Glen-i

Player's Choice tonight at 8pm.

Thanks to @Dcubed for this logo, and @RedShell for the original design! It's the N-Europe Mario Kart League Get Together! With the upcoming Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Pass dropping in less then a week, I'm sure those of us getting it would love an excuse to put it to use, and what better excuse then to play online with other N-Europe members? The idea is that once a week, we'll get together to have some good old fashioned races, and some battles now and again. Unlike the previous League, scores will not be kept track of, so you're free to take part without worrying about your performance. For obvious reasons, you will need a Nintendo Switch Online account to take part. However, you do not need the expansion pack. You also do not need the MK8DX Booster Pass to take part, as only one person in the room needs it (I have it). As of today, it's not certain whether people without the pass can vote for any of the new tracks it has. I will update the thread once we get that information. You also need to add me and BowserBasher as a friend on your Switch, if you haven't already. Friend Codes are as follows: Glen-i - 3034-9087-7910 Simon (BowserBasher) - 8313-9234-5620 A few general rules to keep in mind: Unless stated otherwise, each session will take place on Thursday at 8pm, GMT. Each session will consist of 12 seperate races/battles. This normally takes around 45-60 minutes, so take that into account. Players Choice Nights will allow everyone to vote for whatever track they want to race on. The format will be 150cc, Normal Items. For the sake of variety, avoid voting for a track that the group has already raced on that night. No-one wants to do Baby Park 12 times. Every 3-4 weeks, I will impose a "Theme Night", where everyone must stick to the tracks that have been pre-selected. The cc format and item pool may be changed as well. I will post a graphic showing this information before hand. Discord group for voice chatting purposes.

That's the unique selling point of the series, a ridonkulous amount of playable characters. And seeing as this is a spiritual sequel... Actually, the box says "100+", so it may not be a downgrade... I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being 108. Anyway, had a quick peek at that box art, and noticed Hogan was there at the top left. He shows up in Rising, and I'm glad he's playable here. Mainly because he looks like he stepped out of Dillon's Rolling Western! Must be Gallo's long lost cousin, or something...

As someone who slogged his way to get the true ending in that game. It's not worth it. Not even close.

