Blueflower's Gaming Blog and Reviews

[blueflower999]

No, it was a special that's not related to my Top 100 Songs. (Which I fully intend on finishing, by the way).

[FireArrow]

I really like that dragon quest theme song.

[blueflower999]

A few notes before I do this: Pokemon are grouped by families as long as their typings don't change so drastically that I can't do this, and only the primary type counts, with the exception of Flying types.

Top 10 Normal Type Pokemon:

#10

Eevee

Eevee is one unique Pokemon. Not only is it adorable to look at (just look at those baby-doll eyes!), it has more potential evolutions than any other Pokemon, 8 of these "Eeveelutions" exist in total as of now, but there's little doubt that more will be introduced in the future. Because of this and the stat distributions among each Eeveelution, Eevee's evolved forms can work well on pretty much any team, with Jolteon, Espeon, and Vaporeon generally being considered the best.

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#9

Audino

Audino is on this list for several reasons, one of which is, again, like so many other normal types, it's just cute. In my view, it's kind of like the Chansey family, but a whole lot cuter and more innocent looking. Not only this, but it's great to grind off of because it gives a ton of experience points for KOing, which is especially useful in Pokemon X/Y's Restaurant Le Wow. Other than using it for Toxic stalling and Wish healing though, it's not particularly good in battle, but it holds a special place in my heart because it was the first Pokemon I ever found in the new rustling grass mechanic in Generation 5.

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#8

Bidoof and Bibarel

OK, just to get this out of the way, I'll admit it. I love derpy looking Pokemon. And the fourth generation of Pokemon was the first generation I played, so other than Turtwig and Starly, Bidoof was the first Pokemon that I actually came across. Everyone loves Bibarel because of how good of an HM slave he is, but what I really love the duo for is the ability Moody, which is so luck based and annoying to go up against that it's banned from competitive play. Not only this, but Bibarel has a unique type combination of Normal/Water and Bidoof's cry is adorable. Finally, Bidoof was one of the most lovable and memorable characters in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2, yup yup!

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#7

Arceus

Ah, Arceus. The god of Pokemon. I'm sure most people that played Generation 1 when it first came out had no idea that one day there'd be deities as Pokemon, but here we are. Generation 4 didn't really start this whole thing though, I'd argue that Gen 3 did with Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza being the gods of ocean, land, and sky respectively, but you could argue that other legendaries before those were godlike too, so it just sort of depends on how you slice it. Anyway, other than Arceus having the highest base stat total of all non mega-evolved Pokemon, it's a pretty cool Pokemon by itself because it can turn into any pure typing with the addition of a plate to it thanks to its ability Multitype, allowing for you to use it in whichever might be your preference. However, because with the absence of a plate it is Normal type, it was mandatory that I put it on the Top 10 Normal type lists and none of the other ones.

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#6

Porygon, Porygon2, and Porygon-Z

While the names might not be all that impressive, these Pokemon hold a special place in my heart. For one thing, the fact that they're man-made is quite intriguing to me, as well as the whole concept of upgrading a Pokemon by trading it holding the upgrade software! Unfortunately, these Pokemon have gotten a lot of hate  because of the whole Electric Soldier Porygon incident in the Pokemon anime, and Porygon2 and Porygon-Z have not appeared in the show even once to this day.

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#5

Spinda

Spinda is another Pokemon that doesn't get the recognition it deserves. I don't even know where to begin with this thing. It's like being drunk embodied into a Pokemon! Jokes aside, Contrary is one of my favorite abilities in the Pokemon series, and Spinda getting it makes it quite fun to use with Super Power spam. (Not quite as good as Malamar, but it's something, right?) In addition, Spinda has the most variant visual forms of all Pokemon, with 2^32 different spot combinations. Multiply that by two for shinies and you have a massive 8,589,934,592 different spot combinations. Trust me, you've never seen a Spinda with the same spot pattern twice. And that's awesome.

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#4

Lillipup, Herdier, and Stoutland

This is one of the Pokemon that probably wouldn't appear on this list if it weren't for me developing a special attachment to it by using it in a game. In this case, Stoutland was my strongest Pokemon in my first playthrough of Pokemon White, and thus I've grown to like it quite a lot. Arcanine and Houndoom are kind of fiery dogs, but Stoutland is the one that does the best job of being just an average, run-of-the-mill dog! It's a simple concept that I wish they would have touched on earlier in the franchise. This isn't to mention that Lillipup is pretty adorable. While not particularly useful, Stoutland has a special place in my heart.

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#3

Minccino and Cinccino

These two Pokemon make me happy that Pokemon Amie exists. Why? BECAUSE I JUST WANT TO HUG THEM! The darn things are just so adorable, it's hard for not to say "aww!" whenever I come across one. Minccino's cry is also among the cutest cries I've ever heard, and this isn't to mention that their shiny forms and pink, making them arguably even cuter! Skill Link - Choice Band - Tail Slap is a great set for Cinccino, making it actually fairly decent in battling as well.

tl;dr: They're cute

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#2

Dunsparce
Bidoof may be a doofus, but Dunsparce is a dunce! Jokes aside, just to reiterate myself, I love derpy Pokemon. And then here's Dunsparce, whose name just screams "derp". I love how its Pokedex entries describe it as being able to fly "just a little", but it doesn't have the ability Levitate or the Flying type, so it sort of implies that this isn't enough to really do it any good. It's a great troll in competitive battling with its Serene Grace flinch hax, but it's pretty outmatched by Togekiss and Jirachi in most regards.

