Pokemon X/Y - Talkin' Bout an Evolution

Last night I polished off the new Elite Four in the latest generation of Pokemon.  I clawed my way to the top fighting tooth and nail, and let me say that it was not easy.  Not nearly as easy as the Elite 5th (or Champion) or the magic bum that follows after that.  None the less, it's been an amazing journey and will continue to hold my attention with all its joyous post-game.

Let me be clear now.  This won't be a review because, by professional standards, I don't believe that I can be a fair judge.  I'm too saturated with childhood nostalgia and will inevitably overlook glaring flaws in favor of the glimmering new features.  This is going to be an editorial where I gush about how much I've loved every second of Pokemon Y.  Let's get down to it.

The Five Reasons YOU Should Be Playing Pokemon X/Y

5. Cast of Characters - Pokemon has been a pretty formulaic game.  10-year-old kid gets given their own personal monster to go battle 8 gym leaders and eventually conquer the Elite Four (Five, Six, whatever).  Along the way, your douchey rival who picked the pokemon yours was weakest to, tries to mess you up.

X and Y start you off as part of a team of 5 individuals selected by Professor Sycamore to fill up the Pokedex and uncover the mystery behind Mega Evolution (new game mechanic - think digivolution).  Your unique pals offer a slightly different story than the one we're all used to by now and add an interesting dynamic to the game.

4. Character Customization - For the first time, you can actually customize your character to an astounding degree.  Beyond the selection of male and female, you're also given the option of skin tone/hair color, and can eventually even purchase new clothes and outfits.  I think everyone's always wanted to model their pokemon trainer after themselves, and X and Y finally let you do it.

3. OG Starter - An hour into the game, you finally get to meet the Professor and after a brief duel with his Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle, you actually get to take one with you.  Now you've basically got two options: 1) grab the pokemon that covers your glaring weakness (eg. if you picked the grass-type starter, grabbing Squirtle would cover that giant fire-weakness you seem to have).  2) Alternatively, you could just grab which ever original starter you loved from the first generation and roll with that.  I grabbed Charmander, making him the 2nd fire-type on my team and was not disappointed in the slightest.

2. Running Shoes FROM THE GET GO - I really don't need to say more than this.  You start the game with your running shoes on.  No more bullshit walking around waiting for the right storyline moment when some jackass finally tells you how to run.  You also acquire roller skates early on, which gives you a nice middle-ground between running and bicycling.

1. Experience Adjustments (Catching and Sharing) - Another thing the pokemon series has been guilty of besides holding out on those running shoes is a rather tedious form of experience giving.  No longer is this an issue.  Again, in the early stages of X/Y, you're given the Exp Share item which can be turned on an off.  While on, it passes out half of the fight's experience to the rest of your team, helping them all grow at a rather consistent rate.  Almost as important as this change, when you capture a pokemon, you no longer lose the experience you would have otherwise gained from defeating it.  Instead, the game counts a catch the same as a KO, and awards your team experience all the same.  A significant change from all the grinding we used to have to do back in my day.

Now, granted I've been absent from the Poke-scene for about a generation (Black and White just weren't my thing), so a couple of these reasons might not be the most recent implements.  Regardless, these are 5 key reasons that Pokemon Y has become my new addiction, and why you should join me.

-Nik "Latency" Trumble

Nintendo - The OTHER Guy

There's a lot of focus on Sony and Microsoft here at Zero Tolerance.  This is predominantly because they've each got a new console coming out in a little over a month and we're still not sure how to react to Microsoft coming up with bullshit policies and then retracting them after they realized that shoving shit down our throats wasn't going to fly.

I'd like to put someone else under the microscope here for a second though.  Nintendo hasn't been doing or receiving as much press as the other two, but the more I think about it, they've been getting a lot of things right as of late.

• Top o' the list: BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY - going all the way back to the GameBoy Advance, Nintendo has shown a solid commitment to backwards compatibility with their consoles.  The GBA could play classic GameBoy titles, the Wii can play Gamecube titles, early DS consoles had a slot for GBA games, and even the new 3DS can play original DS games.  The WiiU regrettably can't play Gamecube discs, but will still run Wii games just fine.  Sony and Microsoft have thrown this vital part of the modern console market away.  Graphics aren't improving by the leaps and bounds we were used to as kids, and hardware designs that aren't capable of running older titles from the same storage media as their predecessors are just frustrating.
• Repeated visits to the Dead Horse Stables - Nintendo has this habit of spitting out a new Zelda or Mario game with slightly less frequency as Activision does Call of Duty.  However, these mainstays of the Nintendo brand are always well-received.  They haven't (and aren't) going the way of Guitar Hero, being beaten to death and reproduced long after gamers wanted more.  This brings me to another topic.
• Nostalgia Bombings - Repeats, rehashes, rereleases and new entries in classic franchises from the late 80s and early 90s are an interesting strategy.  Nintendo's ability to keep throwing new Mario, Zelda and Pokemon titles at us should be admired, considering the fact that we all still rush out to purchase them.  Part of this is because deeply ingrained in the older gamer are memories of times long since past playing our favorite childhood titles.  We want to relive these experiences on new hardware, with new graphics, new gameplay and new story.  This is why Pokemon X and Y sold 4 million copies on launch weekend (source: Nintendo).  This is why fanboys keep begging for more Zelda titles, and Nintendo keeps re-releasing the pinnacle titles of the series (Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Wind Waker).  Unfortunately, this is also why I keep buying each new Sonic the Hedgehog release, praying to god it's not as offensive as Sonic 06.
• At this point in the race, the WiiU is about a year ahead of Sony and Microsoft in terms of release schedule and that means one important thing - they've already had time to start building a library.  Both fortunate and unfortunate for Nintendo, this means a lot of really solid first-party titles, and a lot of third-party shit.  However, coupled with the console's backwards compatibility, its becoming an increasingly enticing addition to my living room.

