Pokemon X and Y are Awesome

The title post is an understatement. I know that I am a little late to jump on this bandwagon and blog about this, but my computer access is very limited and my 3DS access is not.

Pokemon X and Y are exactly what Pokemon needed to revitalize the series. The jump to 3D for Pokemon was as important as was the jump for Mario and Zelda. Gamefreak put so much attention to detail in these games that they are almost like a love letter to fans. I felt the love at least.

So what could be so great about Pokemon? Isn't it still the same standard formula? How could it be so much better? Allow me to answer my own questions.

Yes, it is the same formula, but they took that formula that felt dusty and overused in 5th gen and cleaned it up, waxed it a little, and then coated it in gold. Sweet chocolaty gold. Then they covered it in sprinkles. Diamond sprinkles.

You start out as the new kid in town which is familiar. What is different is that your new friends give you your first Pokemon instead of the professor. You don't even meet the professor for a good while (depends on how fast your play). You get the choice between Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie. These are probably the best starters Pokemon has offered for a long time simply because of their concepts. Chespin becomes a Paladin, Fennekin becomes a wizard, and Froakie becomes a ninja.

The starters have a theme and that theme is RPG classes. I love it so much. There is a starter for each type of gameplay you like. I always choose mage characters in RPGs, so I chose Fennekin and I love it!

Okay, awesome starters, what else makes X and Y so glorious? Remember those diamond sprinkles I talked about? There are so many little things in this game, such an incredible attention to detail. Let me just run down a few awesome little things for you. By themselves these things aren't amazing or groundbreaking, but add them all together and they create something special.

• When talking to a small child or Pokemon, your character will bend down a bit.
• You can sit. There are benched all over the place that give you a scenic view.
• You can customize your character to be a unique person. Its also optional so you don't have to sift through an hours long character creation before you play.
• You can walk diagonally. You get roller skates not far in the game that give you free movement in any direction. The same is applied for the bike. 
• Sometimes in battle there will be a tree in the background and using a specific attack will knock a berry out of the tree which you will claim after battle. This is a really small attention to detail as I still haven't actually done this :P

Then there are bigger changes that add more to the game but are still optional.

• Pokemon Amie, where you can play with your Pokemon similar to Nintendogs. You don't ever even have to look at this feature, it isn't forced at you. But if you decide to play with your Pokemon they will get bonuses in battle like more experience and higher critical hit rates.
• Super Training, where you can EV train your Pokemon. EV training used to be one of the most monotonous things about Pokemon and a lot of people had no idea how it worked. Now its a fun mini game that gives almost immediate benefit to your Pokemon's stats. Its also completely optional. There isn't even a tutorial in the main game, only if you go looking for it.
• Along with Super Training making EV's easier, breeding has been tweaked to make understanding and mastering IVs easier. I'm not going to go into depth about what those are, I like not having a headache, but they were super confusing and impossible to control. The tweaks have changed all that.
• Changes were made to the Exp. Share. Now when it is on all the Pokemon on your team will get experience. This makes grinding levels obsolete. Its also optional and I played through the game with the exp. share off. I used it after beating the story to quickly evolve Pokemon and fill out my Pokedex. It is so much easier to do that now.

After that there are even bigger changes that seamlessly add so much to the game.

• Mega Evolution. Fans were hesitant at first, but having a few of my favorite old Pokemon get mega evolutions was awesome. It is really fun to bring out Charizard and then upgrade him to a dragon and destroy everything. While I wish a few of my other favorite Pokemon had gotten Mega Evolutions, I am happy with the ones that we got.
• The Pokedex is massive. There are so many different Pokemon is each route. The options for Pokemon to use in your team are massive. This gives the game huge replayability (stop telling that isn't a word spell check, it is so!) 
• Speaking of replayability, Pokemon Bank finally happened. Now you can store up to 3000 Pokemon online. You can restart your game without losing all those rare and powerful Pokemon.
• Wonder Trades. There is an option in the game to allow you to trade one of your Pokemon away in a wonder trade. The game will find you another person who is at the moment also wonder trading. You won't know who you are trading with or what Pokemon they are giving you until you get the Pokemon. This is simple but so awesome. People have started playing the game with what is called a "Wonder Trade Challenge." This is where you catch 6 Pokemon and then wonder trade them all away and then play through the game with the 6 random Pokemon you received. I love this so much.
• The new Fairy type. There have been mixed reactions to the Fairy type, but I like it even if it doesn't make much sense that Fairies are completely immune to dragons. The reason I like it is because one of my favorite Pokemon, Gardevoir, is now a fairy and she has become even more beast. (Then add a mega evolution on top of that).

