Pokemon Go + Boondock Saints: Where You Going Eevee? NOWHERE!!!

     As many people have already experienced, there's an overabundance of bugs and problems with Pokemon Go.  Servers crashing, loss of game data, among other things.  It's still fun, but alas- I couldn't help making this meme combining Pokemon Go with one of the best moments from The Boondock Saints.  Maybe I'll call it the Pokemon Saints?  I'll keep it in mind if I can think of better memes for this combination.

   This is how I feel the game is going right now.  It comes to a grinding halt consistently, crashing almost exclusively when a rare pokemon appears.  I've grown quite irritated by the inexplicable loss of pokeballs after a crash with the rare pokemons as well.  Sure, Niantic will definitely fix many of the issues, but it just feels like they rushed the game to an early release for the summer months.

     When this game gets back on the right track, it'll crush it for a very long time to come.

     Good lord, I looked back for old Pokemon meme's I made, and it's been nearly 5 years.  FIVE YEARS!  Here's the link if you're curious and want to see them- [ Pokememes ]

Hitman GO & Lara Croft GO Creators Parody POKEMON GO

     Square-Enix Montreal, developers of the awesome Hitman GO, Lara Croft GO, and the soon to be released Deus Ex GO, have made a wonderful little parody video of Pokemon GO in their own style.  I'm actually curious as to how one might get by the Snorlax in the back, which would presumably be an enemy or obstacle in later levels of this fake game...

✅Hitman GO
✅Lara Croft GO
✅Deus Ex GO
🤔Pokemon GO pic.twitter.com/n8AzFUIycH

— Square Enix Montréal (@SquareEnixMtl) July 6, 2016

    It's always fun when developers can put out small jokes at each other's expense with just sheer fun in mind.  This is a great example of it and I hope to actually see more short videos poking fun at other games from more companies.

     Once again, well done Square-Enix Montreal.  Keep up the excellent work!

     Source [ Square-Enix Montreal Twitter ]

Pokemon GO: Augmented Reality For Real Life Adventures in the Tall Grass!

     Nintendo recently announced a move towards more mobile gaming, and along with The Pokemon Group and developer Niantic have brought us this great idea for adapting the bazillion dollar franchise to iOS and Android devices sometime in 2016.

     The augmented reality of the game is that players will now be able to see and capture Pokemon in the real world through their phones and GPS.  They'll be able to battle, trade, and collect them all.

     Another addition will be a Nintendo manufactured Bluetooth device called the Pokemon GO Plus.  It is a watch like device that will alert players to nearby Pokemon and allows for a simple button-pressing catching ability.

     Pokemon GO will be free-to-play with IAPs.

     Hopefully they don't monetize pokeballs.  I'll go poor trying to capture all the Squirtles.

     Source [ Pokemon ]

Pokemon X and Y: Gotta CASH 'Em All! (Nintendo)

 

     It sounds like Nintendo is ecstatic over the recent sales of Pokémon X and Y.  In the first 2 days they sold 4 million copies.  Not too bad.  Sure, it isn't the Guinness World Record breaking juggernaut Grand Theft Auto 5 was with it's 11.2 million copies in half the time, but $4 million is still a hell of a lot of money.

My Mega Power is Draining Your Wallet!

     Nintendo is on a roll with their time tested sales motto of "what can we re-sell next."  There are even rumors of a possible remake of the Ruby and Sapphire editions getting remakes.  But I can't really be disappointed until they start remaking the remakes.  I mean hey, they are adding new improvements with each new pair. 

     There's just something about this business model that bothers me.  If Nintendo really made X and Y, like all the other previous dual Poké-games, to be trade-encouraging games, one would think that 50% of each version's Pokédex would only be available in one of the games for capturing, not just a select few as is the case.

     We've already seen the tried and true business strategy of metaphorically spamming Pikachu's Thunderbolt on people's wallets, and Nintendo is laughing all the way to the Poké-Bank.  Seriously, think about it- they typically release two versions, and then follow that up a few years later with a combination "Enhanced Version."  There's been too much gimmick and not enough growth in the series since the original almost 20 years ago.  The game, like the Pokémon themselves, needs to evolve to be effective.

     As it is, I lost my will to "Catch 'Em All" years ago, and if I really wanted to catch any more, I could dust off one of my 50 other extremely interchangeable Pokémon games.  Now that I say that I may go dig out my Game Boy Advance and LeafGreen.


     And if you would like a bit more:
     A previous post I wrote about Nintendo continually selling us the same product.

Possible New Pikachu Centric Pokemon Game

     In a mere two days, on Friday Oct. 12th, bazillions of fans will flock to their local retailers to obtain a copy of either Pokemon X or Pokemon Y, or in some cases both games for the Nintendo 3DS.  Thus perpetuating the habit of Nintendo continually selling us the same thing.

     BUT- CEO and the Pokemon Co. president Tsunekazu Ishihara is set to appear on NHK Professional: Shigoto no Ryuungi on Oct 28th, and with that notice NHK makes mention of an all new Pokemon game that is potentially featuring Pikachu.

“This summer, Ishihara started development on a never before seen game,” the description reads. “It’s a new game featuring the very popular character Pikachu in a bold way. There is concern, however, that if it’s bad the long loved character would lose popularity in the blink of an eye.”

Source [ Gematsu ]

Pokemon X and Y: SQUIRTLE!!! and "The Bank"

     There's been a ton of Pokémon news for the upcoming X and Y games.  Firstly, I posted a few days ago about Nintendo repeating the past and well, here's another shining example of it.  Although for this I'll make an exception- because I won't be buying either of these games, but I may play on a friend's copy to see how it is. 

     Anyways, not only will there be three generation 6 starter Pokémon (Chespin, Fennekin, Froake), there'll also be our familiar friends, the 3 Kanto starters from Red and Blue- Charmander, Bulbasaur, and my personal favorite Squirtle.  In addition to that the 3 Kanto starters will be able to "Mega evolve."

My favorite Squirtle moment.

     The Pokémon Bank.  Yet another way for Nintendo to nickel and dime customers to death.  Really, it's not bad enough they need to sell 2 barely different copies of a game to customers, but now they offer charge $5 a year for online storage of up to 3000 Pokémon.  The fee would be because the servers would need "constant maintenance."  Apparently, Nintendo must not be using hardware that can compete with the X Box and Playstation if they need to do this.

     The Pokémon Bank will use a "Poke Transporter"- which, if I read correctly, will also be a necessity to transfer old Pokémon as well.  That's what I'm really curious about- are they actually making this a requirement to transfer from old games?  Almost forcing people to buy it to continue enjoying the games they've already paid for?  And really, the amount of data this would take could easily fit on the game. 
     Should I even mention that online cloud storage should already be available like PSN's?  I mean sure I pay for it, but I also get TONS of good free games as well.  And I have the ability to save to USB sticks as well- creating unlimited free storage.

     Come on Nintendo- you're already making a bazillion dollars a year off this series by selling customers essentially 2 of the same game, do you really need to charge for something like this?  People will just have to wait until a server crashes or gets hacked- and perhaps see that Nintendo is ripping people off.  I feel that Nintendo is monetarily preying on the children that love this series.


Source [ Pokémon X & Y ]