Yup, I'm bored! And when I'm bored, I tend to go on about stuff that really doesn't matter. After 9 generations of Pokémon, there are 30 different starter Pokémon (33 if you count a certain trio, 34 if you're an idiot). The majority of them serve as solid Pokémon that help to introduce the type matchups with one of the most simple triangle of weaknesses. I'm not gonna explain that, because I hope you're smart enough to already know that particular type trio off by heart. But let's face it, not all starters are created equal, and nothing demonstrates that unfortunate truth more then the Kanto trio. Bulbasaur (BUL-ba-sore), weirdly enough, is a Grass/Poison type (Actually, all of this family are), so it's already doing a terrible job of demonstrating type matchups. Real talk, it's why I thought Grass types were weak to Psychic until the third generation. In the original games, Bulbasaur is normally the Pokémon recommended for beginners, mostly because the first two Gym Leaders use types that are weak to Grass. Normally, middle evolutions of starters are not note worthy. Always overshadowed by the two forms it's in between. However, there are precisely three exceptions, and Ivysaur (EYE-vee-sore) is one of them. And it's all because of Smash Bros. That Ivysaur is the luckiest Pokémon ever In Smash Bros. Brawl, one of the newcomers was "Pokémon Trainer", an interesting character that doesn't actually directly take part in fights, but sends his three Pokémon to fight on his behalf. The player controls the Pokémon themselves, so functionally, it was just a cosmetic flourish of a transformation character that Zelda introduced to the series in Melee. But it was a cool way to represent the gameplay of Pokémon games in Smash. Squirtle was the fast, but weak, Pokémon, while Charizard is the slow, heavy hitter. This meant that Ivysaur was the choice for the one that's average, despite Bulbasaur and Venusaur being far more popular. Only Charizard returned in the fourth Smash entry, because, well, more on why in a bit. But with Smash Ultimate's "Everyone is Here!" megaton, Ivysaur's managed to worm it's way back into relevance. Real talk, in Smash Bros, I think Ivysaur is the best Pokémon character in the game, it's anti-air game is insane! It's so good, I barely use the other two, they just get in the way! Also helps that Ivysaur's current anime voice is hilarious! Venusaur (VEE-nuh-sore) is the final evolution, and by the time most players get one, they'll probably start realising that the Bulbasaur line is a bit of a noob trap in the Gen 1 games. It's useful at the start, but Grass/Poison is a terrible typing. Psychic Pokémon are way overpowered in Gen 1, and Venusaur's movepool is woeful. There aren't any good Poison attacks, and as for Grass, your best option is Razor Leaf, a 55 power, 95% accuracy grass move. Technically, it learns Solar Beam, but Solar Beam sucks because you have to spend a turn to charge it up. It does get Sleep Powder, but that doesn't save it. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the two form changes that Venusaur got, starting with it's Mega Evolution in Generation 6. Mega Venusaur is a prime example of why I love the Mega Evolution mechanic that is no longer seen in mainline games. It takes a mediocre Pokémon and transforms it into a very effective tank. The key difference between this and a certain lamer mechanic replacement is that it actually changes the Pokémon's ability. In Venusaur's case, it gains Thick Fat, eliminating it's Fire and Ice weakness. Also, one of the few Megas that doesn't add spikes to the design, thought that was worth mentioning. Come Generation 8, Megas were gone, but Venusaur is a generation 1 Pokémon, and as I have mentioned many times in the past, those Pokémon get mad preferential treatment, so it got a second form with Gigantamax Venusaur. Unlike Mega Evolutions, Gigantamax Pokémon barely differ from the normal version in battle. The only actual difference is that they get a unique attack only they can use while dynamaxed, and most of them are worse. It's such a downgrade. No-one will miss it. Gigantamax Venusaur wasn't even available at the launch of Sword and Shield. Which wouldn't be that noteworthy if it wasn't for a certain other starter. Speaking of... Charmander (CHAR-man-der) is the fire type starter, in case the tail didn't give it away. Being a fire type, it struggles against the first two gyms. So much so, that from Gen 3 onwards, it learns Metal Claw, so it has some sort of answer to rock types. For this reason, it's seen as the "expert" starter, because you'll likely need another Pokémon to deal with those gyms. Charmeleon (char-MEE-lee-un) is a middle evolution, and thus, has nothing to contribute to this thread (Get used to that being a thing). Charizard (CHAR-iz-ard) is, by far, one of the most popular Pokémon ever. Hell, I'd argue there are only two other Pokémon that are more popular. It gains the Flying type, which means it's not a dragon, despite looking about as "stereotypical dragon" as you could get in Pokémon. Fire/Flying is an unfortunate typing these days, because rock type attacks became quite good in later generations, and Charizard has a heart attack the moment you throw a pebble at it. It's pretty good in Gen 1 though, thanks to rock being kinda rubbish, and Charizard's respectable Speed stat giving it more then a few critical hits. It has a decent movepool, to boot. Definitely the starter that pays off the most there. Much like Venusaur, Charizard also gets a Mega Evolution in the 3DS games. Oh, but Game Freak absolutely adore Charizard. If Gen 