter fare, usable but somewhat difficult. Chimchar was a great Fire-type, not to mention one of the only ones available in DP (for reference, the Fire-type E4 member only had Infernape and Rapidash). Piplup was very helpful throughout the game, even moreso since it eventually became Water/Steel. Platinum had an updated Battle Frontier to occupy players postgame.

 

HeartGold and SoulSilver were all the deliciousness of GSC, but with updated mechanics, Platinum's Battle Frontier and tons of legendaries available postgame and a weird Safari Zone. I never played Pokemon Battle Revolution or Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. I have, however, played Explorers of Time and Darkness, and they are not only fantastic in terms of gameplay, but also in terms of storytelling. Seriously, they're awesome.

 

Competitive

This is arguably one of the most innovative generations in terms of new mechanics and items. The old system of determining which moves were physical or special (based on type) was renovated to be on a move-to-move basis. This Physical/Special Split gave a lot of Pokemon new life and potential. For example, Gyarados now has access to a physical Water move in Waterfall. Outrage got buffed to a 120 base power physical move, etc. The implications are endless. Many new abilities were introduced, such as Snow Warning and Poison Heal. New items were things like the Choice Specs, Choice Scarf, Life Orb, and Focus Sash, leading to a much more offensively oriented metagame. Defense and stall didn't get overlooked, though, as there are now two major new moves: Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes. Leads were typically focused around getting Stealth Rock down as soon as possible and preventing it from being on your side of the field, so things like Taunt Aerodactyl and Taunt Azelf became popular. Dragons, with their new toys such as Outrage and Draco Meteor, proved to be largely too strong for OU eventually. Lati@s, Garchomp, and Salamence were all shoved up to Ubers, leaving only stuff like Kingdra, Dragonite, and Flygon. At this junction, Fire/Water/Grass (FWG) cores became huge in OU, as their STABs have fewer Dragons to resist them. Steels remained pretty popular, and one of the most common Fires was Heatran, a Fire/Steel type. Scizor was absolutely huge after Platinum rolled around, due to the newest addition to its movepool: Bullet Punch. A STAB, Technician, +2 or CB-boosted Bullet Punch packed quite the punch, indeed. It also gained two usable Bug STABs in Bug Bite and U-turn, as well as Superpower for coverage. Bug-types no longer collectively sucked, which was a nice change of pace.

 

Sinnoh 'mons in Gen 5 are a bit of a mixed bag. Garchomp got rebanned, and other notable Ubers include Darkrai, Palkia, Dialga, both Giratina formes, and especially Arceus. OU has...well, Gliscor, Lucario, Infernape, Gastrodon, Hippowdon, Toxicroak, Abomasnow, Magnezone, Rotom-W, and Heatran. I may have missed a couple. That's quite the collection of great Pokemon. Dream World didn't do all that much for Sinnoh, although Iron Fist Infernape is cool and Regenerator Tangrowth is supercool.

 

Generation 5

Casual

Black and White had solid, compelling story in my opinion, but the region itself was very meh. It led you around by the nose and gave you very little freedom. At least HMs were almost entirely obsolete, though. Team Plasma was the largest bunch of hypocrites I've seen, but Ghetsis was downright creepy and evil and N was a very interesting character to say the least. Learning his whole backstory in the castle made you feel really sorry for him. That toy room gave me goosebumps. Snivy wasn't really useful ingame, but damn was it fly. I have never tried Oshawott or Tepig, but I can imagine Oshawott would be amazing and Tepig would be pretty good. You were provided with some decent variety in most types, with only Water being a little lackluster from what I remember, given how out of the way every body of water is. I liked the gimmicky locations like Skyarrow Bridge where the camera goes crazy on you. The Battle Subway has helped me kill a lot of time in the past. It's pretty fun and actually challenging, and I like the addition of the Super Subway lines.