Also, just as a side note, there are three additional personal reasons that I love these games so much. One is that while there weren't very many new Pokemon, we got more new dragon types than ever before. On top of that every single dragon type is obtainable in the game. Then there are two Pokemon who mega evolve into dragons (Charizard and Amphoros). DRAGONS! *ahem*

That all being said, there are some problems with the games that I shall here and now address. These problems are minimal in my opinion, but they must be discussed.

The first problem is that there are only about 70 new Pokemon. This is the least amount of new Pokemon we have ever gotten and it is a bit disappointing.

The game is a bit short, especially if you use the Exp. Share. On top of that there is almost no post game. Pokemon usually has a lot of post game, this most certainly did not.

That is pretty much it. I can't think of anything else wrong with the games at the moment. After all that goodness that I just listed, these negatives are minor and insufficient to ruin the game.

DRAGONS! ... Sorry, I love the new dragons.

Anyway, these games are freaking awesome and you need to play them! You NEEEEEEED to. This isn't a want/vs need debate, this is a need. Its a psychological need. Go and play, I beg you, its for your good.

Charizard Just Got More Awesome Part 2

Remember in my last post how I said that Pokémon was driving the hype train of the moment? It gained a bit more momentum today.

CHARIZARD IS A DRAGON/FIRE TYPE!

Mega Charizard X is a Dragon/Fire type to be more specific. The Mega Evolution of Charizard that I previously blogged about is now known as Mega Charizard Y, the Mega Evolution introduced in the above video is Mega Charizard X. He gains a boost to his attack, gains an ability that makes his physical contact moves stronger, and his Flying type is replaced with Dragon type.

GameFreak has proved today that dreams do in fact come true.

The item needed to mega evolve Charizard into Mega Charizard X, the Charizardite X, can only be found in Pokémon X version, which is the one that I suddenly want. I wonder if I can trade that item over to Y Version or if its stuck in X version.

As a side note, all items needed to mega evolve pokémon are the pokémon's name and -ite. Charizardite, Blazikenite, and so on. What if Dragonite gets a mega evolution? (He had better.) Dragoniteite?

Mega Man is Awesome (and in the new Smash Bros Game)

I was going to do another Pokémon post, but that is all I've been doing lately. I realized that I haven't talked about this yet, so here it is.

This was a huge freakin' announcement! Finally Mega Man would be in Smash Brothers! And he looks awesome in the trailer. I love, as do many, the part where Mega Man takes out his Metal Blades. Its pure awesome.

For Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Nintendo had an enormous Hype Train that they rode the whole way to the release date. It demolished entire civilizations as it traveled the globe, spreading anticipation for Brawl. Nintendo, for some reason, has not done that this time around. They started out strong, but then came a whole lot of nothing. All that we have learned since E3 has been characters that we either knew would be in or didn't want to be in, and that there isn't a story mode like in Brawl. Hype Train officially derailed. That's why this post was titled "Super Smash Brothers Wii U is Going to be Awesome" because my hype is dead. (Pokémon seems to have claimed the hype train for the moment, as it has all my attention.)

I still get excited when I watch the Mega Man trailer though. Nintendo, we need more awesome hypetastic trailers. Please?

Edit: Ha, on the day I posted this, Sonic was revealed as a character. Still, most of us expected this, so its nothing new. 

Tyrantrum is Awesome

So this happened. I'm trying to not spoil Pokémon X and Y, but it seems that almost every time I go to YouTube I accidentally see a new Pokémon. I might have to avoid YouTube for the next couple of weeks until I can play the game.

My reaction was very similar to the above video. That is a T-Rex Pokémon. A T-Rex! Pokémon has teased me since the beginning by giving us fossils and then having them NOT be dinosaurs. The only Dinosaurs we had were Aerodactyl, which almost doesn't count (almost), Rampardos, and Bastiodon. I love these three, don't get me wrong, but its about time we got a T-Rex!

Can I just say that this made me happy. I'm hyping X and Y up for myself so much.

Edit: And I just found out that Tyrantrum is a Dragon type Pokémon. Things just get better and better.

Fennekin Potentially Just got a lot more Awesome

The sixth generation of Pokémon is happening soon and slowly the new Pokémon for it are being revealed. The starters were among the first, those being Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie. I was kind of meh to Chespin and Froakie, but Fennekin is a fire fox and it won my heart and I decided that Fennekin would be my sixth gen starter.

Just look at the little guy.

