You may have noticed a particular lack of content from myself recently... I mean, besides the fact that I edit the website and all it's content every day. Plus there's some really cool stuff coming soon. Trust me.
Besides all that shite, half of the reason that I haven't been supplying as much content as I would hope is that I have been getting down to some major gaming. Namely, Pokemon Omega Ruby, as well as revisiting both Pokemon White 2 and Pokemon X. And good Christ, do these games just eat away at your lives.
The thing is, as great as Pokemon is on it's own, there's a lot of other little challenges and distractions that will consistently bring you back into the game and eat away at your precious hours. Besides your actual main quest of beating the gyms and collecting them all, here are 5 other things that keep bringing me back to the world of Pokemon.
1 - Quick Ball catching
Image Credit: renanfv.deviantart.com
This one might need a little bit of explaining. For the uninitiated, the Poke Ball isn't the only ball you can use to catch Pokemon. There's Great, Ultra, Master, Dusk, Dive, Timer, Safari, Luxury, Cherish, Heavy, Park, Net, Moon, Friend, Premier, Fast, Lure, Repeat, Heal, Love, Level and holy shit, this is a load of balls isn't it?
I won't bore you with statistics and that, but basically, the Quick Ball is more effective at catching Pokemon when it's used at the very start of a battle. Yet, I have always had consistent success with Quick Balls reaching back to the original Ruby and Sapphire games. Which really doesn't help, because I've become increasingly obsessed with trying to catch the rarest and hardest to catch Pokemon in nothing but Quick Balls. This is more often than not instantly successful, but when I'm adamant on catching a Level 80 Pokemon in a single Quick Ball, I will spend the entire day resetting my 3DS in order to do it.
I won't bore you with statistics and that, but basically, the Quick Ball is more effective at catching Pokemon when it's used at the very start of a battle. Yet, I have always had consistent success with Quick Balls reaching back to the original Ruby and Sapphire games. Which really doesn't help, because I've become increasingly obsessed with trying to catch the rarest and hardest to catch Pokemon in nothing but Quick Balls. This is more often than not instantly successful, but when I'm adamant on catching a Level 80 Pokemon in a single Quick Ball, I will spend the entire day resetting my 3DS in order to do it.
2 - Wonder Trading
Image Credit: planetminecraft.com
Anyone who has played Pokemon will know what trading entails. In the past, it was the way 3rd party Game Boy accessory makers made all their money with really shitty link cables. Nowadays, like most things, it's all done over the internet. This unfortunately led to trading becoming a hive of scum an villainy rivalled only by Mos Eisley. Looking for that rare Pokemon you need? You had better learn how to make a newborn level 1 version of the God of All Pokemon. I'm not shitting.
Wonder Trading turned all that on it's head, by making all trades random. Pick a Pokemon, send it away and get a random Pokemon from a random user in return. This can result in some excellent finds. At one point I was literally swimming in Charmanders, a Pokemon you're only really ever supposed to have one of. Once I've decided I'm going to Wonder Trade a Pokemon, I can easily lose days trying to up-sell the Pokemon I get in return, like a failing stock trader on his last few shares waiting to cash in.
Wonder Trading turned all that on it's head, by making all trades random. Pick a Pokemon, send it away and get a random Pokemon from a random user in return. This can result in some excellent finds. At one point I was literally swimming in Charmanders, a Pokemon you're only really ever supposed to have one of. Once I've decided I'm going to Wonder Trade a Pokemon, I can easily lose days trying to up-sell the Pokemon I get in return, like a failing stock trader on his last few shares waiting to cash in.
3 - The B Team
Image Credit: vub-esp.net
In any traditional Pokemon game, you train a team of six Pokemon in order to defeat all foes in your path and steamroll the most advanced trainers in the game, later taking your game against other people. However, with competitive battleing comes multiple strategies. Enter the B-Team.