 

I haven't played Black or Black and White 2, but from what I hear BW2 have ungodly variety in Pokemon and aren't more linear than a ruler. YAY

 

Competitive

We seem to have caught up to the present. The Gen 5 meta (even moreso with BW2) is all about weather. Sun can be summoned by Ninetales, rain by Politoed, sand by Tyranitar and Hippowdon, hail by Abomasnow. Chlorophyll Pokemon, Dragons, and Fire-types generally love the sun. Swift Swimmers (before Aldaron's Proposal), Waters in general, Steels, Grasses, and Electrics love the rain. Sand Rush Pokemon (now just Sandslash and Stoutland usable in OU, subject to possible but unlikely change with Excadrill), Steels, Grounds, Rocks, and Magic Guard Pokemon love and/or don't mind sand. Ice types and random things with Blizzard like hail. That's quite a bit of OU right there. Aside from the usual suspects, Ubers now include Blaziken (due to Speed Boost), Thundurus (due to dominance in rain and priority Twave/Sub/Nasty Plot), Excadrill (due to demolishing speed tiers with Sand Rush and having few good counters and checks for SD sets), and Deoxys-S (due to reliably setting multiple hazards and dual screens for setup sweeper demolition). Oh, and the use of Drizzle and Swift Swim on the same team. A lot of these were capable of abusing weather quite well. Even with all these abusers removed, weather remained dominant up until the end of the BW meta, where weatherless (and VoltTurn) gained popularity. With BW2, rain has tons of new toys to play with, such as Thundurus-T, Tornadus-T, Keldeo, Aqua Tail Haxorus, and more. Time will tell what will happen to BW2 weather. The biggest addition of Gen 5 was pretty much just Dream World, not some big mechanic overhaul or tons of really useful items and moves. Sure, some new stuff got added, but it was nothing too major.

 

Unova Pokemon perform quite well in the metagame. There are the aforementioned Therian formes and their original Incarnate formes, the Musketeers, Haxorus, Hydreigon, Volcarona, Reuniclus, Conkeldurr, Jellicent, Ferrothorn, and more. Recent Dream World releases have made some Pokemon, like Regen Amoonguss, really quite good. Some are yet to come, such as Contrary Serperior and Shadow Tag Chandelure. Whatever eventually happens, I'm sure they'll get used a ton at first.

 

Thus ends my analysis, and if you read through the whole thing, I commend you. I think that's most of what I have to say. Some closing remarks: There have been Pokemon threads in the past. I watched as they slowly withered and died, and I don't want that to happen to this one. Also, if you want to play the BW2 metagame, I recommend play.pokemonshowdown.com very highly. For earlier metagames, download Pokemon Online from pokemon-online.eu. That's all, folks.

Edited July 7, 2012 by BowlArt64

[Jonke 3,743]

<Awesome stuff>

 

You know your stuff, Bowl. =) Glad to know someone else dedicated to all aspects of the games! I guess you're going to write about the remaining gens too?

 

Again.. epic post!

[BlackWater 53]

I lived on the pokemon movies and shows when I was younger. And now if I find a pokemion I'm interested in ( For example, I'm addicted to Zoroark right now ) I'll see if they're in a moive and see what episodes there in. I'll also watch youtube tributes of them cus I'm weird like that lol

 

Pokemon was indeed a big part of my childhood. I started with the TCG if I remember properly. My first full deck was the prebuilt Brock deck (Gym Leaders) and I was particularly good at losing with it! xD

Mention of Pokemon the First Movie hits me with waves of nostalgia. It was one of the few movies that I ever actually cried to.

Anyways, I recently started playing the new online TCG that they've come out with...

[Love4discord18 269]

Pokemon was indeed a big part of my childhood. I started with the TCG if I remember properly. My first full deck was the prebuilt Brock deck (Gym Leaders) and I was particularly good at losing with it! xD

Mention of Pokemon the First Movie hits me with waves of nostalgia. It was one of the few movies that I ever actually cried to.

Anyways, I recently started playing the new online TCG that they've come out with...

 

Pokemon teh first movie that made you cry? Pokemone 4 Ever is the one that made me ball my eyes out xD

[None42069 520]

I'll post my fav for each gen.

 

Gen 1:

 

Top percentage Ratata of the north star

 

But seriously, Charizard.

 

Gen. 2:

Feraligatr

 

Gen. 3: Grovyle

 

Gen. 4: Luxray

 

Gen. 5: Bisharp

 

Not really going with how effective they are. They're all judged on awesomeness, coolness, and radicalness.

[Groo 252]

To this day I still watch and play pokemon! I adore pokemon and anything pokemon related! Im not too good at the games but i love them and i still play the card game at the local meta games!

[sleepyhead. 174]

I loooove Pokemon. I still have my GBC with Red, Yellow, and Silver. I also have Soul Silver, and White. My favourites are Drifloon, Lickilicky, Clefable, Lilligant, Raichu, Banette, and Oddish. There's so many more, I can't pick just one.

