Countdown to XY: A Nostalgia Thread

[Stone RG]

OMG IM GETTING GOOSEBUMPS 12 DAYS

Eh, i cant really say id like to erase one pokemon from existence because i dont hate any pokemon design, some of them are unoriginal or lazy, ill accept it, but theyre still cool to me, always. I guess if id have to erase one that's be... Cresselia, i thoroughly hated having to chase her through Sinnoh, shes one of the few legendaries ive never used in-game, and competitive pokemon-wise, i dont care how unviable she is, its bulky as fuck and i cant seem to get rid of her easily enough.

 

[Cinccino]

Day 18:
LOL, I actually have a huge list, most of them are new evos from Gen IV (nothing's uglier than Magmortar -Magmar was an uglyish bipedal dog/lizard/whatever thing, Magmortar is a freaking fat man with silly cannon arms).

But if I can only nuke one, it must be Pignite & Emboar because he's a starter. They wasted so much of Tepig's potential. It could have been a badass Fire/Ground (bcs pig) nasty boar, but instead GF was feeling trolly and make it anoth- you know the rests :')

 

[Red G]

Pachirisu. I liked Pichu well enough, Plusle & Minun were cool since they were designed to work in Doubles, Emolga has the extra flying type (and usable stats!), and Dedenne has the extra fairy type. Pachirisu is *just* a crappy pika clone, with no reason for existing other than to try and become popular. If Pachirisu disappeared off the pokedex (mass extinction event caused by Team Flare?), I would feign shock in case Officer Jenny is nearby and suspected me, but I would laugh triumphantly on the inside.

 

[dwarfstar]

Day 18: Ludicolo. I fucking hate Ludicolo. There are many Pokemon designs that I dislike, some of which are even uglier than Ludicolo, but I've had very bad experiences with the disgraceful pineapple-thing.

Backstory: I started training Pokemon up to competitive specs early in the spring of 2009, towards the end of my freshman year of high school. A couple of my friends and I decided to enter the 2009 VGC (northern California division). We trained like crazy for that tournament, and when the day finally came, we charged in with far more confidence than any novice has rights to. One of my friends didn't get in (the huge number of entrants that year necessitated a lottery system) and the other was eliminated in the second round due to hax, but I did phenomenally well for a beginner - I was either the youngest or second-youngest person to make the top 8 (one of the other guys was also 14). Anyway, the first match of the finals rounds pitted me against this dude with the player name Coconut, and he sent out a Vaporeon and Ludicolo. I'd beaten two Ludicolo earlier in the tournament with little trouble, so I figured that Vaporeon was the bigger threat and I should focus on taking it out. That Ludicolo turned out to be a Swords Dance set that demolished two of my Pokemon (with a little softening-up from Vaporeon's Surf). Salamence then fell to an Ice Punch, and I was left with one Pokemon left. This Pokemon was Oscuro, the Umbreon I'd raised for this tournament - the cutest little stall-bot in existence, I maintain to this day. Oscuro held on and took out that Ludicolo like the champ he was, but even my valiant little warrior couldn't stand up to Coconut's Lapras and Exeggutor. That loss affected me far more than it should have - to this day, I still get really nervous whenever I see a Ludicolo on an enemy's team. To top it all off, Wallace's Ludicolo was the hardest thing to beat in the entire League challenge during my recent Emerald replay.

TL;DR Fuck Ludicolo with a flaming cactus.

 

[hitoshura0]

Day 18: If you could erase one Pokémon from existence, which one would it be?

As always, please explain why. No one word posts! Also yes, today is your opportunity to be whiny as much as you want. :)

Medicham.

I had a Nuzlocke, and after the death of my Monferno starter to a rollout bidoof I miscounted the turns on, I swapped it out with a Meditite. The thing was good enough to stay on but too horrible to really do anything of value. When Cynthia finally killed it, I wasn't even sad. Things are terrible.

 

[SecondStarmie]

Hehehe, I have lurked here so long i forgot i actually had an account. These questions are so good i had to use my first (edit: second?) post on this.
ALL THE QUESTIONS!