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#1

Regigigas

Oh boy, where to start with this guy. If you don't count Rotom, Regigigas is probably my favorite legendary Pokemon. Why? Well, that's sort of hard to explain. I've always had this fascination with the Legendary Golems, and Regigigas is their master, so there's one reason. Another is that it always looked like a taco to me, and it still does to this day. Thirdly, it's one of the few legendaries that's considered to be terrible in battle because of its hindering ability Slow Start, which halves its attack and speed for five turns after switching out. However, his stats are overall pretty good, so if you can find a way to get past that ability, he can pretty much wreck the opposing team just like many other legendaries. Also, he was one of the easiest legendaries to catch in the fourth generation but also one of the hardest because you needed to have played the third gen games and have Regirock, Regice, and Registeel in your party in order to battle him. (I've never played the Third Gen, so I got these from a friend through trading.)

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And there you have it! I'll be hopefully doing these lists for every type of Pokemon.

[BlackDragonSlayer]

I agree completely.

There was one time I defeated a guy with Regigigas in NU because his Zweilous missed an Outrage due to Hustle (and had it not been for that, he probably would've won- my original team wasn't the best in terms of synergy). That's probably one of my favorite battles because of how humorous it was.

[blueflower999]

Pokemon X and Y:

Gameplay: 9/10 I'd just like to start off by saying that I've been going through a rather large phase of Pokemania over the last couple of months, and this game's release timing couldn't have been more perfect. I really don't think I need to praise the Pokemon formula at all because I'm sure most of us are aware that it's nearly perfect and this game fine tunes it even more with the addition of the Fairy Type and 69 (soon to be 72!) new Pokemon. However, discounting some minor changes (like how Steel no longer resists Ghost and Dark type moves), the overall formula of the game remains the same. 8 Gyms, evil team, Elite Four, the whole enchilada. Only now in 3D! Well, not really. One of the biggest disappointments was that the 3D only works in battles and a few other places, but when it does it slows the frame rate down so much that it's sort of unpractical to use it. This game added a few features that I really like, such as using touch screen controls to slide around Pokemon in your party and on PC, connecting with friends over the wi-fi is ridiculously easy now thanks to the 3DS friend feature, and, speaking of the friend feature, the Friend Safari is a genius idea and loads of fun. The region is huge, lively, well constructed, and contains such variety in Pokemon. From old favorites to awesome new ones, they're all included. (I don't think very many people on this forum besides Mashi falls into this category, but if you only played the retro Pokemon games and want to get back into them, this game is much more nostalgic than the fifth generation was!) There's so much I could talk about in this section, but really the fun is playing the game yourself and exploring the world, and I don't want this review to be too lengthy, so on we move.

Addictiveness: 9/10 Out of all the Pokemon games I've played, this is the one where I feel the greatest urge to "Catch 'Em All!" And that's why I've been doing it. Maybe it's the fact that I've been so obsessed with Pokemon, or maybe it's the fact that over half of the existing Pokemon are able to be easily found in the region, but whatever it is, I really feel the urge to complete the National Pokedex.

Story: 8/10 Now outside of the Mystery Dungeon games, a Pokemon story has failed to truly impress me and leave me speechless. However, what I like about this one is that it actually does have a few really touching moments in it. Not going to spoil anything, but the story is halfway decent, and actually it has to be one of the best for a main series Pokemon game. Well done.

Music: 8/10 There are a lot of really catchy songs in this game, I'll never be able to post them all, so I'll just say a few of my favorites that are on my mind right now, and by no means think that these are all my favorites.

Professor Sycamore's Theme

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Kanto Legendary Battle

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(I mainly like this for the throwback)

Bike Theme

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Lumiose City

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Route 18

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Character Design: 8/10 A lot of the characters in this game felt real. Just like Black and White, there are multiple rivals, and all of them have a friendly relationship with you, rather than a "I hate your guts" sort of thing. Professor Sycamore is one of the most debonair characters I've seen in a video game recently, and his theme just oozes French. I also really like how "fabulouuuus" Team Flare is and how insane some of their members are. If Character Design can encompass Pokemon design, then I really like the designs of this generation as well. Klefki, Delphox, Carbink, Vivillon, Aegislash, Dragalge, Helioptile, and Avalugg are all among my favorites, but really almost all of them are good.

Humor: 7/10 A lot of references to older games and other things are in this game, more than I remember seeing in previous Pokemon games. My personal favorite is when a trainer exclaims that my power level is "Over 9000".

Difficulty: 7/10 Eh, Pokemon games aren't really meant to be difficult. The Elite Four was a pushover and I defeated them only using three viable Pokemon (The other three slots were taken up by two mons that I was training and an egg). Victory Road is probably my candidate for the hardest area of the game because there's one part where there are several trainers in a row and they all seem to have Pokemon with great coverage.

Other Memorable Features: Too many to list here. Pokemon Amie is genius, Super Training is a blast, the PSS is awesome, and everything about the game is just so memorable I probably will still be playing this in a year.

Overall: 9.5/10 This is my candidate for the best Pokemon game ever. Say what you will, but I'm standing by this.

[K-NiGhT]

good review

[Yugi]

Now outside of the Mystery Dungeon gaNow outside of the Mystery Dungeon games, a Pokemon story has failed to truly impress me and leave me speechless.

What

[blueflower999]

Wait, how have I not done this yet?

Mother 1/EarthBound Zero:

Wow, how could I miss this? Well, I didn't miss it. I just wanted to spread out the love, I suppose! Or maybe I'm just saving the worst game in the series for last? Don't get the misconception that I just got around to playing this game recently, oh no. I completed this game the summer I joined NSM, so about two and a half years ago. Anyway, onto the gameplay. This game gets a whole heck of a lot of criticism in the EarthBound community for aging poorly. According to Starmen.net, the official word on the Mother series, in order to be an administrator on the site you need to "be a huge fan of at least two games; it is acceptable if you did not enjoy Mother 1". As a fan of the series, while I can understand this, I do not approve. Mother 1 is by far the weakest the series has to offer, but who can blame it? Shigesato Itoi had no experience making games by himself, not to mention that it was on the NES and many RPGs from that time don't age well. So why do I defend it? Well, let's find out.

