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 ...

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...