Pokemon

[Moosferatu]

I recently got a 3DS, and, fueled by fond childhood memories of Pokemon Blue, purchased Pokemon Black to go along with it. I'm only 4 badges in and my pokemon are about to hit their 30s, but I have to say that I'm not terribly impressed so far.

For just about every "new" pokemon that I see I think, "Oh, this guy is just pokemon X from the original with a different skin." It almost makes it worse that they pretend that they're substantively different.

Some of the new organizational and battle stuff is pretty cool, but I still haven't figured out why I'd want to play dress-up or ride a battle train.

I suppose I shouldn't complain about the plot, it is a Pokemon game after all, but, for some reason, it surprised me just how unengaging it is.

Not that it's all bad, but it doesn't make sense to me that it seems to be highly regarded critically. Perhaps I'm just not far enough yet.

[TheLastBaron]

For just about every "new" pokemon that I see I think, "Oh, this guy is just pokemon X from the original with a different skin." It almost makes it worse that they pretend that they're substantively different.

Not exactly sure what you mean, are you saying like it's a fire pokemon, and all fire pokemon are reskins because they have similar move pools? Or are you saying they look similar in appearance? If you mean the former, in the original game pokemon only had one type, in all the newer games they can have two, which makes a HUGE difference. Also based on their stats they can be very different. If you mean the latter, fair enough, they all basically look the same.

I'm in the very, very small minority when it comes to Pokemon games in that I really like them, but also only for competitive battling. Well I haven't played much since Gen V came out (Black and White), but I played a TON of D/P/Pt and also spent a lot of time on Shoddy Battle (it's a program where you just import the team you want with all the stats and items and then you battle people online). For me the main game is kind of just a fun little part you have to play through and then it's about training and battling people. I don't know why I didn't get into black and white, I really wanted to get a team on it since it basically has a matchmaking server (it will match you up with random people to battle which is huge, before you had to know the people or use Shoddy). I think I had picked it up again a few months ago, but my neighbor had come over at some point and my dad let him borrow my DS and I'm never getting it back so the DS in general is now dead to me. Anyways, for me, this is what Pokemon is about

That being said, Gen 1&2 (Red/Blue/Yellow & Gold/Silver/Crystal) I played and loved for the normal reasons that kids played Pokemon games, and I watched the show and was into the cards and all that. A year ago I checked and I could name all 151 original Pokemon off the top of my head (it was an online test, and I think it was also timed so it had to be done in 12 minutes or less). I was big into Pokemon.

[miffy495]

I skipped the GBA ones, but am generally always just about ready for a new Pokemon game when they come out. I haven't played Black and White though, as I was wrapping up Heart Gold when it hit and decided it was skippable. I think the main problem Nintendo has with the series right now is that they've stepped up the rate of release in recent years (if this isn't actually true, it feels true to me, which is as good for my point) to the point where I can get fatigued. As far as I know, the dress up and battle train sort of things are always completely optional, yes? In all the games I've played, at any rate, I was able to completely ignore all of that and just play the game I wanted to play, which to me is a sign of a good RPG. It's also a great jumping off point for non-gamers. I've been able to get my partner into Dragon Quest because, despite not playing anything since the N64 days, she knew Pokemon Blue and Gold like the back of her hand and could get a handle on an old-school RPG by way of them. I picked up that crazy Pokemon Conquest game a couple of weeks ago too and (once I've had some time with it [it's pretty good]) hope to get her interested in a couple of strategy things as well. I think that it's a great start to what will hopefully be a splitting of genres for the franchise. The Pokemon series is great at creating "intro to genre x" games, and I would love to see more beyond RPG (main series), strategy (Conquest), and platformer (Pokepark, which fuck you I liked and spent 22 hours passing the wiimote back and forth with my partner over). On the other hand, I've only heard "meh" about the Mystery Dungeon spinoffs, so who knows.

POKEMON!

[Roderick]

I played Yellow on an emulator back in the day, then skipped to Diamond a few years ago. That was enough 'modern' Pokemon for me. Not in a bad way: I still have to finish it at some point, and will, but I won't need another new Pokemon before that, or probably after.

