Glen-i

I like pudding too.

Golly gee guys, it's another thread where I go on and on about a Pokemon topic that doesn't really matter because I'm a massive nerd! @Dcubed was recently talking about Pokémon spinoff games with a friend of his and it got me thinking about them and how they've changed recently.. So, with a huge franchise like Pokémon, there's bound to be a lot of spinoffs to capitilise on it's huge success, but I noticed an alarming trend with the majority of them, especially the older ones. They flat out don't exist anymore. I'll start with the beginning. Because I heard that's a very good place to start. Pokémon Trading Card Game was first released on the Game Boy in 1998. Based on the real life Trading Card Game's first three sets, the goal of the game was to obtain all 8 master medals and beat the four Grand Masters to obtain 4 special promotional cards. Yes, the object is to get 4 pieces of plastic. The game enjoyed great success with 3.7 million sales as of 2014. Making it the 5th most successful spinoff. I can see why. It's an enjoyable simulation of the TCG and it was released during the intial Pokemon craze. Despite Hudson Soft being one of the co-developers, they're never credited with the development of this game on the box, cartridge or title screen. They're only mentioned during the ending credits. BTW, this game got banned in Saudi Arabia for supposed Zionism. Naturally, this popular game got a sequel. Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR was a Japanese only release for the Game Boy Color in 2001. A direct sequel to the first game, it added the 4th set of the TCG game and had a larger world to explore. Due to it being a Japan only release, it's hard for me to find sales numbers on it, so it's hard to guage how successful it was. There was an obvious reason why it wasn't released over here though, the Game Boy Advance was already out in America. Sure, you could play this on that console anyway, but Hudson and Creatures clearly didn't see a benefit to a worldwide release. After that game? That was it. The Trading Card Game was never seen on consoles again (Outside of a 3DS Virtual Console release of the original). And it's hard to pin why. The actual Trading Card Game is still trucking along. But could it come back? I doubt it. Hudson Soft doesn't really exist anymore and the Trading Card Game has an online edition that can be played on the Pokemon site. So what did you think of the Digital Trading Card Game? I think it's a solid title and a great alternative to actually collecting the cards. It's a shame it never really continued. I would have liked to have seen more. Well, I'll just leave this entry with some really catchy music.

3 slots too. Which is always nice. It's a great fight. I've done it well over 30 times now and I still enjoy it. Good thing too, because the armour is an amazing set that's remarkably flexible. It's pretty much able to fill any role you want. Well, unless you're fighting something that uses electric... It's Resistance isn't all that for electric. But then again, you could just gem it on, it's that easy. I managed to get Blightproof, Speed Sharpener, Wide Range +2, Sharpness +1 and Divine Protection on it. Which is bonkers!

Seeing as how Jesse and James are returning in this game, it probably was. Unlike loser Ash though, you can actually use Tackle. I believe Bug Bite is a TM as well. Seriously Ash, your Metapod was once a Caterpie, it should still have known Tackle! Well yeah, otherwise you could just use the age old Gen 1 Tactic of "Use Mewtwo and win" Oh snap, I just realised that Bug Bite, Pluck and maybe Acrobatics got nerfed now that there's no Held Items. The first two are no big deal, but Acrobatics was a genuinely amazing move for Hawlucha, good thing no one wants Hawlucha according to this game.

Holy crap, an idea I actually like! I mean, it's not gonna get me to buy this uninspiring excuse of a remake. But hey, it's something! If there's 151, does that mean there's a Ditto trainer? How's that gonna work?

The Random Task this week kinda depends on whether @Dcubed is taking part so I'd be able to look at the MKTV footage. If he doesn't show or doesn't let me know, I've got another Secret Task as backup.

Switch is done! Make room for the Huawei Mate 20 X! See, they said it's better! Yeah, so Huawei revealed their new phone, and instead of comparing it to other phones they compared it to the Switch. Because that's the, uh, phone to beat? Actually, it might be a tablet. I feel like they kind of misunderstood two of the big selling points of the Switch... Anyway, Mate 20 X costs $900. Nintendo is doomed! EDIT: Some dude on ResetEra said. I definitely laughed.