1 Pokémon got preferential treatment during this time, then Charizard might as well be the freaking Pope with how much attention it got. Charizard got two Mega Evolutions. Yes, two. Venusaur and Blastoise fans can go ahead and suck Charizard's nonexistent balls. The black one is Mega Charizard X. It's Fire/Dragon type (Yes, this one is an actual dragon), and has stats that focus more on Physical attacks. The ability it gets is Tough Claws, which powers up contact moves by 30%. The orange one is Mega Charizard Y. It's still Fire/Flying (So... not a dragon), and has more special inclined stats. The ability it gets here is Drought, which changes the weather to intense sunlight whenever it enters battle. Charizard Y is the one to go for, Drought is a very powerful ability, and Charizard naturally does better with Special attacks. Also it's a better design, so there. It also got a Gigantamax form, and even that got more attention then it's Gen 1 brethren. Because unlike Venusaur and Blastoise, you could actually get one in Sword and Shield. In fact, you got one for free! Venusaur and Blastoise fans can continue to suck Charizard's nonexsistant balls. It's rubbish though, you're better off using a normal Charizard. Seriously, the Charizard favouritism is really bad, even the champion of Sword and Shield uses a Charizard as his "ace", instead of a Pokémon introduced in that generation like almost every other champion. Still not a dragon though. And to further prove that point, Charizard was playable in Pokkén. It's got pecs in that game, and it's forever weird. Actually, it features in a lot of spin-off's, we'll be here all day if I go through them. Let's move on. Squirtle (SKWIR-tul) kicks off the water starter family in Kanto. It's a turtle. It is not inspired by a squirrel, no matter what some people would have you believe, it's just a turtle. Don't be dumb. Squirtle performs well against Gen 1's first gym, but can struggle against the second one, it's really good in the last two gyms though! And it can learn Surf, which you need to finish the game, and is a very good attack to boot. You can't go wrong really, but there are a few better water types in Gen 1, including Lapras, which you can get a free one of. So Squirtle loses out to Charizard in most playthroughs. Squirtle could totally beat Charmander up in Gen 1 though, so if you're playing multiplayer with big Charizard fans, Squirtle might be the way to go. Wartortle (WOR-TORE-tul) is a middle evolution, so it exists, I guess. Blastoise (BLAS-toyce) is the only Gen 1 starter final evolution that doesn't have a second type. Hard to say if that's a blessing or a curse, but it can learn Ice moves. Water and Ice is a great combo for coverage, but Blastoise is actually slower then Venusaur, which is a big oof in Gen 1 where Speed is OP. Well, more OP then usual. By the way, this is a good opportunity for a confession. I genuinely think Blastoise is one of the worst designs in all of Pokémon. Squirtle and Wartortle are fine, but Blastoise is a crap design. The tail doesn't follow the increasing elaborateness that the other two do, and, well, the cannons are absolutely dumb. Blastoise is not a mechanical Pokémon, why the hell does it have cannons!? I hate it, no thought put into the evolutionary theming what-so-ever! And it's alternate forms only get worse. 50% more cannon, 300% stupider! Mega Blastoise is still a water type, but gets the ability, "Mega Launcher", which increases the power of any move that has "Aura", or "Pulse" in the name. Blastoise learns quite a few of those moves in Gen 6, so it's a solid Mega that can punch holes in a lot of Pokémon. Gigantamax Blastoise, much like the other Gigantamax starters, is not as good as just using the normal version. But, I mean, look at it. It's so incredibly dumb. Like, I'm talking "Gundramon from Digimon" dumb! Sword and Shield has amazing Pokémon designs, but this is a real blemish on that record. Btw, amazingly enough, Blastoise beat the odds, and got into Pokkén! ...Eventually, it was in the Switch version. So Venusaur fans can suck Blastoise's nonexisistant balls when they're finished with Charizard! That said, maybe Venusaur fans got lucky, because... Someone here accurately described it as "A guy in a Blastoise costume" There is actually one more starter. Pokémon Yellow didn't have any of the three starters above as your first Pokémon, instead it had one of the two Pokémon more popular then Charizard. Do I need to explain Pikachu (PEE-ka-choo)? It's the mascot! Pokémon Yellow took a few nods from the anime and gave you a Pikachu with incredibly staticy voice samples. It wasn't very good though. It is Pikachu, after all. Despite popular belief, you can actually evolve the Pikachu in Pokémon Yellow! It involves trading it to another cartridge and evolving it there. It stops following you though, and loses all the perks that particular Pikachu gets. And Raichu still kinda sucks, anyway, so why bother? I'm not gonna go into all the different forms and appearances of Pikachu! Screw that! I've already spent 2 hours on this post! Anyway, that's all for now. We're thankfully done with the longest post because of Gen 1 favouritism, but what's your favourite Generation 1 starter Pokémon? I know what you're going to think, but for me, it's Charizard. Yes, I'm part of the problem. But dragons are bloody cool! Even when they're not actually dragons. I've still got a Charizard from Fire Red in the latest games! It's nicknamed Draco. No, he's not named after the Harry Potter character, it's a Dragonheart reference. Got a soft spot for that movie.

