We don’t have a Pokémon thread. Why don’t we have a Pokémon thread? It’s only the biggest media franchise in the world.
We’ve discussed the video games in the gaming and Nintendo Switch threads, and some merch discussion crops up in the wallet thread from time to time. But what about the cards? (We like collecting cards, right?) Or my Pokémon Center shopping addiction? Or the films? Or just discussing the creatures themselves?
So I thought it’d be a good idea to start a general Pokémon discussion threads for all things Pokémon. And what better time to start the discussion than on Pokémon Day? And right before Pokémon Presents kicks off, too!
Who’s your favourite Pokémon? Mine’s Lycanroc. Or Eevee. Or Alolan Vulpix.
Tbh, there’s a good grown-up community around it too. The TV shows are definitely targeted at kids, but I think millennials who have grown up with it make up a huge chunk of the Pokémon market. The appeal is universal to all ages, I think.
I’m an avid Pokemon fan. Always have been and always will be well into retirement.
Pokémon TCG pocket, for instance, is definitely aimed at the folks who grew up with the franchise, and less the kids of today.
I never liked the anime, barely liked it as a kid and watched a couple of episodes about 10 years ago and still hated it.
I do like the games, not so much the newer Switch games or the 3DS era. For me I loved the RBY to RSE then really loved Let’s Go Pikachu on Switch, I did play through all the Switch games but only Let’s Go made me do several play throughs.
Loved the cards as a kid but apart from a random pack for nostalgia I’ve never bothered as an adult.
I forgot to mention I have a GBA SP which I do still play Fire Red on now and again, been hunting shiny MewTwo for like 20 years now.
Nope, not on FireRed anyway, I used to follow someone on Instagram years ago who’d been hunting a shiny MewTwo for years as well and some people seem to get him within a few weeks.
A couple of years ago I bought an Epilogue GB Operator and backed up all my original carts and bought a flash cart and moved everything over then sold all my original carts on eBay for a fortune.
some standard game updates. I really wish I could properly get into Pokémon Unite. It’s a fun mobile game, just too gacha and pay to win. Pokémon Sleep is a daily app for me, so disappointed there was nothing announced for that.
Pokémon Concierge is still the stuff of nightmares. Worse than the chicken film. Still no update on the live action stuff.
Pokémon Champions looks really cool. Probably the most exciting announcement. A pure Pokémon battle simulator. I know a lot of folks who have been wanting exactly that. Particularly with how rampant cheating is. Given that this is effectively the endgame loop for Pokémon (alongside breeding), I wonder what it’ll mean for competitive Pokémon going forward. Especially with Pokémon Home integration AND being on iPhone (which is awesome)!
Pokémon Legends also looks really good. From what they’ve shown, it’s running well too (but is presumably on switch 2 hardware). I loved the gameplay loop from the first legends game and it seems like this retains those core mechanics. Late 2025, so hopefully that means they’ve learned from the blunder with Scarlett and Violet and are taking the time to get this right. I think this’ll be the longest we’ve ever gone without a mainline Pokémon game (or DLC for one).
Was a fan of Legends Arceus for the first half of the game but found it very repetitive and missed the gyms and league. Gameplay was the best they’ve done yet and it was a massive shame they rolled back on Scarlet and Violet.
Only watched some of the trailer for it but it did look pretty good, won’t make me run out and buy a Switch 2 though (yet)
TBH, Niantic’s practices were killing their games anyway, so this might be a good thing. They never should have undone all the quality of life stuff they added during Covid. But they did, so they could sell those things back to us for money.
I hope scopelycan breathe some new life into it. I love Pokémon Go. And I love how it brought the world together in 2016. Closest we ever came to world peace.
Interesting that Niantic are keeping their original IP though. Looks like it’s just their app services and licensed IPs that are going. Ingress got stale years ago, and peridot had promise but Niantic’s stingy approach ruined that too. Peridot is deeply integrated into campfire with Pokemon Go though, and Ingress with Wayfinder (it’s how poke stops locations and stuff are managed). So I wonder how that’ll get decoupled and what it’ll mean for Peridot and Ingress. Ingress relies on Wayfinder, and campfire is a core component of how Peridot works. I’m expecting both games to be killed.
They’re a Saudi company (depends if you care about ethics / morals / etc) but most importantly they are in the pay to play games business. Games full of advertisements and full of microtransactions to a level where playing without paying anything is almost impossible.
I doubt Nintendo will want advertisements in their games, so I’m hopeful that won’t happen here. Just hope they don’t make the micro transactions any worse.
The only saving grace could be if Nintendo / The Pokémon Co keep a tight control over their IP and how it’s used. I know Monopoly Go is not exactly playable and people on Reddit seem quite downbeat about the acquisition.
I just downloaded Ingress after over half a decade away, and I don’t recognise it. The UI is a cluttered mess and I feel like new mechanisms haven’t been very well implemented. There’s now also a subscription. I long for the 2014 Ingress days when we’d go around town with friends capturing each other’s portals.
Trying to weigh up whether or not I give them a chance (surely any big change they’d have to notify us about) or just send my favourites into Pokemon Home ASAP and move on.
I have some fond memories with those virtual pixels in the cloud and they have sentimental value to me. But Pokemon Home is a one way deal AFAIK. No way I could put them back into Pokemon Go again once I’ve taken them out.
