Glen-i

Yep, 4 minutes into that video, I stopped watching. Because I'm sold. If that comes to Switch, totally going for it.

I expect more from a mainline game. I hold them to a generally higher standard to Spin-off's. I absolutely consider Let's GO as a mainline series game. Game Freak made it, it follows the same basic structure as every mainline Pokémon game they made and that's that. So while I won't cover it here, there's a previous thread I did that I feel would be a better place to give my thoughts. So I'll probably bump that instead later on. Out of all the spin-off's, those would be the big 3. But there's quite a bit to cover still. There's one more thing that Generation 4 gave us before I move on. Generation 5 is probably the weirdest of the spin-off's. There's some proper wacky stuff in there.

Oh god, I have to talk about Pokémon Rumble now, don't I? Pokémon Rumble is an action RPG developed by Ambrella that released on WiiWare in 2009. It's an Action RPG. The game starts with a Toy Rattata sneaking into some kind of Battle Royale, where it is very quickly destroyed, because it's a Rattata. It's not even in the top percentage of Rattata. The player is then tasked with collecting a whole variety of better toys like a whiny child on Christmas Morning in order to win at the forementioned Battle Royale. Pokémon Rumble is a pretty simple game, really. You manuever your Pokémon toy through a variety of levels and beat the living snot out of other Pokémon toys along the way, each level ends with a Boss and beating it lets you progress to the next level. Whenever you beat a Pokémon though, there's a chance that you can take it for yourself to use. The game has a cycle of slowly collecting better and better Pokémon while you progress. Once you get a strong enough Pokémon, a Battle Royale will open up, which is basically a large number of Pokémon beating each other up at once to be the last one standing. All the Pokémon from Gens 1 and 4 (Except Arceus) is available in this game, giving you 257 Pokémon to get. There's also a 2 player co-op mode as well as a 4 player competitive mode that takes place in a Battle Royale. Utilising the not very often used Wii Remote storage capabilities, people could put a Pokémon Toy in their Wii Remote and take them to a friend's Wii console to compete in this mode. Weirdly enough, as far as I'm aware, Pokémon Rumble is the only WiiWare title to have an advert. That advert only just reminded me that the Trading Card Game tried to make a sort of spin-off version based around Rumble. Yeah, it kinda flopped, so no-one even acknowledges it. But the real thing you need to see is the Japanese advert, which is the most ridiculously overhype thing I've ever seen in Pokémon history. That commentator is really excited to tell you about Pokémon Scramble (Japanese title for Rumble), not to mention that hilarious, over-the-top music. It's still funny these days. Not gonna lie, that advert kinda sold me on the game. In reality, it's not that exciting. (Then again, what is?) But it's a decent enough Wiiware title, the 2 player co-op does help it, but it can get repetitive. WiiWare title means that I can't be sure on any sales figures. But for once, Ambrella had made an OK Pokémon game. In hindsight, I can't be sure it's a good thing... Super Pokémon Rumble was released for the 3DS in 2011 and was developed by Ambrella. Being a full retail game, this game featured Pokémon from all 5 generations at the time. (Except for 3 unreleased Pokémon) It plays pretty much exactly the same as the original game. It's literally a bigger version with a plot. That would be fine, but this game annoys me. Oh no, I never played it. The WiiWare one was enough for me, but this game still featured those bloody Pokemon Toys. Yes, I'm talking about them again, you can't stop me! Pokémon toys were understandable as a way of working around the memory limitations that WiiWare games were faced with, but this was a full retail title and those models are some of the most ugly abominations I've ever laid my eyes on. (Well, until recently, after all, "Realistic Pokémon: The Movie" is now a thing) Ambrella started coasting after making something not completely baffling and awful and it shows with this. It sold 1.15 million copies, which is pretty good. Wait, oh no! That means Ambrella's going to...! *sigh* Pokémon Rumble U is a WiiU digital only game developed by Ambrella and released in 2013. Ummm... I'm sorry, but there's basically nothing to say about the actual game, it's still a gen 5 game so there were only 3 Pokémon that the 3DS game didn't have. But don't panic, there is actually something else to say about this. This game was the first WiiU title to utilise the NFC reader that the Gamepad had built in. You probably know about that thanks to the prominent amiibos that it's most well known for. But this game didn't use amiibos. I can't imagine many people proudly displaying that next to their amiibo collection. Scanning those would give you the associated Pokémon and also make your WiiU secretly judge you for having such poor taste. Saleswise, dunno. Digital title, hard to find those sales. Do you care though? I don't believe it did that well. Pokémon Rumble World, another 3DS title, another action RPG made by Ambrella. It released in 2015. It's Pokémon Rumble, again. The Gen 6 Pokémon are in this one now and Mega evolution features, but it's the same kind of gameplay we've seen 3 times before. I mean, it's awfully brazen to have another full retail title that barely does anything new with the formula and expect people to... Wait, hold up. I'm just getting told something... THEY DID WHAT!? OK, so in what I can only assume is a fit of madness, this is actually a free-to-play title digital title... which then got a retail release 6 months later. Which means that we've finally reached that point in this thread where I have to remain incredibly optimistic otherwise I'm liable to punch a wall. And I'm pretty weak, so I'd probably just hurt myself if I did that. It's time to talk about... Microtransactions in Pokémon Spin-off's I'm sure you already know how this works, but just in case you don't (Lucky you), here's the gist. Free-to-play titles are absolutely notorious for being seemingly free games that then offer you the option of buying some form of in-game currency with real-life cash. The mobile market is absolutely flooded with these kind of things and they can range from relatively harmless to completely exploitative. Unfortuantely, the latter is becoming more and more prominent these days. And with it showing up in full price retail games more and more often these days, it's probably not going away anytime soon. There's also the well-known Lootbox system, which is probably even worse, but Pokémon thankfully hasn't ventured into that territory yet, so I won't be covering that particular aspect in this thread. Now, some people tend to counter-argue that Microtranscations can be largely ignored. Good for you, you can show restraint. But that means you're not the kind of person that a game that uses this is targeting really. The majority of Free-to-play titles aim to get someone who is more prone to becoming addicted to buckle and spend lots of money on this to make reasonable progress. Titles that use microtransactions tend to be incredibly grindy affairs that are difficult to progress in, unless you pay up. This has coined the term as "Pay-to-win" and some companies love this idea. EA Games comes to mind and games like FIFA practically live on the kind of revenue it brings. I don't care how microtransactions affect you, but it is absolutely not a pleasant destination for gaming to go and can cause some serious real-life ramifications for some poor bugger who could get a bit carried away. Referred to rather meanly as "Whales", It only takes a few people dropping well over hundreds of pounds to make this kind of thing profitable and it's nothing short of despicable. Quite frankly, if anyone actually has the gall to defend this kind of practice, then you're part of the problem and I will just lose respect in you. *ahem* Sorry about that, but I feel it needed to be said. As far as Pokémon Rumble World is concerned, it's not too bad. You could probably get through it without coughing up, but you might as well just a play different title in the series. The retail version sold 0.11 million, the fact that it was on the eShop for free is probably the main reason for that low number. There is one more thing for Rumble though. Pokéland is a mobile game for iOS and android. It's not actually out yet, but there was an alpha version released last year. It seems to play like Pokémon Rumble, albeit, much more simple. Not much more information on that, we'll just have to see. And that's it. Pokémon Rumble, like PMD, is still kicking these days, but unlike PMD, it is seemingly banished to the Mobile Phone format. It might do well there, who knows? But chances are it will be more of a shell of it's former self. It's awfully derivative though, not really taking any chances, just going through the motions. Kinda like Pokémon Ranger did.

