The BBS Magazine

In an earlier article, we started a series where we analyse the plots of the main Pokémon games and began with the Kanto games. Today we pick up where we left off and continue with the set of games that occur within the nearby Johto region. We’ll consider how the attempted revival of Team Rocket went, and what improvements were made in the sequels with characterisation.

Rainbow phoenix, or angry psychic bird?

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On Monday the 13th July 2015, we learnt of the tragic news that Nintendo’s President and Nintendo of America CEO, Satoru Iwata, had passed away due to a bile duct tumour. He reigned over Nintendo as President from 2002-2015, and was the executive producer for hundreds of games. The sheer outpouring of grief from his colleagues and the community is testament to the impact he has had, not just on Nintendo products, but the video gaming community as a whole.

I’d like to pay my own tribute with a quick examination of the hand Iwata has had specifically with the Pokémon franchise. While few may not realise it, he had quite an impact on the early generation games. I’ve also opted to include a number of links, many which further expand on Iwata’s legacy.

It all began here…

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Pokémon games have often been less about giving you an intricate plot and more about catching a variety of cute and awesome looking monsters by throwing capsules at them, and then telling them how to beat others up. But that doesn’t mean they’re not worth considering and examining. There is a story thrown in every main Pokémon game, even if they do follow the same structure:

– Get Pokémon from a professor named after a tree,
– Catch more Pokémon and train them to beat up Gym Leaders to get eight badges, then become the Champion of the region of Pokémon battling,
– Along the way beat up Team ___ and stop their plans,
– Maybe catch a legendary Pokémon or ten while you’re at it.

This is the first in an article series where we’ll examine the story beyond the base formula used, as well as consider the side plots, characterisation, and so forth. We may even tackle the spinoff games which deviate from this plot base. But here we start with where the games all began in Kanto, and we’ll also consider what changed in the Yellow version of the originals, and their remakes in FRLG.

Which did you choose?

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Or: Pokémon Ragequit Version.

It’s the same basic formula: get your starter, defeat your rival(s), blaze through gym leaders, fight a villainous team (or two), become the Champion. As each generation passes, beating the game’s main storyline becomes easier and easier, with little buffs to items and nerfs to opponents making a game less difficult to finish than the last. While many players appreciate the less frustrating gameplay, many other players are stuck uttering the same wish while they lazily go through the credits of the latest game: “Man, I wish that was more of a challenge.”

Fortunately, a fandom as big as Pokémon is bound to have many creative minds, and this creativity has seeped into the very way we play these games. Many players have instilled specific rulesets to their playthroughs that make it much harder, resulting into a more rewarding experience.

This list will run through five of the best rulesets that make your game runs more challenging. It will also explore variations of these Challenge rulesets, and ways to make them easier or harder.

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A while back we started this segment on Wynaut? by reviewing a fanmade manga featuring a cool Golduck in the DPPt story. This time around we have a more musical feature for these Fan Work Reviews. In these articles we’ll feature a piece of Pokémon-themed work (be it writing, art, music, a nuzlocke, or anything else creatively inclined) that we feel is worth more attention. If you know of any pieces of work that you feel would qualify, feel free to suggest it, or even join the forums to write up a review yourself! You can even suggest one of your own pieces of work… but note that we’d still need to agree that it’s worth showing off here.

insaneintherain is a Youtube member who makes covers for a variety of video game music, a large chunk of tune from the Pokémon franchise. He sticks to the jazz style, and impressively does all the music himself. And he’s not just playing one instrument or just using a computer program – he does it all himself.

And personally this sounds better than the original tune from the DPPt games.

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Before the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald (RSE) remakes in the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (ORAS) games were released, I wrote an article on what I would have liked to have seen improved upon in these new 3DS games. Today, we look back on that list and see how impressed or disappointed I am by each change, from the number of bikes we can use and (Super) Secret Bases, to how the rivals fare now! We’ll also review a few other aspects of ORAS here and there, such as brand new additions it received, what has remained or gone missing from X&Y, and discuss why.

Needless to say, there are spoilers within this article.

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Players of RSE and ORAS would have noticed that the city of Mauville got a makeover, transformed from a small city to a multi-stored complex of shops, parks and apartments. And between that revamp, the Game Corner building that hosted slot machines and a roulette minigame got…

Closed!?

It’s a disappointment, but not that big a surprise, especially considering that the previous three main Pokémon games did not have a Game Corner of any sort. Why has the Game Corner been removed? Here we look back at the Game Corner history, and review why you’re no longer allowed to gamble coins in a minigame (but yet still tell creatures to beat others up… and win money from doing that).

