Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire Set for November 2014

Earlier today, the official Pokemon website and youtube channel posted a short video to announce two new Pokemon games: Omega Ruby and Aqua Sapphire. The video doesn't show much, just the games' box art and approximate release date in November 2014, but it's been enough to send Pokemon fans into a cyclone of hype and excitement. Watch the video below, then tell everyone what you think.

Super Smash Bros: Charizard and Greninja Join The Roster

Just a few hours ago, a 39 minute Nintendo Direct was released, covering the new Super Smash Bros game coming out for 3DS and Wii U. Of note to anyone keeping tabs on this blog, 2 pokemon characters were revealed to be on the roster. The first of these is Charizard. While Charizard previously appeared in Brawl as one of the Pokemon Trainer's selectable pokemon, he is now a standalone character due to the new Smash Bros not featuring any character transformations. The second reveal is Greninja, a newcomer from Pokemon X and Y. Greninja is the final evolution of Froakie, the water starter of X and Y, and also has a large presence in the competitive community of those games. If you want to get a better idea of how Greninja handles in Smash, check out the reveal video below this paragraph

2014 April Friendly Details: Read Up And Start Training!

Yesterday, the 2014 April Friendly competition for the Pokemon Global Link was announced on the official Pokemon website. Like previous Global Link competitions, the April Friendly will be held online over the course of a few days. First there will be a registration period running from April 17th to 24th. Participants  are accepted on a first come first served basis. The competition period lasts from the 25th to 28th. 

To participate, one needs a copy of Pokemon X or Y that is synced to a Pokemon Trainer Club account, and a 3DS that can connect to Nintendo Network. Here are the major rules: All particiapants must bring between 3-6 pokemon. All matches conducted will be in singles format, where each player must pick 3 of their pokemon to fight after observing the other player's roster. All pokemon from the Kalos Pokedex are legal for use, including Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, and Mewtwo. In addition, all pokemon in the competition must have been hatched or raised in Kalos, as opposed to being sent over from previous games in the series.

All pokemon will have their levels set to 50, regardless of what they were set to previously. Players are not allowed to use more than 1 pokemon of the same species, or use more than 1 of the same type of item. Participants are allowed to have 20 matches each day. If a participant doesn't use all their matches for any day, the leftover matches are added to the next day's limit.

Now that you know the rules, what are your thoughts? Are you going to enter? Do the rules seem fun, or overwhelming? Have you already concocted a strategy whilst reading this post? Leave a comment with your input. 'Till then, see you on the next post.

Pokemon Battle Trozei Slides Into The e-shop: First Impressions Review

Pokemon Battle Trozei has just broken into the 3DS e-shop of North America. Priced at a relatively low $8, I decided pick it up and give the tile-swapper a spin. After about an hour of tapping pokemon heads, I begrudgingly separated from my 3DS to begin writing this brief review.

While I have never played the original Pokemon Trozei, which Battle Trozei is a sequel to, I was immediately able to engross myself in Battle Trozei's simplistic gameplay. The game presents stages in which the player must capture several opposing wild pokemon. In order to catch pokemon, the player uses the stylus to drag pokemon heads on the touch screen and match pokemon of the same species into lines of three or more. Matching heads will make them disappear and begin an attack on the wild pokemon to lower its health. Once the pokemon's health hits 0, the payer catches it. Every few seconds the player doesn't act the wild pokemon will attack the player, and lower their own health meter. If the player runs out of health, the pokemon catches them! Just kidding. The player just loses in that case, hence "Battle Trozei".

The player can start a chain by matching up heads consecutively, which will increase the damage of the attack, and the amount of points they receive. Each stage has a secret pokemon that will only appear if the player gets a certain amount of points. Matching up a line of 4 or more will give the player an opportunity to start a "Trozei Chance" where they will only need to match up 2 of the same pokemon to make them disappear. Battle Trozei also includes fundamental pokemon game mechanics such as, super effective attacks from matching heads of pokemon with a type advantage against the current wild pokemon, and unique abilities from certain pokemon that activate when they're matched up.

Unfortunately, while the gameplay is easily understood and incredibly addicting, there isn't really a lot of depth to it. The player matches up heads as quickly as possible to keep the chain going, but doesn't really receive much incentive to think about things like which pokemon head to start the chain with, despite them all having differences. No matter which head the player picks the wild pokemon is essentially a sitting duck as long as the chain keeps going. There is a multiplayer mode, but I did not get a chance to try it out.

The games visuals are decent. The graphics are colorful and easy on the eyes. While there is no 3D or particularly complex animation, those things aren't really required for a game this simple. I found the music to be pretty catchy.

All in all, despite my enjoyment of this game, I wouldn't  recommend Battle Trozei to everyone. Hardcore pokemon players may find this title lacking in content, but if you're just looking for mindless fun in short bursts, or something to play with some friends, I'd say you can't go wrong with Battle Trozei.

Twitch Plays Pokemon Emerald - Let the madness begin!

There's a few hours to go to the next installment of Twitch Plays Pokemon. Just in case you've been asleep under your Snorlax, Twitch Plays Pokemon is a bunch of people playing
Pokemon at the same time by typing commands into the chat box.