Day 1: What is your first memory of Pokémon?
Wigglytuff trading card. Someone had a Jungle Booster at summer camp, and we had a silly game based on Wigglytuff (Do the wave). Wanting to be cool, I bought the game.
Day 2: What was your first experience with a shiny Pokémon?
For the longest time i couldn't get any, so i would trade strong Pokemon for one of my friend's shinies, until I amassed a good number. Then Soul Silver came out. I did a nuzlocke, and found a shiny Ekans. Her name is Narsissa and she is a fabulous golden Arbok. She broke the dam and then they just flooded in. Now I have a NU Kanto Shiny Team :)
Day 3: How close have you come to "catching 'em all"?
Did it in Platinum, and then again in Black. Been slowly migrating all of them one by one to Black 2.
Day 4: What was your first level 100 Pokémon?
Kyogre. I named him "Rain". I pretty sure he cemented my obsession with water types.
Day 5: What is your favorite Pokémon and why?
Starmie! It is a Water/Psychic and that is kickass. Competitively they are great, always have one on my team. It can shoot thunder, heal itself, harden and change color! They can fly and in the manga Misty rides hers like a hoverboard (This is amazing). They also may or may not be aliens relaying messages into space for an invasion they may or may not be planning.
Day 6: Which Pokémon rumors did you believe when you were younger?
The truck.. Not much else really.
Day 7: Which aspect of XY are you looking forward to the most?
Mass trading and cloud storage!
Day 8: What are your Pokémon "quirks"?
Oh no, my OCD. I only catch Pokemon in Pokeballs (Heatran sucked). I always have to have one of each Pokemon in my PC, in order. I can't have 2 Pokemon on my team share a type, unless they all do. No duplicate items. I also give all of my cutest Pokemon the most regal names.
Day 9: What is your favorite region and why?
Hoenn. It was the first game i was really old enough to understand the mechanics. They also have most of my favorites native there.
Day 10: If you could change one thing about the Pokémon games, what would it be?
Name Rater. Why is my shiny Crobat doomed to be named CROBAT for all eternity?
Day 11: What is your favorite mini-game?
Contest, hands down. Why they where only in gen 3 is beyond me.
Day 12: Which song/theme is the most nostalgic?
I still remember the original Pokerap. I sometimes sing it when I'm at bars.
Day 13: How do Colosseum/XD compare to other main-series games?
Fun, but overall less memorable. I beat XD and remember next to nothing about it..
Day 14: If you were given a pill that erases all memory of Pokémon, would you take it?
I don't understand... why?
Day 15: Which past feature do you want to return in XY?
I am not one for holding on. Onward and upward!
Day 16: Did you enjoy the experience of starting fresh in BW?
Eh, it was ok. Didn't really seem like starting fresh. Not so much as Gen 3 did.
Day 17: What is your favorite Pokémon movie/anime episode?
I have recently learned that everything i liked about the anime is 100% nostalgia. It is terrible.
Day 18: If you could erase one Pokémon from existence, which one would it be?
Can James Turner be a Pokemon? He made both the Vanilite line and Vullbaby line. Golurk and Mandibuzz are okay.. but i really just think its because Vultures and Mechs are cool, not any design on his part. I love all Pokemon, but his designs.. :/

 

[BigZac]

Day 18: Hmm...

Ingame, the Patrat and Woobat lines. Like we needed something uglier/stupider looking than the Bidoof and Zubat lines?

Competitively, Liepard and Jirachi. I hate both of them with a passion.

Crobat is the only one of the 3 bats i don't hate, though..so i guess that counts for something?

 

[Ratatat]

Day 18: If you could erase one Pokémon from existence, which one would it be?
In this time of looking forward to tomorrow, it's also good to look back at those who spited us and knock 'em off so we can step over their collapsed heaps into the future.

But since I'm not nearly that vindictive, I'll pick something that won't even feel it - Unown. Given how my general preference for Pokemon flip-flops more times than a Seaworld dolphin, and I tend to find favor in even the dopiest things as long as they're even marginally cute, It's probably best that I go for something that hardly even qualifies as a conscious. Yeah, it's an obvious choice, but I'm just kinda confused as to why this thing is even a Pokemon, let alone with over two dozen different, equally pointless varieties. You know who I really feel bad for - the sprite artists. Every game since Gen II they've had to do approximately 28 times the work creating animations for this one 'mon alone that they had to know no one would ever use. That's like the project they make the interns do or something. I actually like the idea of an ancient language to give the Pokemon world some age, and I'm not even advocating removing them from the games entirely, but what the blinking font is anyone supposed to do with these things except give the OCD's one more thing to collect? ...Or maybe that was the point? Diabolical.