Actually, I noticed this. Any hit to the beetle will reverse it. So you throwing it while you were in Piranha Plant's Poison Cloud was very unwise and hilarious. Some really close matches tonight, but a really spectacular finish on the last one. I had no idea you could cancel that into a Final Smash!

I like to think I'm incredibly impartial when I say this. Best stage ever, @RedShell. No notes. Might as well retire.

Stamina matches tonight from 7:30pm.

That's legitmately amazing! It's an interesting way of getting some money out of games you have no plan on doing any work on.

Welp, there will end the only interest I ever had in Star Trek... Sucks...

Thinking back on it, it might also be the game correcting your position after dealing with lag.

I kinda want these... Yes, these grips are merch from the team behind this game. Japan only, it seems like.

Yeah, the thing with official Pokémon pronounciations is that most of it comes from the anime. And when it comes to the English names, that's handled by Americans, who tend to not really care for how certain words are pronounced in other countries. The pronounciation for some of the Galar Pokémon will make you want to fold into yourself.

Wow, I never would've noticed that. Guess my mind just filled it in. @Ashley, might be worth fixing that sharpish.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is available on NSO Game Trials. Well... I've not played it, and seeing as I am getting Hundred Heroes, it'd be rude not to!

Honestly, I think Zone 3 is the most difficult one. I have to imagine that if you can get past that one, you can get to the end, at least.

Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game is effectively a spiritual sequel to the DS title, Super Princess Peach. It's an action-adventure game developed by Good-Feel for the Switch that released quite recently. Peach gets an invitation to the Sparkle Theater. Of course, trouble follows Peach like a bad smell, and the theater is almost immediately overtaken by the evil witch, Grape, and her Sour Bunch minions. The performers of the Sparkle Theater are missing, so it falls to Peach to team up with the guardian spirit of the theater, Stella, to utilise the power of Sparkle to take over pivotal roles of various plays and use those abilities to fight back. The big selling point here is the various transformations that Peach gets throughout the game. Normally, Peach has a somewhat limited ribbon attack as her only action other then jumping, but when she finds some Sparkle, what she's able to do changes depending on the setting of the play she's in. I don't think that's a real horse? This provides a decent amount of variety to gameplay, it's still very simple and an absolute breeze to get through (Good-Feel aren't exactly strangers to that mantra), with the only possible challenge coming from optional things, like finding all the Sparkle Gems dotted throughout the game. There's nothing inherently wrong with an easy game, and I enjoyed my time with it. The aesthetic style in this game is great! Loads of nice touches that sell the idea of everything taking place on a stage. Another nice detail is Peach herself. Her animations all change to reflect the costume she's in, and it's really impressive. It can't be faulted, in that regard. That said, the frame rate of this game takes a noticable dip at times, this only seems to happen in the hub area, and cutscenes, so it doesn't affect actual gameplay, making it merely a minor annoyance. I swear, it was like this when I got here! The music is... fine. Doesn't really stand out to me, though. So yeah, this is a fun game. Doesn't set the world alight, mind.