If you've done all 15 Quests for a deviant monster, you should have unlocked an EX quest. Beat that and you can Transmog with that armour set. If I'm informed right, you also get a small crown next to your name, you big show-off you. Good bloody luck though! I got taken on a Thunderbird Zinogre one once. The group lasted about 3 minutes.

Yeah, as much as I love having over 100 monsters in one game. It does make starting a group to fight something not elder dragon-y (actual word, shut up!) pretty difficult. I've taken to just starting a round robin room and having people help me with whatever, then helping them with what they want.

So, I'm not entirely sure where to put this, but it's too weird/funny not to share.

GP2 GP3 I'm sure some of you are wondering what the secret task was this week. I suppose I can tell you... Exciting Close Results! The smaller the point difference between you and another racer in GP3, the more bonus points you get. Bit of a weird one, I know. But I feel like those close shaves are the most interesting, so why not reward that? After all... OH, COME ON! 6 of you had a one point difference!? Bloody hell! Well, at least you can't say I don't think of these tasks before the results are in... So everyone gets 12 points except for @S.C.G, who gets 4 points for the 3 point difference. @Vileplume2000 is this week's Player who made no Bloody Difference. Absent for 2 weeks and then you don't even make a ripple? Impressive. The Mole has been temporarily removed from the table due to inactivity and lower than 50% attendance. Other than that, no change in the placings. Next League Night: 18th October 8pm Room 1: @BowserBasher is host @BowserBasher @viceview51 @martinist @RedShell @Gourmetsalt It's the return of Koopa's Morning Constitutional. We all know the Koopa Troopas don't actually live in Bowser's Castle. So it's time to bust out the sensible Mercedes and travel to work. Don't be the last one there. Last thing you need is to get fired. Shut up! It's funny! Sign up Now!

@Dcubed and I had our second game together. And this time, @Ugh first aid joined in. I was Boo, @Dcubed was Goomba and @Ugh first aid was Rosalina.

When it's convenient, @BowserBasher could you send me the cup results of all three GP's? Along with the end of race results for GP1. (First and second race is good enough, I can figure the rest out after that)

Nice write up @Jonnas Might be worth mentioning which platforms this game is available on. Castlevania is available on NES, GBA, Wii, 3DS, WiiU and the NES Classic. It's also on the PC through the Konami Collector's series. There's some adaptations on the Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, and the Playchoice-10. They differ in graphics and sound, but the game layout is pretty much the same.

My fears got confirmed today with today's blog post about Greninja. It transforms into lame-o Greninja during it's Final Smash. That Pokémon just cannot catch a break in Smash. It gets hit with a thousand nerfs in Smash 4 and now it gets it's aesthetic nerfed. Ash sucks.

Next League Night: Tonight 8pm Room1 @BowserBasher is host @BowserBasher @viceview51 @martinist @RedShell @Gourmetsalt Phone glitched and centered a bit that I didn't want centered... Oh well. Like last time @BowserBasher, get those end results captured for me please, cheers. Oh, and if there's 6 or fewer players tonight, get some hard CPU's in there. Stop it feeling so empty. As for the rest of you. The Random Task is a secret task this week! You won't have to do anything to jeporadise your races, I promise.

Well, it's a Chameleon. So I suppose you could have it be completely invisible on the map screen and then automatically trigger an encounter if you happen to bump into it. Or they could go the Mystery Dungeon route and let it have a bunch of items with it. But if you take any of them, it freaks out, stamps your face in in less than five seconds and then jacks all your items.

That's a bit disappointing... I was hoping SP might be some sort of speed run challenge with leaderboard support or something similar...

I kinda like that allies aren't a straight up advantage though. The downsides help to balance out the luck people have with landing on them quickly a bit. For what it's worth, using a Custom Dice Block stops the allies from rolling on that turn.

Specific quests. Hyper Monsters are depicted on the Quest information by 8 yellow triangles around their image. I should also point out that you have to get to the rank above where it is to unlock it. For example, to unlock the G3 hyper quests, you need to complete the urgent that gets you to G4.

You might already know by now, but Hyper Monsters can be found in 6 and 7 star quests. G Rank ones are found in G3 and G4.