Gameplay: 7/10 Mother 1 is the only game in the Mother series to have random encounters, which is acceptable, but feels incredibly broken after playing the smooth encounter systems of the other games where you see the enemy on the overworld and touch to battle. Of course though, the foundation for how the other games work is in here somewhere, even if I have to dig a little deep to find it. One major problem I have is that the backgrounds to all the battles is black. It's just black. And all the text and boxes are white. It's by no means terrible looking, but it feels weird, especially after being used to the other game's colorful backgrounds that make you feel like you're on LSD. I know I'm doing a lot of comparison here, but oh well, I sort of need to; this is also the only Mother game where you never have more than three party members at a time, which is probably due to the NES technical limitations, because there are still four main characters just like in the sequels. If there's one this the gameplay does really right though is the PSI moves. The animations are almost nonexistent, usually consisting of a flash of color across the background, but there are a lot of them. Plenty of moves are here in this game that didn't make it further on in the series, like PK Beam (confirmed for Mother 4!) and 4th-D Slip. This game also comes with a rather large variety of enemies, most of which are your typical Mother series humor. One of my personal favorites is the "Raeb Yddet", which took me a long time to figure out what the joke was. Mooks, which return in Mother 2 very much nerfed, and the masters of all PSI. Seriously, these things are like Smeargle without four move slots. They can use nearly any form of PSI imaginable, so you have to get ready whenever you fight them. If Mooks are Smeargle, then Titanians are Shuckle. Massive defenses forces you to use a lot of special attacks to kill them. One seemingly minor complaint that I have is that you need to go into your inventory and use your ATM card in order to withdraw cash, rather than just checking the ATM machine and being able to do it automatically. However, despite some complaints, the game was very impressive at the time because of its large expansive world, colorful enemies, interesting characters, and quirky sense of humor that only shines through more and more as the series goes on.

Addictiveness: 7/10 I believe I've said this before, but NES games, unless they're puzzle ones like Tetris, tend to not be very addicting. However, I did play this one pretty faithfully, so there was something keeping me playing it, even though it now escapes me what it was. Perhaps a combination of playing a game so old (it was my first NES game!) and my love of EarthBound and desire to see how the whole series got started did it.

Story: 7/10 I suppose for an NES plot the story was fairly complex. I don't even think I need to say anything here though, I'll just post the wall of text that greets you when you start the game:

"In the early 1900s, a dark shadow covered a small country town in rural America. At that time, a young married couple vanished mysteriously from their home.

The man's name was George
The woman's name was Maria

Two years later, as suddenly as he had left, George returned. He never told anyone where he had been or what he had done. But, he began an odd study all by himself.

As for Maria, his wife...
She never returned."
Essentially the game has the exact same plot as EarthBound but with this thrown in, leaving me to argue that EarthBound is a holy and perfected remake of Mother 1, but that's the topic for another day.

Music: 9/10 As always, the music in the Mother series always shines through, even on the NES. In fact, this game is tied with Final Fantasy for the largest NES (or Famicom) game ever officially released, and this is mainly because of its large world and extensive soundtrack. I'll post my favorites below as always.

Wisdom of the World

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(Absolutely gorgeous)

Pollyanna

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(The theme for the Mother series)

Bein' Friends

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(You may know this from Super Smash Brothers Melee)

Airplane Ride

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Youngtown

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(Sad as all heck)

All That I Needed Was You

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(Just... wow)

Character Design: 8/10 Let's face it, it's difficult to make attachable characters on the NES. However, I still love quite a few characters in this game! There's the guy that gives you a ride in an airplane and then lends you a tank, there's this... ridiculously annoying antagonistic robot named R7037 that I don't want to discuss, Giegue/Giygas is hilarious as a final boss, the four protagonists are all pretty cool, and George and Maria are pretty sweet too.

Humor: 8/10 One of the funniest games I have on the NES, but in a weird sort of way, just how I like it! There's an item called "Curse Words" where if you use it in battle it says "I hate you" to the enemy, which is great because some of the enemies really suck. (Mooks and Cerebums, I'm looking at you) And of course what would a Mother game be without Strawberry Tofu or Trout Yogurt? That's not to forget the scene where if you accept a drink of alcohol you get arrested and your weapons confiscated. My personal favorite part of the game where I was laughing like crazy was in the final boss battle against Giegue. What you're supposed to do is sing the 8 Melodies to him a handful of times and he'll eventually be defeated, and his lines after you sing part of it are quite amusing. My personal favorite is "STOP IT! STOP THAT SONG, YOU PUNY LITTLE EARTH BUGS!!"

Difficulty: 10/10 This game gets a 10 for one reason and one reason alone: Mt. Itoi. (Yes, the game developer named an area after himself) This area of the game is hands down the most brutally difficult area in an RPG that I've ever seen in my life, and here's why: when developing this area, they were under time constraints. And you know what? They forgot to difficulty test it. Well, crap. Literally the only way to get by is the run from enemies all the time, use 4th-D Slip which is a guaranteed successful runaway, or use 1HKO moves like PK Beam Gamma or PK Freeze Omega. The other parts of the game would have been a 8 or 9 out of 10 because of the difficult navigation and annoyingly frequent random battles, as well as a few overpowered enemies here and there like Mooks, Cerebrums, and Titanians.

Other Memorable Features: One of the most memorable games on the NES in my opinion. I've already mentioned most of my favorite parts, but there's a scene where you get rides in airplanes while listening to this awesome tune and you get to see essentially the entire map of the game all speed by you. It's pretty exciting. And then the guy lends you his tank and you can blow up crap.

Overall: 8/10 Is it the best game in the series? Pfft no. Should it be ignored? Absolutely not. Play the other two first, and then give this one a try. Or, if you're an NES fan or a fan of JRPGs, why not start with it?

