Glen-i

You're so close! Well, until New Game Plus drops and you have to get all those extra ones... Anyway, I'm done. Beat the final Boss.

Maybe if she was in a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game.

Definitely siding with old-school single stick, Metroid Prime style. When I tried to play the XBox Arcade version of Banjo-Tooie, I actually couldn't beat the final boss, because they changed the shooting controls to dual stick and I kept dying from the bloody gas because I could never hit Grunty. Way to ruin my favourite N64 game, guys. So, single stick is the minimum I require to even consider getting Metroid Prime. Of course, Gyro option is much preferred.

Gen 7 is probably one of the most bizarre cases when it comes to the underlying mechanics that got changed. I know I was surprised when I did a bit of research on it. Anyway, my work life is going back to normal now, so I should be able to resume from Gen 6 sometime tomorrow.

But Flipnote Hatena already taught you this.

Respect for maining Lucas, you don't see much of that, even in Smash 4. Well, unless you play against me. Than you'll probably see too much of that.

If I was awesome, I'd prove it by ignoring your call out for me to be awesome. But I didn't, so...

Guess who just got that Blade? You know what? Close enough. It's kinda shaped like Zekrom, it's black, it's a Dragon, it shoots electricity, and holy nards, it's powerful! Oh, and it has a woman attached to it's chest. Which makes a nice change from all the chests attached to a woman.

@Nintendo Fan you only need to post the address of the tweets. I should be able to post the league table and theme sometime on Wednesday. Next theme is a suggestion from @RedShell, so... Yeah, good luck with that.

I took a look at the Blade Album and the silhouette of the very last Blade looks SO like Zekrom, I'm just gonna end up disappointed when I do get it.

Nice one, @Kav I've had that Blade for a while, annoying to max out the affinity chart, mind. I just finished Chapter 8, and I am nigh convinced of a prediction I've had since Chapter 6. Fair warning, there's huge spoilers for both Xenoblade 1 and 2 here. Advanced New Game Plus sounds cool. Having a third accessory sounds broken, so that should be fun.

Geez, that's some horrendous luck, and I'm not talking about the stat. I'm on Chapter 8...

All done! 28 hours and 46 minutes later. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Red's team isn't very good. Only my Scizor fainted whittling down his Snorlax. No items used either, items are for scrubs. Anyway, here was my final team. Guess who the HM Slaves were. Dalbert is the Feraligatr. Barry's a Dragonite and Dave's the Scizor. Crystal still holds up nicely, even if only two trainers have Pokémon higher than Level 50. I'm gonna start breeding some more competitive Pokémon later. Try out the Battle Tower.

Battle GP's are not determined by the number of points you get in total. It is determined by the placing of each battle. For example, say you placed 1st in each Battle in the first GP. You'd get 15 points in each battle. Making for a total of 60 points in total. Just like race mode. It doesn't matter how many points you get, as long as you come first, you get the maximum. This ensures any battle mode can be played in the league without making a massive, unfair, change to the averages. Wouldn't want everyone scoring 70-100 points in a No Items, Coin Runner Battle after all.

I got a rare Blade on my first (and only so far) Legendary Core. Not helpful, I know, but thought that was funny. Good luck!

That reminds me @RedShell, I should thank you for the Smash Ball stage, on the rare occasion where there's 4 or less people playing Smash at the community centre, it's a very popular choice. And it's always funny.

That's a pretty cool idea. So's that, quite inspired.

Aw man, sorry about that, totally slipped my mind. @BowserBasher is right though, the City Tripper has the same stats. Just to cover the bases. Monster tires have the same stats as Funky Monster, while the Parafoil matches the Peach Parasol.

Just wanna say. I'm digging the new reaction icons. Also, how long did @RedShell have to nag you before the "weird" one was implemented?