Having beaten Pokemon Red and Pokemon Crystal, now its time for the world to take on Pokemon Emerald....together!

To play all you need to do is log in with your Twitch account, wait for the game to begin and then type the name of a button (a, b, left, right, up, down) into the chat box.

There are rules:
No ASCII/unicode artwork - some small emoticons are ok
No automation - no bots, and the like
No referral links - no advertising or non stream related links
No circumvention of R9K - Do not spam non unique messages above 9 characters

Violating the rules will result in a time out or permanent ban if you're really bad. So don't be bad.

Red took 16 days, 7 hours, and 50 minutes. Crystal took 13 days, 8 hours, and 51 minutes. How long do you think it will take to beat Emerald? Leave a comment below.

Pokemon X and Y Bugfix Patch Now on eShop

A patch for Pokémon X and Pokémon Y just went live on the Nintendo eShop. The patch removes a bug in the which caused player's games to freeze if they saved their file in the streets at Lumiose City, or if they attempted to load their file afterwards, thus making the game inaccessible without starting a new file. The patch prevents this glitch from occurring. Players whose games have already been affected by the bug will have their saved files fixed, and be able to pick up where they left off once they download the patch.

In addition, this new patch fixes an issue with the GTS that caused communications errors if the player used a filter on a search for deposited pokémon.

The patch is free  and can be downloaded to any 3DS that's connected to the internet, so if you have X or Y, even if you haven't seen any of these glitches, you should definitely find the time to download it.

How to Raise Pokémon: Riolu/Lucario

Lucario was one of the most popular pokemon back during 4th gen. He  has a pretty cool design, and is very good in battles as well. Since lucario's pre-evolution riolu is accessible very early in Black and White 2 as opposed to having to be hatched out of a mystery egg like in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum I figure it'd be a good idea to give you some tips on raising one up. So let's get started!

Where do I catch Riolu?

Riolu can be found in the tall grass at Floccesy Ranch, and nowhere else. There is a 5% chance of any encounter being riolu. Riolus caught at the ranch range from level 5 to 7.

Is Riolu good?

Heck yes. Even before evolving, riolu is a very good pokemon to have on your team. Having a fighting type at such an early point is very good for beating all the normal types (the first gym), rock types and dark types that are commonplace at the start.

After Riolu evolves into Lucario it gets huge attack as well as special attack, and a plethora of strong moves of various types to take of advantage of. That's not to say you should evolve him immediately though, as riolu can learn a few good attacks that lucario can't after evolving.

How does Riolu evolve? 

Riolu evolves into lucario he has a high amount of friendship and then levels up during the day. You can raise a pokemon's friendship by leveling it up, giving it vitamins (protein, carbos, etc.), having someone massage it, feeding it certain berries or even just by walking around.

When riolu evolves into lucario it's type changes from fighting to fighting/steel.


What moves should I teach Riolu/Lucario?

Riolu for the most part only gets access to normal and fighting type attacks while leveling up. Once it evolves into Lucario however you should get a lot more diversity in it's attacks. You should have 3 attacks and one status move preferably.

What you should teach Riolu:
Slot 1:(Level 1) Foresight > (Level 15) Force Palm > (TM) Brick Break/(Level 51 as Lucario) Aura Sphere/(Level 55 as Lucario) Close Combat
Slot 2:(Level 1) Quick Attack > (Level 11) Feint > (Level 65) Extremespeed
Slot 3:(Level 1) Endure > (TM) Work Up/Swords Dance/Bulk Up/(Level 47 or TM)Calm Mind
Slot 4:(Level 6) Counter > (Move Relearner as a Lucario) Dark Pulse/(TM) Shadow Claw

Work up is a great move choice as it powers up Lucario's special and physical attacks so you don't have to choose between one or the other. On the other hand if you want to use mostly physical attacks or special attacks you can swap it out for Swords Dance or Calm Mind respectively. You could also use Nasty Plot for special attacks, but that involves not letting riolu evolve until level 47...

Other attacks to consider:


(Level 1) Endure + (Level 29 as a Riolu) Reversal combo

This strategy involves getting riolu down to 1 HP using endure and then abusing Reversal which deals more damage the less HP the user has. At 1 HP reversal has a whopping 200 base damage. For reference that's basically selfdestruct's base power but without killing the user immediately. And it gets same type attack boost too. Wow.

(Level 60 as a Lucario) Dragon Pulse

This move can let you get a surprise super effective hit on enemy dragon types, but other than that it's pretty useless as your fighting moves are stronger. If you were to teach your Lucario this I would put it in slot 4.

(Level 19) Me First

This attack is weird. If the user moves first it will steal the enemies attack and then use it against him with twice the power. In some situations this can be amazing, but if the enemy doesn't use a damaging attack or they just move before you it is useless. I would put this in slot 2.

In Closing

Lucario's a pretty boss pokemon. As you can see there are a lot of different ways to use in battles, so try getting creative! Leave a comment about how you raised/want to raise your Lucario.