[blueflower999]

Blueflower's Top 100 Video Game Songs

Numbers 80-71

#80

Rockin' K. K.
Animal Crossing Series

While I'm not a huge fan of K. K. Slider's songs, there are a few songs that stick out to me, and this is my favorite of all of those. This is sort of a silly reason for liking it, but it sounds very similar to the Hippie Battle Theme from EarthBound, which may or may not be a coincidence. Either way though, it seems to take some sort of inspiration from classic rock 'n roll, which is pretty awesome.

Favorite Part: 0:58-1:18

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#79

Poo Mountain
Conker's Bad Fur Day

Yes, this is immature, I admit it. But how many video game songs have you heard that use farting noises as an instrument? Only Conker's Bad Fur Day would ever think to do something like this. Ignoring the crude instrumentation, the song itself is pretty jazzy and has... some interesting sound effects.

Favorite Part: 1:04-1:46

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#78

Stage 1
Contra

I've said this before, and I'll say it again; I love me some Contra. This is the first song that you'll hear in the game other than the title screen jingle, and it's pretty good at getting you pumped up for one of the most intense and difficult games around. (The other music accomplishes the goal as well, and there are a few other songs from this series that you'll see later on this list.)

Favorite Part: All of it

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#77

Title Theme
Animal Crossing Wild World and City Folk

While New Leaf delivers a different theme song, the classic one from the DS and Wii era is still as pretty as ever. It acts as a great overtone for the series by being relaxing and carefree sounding.

Favorite Part: 0:10-0:25

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#76

Vampire Killer
Castlevania Series

Originally acting as the theme for the first stage in Castlevania on the NES, this song has gotten several remixes in future games in the series. It's one of the most well known songs on the NES, and with good reason. It's just... catchy. I don't really know how to describe it, it just sort of fits with the overall theme of the game. Going around whipping ghosts and medusa heads into shape, and the first song you hear is "Vampire Killer", even though 99% of the people that play the game will probably never make it to Dracula because the game is so freaking hard.

Favorite Part: 0:00-0:08

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#75

Title Theme
Animal Crossing New Leaf

Honestly I don't know why I have this up higher than the original considering it's pretty short. I guess it's probably just because it's really pretty and I played a LOT of New Leaf over the summer. Again, the same reasons for liking the other title theme apply to this one. It's laid back, beautiful, and acts as a good overtone for the game.

Favorite Part: The first few seconds

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#74

Digital Root
Zero Escape Series

Oh man, the first song in this series. This song plays in both 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors and, to a lesser extent, Virtue's Last Reward whenever something scientific is explained. It's kind of repetitive, but that doesn't matter to me so much because it sets the mood right and is a prime example of good Zero Escape techno music. While it by no means is my favorite song in the series, it's still pretty catchy and ends up being one of the more memorable ones.

Favorite Part: 2:00-2:24

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#73

Mute City
F-Zero Series

OK, now we're starting to get into the really good stuff. F-Zero is an underrated racing game on the SNES. Unfortunately I haven't gotten a chance to continue with the series outside of this first installment (unless you count Nintendo Land's minigame), but what I've seen I like. The music in the game is pretty kickin' too, and this song is my second favorite in the game. It just makes it feel like you're speeding at 600 kilometers and hour down a track, which is exactly what you're doing when you hear it.

Favorite Part: 0:00-0:19

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#72

Green Hill Zone
Sonic Series

Ah Sonic, how little experience I've had with you. The only games I have from this series are Shadow the Hedgehog on Gamecube and the original Sonic on Sega Game Gear, both of which are pretty lackluster. However, the music in Game Gear Sonic is actually really cool, and this song is my favorite of all of them. It's not exactly suiting for the stage all that much, but it's just pretty and fun to listen to.

Favorite Part: 0:15-0:40

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#71

Bryyo
Metroid Prime 3

This is sort of a weird pick because I don't think anyone else really finds this song all that special other than me. I just liked it when playing through the game and it's been stuck in my head ever since. It's just a nice and ominous song that perfectly suits the environment. Actually, the reason I like this song so much is because the Bryyo mission took forever for me, and so I heard this song quite a lot. The choir vocalization in the song feels right and works well with Metroid's tone of being alone.

Favorite Part: All of it

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[mikey]

MUTE CITAHY!!!

I definitely like those songs too ^_^

[blueflower999]

Top 10 Fire Type Pokemon:

#10

Flareon

I'm starting off this top 10 with another Eeveelution. However, this is probably one of if not the most neglected of all of them, or at least it was in all previous generations. See, Flareon has a really good Attack stat, however, the only good Fire type STAB moves that it was able to learn were Flame Charge and Fire Fang. the 5th Generation was a bit more kind to it by giving it Guts, making it a good Facade user, but that's about it. However, now it's able to learn the move Flare Blitz, so it'll hopefully become better in the future. Flareon looks essentially like a red version of Eevee that literally breathes fire every time it exhales, which is pretty cool. I don't know if I'd want to own one as a pet because of this, but Flareon is pretty adorable and I definitely hope that it becomes more widely used now that it can use Flare Blitz.

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#9

Torkoal

OK, this one's a bit weird too. This seems to be coming up a lot, but I'm not entirely sure why I like Torkoal. Maybe the concept of a Fire tortoise is cool to me. Maybe I like how it has smoke coming out of its shell. Maybe it's that by having it in my party, I decrease the chance of encountering a wild Pokemon. Maybe it's the fact that he played the role of town elder in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, which reminds me of Tortimer from Animal Crossing. Maybe it's because most people associate turtles with water (even though he's a tortoise), whereas Torkoal is a Fire type. Whatever it is though, Torkoal is pretty cool.

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#8

Growlithe and Arcanine

While I don't like these two nearly as much as I like the Stoutland family, a dog Pokemon is just a concept that works, and these are the original dogs. Arcanine has the highest base stat total of all non legendaries in the first generation, so it's quite a force to reckon with. Growlithe, like most first stages, is pretty cute as well. Arcanine also wields one of my favorite abilities in Pokemon; Flash Fire. When hit with a Fire Type move, it's damage is neutralized and Arcanine's own Fire type moves become more powerful. This makes him great to switch in against something that you know will do a Fire type move.

