Fashion Focus – Team Magma and Team Aqua

Hello and welcome to Fashion Analysis, where I discuss what’s hot in fashion! For today I’ll be talking about the villainous teams from the Hoenn region, Team Magma and Team Aqua. Both teams not only went through different outfits, but staff changes too! Makes things more exciting, don’t you think?

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Cheating? In my VGC?

Pokémon has always been one of those games where players have access to cheat codes and devices, going all the way back to the first two generations. The Game Shark and Action Replay were staples and made you the cool kid of any school playground. After all, what kid wasn’t amused by the idea of a Sunkern with 999 stats and moves like Flamethrower? 

But there’s the other side of it. People don’t exactly like it when you beat them up with hacked Pokémon, and that can be a fair enough viewpoint. Throw in a recent event in this year’s Pokémon VGCs (Video Game Competition) in America, and you get an interesting topic of discussion. Here we look at both sides of the debate on how ‘right’ it may be to use the newest of the external devices – the Power Save – to help you prepare for a Pokémon competition, and let you weigh up both sides of the debate. Warning – a few battling terms exist in this article.

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Pokémon from outside your console! [Part One]

Most of us have played more than one Pokémon game. After a game is finished, chances are that the next one will be loaded into your console. But how would you define ‘finishing’ a Pokémon game? Is it simply beating the Pokémon League? Or is it beating the Pokémon League and finishing the post-game events? To go even further, it might even be completing the entire Pokédex. An even larger extreme is to have all the Pokémon in the Pokédex at Lv 100, regardless of whether they’ve evolved or not.

But how do we get the access to all these Pokémon? Even after weeks of hard work, you’d find that certain Pokémon can only be evolved by trading and certain Pokémon need to be transferred from the other version of the game. Some are even distributed solely in Nintendo events. The general consensus is that if you want to beat the game, you’re going to need help. And that’s what we’re following in this article. We’ll also examine how various features of the Pokémon games took advantage of the ability to link between each other, across all the generations.


The owner wanted to attach an Everstone before trading Haunter over, but his friend didn’t like the idea for some reason.

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From RSE to ORAS – Top Ten Wanted Improvements

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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Top 10 Most Annoying NPCs

Pokémon has reached its 6th generation, and with 22 mainstream games alone, there’s a wide variety of characters. We’ve gotten really cool NPC’s, like Lance and Cynthia. We’ve been introduced to truly kind NPC’s, like Roark or Lanette. We’ve seen some really interesting recurring characters, like Bill and Red. But, of course, as far as characters go, we’ve also seen some really annoying ones.

Being annoying is not always a bad thing. After all, there are annoying people in real life, too, so it can add a layer of realism. Some of the annoying characters in Pokémon are annoying in this way, intentionally and for a good reason, and we love them for it. Who didn’t love beating Silver time after time, as he continued to be a total jerk? So, this list is not about those characters.

This list is dedicated to those NPC’s who drive us nuts, and not in a good way. They shake us away from the game, make us irritated, make us dread the next time we may have to interact with them in the game. In some ways, their presence – or at least their behavior – almost takes away from the experience. But hey, at least it makes for good stories later!

Here’s my top list of 10 Most Annoying NPCs in the world of Pokémon.

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What’s a VGC event like anyway?

Every so often, Pokémon tournaments have been run by fans and officials, and they’ve even picked up in frequency ever since generation five started. Some have been hosted online, and a slew of those are expected to start over the coming months as well for Pokémon X&Y.

But there’s the other sort of tournament, where you go out and battle people in the flesh with your 3DSs. …No, not by whacking each other, you still just fight via Pokémon battles. But what is such an event like, and what sort of people go to these events? And how many, for that matter? Recently a few of us had the chance to go and check out a VGC event ourselves in Sydney, Australia.

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Review: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity

Hello, beloved readers! My whole life, I’ve been praising Pokemon Emerald as the best Pokemon game, however, this was changed forever one fateful day a couple of weeks ago. I was in the EB Games, trading in some used games for credit. When I picked up a copy of Super Mario 3D World, my father wouldn’t let me purchase it (I later received it as a holiday gift), so I instead purchased the first thing I saw that caught my eye: a Pokemon game I hadn’t played! I took it home, popped it in my 3DS, and fell in love. I’m here today to tell you why Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity is my new second favourite game of all time! And for those wondering how this differs from previous titles, there’s an analysis within the review as well.


It’s… so beautiful!
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Interview with AE Games Lead Developer

Hello, everyone! Today we’ve got a special treat for you – an interview with the lead developer of a new game development company, AE Games! AE Games is a company that’s sick of the way that the majority of third parties treat the Wii U, something they had stated publicly and which has garnered a fair bit of attention. If you’d like to see their full statement regarding the Wii U’s treatment and what they want to do about it, you can read it here.

