Pokemon

Hard to believe I haven't touched on this one yet, but it's high time I gotta. Pokemon is the most ridiculously popular video game/anime combo to hit America, probably even bigger than Dragon Ball Z, not necessarily better, but bigger. I admit, I am a bit of a fan even though I haven't really kept up since the first generation, but I am rather happy that it lasted this long. Yes, I actually caught all 150 original pokemon in the red version and a few years ago I finally got the yellow version and tried again this time using only Ash's team from the first season (Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charizard, Butterfree, Pidgeot, and of course Pikachu). For those who don't know, you can halt evolution for pokemon that evolve at level up by pressing B during the evolution animation and they still level up, so Bulbasaur and Squirtle are actually on the same level with the rest of the team. Ash's team works pretty well except for Sabrina who is a bit overpowered and Butterfree seems to be the only one that can do anything and it took a lot of leveling up to pull that off. They can handle the first three of the Elite Four, Pikachu or Bulbasaur can take down Lorelei's water types with Charizard backing up on ice types, Squirtle or Bulbasaur can handle Bruno's ground/rock types while Pidgeot can handle the fighting types, Butterfree leads the team against Agatha's ghost team, it's Lance that kicks my butt and if I get past him, Gary takes me down. I wondered why it seemed easier when I played red, then I remembered using Zapdos, a level 70 legendary pokemon makes a difference and you just don't realize that until you try to go without.

Okay, now I gotta be objective, I love the game, but as RPGs go, this one had a weak story and relied almost entirely on the gimmick of "gotta catch 'em all". If you let the novelty of capturing all of the pokemon distract you, it's totally fun, but the story itself is pretty weak. There's basically three major plots running through the game, qualifying for the pokemon league, your personal rivalry, and Team Rocket. Team Rocket is potentially the most interesting plot regarding criminals who steal rare pokemon and use them to commit even more heinous crimes. Seriously, they have moments where they seem kinda badass, but somehow, they take a backseat to the other plots. The whole thing starts with a kid selecting his first pokemon which he will use to capture other pokemon by weakening them until they can't fight back and capturing them in poke balls. Then his rival picks the pokemon that has a natural advantage over the one you pick because there's a rock paper scissors relationship between them, water extinguishes fire, fire burns grass, and grass absorbs water, so no matter which one you pick, the other guy just picks the one that can hurt yours and you're kinda screwed. Both of you go off into the world to build your teams and every now and then your rival comes back to taunt you with his team. For the most part you just kind of ignore him and move on to your bigger goal of proving yourself against the gym leaders and collecting badges which qualify you to go to the final tournament at the Indigo Plateau and prove your the best, only to find out your rival beat you there and your final test is beating him. That really is the overarching plot that dominates the game, but fortunately some other fun stuff happens to keep things intersting along the way. First you meet Team Rocket between the first two gyms where they are stealing fossils(you'll find out just how valuable they are later on) then when you get to the next town you find a house where they have ransacked a house for no real good reason, they are just criminals commiting crimes because they are the bad guys. You have trouble getting into the next town geographically which is Saffron City so you have to take the long way around which involves getting the first of five special training tools called HMs or Hidden Machines which involves boarding a cruise ship, then it's off to Lavendar Town, known for the Pokemon Tower where dead pokemon are laid to rest and you meet the one pokemon in the game that can't be captured and doesn't belong to another trainer, the Marowak which is a boss at the top of the tower. After beating it you will get the Pokemon Flute which you will need to wake a Snorlax blocking your path later on, and you can get a Marowak by evolving a Cubone you can capture in the tower, and Team Rocket is there giving all of the pokemon a hard time. However before you can do any of that, you first need a Silph Scope from Silph Co. in Saffron City which is dealing with Team Rocket in their biggest scheme, takign the entire company hostage, but before you can get into Saffron City you first need to bribe the last guard who is thirsty by buying him a drink from the vending machine at the top of the Poke Mart in Celadon City which also has a casino that is a front for Team Rocket. Yeah, those bastards are everywhere. Once you manage to settle all of this it's pretty easy going as you got to Fuschia City and take a break to visit the Safari Zone to get another HM so you can surf to Cinnabar Island also you can collect some unique pokemon in the Safari Zone. Once you reach Cinnabar Island there's a wierd bit where you can go to an abanadoned mansion where you can collect some more unique pokemon, but if pay attention to the lab notes, you find out that the local gym leader actually captured Mew and bred Mewtwo who subsequently destroyed the mansion. Also, there's a lab where you can take your fossil that you recieved as a reward for fighting Team Rocket way back at the beginning and have a rare extinct pokemon brought to life from it, because apparently the scientists haven't learned their lesson from playing god. Then for the final gym leader who turns out to be the leader of Team Rocket, Giovanni, who you caught red-handed in the Silph Co. hostage situation, but for some reason, all you care about is the damn Earth Badge. I mean it's cool and all, but you just took down a criminal mastermind and the sport of pokemon fighting is somehow more important I don't know what's more disturbing, finding out that he's part of the league or that as badass as he is, he's not in charge of the league. So what should have been the final boss of the game is just another stepping stone to finish your sporting career, which by the way, when you stop and think about it, the entire game is basically a combination of Beanie babies and cock-fighting.

Oh yes, I just ruined your childhood, see you next week.