Friday, October 31, 2014

5 of the creepiest Ghost Type Pokedex entries

     Happy Halloween everyone, in honor of this time I'd like to talk about the most mysterious Pokemon type of them all, no not the Fairy type, the Ghost type.
     Ghost is the most common name for the disembodied undead and each have many different agendas, depending on the myth. The Ghost type projects this really well, from there immunity to Fighting and Normal type moves, to the subject of this article: their Pokedex entries.
     The Pokedex is the first piece of equipment that you get in most Pokemon games and tells a little about each Pokemon you come across. These tid-bits of info are usually known to be strange and downright creepy so today I'm going through some of the creepiest Pokedex entries (Ghost type only.)

Litwick, Lampent, Chandelure
pokemon shaming Litwick, Lampent & Chandelure

"Litwick shines a light that absorbs the life energy of people and
Pokémon, which becomes the fuel that it burns." 
(Litwick; Pokemon: Black)

"The spirits it absorbs fuel its baleful fire. It hangs around hospitals waiting for people to pass on."
(Lampent; Pokemon Black 2 and White 2)

"Being consumed in Chandelure's flame burns up the spirit, leaving the body behind."
(Chandelure; Pokemon X) 

So not only do these Pokemon steal souls from people, they actually live off them? This this is just a lose-lose situation: If the trainers keep these guys away from cities the entire species would die from lack of food, but if trainers did nothing then HUMAN SOULS WOULD GO MISSING. 

Gourgeist 
"It enwraps its prey in its hairlike arms. It sings joyfully as it observes the suffering of its prey."
(Pokemon Y)

Speaking about eating, this Pokemon enjoys eating prey so much that it SINGS SONGS WHILE YOU DIE. I don't think that I need to explain any more about this just-just leave Gourgeist, leave.






Drifloon  
"These Pokémon are called the "Signpost for Wandering Spirits." Children holding them sometimes vanish."
(Pokemon Y)

This one is really scary when you realize that nobody knows what happens to the kids afterwards. One rumor says that they take them to the Underworld, another says that the child is used to make another Drifloon,  but nothing official, not even another Pokedex entry, tells what happens. The scariest thing for me though is its location in Sinnoh: the only place to get one is on Fridays at night outside the Valley Windworks; where the daughter of Windworks hangs out. Add to that the fact that Drifloon is actually cute, meaning that kids will actually want to hold these Pokemon, and you have the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing of the Pokemon world. 

There are many more ghost types with creepy Pokedex entries, but if I listed them I wouldn't have anything for next year. :) So good night and Happy Halloween. 

Litwick, Lampent, and Chandelure picture from Smosh.com
Gourgeist picture by Hyshirey from Deviantart.com
Drifloon picture from photobucket.com  

Monday, October 27, 2014

Lego Minifigures Online review

     Image result for lego minifigures online


     Lego Minifigures Online is a MMO for Pc, Ipad, and IoS phones where you can use the minifigures from Lego's originally named random pack line: "Lego Minifigures." It is a fairly resent game, so much so in fact that most of the internet is still using beta test information on wikis and other blogs. With the general stuff out of the way lets get started.
   
     After creating an account we wait at the loading screen. And wait, and wait. My first complaint about LMO is the initial loading time is super long. I had to get a book to read to just to remain patient. So be sure to have something else to do. Luckily, after that the load time is shortish and really just comes down to computer power. This is also true of spike lags which will probably happen to everyone a few times turning play so be ready for those.
   
     The gameplay is simple and similar to the earlier Diablo games in terms of controls. Enemies are like most enemies in MMOs; two or three hits with a striker character is all that's necessary but will attack en mass, making some areas hard to get through if you don't know the way. (Luckily though, you get a map early on so a quick look over of that will help you on your way.) The bosses are challenging without being hard, there isn't really any problem solving involved, just smash everything really, but boss fights are my favorite part of the game.
   