Again, I won't go into how the Pokemon Competitive Battling Metagame works, cause I could be here for days, but let's just say that no one strategy and team set up will work for all battles. As the generations of Pokemon games have gone on, Double Battles, Triple Battles and Rotation battles have all become new ways to test your skills, and preparing for these kinds of skirmishes with friends and with foes online takes donkey's year, because it often means taking a team of really low level Pokemon and training them all the way to level 100. It's like starting the game afresh!
Again, I won't go into how the Pokemon Competitive Battling Metagame works, cause I could be here for days, but let's just say that no one strategy and team set up will work for all battles. As the generations of Pokemon games have gone on, Double Battles, Triple Battles and Rotation battles have all become new ways to test your skills, and preparing for these kinds of skirmishes with friends and with foes online takes donkey's year, because it often means taking a team of really low level Pokemon and training them all the way to level 100. It's like starting the game afresh!
4 - Shiny Hunting
Image Credit: i.ytimg.com
I have never, in my 18+ years of playing Pokemon games, ever, EVER seen or caught a shiny Pokemon. So when the player community develops a new way of 'easily finding a shiny', you bet your arse I will sink DAYS into testing these methods.
A shiny Pokemon is basically a palette swap of a normal Pokemon. Sounds boring right? WRONG. SO WRONG. Shiny Pokemon are rare as fuck. A shiny Pidgey, an otherwise useless and common Pokemon, could be considered more rare than a fully levelled endgame legendary like Arceus, God of All Pokemon. Seriously. And yet, despite probably days of combined effort over multiple games, I have never even so much as glimpsed a shiny with my own eyes. But maybe in that next patch of rustling grass... Maybe...
A shiny Pokemon is basically a palette swap of a normal Pokemon. Sounds boring right? WRONG. SO WRONG. Shiny Pokemon are rare as fuck. A shiny Pidgey, an otherwise useless and common Pokemon, could be considered more rare than a fully levelled endgame legendary like Arceus, God of All Pokemon. Seriously. And yet, despite probably days of combined effort over multiple games, I have never even so much as glimpsed a shiny with my own eyes. But maybe in that next patch of rustling grass... Maybe...
5 - Nicknames
Image Credit: web-images.chacha.com
I am so very, very not proud of this. In recent games, I have opted to give nicknames to every Pokemon I catch, minus the legendaries who ultimately have their own personalities of sorts. But let's face it, any other Pokemon is just a pet waiting to be named. The problem is, I am indecisive as fuck.
I will spend days with my 3DS paused in rest mode whilst I try and think of a good nickname. I will go online onto forums to get inspiration from other Pokemon players. Playing through Omega Ruby recently has meant I have had The Name Rater bookmarked and open on a tab for weeks. I can't help it, I just want to give my pets the perfect name. Sometimes, I come up with something genius. And sometimes I call my Squirtle 'Spaffcannon'. Like I said, not proud.
Pokemon games are awesome. I know that doesn't need saying, but all of these little things mean I get so much play out of games that should be meant for children. These games are so full of content for the money. To my mind, even though I waste a bunch of my time with games, I haven't wasted a second with my years of playing Pokemon.
I will spend days with my 3DS paused in rest mode whilst I try and think of a good nickname. I will go online onto forums to get inspiration from other Pokemon players. Playing through Omega Ruby recently has meant I have had The Name Rater bookmarked and open on a tab for weeks. I can't help it, I just want to give my pets the perfect name. Sometimes, I come up with something genius. And sometimes I call my Squirtle 'Spaffcannon'. Like I said, not proud.
Pokemon games are awesome. I know that doesn't need saying, but all of these little things mean I get so much play out of games that should be meant for children. These games are so full of content for the money. To my mind, even though I waste a bunch of my time with games, I haven't wasted a second with my years of playing Pokemon.
By Mike Owen
@ThatMikeOwen
The Editor in Chief of Foul Entertainment, Mike edits most of what you see on the site. He runs the production of our podcasts, and currently pens Pop Culture Club and The Death of Video Games.
@ThatMikeOwen
The Editor in Chief of Foul Entertainment, Mike edits most of what you see on the site. He runs the production of our podcasts, and currently pens Pop Culture Club and The Death of Video Games.