 

[Bull of Heaven]

I have to say, I really see no point for Chimecho. It's exceedingly rare (in Gen 3 at least, not sure about other Gens)

I think you kind of answered your own question here. This was the one thing that redeemed Chimecho: it was rare. I was actually kind of excited when I caught a Chimecho in my Sapphire version, just because of this. Making it more common in later gens was definitely a mistake.

I thought of I few things I wouldn't mind erasing from existence (hello Cubchoo), but realized that none of them are very memorable anyway, and I can solve most of my problems by just ignoring them. With that in mind, I decided I had to choose Palkia. I'm a big fan of legendary Pokemon, and the major box-cover legendaries are some of the coolest Pokemon around, but gen 4 just kind of dropped the ball IMO. A lot of the fourth-gen legendaries seem kind of half-assed to me (hello Uxie/Mesprit/Azelf) but the three dragons have the highest profile, and it's particularly hard to ever forget that they exist. While I'm not a big fan of any of the three designs, I've kind of warmed up to Dialga and Giratina (even Origin Forme) over time, and this is not the case with Palkia. Palkia's design is simultaneously weird and boring, I don't see how it's at all related to "space" and the Water typing is almost inexplicable. And, okay, I'll say what we're all thinking: Palkia has an incredibly phallic head. Why, Game Freak? Why?

Yeah, I skipped the anime question. I haven't watched the anime in forever and don't remember particular episodes very clearly. I think the ones where Ash caught Charmander and Squirtle were good though.

 

[Oopa]

Day 18: If you could erase one Pokémon from existence, which one would it be?

As always, please explain why. No one word posts! Also yes, today is your opportunity to be whiny as much as you want. :)

Uh, probably Skitty and Delcatty- yeah they might be cute, but they're the reason HSOWA exists. HWODA would be similarly disturbing, but as of now i can't think of any other pokemon. Maybe Zubat cos it's annoying in caves T_T

 

[Codraroll]

I don't see why so many people would remove Chimecho. It's annoyingly rare, does nothing special, has the competitive value of a used tissue paper and got a pre-evolution almost as an insult, but that's nothing an evolution couldn't fix. If Chimecho were to evolve, it could at least result in a decent 'mon.

As for what Pokémon I'd like to remove... Magnezone.

It took the concept of Magnemite (creatures held together with electromagnetism, eventually attracting more of its kind to form a single Pokémon) and ignored it completely. Magnemite/Magneton can be seen as parallels to molecules, where the sum of its parts (magnets, screws, and iron balls) gives it fun new properties. It was all about magnetic scrap held together, sharing some bizarre intelligence.

Magnezone, however, ditches the concept of parts altogether. The parts themselves transform and form this bloated epitome of ugliness. What a Magneton evolution needs is more parts, perhaps combined in a new and interesting way. Not a bad rehash of its concept, making it looking like a UFO out of nowhere, and adding an antenna. The only original parts it keeps after evolution are three of the magnets. Magneton might merely look like three Magnemite, but I feel more like it is one Pokémon, made out of thrice as many parts as a Magnemite. Magnezone kinda comes out of nowhere, and is in my eyes the ugliest cross-generational evolution to date.

It has nice stats and an interesting playstyle, though. It's just that as far as design goes, it's pretty botched. I'm not completely opposed to the idea of giving Magneton an evolution, but it could (and should) have been a lot better than this.



"Another" Pokémon creeps up pretty close to Magnezone for the second spot, though: The elemental monkey(s).

Those were damn annoying in BW1. Not only do they look almost identical to each other. But whereas most other Pokémon in Unova were confined to a route or two here and there, the monkeys where everywhere. And if one trainer in an area had one of them, you could bet your left arm that there were other trainers nearby that had the two others. Evn Miyamoto had all three. That's an insult to variety and creativity. And all six of them were butt ugly and terribly bad. I tried raising a Pansage once, it was so underwhelming I felt like releasing it once I found something to replace it with. The monkeys were simply annoying, and totally unneeded. I hope they will sink to the depths of oblivion, were notoriously unnotable Pokémon like Lickitung, Carnivine and Lumineon reside.