     Your characters, obviously, come from the Lego Minifigures line alone, sadly they only come from the main numbered series, meaning that the Simpsons and Lego Movie series's aren't ingame. This seems like a bit of missed opportunity to me, humor wise, but there is plenty of other humor ingame so I can't complain. Each character has two characteristics, and two attacks. The first attack is just the auto attack with the mouse button but the other is the "super attack," which is unique to each character, ranging from a shield that both protects you and damages enemies, to a single hit, high damage attack, and so on. Each character feels unique from the others, so it doesn't feel like you're playing as the same figure with a different skin.
   
     The last aspect I want to talk about is the community, in any MMO the people can often make or break your enjoyment of the game, regardless of how good the game actually is and so far, its kind of in the middle. In my play so far I've only seen four other players. Other people clearly play the game from what I've seen from online forums people just compare LMO to the previous Lego MMO: Lego Universe. This is a little sad to me, Lego Universe was a bit more serious in tone while LMO is definitely more humorous. This alone makes the two fairly incomparable.
   
     So over all: Lego Minifigures Online is a fun game, its mutliplayer capabilities are limited so far do to its small fan base, but this will probably change in the next few years, and I recommend this game to both Lego fans, and people wanting to get into MMOs.  

Friday, October 17, 2014

These 6 Mon (Poem)


                                                 These Six Mon, A poem about Pokemon Diamond
These six mon
From my first day with just one
He taught me that when all else is gone
That is when friends are found.
From my second day with just three
they taught me that victory or defeat was all on me.
These three mon taught me in no small part 
 friends will leave
but really stay no matter how far apart.
   on the day thrice these five mon
taught me to protect my friends until all was done.
my fourth day with these six mon
taught me to never give up
until the end of time. 
For these were not the ones and zeroes said
these where my friends, no matter where we tread


Pokemon Diamond is my favorite game because on one hand it's a lot of fun, and on the other: it started my time as a gamer. So without this game I might not be who I am today. I'm curious if any of you guys had a game that in one way or another changed your life, if so let me know in the comments. Thanks and see you on the next post.

Picture by zeldafan48 from Fanpop.com

Sunday, September 21, 2014

My favorite Smash Bros characters




        With Smash Bros for the 3ds coming to America in a few weeks I'd like to do a list of my favorite characters from Brawl that will be returning in Smash Bros for 3ds and Wii U.


Lucario
As I've said in a previous post Lucario: is my favorite Pokemon, so him being in a Smash Bros game was awesome to me. Smash Bros wise he has a cool and unique ability that makes his aura powered moves (nearly all of them) more powerful the more damage he takes. However, I'm not that good with him. So I'm looking forward to practicing with him in the new Smash Bros.








Charizard
OK, I know in Brawl he was one of the Pokemon Trainer's switchable Pokemon but the Flame Pokemon was both the only one I was good with and the only one returning to the new Smash Bros. So yeah, Charizard is the fastest "heavy" character in Brawl and one of three characters that can fly. His Flamethrower attack can also beat Bowser's Flame Breath. So over all, Charizard was a cool addition to Brawl and I'm looking forward to spamming his Flamethrower soon.





Samus Aran
Samus actually has two forms (which are switchable in Brawl and two separate entities in the new Smash Bros.) Her armored form is a bit slower and focuses on projectiles and can take plenty of hits. Her unarmored from (named Zero Suit Samus) focuses more on quickness and dodging and is my favorite of the two. So I'm glad that shes in two different forms for the new Smash Bros.  






Link
These were in no order for this list but I've saved the best for last in my opinion. Link is a jack-of-all-trades, with three different projectiles (his bow, boomerang, and hook-shot,) bombs, and a good balance of speed and damage taking. Hes also the only character I've been able to beat Rj with so that is also a testament to both the Hero of Twilight's strength, and my own growing skills. And I'm looking forward to spamming his bow on my 3ds soon.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Destiny's classes and why I think they're cool

             I'm really excited for Bungie's newest game, Destiny. With the Halo series under their belts Bungie is blending Halo's fast gameplay and love of in-game lore with very MMORPGish traits such as the subject of this article.
          Classes are sort of the divisions of in game characters by what they can do. In Destiny there are 3: Warlock, Titan, and Hunter with 2 subclasses each.