Make sure the Pokè Ball is connected to the game and that you have the Pokédex. Open the menu and choose "Connectivity". Then choose "Mystery Gift" and select "Get with a Pokè Ball Plus"

Why didn't you just get the free Squirtle from Vermilion City?

So I just stumbled on something that I just had to share. Some person with way too much time and way too much awesome just made a bunch of sprites for Pokémon from Gen 2-5 to make them look like old school Gen 1 sprites. Yeah, yeah. Expected. But what sets this apart is that they went for a style the resembles the sprites from Pokémon Green, the original version of Red/Blue only released in Japan. In case you don't know, Green sprites are notorious for looking... Off... Some of them are pretty terrible and make for some easy laughs. You're welcome.

Mew can't be transferred from Go to Let's Go. The Pokè Ball Mew is also time exclusive. It won't be around for too long.

That old man hasn't been sleazy since Gen 3.

Gonna head online now if anyone wants to jump in.

In the mainline series, sure. Spin-off's liked Zangoose quite a bit. It's a quintessential "badass" Pokémon, so not too surprising.

It just uses a USB connection, so it works on both.

Well, say you're the kind of player who'd want to keep at least one kind of each Pokémon? It's not unreasonable. I imagine most people do that. But because of the large amount of Pokémon you'll inevitably catch, it's very easy to lose track of the one you might actually want to keep. So you have to go back and forth between the Box screen and the Summary screen to look at the stats. That's been a thing since X/Y. Every Pokémon has those reactions when you use Amie with them.

Oh right, I've not mentioned this, but how dreadful is the Pokémon Box? It's awful to navigate and find Pokémon in. Very little customisation in it. And I'm not sure, but couldn't you just use the Box to heal your Pokémon for free whenever you like? That might kinda remove any of semblance of challenge in any place where healing isn't readily available. (Silph Co. and the Elite 4) I'm not keen on it. Sun and Moon did the whole convenience thing better.

