In the daily rematch against Mustard in S/S, he talks about the battle being a competition of who can win the most Exp. Points from the other. That is interesting, because it is exactly what I am doing when I battle him! My goal is to get Exp. Points from beating his Pokémon in order to give some of my own Pokémon some good training. I like how that was included, it is almost as if he could read my mind!
Does anyone know about the
Juice Shoppe in Lumiose City in X/Y? If not, then that’s okay. Because I did not know about it either until I randomly found it while browsing Bulbapedia a while ago. I know that I must have encountered it in the past when I was playing through X/Y and exploring Lumiose, but then completely forgotten about it afterwards. It seems like it has some really cool stuff to offer. Increasing Friendship, levels, EVs or resetting EVs to zero. Makes me wish I had made some good use of it when I played X/Y.
Next, I want to talk more about games I like even if they aren’t my top favorites. This time, I want to talk about side games. While I haven’t played many side games, I really want to say something about the few I have played because I really liked them. First of all, there’s the Gamecube games: Pokémon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness. Those were just awesome games all around. They were similar to the main series but had several key differences like Shadow Pokémon, a very limited Pokémon selection, and a focus on Double Battles over Single. They also featured some fun minigames and great battle challenges. XD is also another Pokémon game that I consider to be a successful sequel, along with B2/W2. I really like these games and I wish there had been more like them. I played through both of them three times each and it was a ton of fun. It has also been almost exactly 15 years since I got XD as I got it as a Christmas gift in 2005. I remember that I started to play it on Christmas Day back in 2005, it is a great memory.
The next one is a Pokémon game that is generally very heavily disliked and criticized, but one that I liked and had a ton of fun with: Pokémon Battle Revolution. I will admit that it has issues, but I still think the good outweighs the bad. I had a lot of fun with it. It offered some extra challenges in addition to what the main series games from Gen 4 had (notably D/P), which was really great. I also loved a lot of the music in this game. I remember that before I got the game, I was obsessed with the
Pokémon selection theme to the point that I went to Youtube videos where the game was being played by others and stayed at the parts where players chose their Pokémon and the music played, just so I could listen to the music. And like with XD, I got PBR as a Christmas present, this time in 2007. I also got Diamond at the same time. Both PBR and D/P were fun games and have many good memories from them.
Those are the only real side games I have played. I have also played Box R/S for Gamecube, Bank/Transporter for 3DS and Home for Switch/mobile, but I don’t really consider them to be “games”. They are more extra side-apps. Though I guess I can still say something positive about them now that I have mentioned them. The thing I like the most about them is obviously the fact that they offer extra space to store Pokémon. This was something I found really great as I did a lot of traditional breeding during the Gen 3 and 6/7 days, Box R/S and Bank were excellent places for storing the breeding leftovers. I haven’t really used Home for that though (and I don’t think I ever will either), but I appreciate its existence and how it has some other great features
even if several of them should have been in the actual main Pokémon games and not just limited to a side app. Even so, Home is okay for what it is.
Another thing I thought of recently that I really like which I have never posted about here. It might be slightly controversial though, but here goes: I really like RNG abuse. I remember learning it for Gen 5 in mid-2011, and for Gen 4 in early 2012. Never bothered learning it for any other generations since I didn’t have the time/interest needed. I think it was a ton of fun and sometimes challenging too in a very different way compared to the usual challenges in Pokémon. I will always consider learning and mastering Entralink RNG in B/W to be one of my most hardcore Pokémon moments ever. On the whole, getting all those shiny and flawless Pokémon was a dream coming true for me. I loved it and it was one of the many things that really kept my interest in Pokémon alive during the golden years of 2011-2014.
I also want to give some praise to a certain individual Pokémon/line. And in an unexpected twist, it is a Pokémon from Gen 1!
I really like Hitmonlee. I think it is awesome all around. In terms of battling performance, it is a quite strong and decently fast Physical attacker with a pretty good movepool (past Gen 2 at least). But I think the design is where it really shines. I just realized this recently. It has a body as well as arms and hands, legs and feet. And eyes. No mouth, no nose, no ears, it doesn’t even have a head! It is really absurdly designed but in a very good way and I love it! Easily one of my top 10 favorite designs from Gen 1, maybe even top 5. While Lee is the one I like the best from the Hitmons, I am very fond of Top as well. Chan is my least favorite of them but I still think it is fine as there are worse Fighting-types from Gen 1. I like Tyrogue too.
Lastly, I just want to say that despite everything, I still like Pokémon on the whole. Despite the issues I have with the more recent games, the franchise and the fandom, I still enjoy Pokémon. The games are still fun to play, and the fandom is fun to be a part of. I am currently burnt out on Pokémon, but even if I were to quit Pokémon completely in the future, I will never forget all the fun I have had with the franchise for the past 20-ish years. Not only the games, but also the manga, anime, TCG and of course the fandom. I love Pokémon.