Wolfe Glick is well-known in the world of professional Pokemon. He has been instrumental in shaping the careers of many players through his own achievements in competitive play. But through his style of content creation on YouTube, he also paved the way for many competitive players to make a living off of their gaming. Wolfe Glick is an accomplished player in his own right. He has won numerous tournaments, most notably the World Championships in 2016. Glick is known for his calculated approach to the game, and he has an expert's eye for team building. He has also brought famous names from YouTube to try the game's competitive side, hosting multiple tournaments of big-name creators on the site. He has shared his insights with other players through social media and other online forums and has even coached some aspiring competitors. In this way, Wolfe Glick is a shining example of a YouTube content creator. His competitive success gave him notoriety amongst hardcore Pokemon play

Recently, a whole subgenre of platformers has risen, led by the new release Pizza Tower. These games take after the Wario Land series in their designs.  Much like Wario Land, these "wariolikes" offer challenges that reward skill with the abilities of the character you're playing as. Oftentimes, this means slightly more variable levels that can be tackled in many different ways.  Most of the time, a player character in a wariolike has a wide range of moves and skills at their disposal, which players slowly master throughout a playthrough. In many ways, this design philosophy also is held by Pokemon. There's the obvious parallel between unique player characters in a wariolike and any given Pokemon being equally unique, of course. But further than that, much like a player might lean on certain moves in these platformers, the moves a Pokemon learns and can use can be adjusted to taste. Not only that, but much like the series that spawned wariolikes, Pokemon has created it

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are getting a patch slated for the end of this February.  Among the updates in this patch are many bug fixes and great quality-of-life changes! Below is a list of some of the most important new fixes to look out for! From a Pokémon’s summary, players will be able to change Pokémon’s nicknames, markings, held items, and mark- or Ribbon-related titles, as well as being able to reorder moves, have Pokémon remember moves, have Pokémon forget moves, and use TMs. This is a huge time save for competitive players, shiny/ribbon hunters, and casual battlers alike!   Players will be able to swap out held items by pressing the Y Button when in the Held Items view. Another pretty big quality-of-life improvement for competitive players.  This is a very important thing this generation, as the competitive VGC scene has an amazing meta and exciting competition currently. Keeping competitive players from pulling their hair out in team building is great for both them and Game F

This year's Super Bowl is today.  While this blog isn't the place to be marking my predictions or hopes for any of that, I do think it brings up an interesting topic.  For all its huge fandom, massive revenue, and worldwide recognition, the Pokemon franchise doesn't have any gigantic yearly event that's hyped up to the extent of the Super Bowl.  Sure, championships exist across almost every major facet of modern Pokemon games, but most people turn a blind eye to them.  People aren't jumping out of their seats in droves to watch the same 20 or 30 animations play dozens of times each until someone wins the whole thing. Then again, there might be one event, though not yearly, that Game Freak attempts to bring to worldwide attention: big anniversaries, like the recently passed Pokemon 25. This was Pokemon's big year. For both Pokemon fans and non-Pokemon fans, Pokemon 25 was the year for Pokemon. The long-awaited gen 4 remakes got announced alongside a brand-new

To many, a Pokemon game's replay value is reliant on a solid post-game to look forward to. However, this might not be the only way.  In fact, many of the most successful RPGs go a very different route towards replayability: The humble, but serviceable side quest.  Often, players will glaze over these quests during the main story, which effectively makes those undone story beats a post game matter for many. Some games even build side quests into the core of the main game, allowing for a personal feel to each run. Different players will get different games, based on the side quests they choose to undertake.  So why, in Pokemon, where many of these ideas are considered crucial, are there so few side quests? Sure, you might get a small reward for catching a tiny pokemon and showing it to some guy in Kalos, or some Ribbons from the Pokemon Contest.  But it all seems a little shallow. There's so much potential, especially with the open-world direction the mainline Pokemon series

Some Pokemon players aren't content with simply catching 'em all normally.  Thankfully, Game Freak created shiny Pokemon a long time ago to give players a new quest; they can now catch super rare versions of each Pokemon with an alternate color scheme.  With the graphical advances to all video games, including Pokemon, these shinies are better and more popular than ever. So popular, in fact, that a slew of shiny hunters have sworn against the easiest way of catching these 'mons: the Quick Ball. (Behold, the ire of half of the Pokemon fanbase.) A Quick Ball is simple: It has a higher catch rate, but only on the first turn of a wild encounter.  For many Pokemon, especially those that could flee or know dangerous self-destructive moves like Explosion or Final Gambit, it would seem like a good thing to be able to catch a Pokemon more easily at the start of a battle.  But if you've been on Twitter lately, you might know where I'm going with this.  Quick Balls have gai

Mega Evolution was a beloved mechanic by many Pokemon players from the day it was announced (or more likely, the day it was leaked.)  Even from just bare details of the mechanic, Nintendo Life's Thomas Whitehead made it clear that " it's all shaping up nicely. "  The phenomenal reception Megas had eventually led to similar mechanics in every later generation thus far.  Gen 7 had Z-Moves, gen 8 introduced Gigantamax transformations, and Gen 9 brings with it the Terastal mechanic. Needless to say, Mega Evolution is a very important part of modern Pokemon's history.  In fact, it's so important, that in a game with endgame themes of past and future, it makes sense to return to this masterwork of Pokemon design.  Beyond that, it likely will, thanks to the likely upcoming DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The Mega Evolution mechanic was introduc