Not a bad list. Although...

You never played multiplayer Pokémon contests, did you?

Ah, so it's you who convinced Game Freak to ditch the Battle Frontier. Expect a strongly worded letter. Also, Pokestar studio is god-tier when it comes to side modes in Pokémon games. I mean, you don't even need to do these side modes, so why get rid of them? Options are nice.

Miitopia. @Hero-of-Time used my Mii in his third party. I gotta play that...

BTW, you just reminded me that this is the second time I've been "honoured" in another N-Europe peeps playthrough of a game. I'm so popular!

Pffft. Like I'd been seen dead with a Pikachu. I've looked up his team later on and it's the kind of stuff I would never use. Your research sucks!

It's kinda relevant to this, because it'll be interesting to see whether a competitive scene develops for this. (I mean, it is the internet, they probably will compete in it just because they can) But @Dcubed recently introduced me to a YouTube series of videos that looks at how good certain Pokémon were in these competitive battles throughout the series. It's also good for finding out how the metagame has developed over the games.

Gen 4 now. And like the previous gen, I want to start by bunching all the smaller titles together. Well, I say all, but there's only a couple. My Pokémon Ranch was a Wiiware title released in 2008 and developed by Ambrella. To be fair, it's more of an accessory than a game. Effectively, it's a kind of storage application for Pokémon Pearl and Diamond. Yes, that should sound familiar. Because it's similar to Pokémon Box. Unlike Box though, you could actually look at the Pokémon you deposited interact with each other and any of the Mii's you use. This also helped players to complete their Pokédex on the DS games, by giving you information on Pokémon they might be missing and opportunities to trade with the Ranch owner, Hayley. It's a nice take on the Pokémon storage app, and there was a bit of thought behind it, as certain Pokémon react to other Pokémon being nearby (Zangoose and Seviper hate each other) Anyway, that's all well and good, but this game(?) did something that in hindsight, I can't forgive. That Torchic has the right idea These simplistic WiiWare-friendly Pokémon models are referred to by the fanbase as "Pokémon toys" The name is based on an upcoming spin-off series, but that's not for now. I touched upon them in the PMD write-up at the top of this page, but this is the first time they showed up. To reiterate, Wiiware titles didn't have a lot of space available, they weren't made like that. So these models had basic animations, stuff like that. Which is fine. I totally get why Ambrella went with this at the time. It made sense. But if you actually think these look good, I have to question your artistic taste. Problem is, Ambrella decided "Yeah, this will do" and haven't used anything else since. BTW, this game was given a patch to be compatible with Pokémon Platinum. Only in Japan, mind. With this being a WiiWare title, there's no way I can tell how this did. So, you know... Anyway, enough about that. Pokémon Battrio is an arcade title that only released in Japan in 2007 and was developed by... Tomy!? The toy company? ...OK, sure. Why not? I guess the best way to describe this as the Pokémon Trading Card Game meets Pokémon Stadium. Although that's not a totally accurate statement. The game utilises real-life collectible disks that you used to insert Pokémon into 3-on-3 battles (Even before Gen 5 incorporated it) While it didn't work quite like the mainline titles, battling is the focus of the game. It focuses on positioning to determine how effective attacks will be as well as the usual type advantages and such. I can't really say much else about it, because obviously, I've not played it. But it must have done decently enough, because it got a sequel at the end of Gen 5. Sorry, can't find an image that would let me post it here. Just pretend it's here. Pokémon Tretta released in 2012. Once again developed by Tomy and once again being a Japan only Arcade title, it's quite similar to Battrio, except that this game allowed players to catch Pokémon in the arcade game which would result in the associated disc (Known as Tretta) getting dispensed to the player. Gotta admit, that is kinda cool. Once again, not much to actually say because I have little experience with it. But this and Battrio do utilise a cel-shading artstyle that was quite popular at the time. Anyway, that's enough games you probably never played for now. More well-known games tomorrow.

Do you want a Mew? That's the main selling point. It also works simlarly to the Pokéwalker that Heart Gold/Soul Silver came packaged with. You put a Pokémon in it, connect it to Pokémon GO and go for a walkabout. When you put it back in Pokemon Let's GO, it gets experience and might bring back items. So yeah, it's a not free Pokéwalker that lacks a screen but functions as a controller for the Switch. It also can't connect with other Poké Ball Plus like the Pokéwalker did.

I never even gave this thought... TPC: We're pleased to announce Pokémon: Let's GO Zorua and Let's GO Drilbur!

No, he's talking about the upcoming Generation 8 game next year. He expects that to have the bells and whistles. EDIT: Well, I got Greninja'd. Stupid speed stat...

I'm not convinced that the two will be kept as seperate as that. We'll have to see of course how Gen 8 does in comparison to Let's Go, but yeah, I'm pretty uncertain.