Recently the first evolutions of the starters were revealed in a trailer (a trailer that I haven't really watched because I am trying not to spoil the game) and the internet Pokémon community was initially baffled. Save for Fraokie's evolution, they all seemed kind of lame. Until further inspection. Basically it seems that the starters are going to exemplify classic RPG classes. Chespin is looking like he'll be a Paladin, Froakie a Warrior, and best of all Fennekin is looking to be a mage. It even gets a wand (sort of) when it evolves.

I love RPGs (hence why I still play Pokémon) and my favorite class to play has always been the mage. I like magic. Fennekin is likely going to be a Fire/Psychic of Fire/Fairy type, and either way I'll be happy. I've wanted a Fire/Psychic type for a long time.

The only problem that I can see is that the 6th gen games offer a new starter and an old starter (Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle) and I think that I'm also going to choose Charmander. Having two fire types doesn't really give balance to a Pokémon team. I've decided that I don't care :D

Charizard Just Got More Awesome

In case you were unaware, Charizard is probably my favorite Pokémon. I might go into that some other time, for now, simply know that Game Freak has improved on perfection. Behold, Mega Charizard:

I'm not sure if I can handle this much awesome, but I'm willing to try.

Kingdom Hearts 3 Will be Awesome (a look into why Marvel and Star Wars can work for this game)

Oh hey guys! Remember me? No? That's okay, its been probably three years since I've updated this, so I blame no one but myself. Recently I have been feeling creative in a different way. I want to make Youtube videos but I have absolutely no way of doing that and then my brother told me to just blog about it instead and I realized that I have a blog already that I have been neglecting horribly. Also my brother is a genius.

So! The first thing I wanted to blog about was Kingdom Hearts 3. I've been kind of gushing about this since it was announced. For those of you who don't know, Kingdom Hearts 3 was announced at the most recent E3. Square trolled us slightly with it, making the trailer look like another remake before completely blowing our minds. Here is the trailer:

If you don't believe me when I say that it blew our minds, look up Kingdom Hearts 3 reaction videos on youtube. Be warned, the fans can get a little vulgar sometimes when they get excited.

ANYWAY! This was probably some of the most exciting news for me from E3. IF you don't know, Kingdom Hearts is a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney, something that doesn't sound like it should be awesome, but absolutely is. Sora, the main character, travels with Donald and Goofy to all sorts of Disney worlds. He visits the Lion King, Aladdin, and Mulan to name a few. Recently Disney has been on a global takeover binge and has been buying up franchises left and right. Most notably, Disney now owns Marvel and Star Wars. This caused the Internet to go into a stir when they realized that Sora could now conceivably travel to one or both of those worlds.

I think this would be the best thing ever and have been fantasizing about it, but some on the Internet don't think that this would work, nor do they think that it should happen because Disney didn't create them. I will endeavor to prove them wrong.

Kingdom Hearts 2 had a very unique world in it. The world was called Port Royal and was themed after Pirates of The Caribbean. Every other Kingdom Hearts world was based on an animated film or was original to the game. This was the first world based off a live action film and to be honest I didn't think it worked out very well at first. I thought it was awesome to be fighting along side Captain Jack Sparrow, but Sora being there seemed off. All the characters in Port Royal looked more realistic than Sora did. Sora was brighter and more anime looking, while Captain Jack was darker and more human looking. This made the level feel off. Not only that, but Sora has a friend named Donald, and Donald is a duck. I've always wondered why no one in any of the worlds look and Donald and freak out about the talking duck, but they are Disney worlds and it didn't bother me that much. Port Royal was different. It was more realistic. Can you image a talking duck in Pirates of the Caribbean? I think it would be a bit much for Will Turner to handle. None of the characters seem to notice though, and that always seemed to be pushing it to me.

You know what? I got over it! The level was fun and you got to fight undead pirates. When I first thought about Star Wars and Marvel being in Kingdom Hearts 3 I realized that they would face similar challenges to the Port Royal level. Except not really. For one, it will now be in HD. This will probably lessen the whole 'Sora looks weird compared to these characters' feel that I got from Port Royal. Also, they will likely be a lot brighter than Port Royal, also helping to remove the 'Sora doesn't fit here' feel. Donald will no longer be an issue. Star Wars has wookies. If Han can walk around with a wookie, than Sora can walk around with a duck. Marvel has a character called Howard the Duck. Its filled with super heroes and mutants. No one would bat an eye at Donald.

Some say that they shouldn't be in it because Disney never made those movies. Disney has owned Marvel for a few years now, they had to have been involved somewhere. Did anyone else notice that the quality of Marvel movies went up after Disney bought them? I did. Also, once Star Wars Episode 7 comes out, Disney will have made a Star Wars movie, and that movie will probably happen long before Kingdom Hearts 3 happens (sadly). So stop whining.