Diamond was the one with the balloon Pokemon Drifloon

Nuff said.

[Moosferatu]

Not exactly sure what you mean, are you saying like it's a fire pokemon, and all fire pokemon are reskins because they have similar move pools? Or are you saying they look similar in appearance? If you mean the former, in the original game pokemon only had one type, in all the newer games they can have two, which makes a HUGE difference. Also based on their stats they can be very different. If you mean the latter, fair enough, they all basically look the same.

What I mean is that most of the "new" pokemon are analogues for the originals. I'm not saying their stats are identical, but the fit a common role.

For example:

Pidgey = Pidove

Rattata = Patrat

Geodude = Roggenrola

Emolga = Pikachu

Paris = Dwebble

and the list goes on...

As I just scrolled through the pokedex, it looks like there's some fresher looking things towards the bottom of it.

Also, I swear I am so sick of fighting those damn elemental monkeys.

[Sno]

Having never played a Pokemon game, some friends talked me into playing Heart Gold.

I found it charming, but terribly dull.

Everything about it just made it such an interminably slow game. The combat requires so little input from the player, and there's so little happening, there's no reason for it to have such a slow pace. I mean, and any time you want to manage your pokemon in any way at all, it feels like there's four or five steps too many.

I could feeeeeel time slipping away from me.

Also, having to gimp your Pokemon with navigation abilities is super lame.

[Upthrust]

Not exactly sure what you mean, are you saying like it's a fire pokemon, and all fire pokemon are reskins because they have similar move pools? Or are you saying they look similar in appearance? If you mean the former, in the original game pokemon only had one type, in all the newer games they can have two, which makes a HUGE difference. Also based on their stats they can be very different. If you mean the latter, fair enough, they all basically look the same.

The original pokemon games definitely had pokemon with two types, but I understand a number of the changes made in later generations (I haven't played anything more recent than Silver) are balance tweaks that do make big differences. Special is no longer the monstrous attack/defense stat it was in Generation 1. Dark pokemon were added to create a counter to psychic types that wasn't bug (no idea why there are steel pokemon). I think now pokemon attack types aren't hard-coded to be uniformly special or physical -- meaning the high-attack special-based fire pokemon are now worthwhile (maybe some generations fixed this by giving fire pokemon high special, but I know it was an issue in Generation 1).

I will say that deliberately avoiding familiar pokemon is a good way to enjoy things. In my most recent game of Blue I made sure not to use any pokemon in my team I had used before (starting around Cerulean City, as there isn't much variety before then). I enjoyed that restriction enough that I kept playing until I filled out all 150 of the pokedex. I imagine that same strategy could help Moosferatu enjoy Black/White a bit more, just replace "pokemon you have used before" with "pokemon that gives you deja vu".

[TheLastBaron]

What I mean is that most of the "new" pokemon are analogues for the originals. I'm not saying their stats are identical, but the fit a common role.

For example:

Pidgey = Pidove

Rattata = Patrat

Geodude = Roggenrola

Emolga = Pikachu

Paris = Dwebble

and the list goes on...

As I just scrolled through the pokedex, it looks like there's some fresher looking things towards the bottom of it.

Also, I swear I am so sick of fighting those damn elemental monkeys.

Oh yeah, every Pokemon game has those pretty much, so yeah you're correct. There's always a bird you get in the beginning , some normal type rodent, some stupid electric thing, usually some bugs, ect. Later on there's a lot more variety I think, there certainly was in D/P/Pt. The pokemon you find in the beginning of game are always boring, regardless of whether they're familiar or not.

[arccos]

I found it charming, but terribly dull.

That's pretty much how I felt. I could see the appeal, but since the battle options are as simplistic as JRPGs get, I turned it off pretty quickly.

[TheLastBaron]

That's pretty much how I felt. I could see the appeal, but since the battle options are as simplistic as JRPGs get, I turned it off pretty quickly.

Playing against real people is pretty much the only time battling is fun, and I don't think a very large percentage of the people that have played a pokemon game at some point have battled real people, especially since up until Black/White you had to either to it in person, or know their friend code.