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#7

Cyndaquil, Quilava, and Typhlosion

While I didn't pick Cyndaquil to be my starter in the second generation (that would be Totodile), I do have to acknowledge its adorableness here. Cyndaquil is based on one of my favorite animals, the echidna, which is one of the few mammals to lay eggs. Typhlosion isn't terrible competitively, but it's not the best starter in the world, so I mainly like this line for what they're based on and how awesome they look. Cyndaquil and Quilava are pretty adorable, and then Typhlosion is quite awesome looking with its raging fires on its back.

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#6

Numel and Camerupt

Numel might look kind of dopey, but honestly I think it's pretty cute. These two Pokemon have the unique type of Fire/Ground, and while this makes them X4 weak to Water, the ability Solid Rock, another one of my favorites, makes that X3 when Camerupt has it. It also reduces its other weaknesses to X1.5, which is pretty awesome. Another reason that I love these Pokemon is because of Camerupt's name, which is obviously a combination of "Camel" and "Erupt", and while this might seem kind of silly, honestly I think it fits together very nicely. Like, it just rolls off the tongue right and sounds overall like a good name for it. This isn't to mention that I think that the volcano humps on its back are pretty clever.

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#5

Vulpix and Ninetails

While these Pokemon aren't really considered to be very nice (Ninetails puts a curse on anyone foolish enough to grab one of its tails), they're incredibly useful competitively. Ninetails resides in the OU tier, and with good reason. The ability Drought makes it essential for Sun teams and also a great counter to Politoed by using its Solar Beam, a 120 Power Grass move that is completed instantly in sunlight. I've already discussed that I love the ability Flash Fire, and that's what their other ability is. I don't really think I need to say this, but Vulpix is adorable.

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#4

Fletchling, Fletchinder, and Talonflame

While Fletchling may be Normal/flying, I'm including it on here because its two evolved forms are Normal/Flying. Also, because it's a Flying type and I'm including it in my top 10 list of Fire types, it won't be included on my list of Flying types because then I'll just be repeating myself. Again, Fletchling is adorable, I don't really need to say anything there. I used to be really bothered by how simple Talonflame's name is, but now I can look past that to the ridiculously cool Pokemon that it is. It's like Moltres and Ho-Oh, but much more easy to obtain! Its ability Gale Wings, which is incredibly over powered I might add, gives priority to all Flying type moves, which will probably make it OU because it counters Breloom, Volcarona, and essentially anything else that's weak to Flying type moves.

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#3

Slugma and Magcargo

While the names might not be as good as "Camerupt", Slugma and Magcargo's designs just... work for me. They're slugs and snails of molten lava, which makes sense and honestly is pretty awesome. Magcargo is famous because both of its normal abilities, Magma Armor and Flame Body, speed up the hatching of eggs when in your party, which saves me a lot of time when I'm trying to hatch things to trade or using the Masuda method of finding shinies. While Magcargo could have benefited greatly from the ability Solid Rock, which it didn't get, they're still awesome Pokemon despite their uselessness competitively.

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#2

Heatran

Heatran is, quite literally, a beast. Boasting a unique Fire/Steel type, which in my opinion is one of the coolest ones yet, and the ability Flash Fire, and being a legendary with great stats and a good movepool, Heatran is nearly unstoppable when used correctly. Its design is awesome. I'm not all too sure what it's supposed to look like, but whatever it is, I like it. It looks like a spider with molten lava and pieces of steel sticking out all over it, with fangs made of iron and crosses on its feet. This isn't to mention that Heatran is the only legendary that can be either male or female, which I think is a pretty nice touch. Also, Heatran has FIVE X0.25 resistances to Ice, Bug, Steel, Fairy, and Grass, making it easy to switch in against many an opponent.

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#1

Fennekin, Braixen, and Delphox

While a lot of people were really confused or disappointed with Fennekin's evolutionary line, I personally loved it. I hate to make a starter number one on a list of mine, but I feel as if this family really deserves it. Fire/Psychic is an awesome type that a lot of fans really hoped that Fennekin would be, so why were they so disappointed when it evolved into a biped? Well, I couldn't tell you, but I felt no such disappointment. Besides Victini, the event only legendary, and Darmanitan-Z, the form that can only be obtained through a hidden ability, Delphox is the only Fire/Psychic type, making the combo more widely available for fans to experiment with. However, perhaps the thing that makes me love Delphox the most is its name's origin. The Oracle of Delphi, as some of you may know from Greek mythology, told the futures of whoever asked for it. Delphox is, then, obviously a combination of Delphi and Fox, in reference to its psychic powers. While another Pokemon still holds my title for favorite starter, Delphox takes close second.

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[blueflower999]

Oh boy, time for another big one. I might end up making this sort of a review of New Leaf, but at the same time sharing my thoughts on the Animal Crossing series as a whole.

Animal Crossing New Leaf:

Gameplay: 9/10 The Animal Crossing series is known as, in my view, one of the best games that both casual players and hardcore ones can simultaneously enjoy. It's not an easy game to master; the most difficult skill that you need to know is how to fish and catch bugs, and it doesn't really go much beyond that. That being said, Animal Crossing is an example of a simple concept that addicts players almost immediately. Throughout the game, your house gets remodeled over and over again, and each time you accumulate a larger debt that you have to pay, only to remodel it again. Essentially you're paying these debts to increase the space that you have to decorate you house. It sound easy and simple, but for those who have played it, you know that it's so much more fun that it appears. You can go fishing, bug catching, diving, fossil hunting, do errands for villagers in hopes that they'll give you something in return, and so much more. In New Leaf, however, an additional element is added; you are now not only a citizen of the town, but the mayor, and this allows you to customize the town even more with ordinances and building projects like benches, fountains, and even the Eiffel Tower. There's really quite a bit I could talk about here, so I'll only touch on a few of the many aspects of this game. You can get your hair done, visit other people's towns, donate fish, bugs, paintings, and fossils to the museum, have your fortune told, watch hilariously lame comedy skits, participate in events on a tropical island, dive for sea creatures, celebrate all your favorite holidays like New Years, Christmas, and Thanksgiving, compete in bug and fish catching tournaments, and, my personal favorite, collecting Gyroids. There's so much to do in these games that generally they'll have you playing nearly daily for X amount of time. For some people it's a few weeks, others like me last for a few months. And that leads me into the next section.