Smash 4 is such a wonderful, crazy, jam-packed game, I would be chuffed to bits with a MK8 DX style port. Inklings and Ice Climbers are probably shoo-ins. Due to the massive success of Splatoon and Ice Climbers being pretty much developed already until the 3DS issues arose. Following that logic, I can see an ARMS rep getting in. But I wouldn't say it was a sure thing. Deffo Assist Trophy, possible character. ARMS didn't really set the world alight enough for me to say it's a sure thing. I can also see quite a few of the 3DS stages getting added. Some would probably have to be tweaked (The Pac Man Maze comes to mind). Add a few more stages from the older games, shouldn't be too hard. Oh, and Smash Run, I don't care if each player needs their own Switch, that mode rocks. This would also be a good opportunity to bring back some cut characters from Brawl. Wolf was the only Star Fox rep I was any good with and he was more distinctive than Falco for sure. Plus, more villains is always nice. I know the game has a lot of Pokémon already, but Squirtle and Ivysaur were completely unique characters. All they'd have to do is give them a new Down Special each, think of some Final Smashes, touch them up to look pretty in HD and presto! You've made those pesky Genwunners happy. As for Solid Snake, I'd certainly love to have him back, even if it is advertising for Konami. David Hayter voice only though, accept no imitations! And keep the Codec conversations from Brawl. Those were hilarious. If you can record new ones for the newer characters, even better! But what's a Smash Bros prediction post without stupid crazy dreams that only I and maybe one other bloke would like? I'd love to see a sequel to Brawl's Subspace Emissary. A fun diversion for single players (or awesome co-op adventure). They already have loads of enemies from Smash Run they can blantantly nick, as well as a few bosses in the game already, implement them somehow. Mega Man and R.O.B face off against the Yellow Devil, Bayonetta and Palutena get into an argument over who's the better pole dancer, Cloud getting into a turn based battle with Duck Hunt Duo. Fun, silly, fanservicy scenarios like that. As for characters, a lot of people have been throwing the "Decidueye for Gen 7 Pokémon rep" Which isn't a bad idea. I'd be cool with it. But me? I think Alolan Marowak has more potential for interesting movesets, how many characters in Smash incorporate Hawaiian Fire Dancing into their fighting style? That's right, none! Way cooler than boring old Owl Archer. Plus you could have the Retro Kanto Marowak design as an alternate outfit. Double win! Never gonna happen though. Also, promote Dillon from Assist Trophy to playable character like Charizard and Little Mac. A slow, heavy hitter that incorporates Sonic style ramming moves that can transition into Claw Slashes with good timing, just like his games. Have some western style specials, chuck some Dynamite around, use Russ's Pedalcopter as a recovery. Or build a mini gun tower that picks off nearby foes who get too close. Arma Mode would make the obvious Final Smash. Dillon is just perfect for this game. He's getting a third 3DS game soon, advertise the crap out of it with that bitching leather Jacket as an alternate costume. I need this in my life! I think Paper Mario would be a fun addition too, floatier and lighter than Mario, but with a moveset inspired by the spin-off series. Hammer being his main way of dishing out papery pain. There's plenty of inspiration for movesets from the 5 games. Maybe you could have each Special correspond to a different partner from the first two games. Chuck Kooper as a projectile, or have Flurrie blow enemies away to create some breathing room. Don't wanna make all those models? That's cool, good ol' PM can fold himself into a Plane to recover, you could even have him perform a sidestep dodge by simply turning sideways. (Dcubed gets the credit for that idea) And have the Giant Fan from the latest games serve as his Final Smash! Awesome! One last character wish from me would be Ninty to throw a bone for some of the awesome indie games over the past few years. Shovel Knight is an obvious choice. I wouldn't mind Quote from awesome indie game Cave Story as well. And let's face it, Yooka and Laylee are the closest we're getting to Banjo and Kazooie in Smash. Plus, my Chameleon bias would pretty much guarantee I'd have to main them. Oh, and please put some Pokémon Mystery Dungeon music in the game. You're sitting on a gold mine of awesome music and it needs to be heard. An actual stage would be even better! I totally get your point about the FE characters, but a lot of the Smash 4 newcomers had some cool gimmicks. Rosalina's Luma, Little Mac's K.O. Meter, Shulk's Monado Arts, Cloud's Limit Breaks, Ryu's Street Fighter inputs and Bayo's combo orientated style and Witch Time Counter. Hell, even Robin stood out because he had limited use, but strong magic, just like the Fire Emblem games. Apart from Lucina, all the FE characters are unique. Even Roy, who went from the cloniest Melee character to my favourite FE Smasher ever.

