Blog Archives
Pokemon Winds and Waves Revealed!
We all knew this day would come. There’s a new mainline Pokemon game on the way! I think today is Pokemon Day, and the Pokemon Company made a ton of announcements this morning. I’m really only interested in the mainline games…though maybe not this one. I’ll explain in a bit. Let’s just enjoy the reveal trailer and the starters for now!
Looks great! Looks detailed and full of life and exactly what we all want from these new open world Pokemon games. I know I’ve been waiting my whole adult childhood for these bigger, more expansive Pokemon games. I enjoyed the last couple.
And here are there starters: Browt, Pombon and Gecqua.
On initial glance, I don’t have an immediate favorite. Maybe Gecqua. But it really all depends on their final evolutions. I pick a starter based on vibes and looks. And mainly the look of the final evolution, because that’s the one I’ll be spending the most time with in the game. It doesn’t take long for your starter to evolve in these modern games.
Anyway, it all looks great…but, uh…I’m probably not buying a Switch 2 anytime soon. I’m pretty broke these days, and am getting by nicely with my new gaming PC and Playstation 5. I bought the Switch during COVID, and that was my first ever Nintendo console (if we don’t count Game Boys). I played all the games I wanted on it, including the last mainline Pokemon game, and then I never touched the thing again. I’m no Nintendo guy.
So even though I’ve gone out and bought Nintendo handhelds specifically to play new Pokemon games…I just don’t see myself buying the Switch 2 anytime soon. Granted, I’ve got until Winds and Waves comes out in 2027…but I dunno, you guys. The base console costs $450, plus then like $60 or more for this new game. Do I want to spend $500 just to play the new Pokemon game? I can’t justify that. Not in this economy, with the world crashing down around us.
This might just be the end of the line for me and Pokemon…
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Did You See This Pokemon Concierge Thing?
This cartoon trailer dropped a week or two ago about Pokemon Concierge, and upcoming, stop motion animated show about a pokemon hotel. It’s crazy! And I only say it’s crazy because, in retrospect, the only thing we’ve ever really seen pokemon do in the past 20+ years is fight one another.
Pokemon is the most profitable and popular pop culture franchise in the entire world. And yet we’ve only ever had one ongoing cartoon show about Pokemon battles, and then that one Detective Pikachu movie. There have been plenty of spin-off games that aren’t about fighting, but those were never as popular as the mainline games. So perhaps, at long last, the pokemon company will be making products that aren’t just animal fighting matches.
Plus, the stop motion animation looks gorgeous! Pokemon Concierge comes to Netflix on Dec. 28.
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6 Things I Really Want in Modern Pokemon Games
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are upon us and we’re truly living in an open Pokemon world now, baby! Pokemon Legends: Arceus was the baby steps, and now our youthful protagonist is out and about traveling a fully open, fully explorable world filled with wild pokemon roaming free. No more walking through tall grass. No more routes. Not as much handholding. We’re free.
Relatively speaking.
A lot of hay has been made about the poor graphical stability of the game, with poor frame rates, stuttering, glitches and everything else under the same. And the games definitely have all of that. But honestly, it doesn’t really bother me or hinder my gameplay. Those graphical issues are not going to take away from me running wild and free in this glorious open world Pokemon game. But that’s not say to Scarlet and Violet are perfect. Or that Sword and Shield were perfect. Or that whatever the next games will be will be perfect. Because I do have some complaints.
Join me after the jump for six improvements I want to see in all future, mainline Pokemon games, things that aren’t too much to ask for in a modern game made by the most profitable franchise in history.
Read the rest of this entryHow About a Big, Long Look at Pokemon Violent and Scarlet?
Pokemon Violet and Scarlet are a month away, which means we might as well take a big, long, new look at the game in this extended preview video! Even though I have given in and started playing TemTem, I am definitely still looking forward to Pokemon Violet next month!
All of this still looks pretty great to me! I hope the big, open world doesn’t feel too barren. I’m looking forward to the character designer, as always. The new pokemon all look fine, though the red motorcycle one still looks super dumb while it’s running. That solidified my getting Violet, because at least the purple motorcycle one uses its wheels.
Picnics seem like a natural evolution of the various play-with-the-pokemon stuff they’ve had in past games, so that’s fine. Crafting TMs sounds neat. Crafting sandwiches? Alright, whatever! Adding a photography mode is smart. Pokemon Snap is a great game series. They should have ported in a lot more Snap features, like getting photos rated or something.
I like the look of all of this. Pokemon Violet is a Day 1 buy for me next month, on Nov. 18!
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Pokemon or Tem Tem?
I’m once again at a video game crossroads. I’ve been playing the heck out of Total War: Warhammer 3, and I might just keep playing that. The next new video game I want to get doesn’t come out until the end of October, and I probably need a Playstation 5 to play it (which I might not get). Then God of War: Ragnarok in early November, which can be played on a PS4, but should it?
Finally, Pokemon Violet and Scarlet come out in mid-November. I definitely have the Nintendo Switch to play it. But what do I play until then?
I’ve really been eyeing this game Tem Tem on Steam. It’s a pretty solid Pokemon knock-off that seems pretty fun. Might that last me until mid-November? I haven’t done much research at all into that game, unlike the research I do playing new Pokemon games. So for the first time ever, I could go into a monster catching game with no knowledge of what monsters I’ll encounter or their final evolutions.
It’s very tempting…I just gotta be willing to spend that money…
Oh yeah, and all the new stuff introduced in that new Pokemon trailer looks neat. It’s more of the basic Pokemon stuff, but that’s exactly what I want in the new open world playstyle. Give me the open world, but the normal Pokemon track, and hopefully that should be really fun.
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Henchman-4-Hire 