Oh my god... I've completely forgotten the name of this region... Lemme just check Serebii... Right! Generation 9, or Scarlet and Violet, are set in the Paldea region, a region I totally didn't forget the name of because I literally fell asleep playing it at one point. This region is based on the Iberian Peninsula, which consists of Spain, Portugal, and Andorra. That said, Paldea mostly focuses on the Spanish aspect of it, with a hint of Portugal in some areas. This game is the series' first fully open world game, so naturally, I hate it. But this is a thread about the Pokémon themselves, so that's not important one bit. Sprigatito (SPRIG-uh-TEE-toh) is basically "Litten, but Grass Type". Try and convince me otherwise! It's actually quite astonishing how, lame, this starter is. Pokémon has certainly had it's fair share of cats, so it wouldn't be so bad, but we just had a cat starter two generations ago, and Sprigatito doesn't do anything to distinguish itself from that. Paldea's first gym is Bug type, well, I say "first", but you can do the gyms in any order, technically, and the intended order is unintuitive and confusing, so it doesn't matter too much here. At least Floragato (FLOR-uh-GAH-toh) goes bipedal quicker then the Litten line. That's all I've got. Thankfully, Meowscarada (MEOW-skah-RAH-da) manages to be somewhat different to Incineroar. The Paldean starters have a common theming of the three main pillars of the entertainment industry, it kinda feels like Game Freak wanted another crack at the Gen 7 theming. Anyway, Meowscarada represents acting, specifically the kind of acting you see in the theater. That flower bud that seems to be floating is actually suspended by Meowscarada's reflective fur, an obvious nod to a common trick for a similar effect in theaters. Anyway, Meowscarada is Grass/Dark and it's signature move is "Flower Trick" a 70 power, physical Grass attack that never misses and always lands a critical hit! Because of this, it's effectively 105 power, which is amazing! Man, if Inteleon had a move like that, it would probably be really great in battles! As well as that, it's hidden ability is "Protean", sure, it's the nerfed version, but it still helps. Couple those with Meowscarada's base 123 speed (Higher then Cinderace!), and you've got a Grass starter that is far and away, the best one ever. Fuecoco (fwey-KO-ko) is the closest you're getting to a Bubble Dragon in Pokémon. No, seriously. Everyone thinks so, it's not even remotely subtle! I'm amazed Taito didn't sue! It's a crocodile-pepper hybrid and is impossibly cute. The colouring on it's face (And the evolutions) is very likely to be referencing calaveras, decorative skulls that are associated with the Day of the Dead celebrations. Yeah, I know, that's more of a Mexican tradition, but I can't think of what else it could be. Crocalor (KROCK-uh-lor) replaces the peppery tufts with some kind of bird nest. And yes, it does look a bit like a Sombrero. Skeledirge (SKEL-uh-durj) is a strange Pokémon. It's a quadruped, when the previous two evolutions were bipedal. You don't see that often in Pokémon. Anyway, it's Fire/Ghost, which lends further credence to the whole Day of the Dead connection, and the egg has hatched into a bird now. Skeledirge commands that bird by singing (Guess what the theme is with this Pokémon) into a fiery microphone. You can't see it in the artwork, so... The move above is Torch Song, an 80 power, Special Fire attack that also raises Skeledirge's Special Attack. Considering Skeledirge has good Defense and HP, those stat boosts can start making quite the difference if it hangs around long enough. Skeledirge is, decent, simply put. It's got a decent Hidden Ability in Unaware, and it's stats complement it's signature move, but Meowscarada completely eclipses it. A shame too, because Skeledirge is a very cool Pokémon. According to the Pokédex, Quaxly (KWACKS-lee) originally migrated to Paldea from "a distant land". The game doesn't elaborate on that, so it's anyone's guess if it will actually amount to anything. I'm not sure if it was here, but I somewhat recall someone calling it "Admiral Quacks", I dunno, that name amuses me. The evolutions do not go in that direction, mind. Blah, blah, blah. Quaxwell (KWACKS-well), middle evolution, moving on. Quaquaval (KWACK-wuh-vul) rounds off this trio of entertainment with dancing. Naturally, the animal of reference shifts from a duck, to a peacock with this evolution. Biggest GIF I could find, sorry. This thing has great animations, by the way. You wouldn't be able to create a Pokémon like this in the 2D style games. That said, this Pokémon seems to be a reference to the Rio Festival in Brazil. At least, that's what comes to my mind. If @Jonnas wants to chime in with some thoughts on what else these Pokémon could be referring to, go right ahead, this is probably the only set of Pokémon where I'm not the best person to ask here. But I can damn well tell you how it performs competitively! Quaquaval's signature move is "Aqua Step", an 80 power, physical Water attack that raises Quaquaval's Speed. Yeah, it's sort of similar to Rillaboom's Drum Beating, probably a little better though, because raising your stats is generally better then lowering the opponent's. Combine this move with it's hidden ability, "Moxie" which raises it's Attack every time it knocks out a Pokémon, and you have a great revenge killer Pokémon. Problem is, apart from it's Attack, the rest of it's stats are about average, so it struggles in the insane competitive scene with Generation 9. And we're done! That's all of the starters! Generation 9 ends on a relatively good note for me here. Skeledirge and Quaquaval are very cool designs, but I'm not keen on Meowscarada. I just don't like it's face. Anyway, seeing as we're at the end of our starter journey, it's time for me to flaunt my absolutely impeccable opinion by ranking the Pokémon here. Anyway, you probably noticed that I included the pronounciations for these Pokémon in this post. You see, I recently discovered that @Serebii has a page documenting all the official pronounciation for almost all of the Pokémon. I'll be retroactively adding these pronounciations to the older posts here.

Well, when you single handedly make Super R-Type materialise on NSO by playing too many Shmups, that's bound to happen!

Wrecking Crew has never been released outside of Japan, has it? Neat!

Oh, PlayStation doesn't allow multiple people with the same name? Man, that's so 2000's. Weird to think that Nintendo are actually ahead in that regard.

I sure do! I regret nothing! Also, gonna have to call out @lostmario here for this shameful behaviour. Haven't had to use that in a while.

Well, seeing as you mentioned it, what's up with that? Like some weird knock-off version of you. Also, Fortissimole has some mad lines, don't go slandering him!

Yeah, lunch just arrived, and it felt like we were around an hour in. We did it in the end. That went my way as soon as I got that Platinum Longsword/Boots of Might combo on the second floor! I was two shotting everything in sight from relative safety! I like what they did with the NecroDancer fight in co-op. it's a small thing, but appreciated! EDIT: We didn't do too bad when it came to the leaderboard.

Well, when you're ready, you should be able to find the lobby titled "Super Friend Dance" Only the coolest of names for us! Pass code is 4444. I'll do an All-Zones Mode run, unless you want to do something else.