 Warlock
Warlocks spent years studying "the Traveler" and its secrets. As such Warlocks posses "magical" powers such as unaided flying, using the Sun's power as a weapon and so on. The Warlock focus on offence even having it's subclass the Voidwalker be described as a glass cannon. Bungie stated that they designed Warlocks around the Jedi Knights, the Matrix's Morpheus and even Gandalf (but with guns.)











Titan
The Titans are the defenders of the last city on earth, known as
"the City". Which makes sense since their two subclasses focus on close-range-kill-everything or being a team player each. Their top three things are strength, sacrifice, and mercilessness. They are the most heavily armored of the classes and draw inspiration from such soldiers as Bungie's Master Chief and even the Terminator. I'll be back... to play as one of these guys. 











Hunter
The Hunters are the cowboys of the future. Using just as much luck as skill these men and women actually survived outside "the City." At there disposal is a good mix of both speed and strength and serve as the recon of the teams although no slouch in combat. The Hunters are also the only class who's special ability charges their melee weapon: their hunting knife. Fashioned after both bounty hunters and spaghetti western heroes, Hunters are probably the coolest of the classes in my opinion. 

Friday, September 5, 2014

My LoZ Wii U trailer impressions

Wii U Legend of Zelda impressions

         Nintendo showed us a lot of new games in their E3 Direct a few months back but my favorite one shown was the new Legend of Zelda game at the moment only known as "Legend of Zelda for Wii U." Sadly Nintendo only talked a little about it but today I'm going to give my two cents about this new LoZ.
        First up is the teaser trailer and right off I'm excited, the landscape looks beautiful and the developers assured us that we could even reach the mountains in the background. Also the design of everything looks amazing, almost as if Disney and Pixar had designed Hyrule, and the close ups we get show great attention to detail.
Next up is what everyone is either super excited for or is dreading: the size of the map. As mentioned earlier we can get to the mountains in the background and Nintendo has said that this new game will have the open world of the original Legend of Zelda and some of the dungeons have the potential to take several hours to compete. For example a test dungeon was made for the game that supposedly is bigger then Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time. Having played Ocarina of Time, that fact is mind blowing and if it's just the dungeon I have high hopes for the over-world.      
The thing I'm personally most excited for is getting the horse back, Empona the mare has only been in game in 3 games and is probably one of the most famous NPCs in LoZ games, and it will be nice to not have to walk everywhere. Especially with...  

The enemies. Granted only one was shown in the trailer but it brings a few cool possibilities to the table:
1. Some of the enemies could be able to destroy the land. I know it was a cut scene of sorts but the monster that Link fights is shown setting things on fire and destroying a bridge so it is possible that some enemies have land altering capabilities. 
2. Enemies could be challenging. Outside of boss fights, swarming, and surprise attacks the enemies in LoZ games don't pose much of a threat, being able to be taken out in one or two hits. The enemy shown in the teaser however, took several arrow shots and was only felled with what could possibly be a Light Arrow. 
3. We're fighting robots. This enemy looks and acts very robot like and since the scraped first story of LoZ for the NES was that Link would be able to travel between the past and the distant future where Zelda was from, this is a possibility. 
Lastly is what I hope is what I'm seeing: customization. Both Link and Link's horse have equipment that as far as I know hasn't been seen in Hyrule anywhere such as the buckler shield and not the parise Hylean  shield. Also seen is Link wears both a cloak and a light blue tunic, the latter could, however, just be the 
Water tunic but that seems unlikely. Other Zelda games give you very little variety weapon wise.
Again these are just guesses but it will be fun to see how many become true and I'll be looking forward to the full game. 
Until then, its a secret to everyone. 

Monday, August 25, 2014

My Top Ten Favorite Pokemon Megas

     With several Pokemon being announced to get Megas I thought for my first post on the blog to be:
                                            My Top Ten Favorite Megas.     
 
      I'll be judging them on with be on a couple different things: How good the Pokemon is in battle, how good the design is, and how much the Pokemon need the boost from getting a mega in the first place. Also these are just my opinions.