AE Games has started development on a new Wii U exclusive called “Mad Men Football!”! Mad Men Football is a game where various historical figures play american football, in stark contrast to most modern sports games. There are very few third party Wii U exclusives, so in my opinion, the more new games coming to the system, the better! Enjoy the interview!

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It’s Super Effective! …Why?

The main feature of Pokémon is the battles. Whether it’s the games, anime or manga medium, it is the main attraction. People resolve differences through yelling at their creatures to defeat the other, and even the Pokémon seem happy about it.

But sometimes the system on which battling works upon appears strange. We can accept that a Squirtle will beat Charmander – after all, Water beats Fire. And Pikachu is great to have when going into Misty’s gym. Making sense of some of the stranger relationships however can require some abstract thinking. Why can Bugs beat Psychics? Ice struggles against Water, but not the other way around? And what’s the deal with Fairy types? This article is an attempt to explain the logic behind some of these (or at least point out how odd some typing relationships are), and even provide a background to the newest type of them all, the Fairy type.


We can’t explain this logic, however. No Ash, Electric types can’t hurt Ground types!
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Pokémon Analysis: The Spinarak Line!


Hope you don’t have a phobia of spiders!

This time, the random number generator takes us from birds to spiders. There’s much less of a representation of that sort of animal in Pokemon, and the Spinarak line is the one we’ve got to play with. It does at least have a more unique typing than Pidove with Bug/Poison, and a thing for faces and having the wrong number of legs. Let’s see what there is to know about these spiders!
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Top 10 Most Physics-Breaking Pokémon

Pokémon is, essentially, scifi. Even though the world of Pokémon is teeming with what appears to be magical creatures with supernatural powers, it’s almost always explained by science. Pokéballs, computer boxes, Pokédexes, and so on are all scifi technology that shows us how much more advanced this world really is in terms of science. And, looking at most Pokémon, even the otherwise magical stuff makes a lot of sense. There’s electricity-generating rodents, self-illuminating fish, fast-flying birds, fire-breathing dogs… All a bit of a stretch, but none of them entirely unbelievable. Pokédex entries especially help us understand the scientific basis behind a Pokémon.

Well, most of the time anyway.

Some Pokédex entries… Well, they bring up more questions than they answer, and end up breaking physics more than explaining anything. Where some Pokémon are plausible, or even sound like they might exist in the real world, some of them beat science up until it crawls whimpering into a corner to cry.

Here are the ten worst offenders in that category.
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Pokémeme Extravaganza!

When it comes to memes, the Pokemon fandom reigns supreme. Not only is the Pokemon fandom one of the biggest fandoms out there, but there are a lot of reasons to poke fun at the franchise. One way many people do this is by the use of memes. From Ash’s weird ability to never learn anything to empty Pokedexes, the range of topics for these memes are enormous. Much too broad for the scope of one simple article. Instead, we’ll be diving into some of the more popular trends and just how these exactly came to be.

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Pokémon Analysis: The Pidove Line!

Pokemon Analysis: The Pidove Line!


From pigeons to quills to peacocks… the identity crisis Pokemon!

Last time, we covered the Lotad line, one of the more unique Pokemon species out there. This time though the RNG decided to give us a far more ‘normal’ species as far as Pokemon go in the Pidove line! This doesn’t mean, however, that there’s nothing interesting about 5th gen’s staple starting bird line by any means. There’s some details that set this Normal/Flying line apart from its brethren.
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Pokémon Places – Lost in Viridian Forest

Let’s talk of the place where the golden era of Pokémon started – Kanto. You’ve been to Viridian City and Pewter City, I suppose? Then you’ll know exactly how annoying Viridian Forest could get had you not trained your Pokémon. Have you perhaps tried to go back there… to get a Pikachu to beat Misty? Let’s rush back to Viridian City… oh the horror, we can’t go back into Mt. Moon again, that ledge is blocking your way! Anyway, let’s look deep into the world of the Very Damned Forest. Did I get that wrong? Fine, Viridian Forest.

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Top Ten Most Annoying Pokemon of All Time (until generation six)!

Just like the title says, we will be collecting some of the most annoying pokemon and attempting to organize them into some sort of top ten. After some extensive research and lots of polling, I found a wide range of pokemon excelling in the art of making people rip their hair out. After narrowing them down, we have our list. These pokemon are the best of the best. Hundreds of screams, tears, and broken consoles are left behind in their wake. Brace yourselves, for the most annoying pokemon of all time are near. Please remember that this list is simply one person’s opinion and no matter how right and perfect I seem to be, individual lists will vary.

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