Addictiveness: 10/10 Animal Crossing is a very addicting game, but usually only for a period of time. For me, nearly the entire summer was Animal Crossing. (Thanks to all of you who played with me!) Now, I don't really play it at all, but I'm confident that when the next installment in the series comes out, I'll be addicted all over again. Or maybe someone will revive New Leaf for me and I'll continue where I left off. a

Story: 0/10 There really isn't very much in the way of story here, and I don't feel like I need to talk about it because it can be whatever you make it. Animal Crossing is YOUR STORY.

Music: 8/10 The music in Animal Crossing generally goes for the upbeat, happy, catchy tunes. This may just be because of my obsessive playing, but I think New Leaf has the best soundtrack in the series to date. There are lots of songs that I've already posted that I like as part of my Top 100 (Rockin' K. K., The Roost, Shampoodle, and the Title Theme), so I don't really feel like posting those again. Here are a few other memorable songs:

7PM

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(Most of the hourly themes in this game are pretty fantastic)

Town Hall

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(I really like this for some reason)

There are some other songs that I like, but the soundtrack is difficult to find on YouTube, so I may end up posting more in the future when it's easier to find clips of the songs.

Character Design: 10/10 Oh boy, I could talk all day about this. Animal Crossing has one of my favorite casts of characters in the whole of Nintendo. Nearly every single special character (not villagers, special characters are available in every game) is one of my favorites. Savanha, Nook, Katrina, Reese, Brewster, Blathers, Celeste, Leif, Dr. Shrunk, Sable, Mable, Tommy Nook, Timmy Nook, Porter, Redd, Lyle, and so many more. Nearly every character in this series is bursting with personality and it adds a lot of charm to the games themselves. For once I find myself at a loss for who my favorite character is.

Humor: 8/10 Much of the Animal Crossing series' humor comes in odd places. Occasionally I've gotten a villager to tell me a "so bad it's good" type joke, and some of the items are kind of humorous. However, my favorite source of laughs in this series is the puns that the character makes when you catch a fish, bug, etc. My personal favorite comes from this game when you catch a tire instead of a fish. "I caught a tire! It was just treading water!"

Difficulty: 4/10 Like I mentioned above, Animal Crossing is a game designed for anyone and everyone, so it doesn't need to be hard! The largest source of frustration I've gotten is when I miss a large fish or scare away a rare bug, but even that just makes me loose bells that I can earn back in another five minutes work. This game and the franchise as a whole is sort of like living an ideal life without that many worries other than your massive debt. If anything, the most difficult part about them is the time it takes to pay off your loan.

Other Memorable Features: There are tons of Nintendo character references and items that are available in this game, so hardcore fanboys like myself will appreciate them. Gyroids are my personal favorite items in the game though, and I have over a hundred different types of them in New Leaf.

Overall: 9.4/10 My favorite Animal Crossing game and the game that totally made last summer one of the best I've ever had.

[blueflower999]

Game Analysis #1: EarthBound Vs. Mother 1

Ah, back to talking about this series again. I hinted at the fact that I might be doing this in my Mother 1 review. In fact, this is something that struck me as soon as I started playing through Mother 1; I realized that EarthBound is almost like a remake of the original that got improved in every way imaginable. This is by no means intended to say "They're the same game, why did Itoi make the same game twice," or "EarthBound is obviously a Mother 1 clone, therefore it's unoriginal and stupid,", but rather just my thoughts on the similarities.

First, let's have a look at the main characters. Mother's protagonist's name is Ninten, which is obviously a shortening of Nintendo, or a nickname of the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, the system that the English port of the game would have been released on. Mother 2/EarthBound's hero, as I'm sure many of you are aware of, is Ness, which, as some of you may not be aware of, is an anagram of SNES; the console that EarthBound was released on.

And the similarities between those two don't stop there. Just look at them:

Spoiler

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That's Ninten on the left and Ness on the right. Besides some minor differences, the two look nearly identical. This has lead many fans to speculate that Ninten is Ness' father (who is never seen in EarthBound), and while this is a reasonable theory that I do accept as a possibility, there is no official confirmation to support this.

Just to list a few other oddly "coincidental" similarities that these two have, they both have a white dog, a mother that insists on always cooking their favorite food, sisters (Ness has one, Ninten has two,), an absent father, and a house to the north of town. This isn't to mention that they both use baseball bats as their main form of attack.

Moving past the main protagonists for now, let's look at the other main characters. Besides Ness and Ninten as the mains, we also have three other characters in both games, all of which are clearly counterparts for one another. Paula in EarthBound and Ana in Mother 1, just like Ness and Ninten, look very similar. They both wear pink dresses, have long blonde hair, and use frying pans. Lloyd (or Loid, depending on who you ask) and Jeff are also counterparts. Both have white hair, glasses, and are stereotypical nerds. Finally, while probably the biggest stretch, Teddy and Poo are both either in their late teens or early twenties and boast strong physical capabilities. Teddy uses knives and Poo uses a sword, making them the only two characters in the Mother series that actually use "real" weapons.