It's little quirks like that which give old school Pokemon it's charm. While I do agree that the new Pokeballs had a lasting effect on the series. I decided against mentioning them because otherwise I'd have to go through so many new items that are introduced and these posts take long enough to make.

Generation 5 - Black/White/Black 2/White 2 Gen 5 released in 2010 in Japan with Black and White. Set in the Unova region, which was loosely based on America, the start of a trend of non-Japanese inspired locales. These games marked a number of departures of usual Pokemon tropes. The protaganists were older, there was more of an attempt at a plotline and there were quite a few dynamic camera angles, becoming the Pokemon League Champion was even entirely optional! 156 Pokemon were added to the roster (649 total), but what was remarkable was that not a single Pokemon from a previous generation was obtainable until you saw the credits, not even Pikachu. It was the closest the series had ever got to a "reboot" I already mentioned in the previous post that Pokemon following you was dropped after HG/SS. So I won't go over that any further. This generation also went against expectations and dropped the Third Version. Instead, Black 2 and White 2 were full fledged sequels set in the same region, a few years after the events of Black and White. It came out in Japan in 2012, more than a year after the 3DS came out. Anyway, Gen 5 gave us... Black and White introduced 2 new battle formats. The first were Triple Battles. As the name implies, trainers sent out 3 Pokemon at once to battle. While it may sound a bit redundant, there were a few nuances that helped differentiate it from Doubles. Positioning played a larger part in strategy, Pokemon on the left hand side of the team could not target Pokemon on the right hand side (Some moves weren't affected by this though). Pokemon in the middle could attack anyone, but in turn, was able to be attacked by anyone. Pokemon on the sides could use their turn to swap position with the Pokemon in the middle and Pokemon in the middle did more damage with moves that hit multiple targets. The second new format was Rotation Battles. Like Triple Battles, trainers sent out 3 Pokemon at once, but with a twist. To paint a better picture of how this works, I'm gonna use a... well, a picture. You probably noticed the funky floor underneath the Pokemon. This is the crux of Rotation Battles. Even though 3 Pokemon are sent out, battles follow the Single Battle format, with one Pokemon in the front fighting the other. However, before you take your turn, you have the option of rotating the floor, changing which Pokemon is in the front. This didn't take up your turn. So you could rotate your Pokemon and still attack. The rotation didn't happen until each player had chosen their action. This results in the biggest bunch of mind games the series had ever seen. Both players could see all three Pokemon that could potentially attack, and a well timed rotation could easily turn the tide in your favour. As well as those two, this game also introduced the Wonder Launcher. An option that you could toggle on which appeared solely in battles against other players. Every turn, players would earn one point and could send these points to use items during battle. Normally, items could not be used in battles, so this added some more depth to the game. This was dropped in the next Generation. Black and White expanded upon the online capabilities and allowed players to battle random people online. Although, they did have to sign up to the Pokemon Global Link. A separate website that complimented the games. Players could use the site to keep track of their battle rating, play certain mini-games that would in turn allow the player to catch Pokemon and transfer them to the DS games. Many of which had new abilities. You could even download skins to customise the in-game gadget. I used this one. Speaking of that, this generations gadget, the C-Gear, is worth mentioning for the sheer amount of things it bought to the series. It was the first instance of allowing players to constantly be online, even while playing through the single player adventure. Using this, you could easily tell whether one of your friends was online. There was another feature which functioned similarly to the 3DS' Streetpass. Allowing you to see statistics of people you passed by who were also using this. The C-Gear also had Pokemon's only instance of video chat with other players. You could have a video call with 3 other people over local wireless. You could even have a video chat with another person online. A crazy concept for a Nintendo console at the time. Because it used a camera, this was only available on the DSi models. The quality in Pokemon animations skyrocketed in Gen 5. Every