I've been thinking a lot about how these worlds would work. Let me throw some ideas at you.

Do you remember the 1000 heartless battle in Kingdom Hearts 2? Do you remember the epic events that led up to it? It is, hands down, the most awesome part of the game. If they made a Marvel world, they should work to recreate the feel that they had there. I can image Sora coming into the world (some other name for New York probably) and seeing the Avengers fighting off a wave of Heartless. They would probably tell Sora to run away, but Sora charges into battle and is actually quite good at this whole heartless slaying thing. I can image the Avengers asking Nick Fury who this kid is and having Fury admit that he doesn't know. I don't know what they would do for the story of the world or how Sora and Iron Man would get along, but I can just image getting the same feeling here as from the 1000 Heartless battle in KH2. The events leading up to that battle have Sora teaming up with a lot of different characters in a desperate struggle as wave after wave of heartless attack. I remember still how awesome it felt as Sora pressed on and was ambushed and then Cloud shows up to fight with him. Then Squall. Yuffie helps as well. Mickey was there. It was almost too much for me to handle. Something like that could happen with the Avengers (after Sora starts off not getting along with them of course and then slowly befriending them). Then, after seemingly defeating the Heartless, the Chitauri (I have no idea how to spell that) show up with even more heartless. Awesome.

Come on, you know you want Sora to fight this:

I do at least. Also, Goofy needs to get a Captain America shield. He neeeeeeeeds one.

So Avengers/Marvel has a lot of potential to be the best thing ever. What about Star Wars?

Sora and his buddies are flying along in their Gummi Ship when they see a world they haven't seen before approaching. "I wonder what kind of world that is?" Sora asks.

"That's no world," Mickey would respond.

And then their Gummi Ship gets pulled into the Death Star's tractor beam and an epic adventure ensues. Sora doesn't know this place is called the Death Star, so he might not be as cautious as Luke and Han were when they got pulled in, so Sora would probably immediately get imprisoned or something. Darth Vader and the Emperor have found the Heartless and are using them as soldiers along with their Stormtroopers.

I just imagined a Heartless dressed as a stormtrooper. It made me happy.

Moving on. When Sora comes aboard, both Obi Wan and Vader sense something they've never felt in the force before. The Keyblade. (Dun dun dun).

Sora needs a lightsaber keyblade. He needs one just like Goofy needs a Captain America shield. The only problem that I can see is that I would never use anything else and there would probably be at least one Keyblade better than it (even if that wouldn't make any sense).

So, that is how I might handle having Star Wars and Marvel appear in Kingdom Hearts 3. Even if they aren't included Kingdom Hearts 3 will be amazing, but this will make it better. I would be able to die happy and fulfilled.

So tell me, what would you do with Marvel and Star Wars in Kingdom Hearts? Do you want them included? Share with me your ideas.

How To Train Your Dragon is Awesome!

If you've spoken to me for more than 30 seconds you know that I love dragons. I read about dragons, I write about dragons, I blog about dragons, I watch movies about Dragons. The other day I finally got to see the movie How To Train Your Dragon, and I loved it. (Is anyone surprised by this? Anyone?)

How To Train Your Dragon is the story of a village of Vikings that are constantly attacked by dragons. Because they're vikings, they're stubborn and refuse to leave. Hiccup is perhaps the most pathetic excuse for a viking there is, and as such has never slain a dragon. He's got more brain than brawn, an unusual trait for a viking. He comes up with a contraption to catch a dragon so he can slay it, and it works, but no one will believe him and so he runs off looking for it himself. This is how he meets the dragon he later calls Toothless.

The friends that I was watching this movie with said that I was completely absorbed into the movie from beginning to end. This was evidenced by the lack of food consumed. We had a lot, I had almost none once to movie started. It was dragons from start to finish, just the way I like it. The movie had a lot of different types of dragons as well and explained them all as Hiccup met met with each kind. The dragons themselves had qualities of cats, dogs, and horses. Toothless would walk around in a circle before lying down to rest. A tinier dragon would curl up next to Hiccup and purr after being fed. I'm not sure how they were like horses, but that's what the special features told me.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves dragons, and even if your just mildly okay with dragons this is still a good and funny movie that anyone can enjoy (you just enjoy it more if you love dragons!)

...DRAGONS!

Awesome Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Trailer

I can't believe that I haven't talked about Marvel Vs Capcom 3 here yet! MVC3 is such a huge mash up of awesome that I'm not sure how much more I can stand before my head explodes. This is the most recent trailer for the game. See how many characters you recognize. (Of course, if you've been following this game as close as I have, you'll know every character except perhaps one.)




Is your head still there?