10.  Aerodactyl 


Aerodactyl is one of those Pokemon that needed a mega mostly because while his Attack and Speed are decent everything else about it is pretty bad, an effect not helped by his typing of Rock/Flying and lackluster abilities. Thankfully though Gamefreak decided to give the fossil Pokemon a break and give him a mega, granted his still not very good stat wise but come on guys, he has a rock for a goatee, that's cool man.






9. Abomasnow
           
Abomasnow is like Aerodactyl in that it was a good, but not great Pokemon but with a more evened out stat table. With his mega though, he has some genuine bulk to him, and has the highest Attack and Special Attack of none legendary Grass Pokemon. I do wish they had given him a different ability though, Snowcloak, Thick Fat, or Filter anyone?  






8. Mewtwo

Mewtwo is one of those Pokemon that was good before but now is really good. With the genetic Pokemon getting two megas, I'm giving the shout out to Mewtwo X for the Physic/Fighting typing and Steadfast ability.
  

7. Gyarados



Other then the starters, Gyarados is probably the most famous Pokemon of the first generation, so it makes sense that the Dragon looking Water/Flying Pokemon got a cool mega and while hes still not a dragon type the Water/Dark type at least gets rid of the 4x weakness to Electric moves and the Mold Breaker ability means he can hit those Levitating foes. If your looking for more just look at the dang thing, that's about as cool as a fish can get.

6. Gardevoir
I am a huge fan of both Gardevoir and its counterpart Gallade, so when I heard that the Embrace Pokemon was getting a mega as well as a Physic/Fairy typing I was excited. Stat wise shes still a Special attacker and Special Defender but gains the Pixilate ability to help ward off those pesky Dragon types. I do wish her design would have been given more effort though but you never know, Mega Gallade could look like a groom.




5.  Kangaskhan
Kangaskhan from the start was one of those Pokemon that's was just there, nobody hated her but nobody liked her either and given her stats and abilities I can see why. But that all changed when the head of Pokemon Co showed a preview of her last year before the release of X and Y. Mega Kangaskhan is a boss with boosts to almost every stat and an exclusive ability: Parental Bond giving the BABY THE ABILITY TO ATTACK TOO, that may not be the best mother-child bonding experience but is really cool.



4. Mawile

  Mawile was another one of those Pokemon that never seemed to catch a break, her abilities were perfect, her new Steel/Fairy typing was close to having no weakness, her move pool was one of the widest, but her stats were some of the lowest of any Pokemon ever. Luckily Gamefreak smiled on Mega Mawile and gave her boosts to everything but Speed and HP and the Huge Power that doubles her Attack to an epic 210. Glad to see you finally get some love Mawile.



3. Charizard


Fans of Pokemon for a while will probably know the Flame Pokemon was getting on this list, after all he and Mewtwo were the only Pokemon with two Megas, one for X and one for Y. While Charizard X gets more love in the mechanizing department Charizard Y has been seen on in the Meta game more often. Both have good stats and a different ability each, Tough Claws and Drought respectively. All in all, no matter which you like better both are very coolly designed and good battlers.




2. Aggron



Aggron is my favorite Rock type and second favorite Steel type so having him at second was a no brainier. Becoming a pure Steel type he sheds of the 4x weakness to both Fighting and Ground and trades it for the Filter ability. Stat wise the Iron Armor Pokemon is still a defensive wall with a good 140 Attack stat. To sum it all up, Mega Aggron is a wall that shoots back at you.



1. Lucario



Hands down Lucario is my favorite Pokemon so needless to say, the Aura Pokemon's Mega form is my number one. The Fighting/Steel type gets already good stats to downright awesome stats and the Adaptability ability to boost STAB moves. With Special Attack to rival legendary Pokemon and the highest Speed of any Steel types, Mega Lucario is definitely a force to be reckoned with. And the Mega also gets the award for coolest basis for design: tribal warriors from Jamaica and Africa.

            So those are my top ten Favorite Megas, but with 25 individual Pokemon to choose from here are some honorable mentions: Absol, Heracross, Ampharos, Alakazam, Manectric, Garchomp, Blaziken, and Tyranitar.