Pokemon had constant idle animations, even when viewed from behind and the camera was much more dynamic. I'd explain more, but it'd be easier to show you. The difference is astonishing! It breathed a lot of life into battles. For once, Pokemon, which never really pushed a console in terms of visuals, was one of the more impressive looking games on a console. I have to give Game Freak credit for the sheer amount of work this must have taken to animate more than 700 sprites (Remember, some Pokemon have different forms), front and back. That's enough about battles now. Black and White also introduced Seasons. Every time a month passed in real life, the season in Unova would change. Cycling between Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. This not only changed the aesthetics of the region, but also allowed the player to explore new areas that may have been inaccessible before. There was even a Pokemon that changed it's form depending on the season. This was immediately dropped in the next Generation. TM's are in this game as well. Which is nothing new, but now they were no longer single use. Quite the big deal, no more worrying about using up a good TM. The Entralink was an evolution of the previous generation's Underground feature. While it didn't have the Secret Bases, players could visit another player's game to do certain things together. You could literally walk up to someone playing their game and say Hi! Players could also take on a number of missions which involve doing certain things to help or even hinder the host player, from recovering their Pokemon after a battle, to trying to sell them an item for a rip-off price. Completing these missions would unlock various Pass Powers. Pass Powers are special enhancements a player could use to help them on their quest. They did various things for a limited time, from increasing the amount of experience you receive, to increasing the Pokemon encounter rate. Moving on to Black 2 and White 2 now, which gave us... The Battle Frontier was replaced with a new battle facility. The Pokemon World Tournament was a knockout tournament which pitted the player against AI opponents in order to be the last one standing. It featured a few different formats, such as Rental Pokemon only and a strange mode which forced you to temporarily swap one Pokemon with your opponent before each battle. But after you finished the game, you could enter special tournaments which pitted you against the Gym Leaders from every single Generation to date. A big massive nostalgia bomb, that hasn't been surpassed since. Do well against the Gym Leaders and you could even participate in a tournament featuring every Champion for the 5 generations, from Blue to Cynthia. It was a true test of your battling prowess. A new style of minigame came to us in the form of Pokestar Studios. This tasked the player with becoming an actor in various movies by using their Pokemon in battles. Apart from the novelty of escaping from a world where Ledians catch and train people, trying to survive a deadly virus breakout or battling a giant Tyranitar mech (Yes, really), this was an interesting puzzle game which tested your knowledge of Pokemon and moves in order to figure out what the director wants from you. The Unova Link feature allowed players to connect to their copy of Black or White to carry over certain story related things to Black 2 or White 2 that wasn't Pokemon. Kinda like how the GBA Golden Sun games worked. The thing of note is that communicating with other copies of Black 2 or White 2 could unlock difficulty options. You could make the game easier or harder. This affected the smartness of AI, as well as opponent's Pokemon levels. This was baffingly dropped in the next generation. And that's Gen 5. While it introduced quite a few cool mechanics to the series, only 3 of them are actually in the latest Pokemon games. (Infinite use TM's, Pass Powers and the Pokemon Global Link) I'd be lying if I said I was cool with this. To me, these games remain the pinnacle of the series precisely because of these new things. Gen 5 took a ridiculous amount of risks, focusing on a plot that doesn't entirely revolve around being the best trainer, forcing players to use the new Pokemon instead of the familiar same old, same old, offering difficulty options, strange and interesting new formats and a smorgasbord of challenging battles with past characters. And yet, despite all that, this game is on the lower end of the sales figures. And that makes me a little sad. These games deserve better. Quite frankly, if you skipped this gen, you missed out. You missed out big time.

There's a 3DS theme based on this game out now. The music is the title screen music, which is a great choice. The strangest thing is that it's absolutely free. So, you know... Jump on that.