 

[khaozz13]

I think you kind of answered your own question here. This was the one thing that redeemed Chimecho: it was rare. I was actually kind of excited when I caught a Chimecho in my Sapphire version, just because of this. Making it more common in later gens was definitely a mistake.

Actually, this was what made Chimecho disappointing. The fact that it took me over half an hour to find a Pokémon who isn't even that great is why I think Chimecho isn't worth it. In B2W2, finding Riolu in Floccesy Ranch was annoying since it has a 5% encounter rate, but at least Lucario is a great Pokémon. Chimecho is even rarer than Riolu with a 2% encounter rate, but is less useful. Rarity alone is not a good enough factor to determine whether or not a Pokémon is worth it.

 

[bearcanine]

Day 18: If you could erase one Pokémon from existence, which one would it be?

However, I have to revise my answer to the Patrat line. This is because it has all the problems the Bidoof line has, but it is also a rip-off of the Bidoof line. I mean, come on, it's bad enough that they made such stupid normal rodents ONCE, let alone TWICE. Plus, those eyes stare directly into your soul.

I tried to make-believe that he resembled Conan from Case Closed, and he had a "keen eye" for detail. But... I blinked and only rage followed. I hate this thing.

 

[Millky95]

Day 18:
Wow it's getting close, I'm so excited

Gen 1: The Nidorans. They were everywhere and the first forms I swear gave bugger all exp from battles. I couldn't stand seeing them despite how awesome they are for you
Gen 2: Sentret. Damn. Worse than Rattata and was there when Rattata was. Horrible Pokemon
Gen 3: Feabas. Trying to catch that mother fucker... Just fuck you Feabas.
Gen 4: Kricketot. An annoying bug that I found way too often.
Gen 5: The elemental monkeys. Lazy design, around way too much. Useless. Fuck those guys too.

 

[Gokuzbu]

Gallade. It overshadows my favorite Pokemon Gardevoir as the cooler of the 2. Hopefully with Gardevoir gaining a great boon in Fairy type it puts Gallade in its place

 

[SenshiSam]

Day 17:

-Electric Showdown and the episode when Pidgeotto evoles, "feels" just that.

Movie. Darkrai movie is good one and I like Lucario's movie, I like how Sir Aaron sacrifice himself for the sake of his, pupil, friend and pokemon.

Day 18:

Dodrio, I just HATE HIM, with the pasion of ten suns! I don't even know why I hate that guy, I just hate him. I never catch one and never ever rise one.

Another candidate is Hippowdon "let's play online with Platinum!" *99/100 matches are HippowdonSlackoffRoarStealrock "FUN"*

 

[Roadagain]

Day 17: What is your favorite Pokémon movie/anime episode?

This is a tough one. As far as the movies go, the second movie was, as a kid, a huge favorite for showcasing legendaries fighting it out.
However, when it comes to the anime, I largely don't remember a fair share of episodes. Nevertheless, the main focus (which a certain Best Wishes failed miserably at) is the battles. As such, the favorite would be something from the Sinnoh League. Granted, you can condense Paul into a single episode, so that leads to... Tobias.

As much of a trainwreck it was for Ash, it did a good job at showing Ash not sucking horribly, and it very strongly implied Ash had full potential to finish second.

Day 18: If you could erase one Pokémon from existence, which one would it be?

I've never hated a Pokemon so much as to wish it shouldn't have existed, purely for the fact that opinions differ, and I just... have no reason to wish one to not be there. I can just ignore them largely.

However, there is one thing I'd be entirely content with never seeing again, after a certain clash with one. Milotic. Just... no. See, when I was doing the original Scramble run of Diamond, I was quite prepared for Garchomp. I didn't especially prepare for Milotic, because that thing isn't a threat. Especially as half of my team did carry something SE against it. Nope. Garchomp was threatening in it's own right, but at least there was a strategy to be used against it. The Milotic? It just does not DIE.

No other Pokemon has brought out such a level of frustration, and as such, it would be the one to go. Feebas can stay. That's nifty.

 

[Misunderstood Tyranitar]

Day 16: Did you enjoy the experience of starting fresh in BW?
I loved it, Best thing to be able to re-experience a whole new world, I will love when it happens again but can only happen every 3-4 gens as otherwise the pain of getting older pokemon would kill the mood. The fact they followed up with B2W2 was a genius move as it had most of the fan favorites and just flowed on from BW perfectly.