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Warning: This list may make you feel… /KRAH-bee/.

It may not be evident, but there’s a lot of work that goes into giving a species of Pokémon a name. The name of a Pokémon usually features a play on one or two words which refer to either the real-life basis of the Pokémon or an attribute linked to the Pokémon. This leads to many interesting wordplays, word corruptions, and portmanteaus, such as Exeggcute (execute + egg), Whismur (whisper + murmur), and Serperior (serpent + superior). But with these wordplays that would make any linguist proud comes a whole set of pronunciations that would make any linguist cringe, and the latter is what this article will tackle.

Several Pokémon names have easy pronunciations, due to either a very clear portmanteau (Gogoat = go + goat), an easy-to-follow spelling (Eevee = /ee/ + /vee/), or an easily recognizable word corruption (Wynaut = why not?). Unfortunately, the converse is also true, for there are many confusing, questionable, and at times nonsensical Pokémon name pronunciations. A quick Google search would show you entire threads and conversations dedicated to figuring out whether or not this is a long or short I, or whether that C is pronounced like a K or an S.

This article aims to list the 10 English Pokémon names that always find themselves at the end of the question, “How do you pronounce _________?” The most canon sources for the “proper” pronunciations found in this article come from the Pokédex 3D Pro app (for the first five generations) and the announcer of Pokémon Battle Revolution (for the first four generations), with the sixth-generation Pokémon only having the English anime dub as a reference. But those three sources don’t always agree with each other, which shows that maybe the different translators are as confused as we are.

So don’t feel bad if you fall victim to the ten mispronunciations you’ll find here. Chances are, you’re part of a very, very large group.
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Did its horn get smaller upon evolving…?

This time, we’re back to marine life, as well as our first Ice type of these Pokémon Analysis articles. And they’re pretty adorable looking Pokémon too! Seel and Dewgong are our focus this time around. They may not win any awards in the clever/unique naming scheme and ‘based on’ categories out of all the Pokémon, but they do have a certain charm to them all the same.
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A new segment we’re starting on Wynaut? is Fan Work Reviews! The general idea is that here we’ll feature a piece of Pokémon-themed work (be it writing, art, music, a nuzlocke, or anything else creatively inclined) that we feel is worth more attention. If you know of any pieces of work that you feel would qualify, feel free to suggest it, or even join the forums to write up a review yourself! You can even suggest one of your own pieces of work… but note that we’d still need to agree that it’s worth showing off here. Another word of warning is that there’ll be some criticism too within each review. Works here are definitely to be admired, but nothing is without flaws.

To start off our series is a piece of fanmade manga by a Japanese artist. While the downside is that all the text is in Japanese, it’s still something you can follow the general story of. And its art and general quirks are what set it apart and make it worthwhile to read.

The Shinx here feels you really ought to check it out. Our advice is to listen to the Shinx.

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A lot of people got terribly excited when Game Freak finally went and announced remakes to the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald games. We’ll be able to revisit Hoenn in all its watery, tropical glory on the 3DS with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. But naturally, even in remakes there will be changes and improvements. FRLG embraced the running shoes, and added in the Sevii Islands. HGSS arguably went further in implementing little changes, additions and improvements – from having Pokémon follow you, to adding in a Safari Zone and Gym Leader rematches. 

And we can expect new additions in ORAS as well. We already know that the other 3rd gen starters get Mega Forms, as does Sableye. But what things in RSE will carry over to the remakes, and how will they change? This list are some of the things I’d like to see improved upon in the remakes, and why. Note that this list only involves aspects that were part of RSE; while things like Amie were great fun, they’re not being considered here. There’s also a follow-up article which examines which of these did improve, and more.

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You’ve got to listen to me. I mean it this time too. I found out the reason for the successes for all those new Champions that have cropped up of late. And it’s not some secret training regieme or techniques. These aren’t a bunch of child geniuses that just happened to spring up these last few years.

It’s the fact that they all wear headwear. And I believe it’s the reason why they’re so- hey, don’t click away now!

Such terrible power is contained here. Really.
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As before, we end our articles on the Pidove line with a collection of fanworks of the Pokémon! While Tranquill suffers from being the middle bird of the ever-present token Normal/Flying bird of a generation, we even managed to find a few nice pieces for you to enjoy of that stage. Meanwhile, given the two gendered forms of Unfezant, there was a lot to choose from for that Pokémon!

Follow the links to visit the source page for the work, and maybe see if any other works by the artists catch your interest too!

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