[Kapi 218]

Pokemon was a huge part of my life. Silver was my first game, and I startted with Chikorita. It was hard, but I made it through!

 

I've played every Pokemon game since. I used to watch the anime. It even got to the point where I had to decide between digimon and Pokemon. (Yes, I am a fan of the Digimon anime, not so much the games.)

I played the TCG, but the only league I was in was my local Toys 'R Us. Ironically, the day I joined was the last day they were doing it, so I got everything I could've won up to that point (Badges, promo cards, etc) With no effort.

 

So, some other things

-I've never finished Ruby, Sapphire or Emerald. Both RS decided to corrupt my save file prior to the Elite Four, and Emerald was a friends, which I gave back to him after he asked (But before I beat the Elite Four.)

-The first Froniter Brain I battled was Argenta in SoulSilver. I used Typhlosion, and she used Empoleon. Video # 32-02800-78579

-My favorite legendary is offically Lugia. However, if you count new generations, then it'd be Sky Forme Shaymin.

-My Team follows a set pattern. I don't EV/IV train.

-I've never legitimately caught a Shiny, nor have any of my Pokemon had Pokerus.

-Finally, my favorite song in the games is Looker's theme.

[Cupcake Ice Cream 436]

With my age...my childhood was a bit more transformers and thundercats but I do enjoy the pokemon universe...Psyduck ftw

[Mayuen 77]

Like many others I grew up with Pokemon (and Digimon + Sailor Moon) and it still means a lot to me. The games mean the most to me, and still today I can sit and wait for the next Pokemon game to buy. It was really fun when Black and White came out and my little brother and I waited and planned the particular day we were going to buy it ^w^

[Princess_Molestia 1,460]

Zubat is my favorite.

that is all!

[Azura 1,107]

Magikarp?

[Espeon 338]

This thread needs more life, but I'm unsure of how to go about reviving it without making something too similar to an existing Pokemon thread (Favorite Pokemon, Black & White 2 thread, Nuzlocke/Let's Plays, etc.). I would try to start discussion about an item/similar items, but I already tried that in another Pokemon thread and it died quite fast, not to mention some people wouldn't even be familiar with a mentioned item/Pokemon.

 

Instead, I think I'll just say that the anime isn't very good at all outside of some movies. I've tried watching some of the recent stuff, and it's just not worth it. Regarding movies, I have only seen Mewtwo Strikes Back and Destiny Deoxys, but I enjoyed them both a lot more than the anime as a whole. Also, inconsistencies with the show and the games are pretty hilarious sometimes (see "Aim for the horn," "Finish him off with False Swipe").

[dh38199 3]

I use to play all the games for Gameboy. I also watched and recoreded every episode till like season 11. I have a 200 hour tape somewhere in my house.

[Xebec 74]

First encounter with videogames for me was when I was in my big brothers room at age 7.

He was using the bathroom so I got bored and decided to open all the drawers in his room ( I was 7)

in one drawer I found a yellow gameboy color with Pokemon Silver. I showed my brother and he said I could have it since he was going to get an xbox and didnt care much for Pokemon anymore. I played that Pokemon for hours upon hours for the next few days. Only problem was I didnt know about saving so I started a new game everytime I played

The following Christmas I got a gameboy advanced with Pokemon Saphire and actually learned how to play and eventually ( A LONG TIME AFTER) I became the Pokemon champion

nowadays I normally play xbox but I still have all my old Pokemon games and like to play them from time to time

 

P.S.

Metang is best Pokeman

Edited July 14, 2012 by Xebec

[irobern2857 95]

for a while i was into the cards and way into the show then after a few years i got really into the GameBoy games. now my only connection is that i watch a lets play on youtube by Lueroi he is funny and entertaining to watch but that is it now

P.S.
Metang is best Pokeman

Good sir i do declare bullshit

all hail magikarp Edited July 14, 2012 by irobern2857

[Guest]

I had hundreds of cards.

Misty was my hero and Ash was my crush x)

 

I liked Water and Grass types most.

[Sun 34]

I love Pokémon!

 

Grass, water and poison are my favorite types!

[Thundershock 310]

pokemon... i love pokemon! im a huge fan of it and i have always been. pokemon is the main thing going on in my life right now. i watch the show, i play the games, including firered, leafgreen, ruby, emerald, sapphire, soulsilver, black, and white.

i used to have diamond, pearl, and platinum but they all disappeared somehow. thats actually happened to alot of my games.