Day 17: What is your favorite Pokémon movie/anime episode?
Hard to answer as I haven't seen a lot of the anime but I love the first Movie, just the feels man also Paul and Ash's final battle was brilliant.

Day 18: If you could erase one Pokémon from existence, which one would it be?
I... I don't know.
I love all the Pokemon others love... Like I love the Vanilla line and the Gear line and I adore Golurk and Eelektross.
Probably one Pokemon I have hated since Pokemon has existed... Jynx, it's stupid and can go die with Mr.Mime, Smoochum is cool but Mime Jr. can go die too.
I generally love a lot of strange Pokemon and then love the fan favourites...

 

[Coronis]

16: Nah not really, I prefer to have a mix of old and new.
17: Pokemon 4ever. Suicune and Celebi, nuff said.
18: I dunno if I could bear to see any go. Maybeeeee Weedle. 100% poison rate with Poison Sting in the early game.

 

[Fortuit]

Day 18: If you could erase one Pokémon from existence, which one would it be?
Spiritomb: can't we let those spirits rest in peace? There are lots of Ghost Pokémon roaming the Earth after they were bound to an object (Shuppet and Yamask lines at the top of my head), but it wasn't our fault. To obtain a Spiritomb we have to place a stone in a tower to deliberately trap not one, but 108 spirits into it. We are the mean-spirited ones.

 

[inanimate blob]

Day 18: Fuck Mr. Mime, that thing is everything wrong with any problems I have with Pokemon.

 

[norelationstojfk]

Day 18: I think Shiftry and his stupid chin-crotch can be safely ditched. I've always hated Shiftry. There are Pokemon I hate more (lookin at you, majority of generation five Pokemon) but this one's design is just weird and is a disturbing part of my favorite generation.

 

[Stellar]

This one will be short since smogon was down yesterday, but here we go.

Day 19: What is the most unfortunate thing that has happened to you while playing Pokemon?

It can either be something in the game (e.g., accidentally released your starter) or something in real life (e.g., ruined your Yellow cartridge in the washing machine).

 

[AstralFire]

This one will be short since smogon was down yesterday, but here we go.

Day 19: What is the most unfortunate thing that has happened to you while playing Pokemon?

It can either be something in the game (e.g., accidentally released your starter) or something in real life (e.g., ruined your Yellow cartridge in the washing machine).

I legitimately caught 149 in Blue Version back in the day, before GSC. Two were missing: Primeape and Mew.

I got busy. And then, my Game Boy Pocket got damaged badly; it was the batteries, quite literally exploding in my hands, but Nintendo of America's amazing customer service told me they'd replace my GBP for free anyway, as well as fix the game that had been inside of it (the explosion had damaged multiple things. thankfully, not my fingers - they got weird acid on them but I washed it off quick before it was a problem.) Well, I got the game and GBP back, but the save wasn't recoverable. Boo.

Sometime later, after GSC had come out, I picked up Red to get more TMs from backtrading, but the game just didn't work anymore. The battery backup went kaput. So I called Nintendo up, they of course offered to replace it for free, and they asked me how far I'd gotten. I said, truthfully, I didn't remember; I had a lot of pokemon, including Mew on it at that point, but the number of gyms I was on when I'd last quit and all that, I couldn't remember at all. I got back a save with 8 Badges and 151 Pokemon. They had a bunch of funny names in their boxes.

The closest I've ever gotten since was 411 out of 493 in HG/SS, and I didn't try at all in BW/2. Too many now. Too much of pain. Just not worth it.

There's that... That's all I can really think of. Sorry to repost my answer to an earlier day, but it still holds!

 

[Hulavuta]

From the facepalm thread:

Um, this is a little embarrassing, but I was 8 when I got my first Pokemon game, Fire Red. And as an 8 year old I had a really bad habit of chewing on things...basically anything I came across. My nails, my fingers, the silver eraser holder on the end of the pencil, really I chewed on almost everything.

And, I don't know why I did this...but I chewed on my FireRed cartridge...very stupid of me, I know. I'm still not exactly sure why I was so silly to do such a thing, but one day, not surprisingly, it just stopped working. Sad ;____; and then, I lost it. If only I had it and it worked again long enough for me to migrate all of my Pokemon to my Diamond version...oh well.

And I got this reply:

We have a winner.

I'm was such a dumb kid, lol.