Nintendo has always done some really wacky shit.  If you need proof, look no further than the VirtualBoy.  The Wii and WiiU control schemes might not be something I'd consider attractive, but even they realize this and offer alternatives.

Also, the damn thing is getting Bayonetta 2 as a console exclusive, and I'ma need to play the shit outta that.

-Nik "Latency" Trumble

3 Steps Forwards, 2 Steps Back - Nintendo Handhelds

When it comes to handheld platforms, Nintendo manages them about the same way that Capcom handles the Street Fighter franchise. About once a year they take what's already available, add a few new features, drop it in a fresh coat of paint, and rerelease it at full price.

However, the reason Capcom gets away with this bullshit is that, in order to continue playing the latest and greatest in Street Fighter, you need to go out and buy a new disc, or pay for more DLC to upgrade your existing package.  In order to play the latest and greatest in Nintendo handheld games, you need only continue doing exactly what you're doing and have absolutely no reason to go and buy a new cocking console.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm talking about the 2DS today, Nintendo's newest iteration of the dual-screened portable. I understand the marketing theory behind it. They're not trying to capture the audience they already have.  They're trying to engage those that haven't thought about the 3DS or haven't pulled the trigger on buying one yet and, frankly speaking, I feel that the 2DS is the closest they've come to actually pulling it off this time.

The 2DS is exactly what it sounds like.  It maintains all the functionality of the 3DS - WiFi, full compatibility with both DS and 3DS games, etc. - but with one key difference.  The console doesn't have a 3D option.  In addition, it also happens to be missing one other major functionality.

No clamshell.  The 2DS is not a folding console, unlike every other iteration of it's generation as well as the DS before it (and all the way back to the GameBoy Advance SP if you want to be technical).  Reggie Fils-Aime (President of Nintendo of America) describes the console as such: "Imagine a standard 3DS laid all the way flat, and with the depth slider all the way down."  Fantastic Reggie, but explain to me something.  Who the hell's pockets do you think this thing will fucking fit into?  One of the key features of a handheld console is portability.  If it doesn't fit in your average mens jeans pocket or ladies purse, then it's too fucking big.  While I'll admit that the PS Vita is pushing it, since the damn thing rears it's glossy-finished head every time I sit down, I do remember a simpler time when I owned a DS Lite and it fit comfortably in my pocket, folding to a size even smaller than previously owned GameBoys.

But it's obvious that they're not trying to market the 2DS to existing 3DS owners.  Of course not.  They've removed functionality, which is never a step towards upgrading.  In fact, Nintendo has a very specific demographic they're looking to market the 3DS to: Children under 7.

"With the Nintendo 3DS, we were clear to parents that, 'hey, we recommend that your children be seven and older to utilize this device.' So clearly that creates an opportunity for five-year-olds, six-year-olds, that first-time handheld gaming consumer," Said Reggie.

So that's their play.  Nintendo is trying to worm their way into the children's market currently dominated by LeapFrog products.  And what better way than to make their new handheld match the absurd size of one?  However, kids aren't the only ones being targeted by the 2DS.  The console launches in North America at $129.99 USD - about $40 cheaper than a brand new 3DS and a whopping $70 below the 3DS XL.  For those hemming and hawing over the price point of Nintendo's most recent portable, those savings could very easily be the difference between a sale won or lost.

So while it stands to reason that the 2DS is ridiculous - ridiculous in concept, ridiculous in size, and ridiculously lacking in features - it would appear that those of us along this line of thinking aren't the ones Nintendo is looking to sell to.  Nintendo is looking to broaden their market and, if they succeed, this can only mean more good things to come from them.

Until they start tanking again and have to pay a visit to the dead horse stables to flog a few more titles out of Shigeru Miyamoto IPs.

Quotes and Images Source: IGN

The Good, The Bad, and The Incredibly Stupid - July 2013

We've been fucking it up here a bit as of late, with our personal lives and such getting in the way a bit, so this will be a bit of a catch-all potluck of miscellaneous stories.