There's a lot more I could talk about here, but I could really go on forever on this subject. Let's talk about the plot, which is perhaps the most similar between the two games. Giegue (In Mother) and Giygas (In EarthBound) are the same entity, just different translations of the same name. However, for clarification, I will refer to him as Giygas. In both games, Giygas invades the Earth with an army of Starmen, Mooks, and other odd creatures. Ninten/Ness are conveyed the message that they are the chosen one who must unite with three other people to save the world. Along the way, they must visit eight locations to collect the Eight Melodies, and only then will Giygas be defeated. While the locations are, of course, different and the songs themselves are as well, and the methods that both of them unlock to defeat Giygas are the same, in the end, Giygas in both games is defeated the same way. I don't want to say how because of spoilers, but if you've played either game through to the end, you should know what Giygas' weakness is.

Finally, as one last point, let's talk about the music. There are loads of musical samples from Mother 1 that got used over again in EarthBound. I'll post a few of my favorites:

Yucca Desert/Dusty Dunes Desert

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Youngtown/Paula's Prison

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Twinkle Elementary Schoo/Choose a File

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(This one is less obvious)

Hippie Battle Themes

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To conclude, both games are fantastic and a story in their own right, but it was apparent to me that Itoi was essentially telling the same story twice through different methods. This makes Mother 3 all the more awesome when you realize how different it is from the previous two.

[blueflower999]

Top 10 Fighting Type Pokemon:

#10

Riolu and Lucario

Honestly, as much as I love Riolu and Lucario, they're a bit overrated, and so I couldn't put them up any higher on this list than here, but they still deserve acknowledgement. Riolu is quite a pain to deal with because of Prankster, and so is Lucario because of its great typing and awesome offensive stats, which are boosted even higher when it mega evolves. With its Mega ability being Adaptability, its fighting and steel type moves read a ridiculous X2 power from STAB, making it a very dangerous offensive Swords Dance sweeper in the OU tier.

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#9

Mienfoo and Mienshao

I'm not really sure what these things are supposed to be based on, but they're pretty sweet. I don't know if I've mentioned this in a review before, but the Fifth Generation of Pokemon is my personal favorite. I'm not even really sure why, but just something about its Pokemon is special to me, and these guys are no exception. Mienfoo is pretty adorable for a Fighting type, and Mienshao is the very definition of a glass cannon. Its awesome abilities in Reckless and Regeneration make it very powerful with a STAB boosted High Jump Kick, but it is fairly frail, making it reside in the UU tier. The only reason they're not higher on this list is that Mienshao's arms kind of bother me because they're limp all the time and it just looks weird for a Fighting type to have arms that it can't control.

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#8

Makuhita and Hariyama

Their names are a bit odd and so are the designs, but these two Fighting types from Generation 3 are far from average. Hariyama is one of the bulkiest Fighting types around, boasting a massive 144 (my favorite number!) HP stat. This isn't to mention that it also has a very nice 120 base Attack stat, and while its other stats are poor (60/60 defenses and 50 speed), the first two are enough to make it useful. Hariyama also has two of the best abilities in the Pokemon franchise; Guts, which raises its Attack stat when inflicted with a status condition, and Thick Fat, which lets it resist Ice and Fire type moves. While it isn't really a great sweeper because of its poor speed, Hariyama's bulk and power make it a great wall breaker.

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#7

Mankey and Primeape

Although perhaps the worst Fighting types to appear on this list, Primeape is far from being a bad Pokemon. Mankey's name always amused me because of how close it is to, well, "monkey". I always liked how Primeape literally has boxing gloves for fists, and it has two of the coolest, if not very competitively useful, abilities in the game. One is Defiant, which raises your Attack stat by two whenever any stat is lowered, including Attack! This means that if a Pokemon uses the ability Intimidate to try to lower your Attack, it actually lowers it, and then boosts it back up two levels, meaning that it actually raises your Attack in the long run! The other ability is Anger Point, which, when hit with a Crit, maxes out your attack stat. Because Crits only have a 1/16 chance of occurring normally though, I can see why it wouldn't be very useful competitively, but I'm sure that in game it would come into play much more often. Primeape has a good 105 Attack stat and also a good 95 base Speed stat, meaning that it can outspeed every other fighting type in NU.

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#6

Meditite and Medicham

While they might look kind of silly, Meditite and Medicham are among my favorite Pokemon introduced in the third generation, and with good reason. Meditite always looked to me like it has an onion for a head, and Medicham's baggy pants always amused me. Looking past appearances though, Medicham packs a ridiculously high attack stat, one of the highest in the game actually, making it usable even in the OU tier despite being ranked in RU. Wait, it's only 60? Well, there you'd be wrong, because its ability Pure Power doubles it. Give it a Choice Band or a Life Orb and you've got a very powerful Pokemon with High Jump Kick or Psycho Cut. When Medicham Mega Evolves, its Attack stat rises to 100, and therefore, to 200 with Pure Power. At the time of its release, I'm sure everyone was happy to have a Fighting/Psychic type, and to this day it's still an awesome combination. The Fighting resists Dark and Bug, while the Psychic resists itself, canceling out three would be weaknesses.

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#5

Pancham and Pangoro

By far the cutest Fighting type ever, Pancham is adorable and him alone makes this line one fan favorite. If you haven't heard its cry yet, go look it up, because it's just adorable. Personally I don't think it's the single greatest Generation 6 Pokemon, but it's still pretty awesome. Pangoro's type of Fighting/Dark was great back in Generation 5, but now has a X4 weakness to Fairy in this Generation, so I don't think it'll be tiered very high. However, on the contrary, Pangoro has a great 124 base Attack stat and a good 95 HP stat, so it'll be at least viable in whatever tier it's put it. Also on the contrary, Pangoro has some great abilities in Iron Fist, which boosts punching moves, Mold Breaker, which allows you to hit Pokemon with moves that their abilities would normally cancel out, and Scrappy, which allows you to hit Ghost types with Normal and Fighting type moves. While a lot of people apparently forgot that they already had a panda Pokemon before Pancham's announcement, it certainly is a great family and is certainly much more usable than Spinda.

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#4

Sawk

Oh man, I really love Sawk. It might be NU, but in my opinion it's one of the top five Pokemon in the tier, along with Jynx. A massive 125 Attack stat and decent other stats all around (except for Special Attack, but that doesn't really matter) make Sawk a powerful Choice Band sweeper. The fact that Sawk's name is pronounced like "sock" always amused me. Who ever thought that a Pokemon would one day be named "Sock" but had nothing to do with clothing? Its counterpart is Throh, a red skinned judo themed Pokemon, and a more apt name could not have been chosen for a Pokemon that represents Judo. Personally, I prefer Sawk over Throh because it looks cooler, I like blue more than red (obviously), and it's just much better in most regards. Sawk's abilities aren't the best; Sturdy and Mold Breaker are both good but nothing too special. all in all though, Sawk is just cool and I think it represents the Fighting type very well. There's only one other Pokemon that is a better poster-boy for the Fighting type, and that line is going to be #2 on this list.

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#3

Tyrogue, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, and Hitmontop

Oh wow, this is going to be a difficult one to discuss. For those of you who don't know, Tyrogue can evolve into any of these three guys; Hitmonlee if its Attack > Defense, Hitmonchan if Defense > Attack, and Hitmontop if Defense = Attack. This sort of forces a trainer that wants to get a specific one to EV train them in such a way that by level 20 the desired stats are reached. Out of the three, Hitmontop is my personal favorite, but I really like all of them. Well, except Tyrogue, but even he's OK. Let's start with him though. His stats are terrible, but that's excusable because he's a baby Pokemon. Second, Hitmonlee has great Attack and a really good 110 Special Defense, one of the highest for Fighting types. He's a good Unburden Sweeper in the RU tier despite being fairly frail physically. Hitmonchan is my pick for the original two. The ability Iron First and a decent 105 Attack stat make him almost as viable in RU at Hitmonlee is. His stats are more balanced despite sill having poor HP. He's generally given a Life Orb and various punching moves of different types for coverage. Finally, we have Hitmontop, my personal favorite and the only one to be put in the UU tier. Will still cursed with the terrible 50 HP stat, Hitmontop has good 95 Attack and Defense, and excellent 110 Special Defense, making him bulky nonetheless. His ability Intimidate only further ensures that his opponents won't be able to take him out with physical attacks as it lowers their Attack stat whenever he switches in on them. While Blastoise is generally a more popular choice, Hitmontop is a good Rapid Spinner in UU.

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#2

Machop, Machoke, and Machamp

When "Fighting type" is mentioned, most people automatically think of Machamp, especially if they've only played the First Generation. These are the Pokemon that I think best personify the Fighting type; they're just macho men (or women). Simple. With a massive 130 Attack stat and an excellent ability in No Guard, Machamp makes itself one of if not the best Fighting type in the UU tier. After all, it does have four muscle packed arms! The ability No Guard ensures that, while all moves will hit you, your moves will never miss, and this works especially well with the 100 (150 with STAB) power move Dynamic Punch, which has a 100% chance of confusing the opponent. Normally this move has 50% accuracy, but with No Guard, it always hits. Think about this for a second. 130 Attack stat, 150 power move, always confuses. If you give Machamp a Life Orb or Bulk Up, nearly nothing is going to survive this thing. Stone Edge is also another move with 80% accuracy that always hits with No Guard. You can even give Machamp a Choice Band and totally wreck with these moves. Machamp literally may be the champ. But wait, isn't there another Fighting type that I like even more?

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#1

Timburr, Gurdurr, and Conkeldurr

Aw yeah, these guys are awesome. Let's start with Timburr. Obviously a corruption of the word "timber", which it is holding, Timburr is a decent Pokemon in the Little Cup metagame for Pokemon in their lowest stage. It's fairly bulky with a decent 75 base HP and awesome base 80 Attack, making it a great Eviolite Bulk Up user as long as its supported correctly. Next, we've got Gurdurr, who gets the award for the derpiest Pokemon name ever. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just try saying "Gurdurr" outloud while stretching the "ur" at the end for as long as you can. Amazing, isn't it? Gurdurr is one of the few Not Fully Evolved and not Little Cup Pokemon that is viable in gameplay, and it is in the NU tier. In fact, its only rival is Sawk, but Gurdurr boasts three better abilities: Guts, Sheer Force, and Iron Fist, all of which can be played well depending on the set you give it. Finally, we have Conkeldurr, who gets the highest Attack stat of all Fighting types (excluding Medicham with Pure Power), including legendaries, at 140. Its 105 HP and 95 Defense make it a decent Physical wall too, but poor 65 Special Defense make it vulnerable to Psychic type attacks, like most Fighting types. Remember those three abilities I mentioned above that Gurdurr has? Well, these combined with a great movepool have put Conkeldurr in the OU tier. With a Life Orb, any move boosted by Sheer Force doesn't force Conkeldurr to lose HP from using the Life Orb, but the boost is still there. With Iron First, all punching moves are boosted, most notably Ice Punch, Drain Punch, and Mach Punch. Finally, you could even give it a Toxic Orb and let it be a Guts user with its always massive attack boosted. Bulk Up is also a viable strategy. Not very much is going to survive a Bulk Up Drain Punch from Conkeldurr unless it resists. With the addition of Ice Punch, it even counters Dragonite, Gliscor, and Salamence provided that it doesn't succumb to a special attack first. All in all, Conkeldurr is my favorite Fighting type and one of my favorite Pokemon in OU.

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[Dudeman]

I have a Hariyama on my team in my current Sapphire playthrough, and while I love how high his attack is, I actually don't like the way his stats are set up. Sure, his HP is massive, but HP means nothing if your defenses are dismal. When I initially saw how high his HP was compared to the others on my team, I was excited to have a hard-hitting wall, but as soon as I entered my first evenly-matched battle, I was disappointed to see how badly his defenses made up for it. He's pretty good as a sweeper, but I just wish his defenses were a bit higher.