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 Poke...

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...

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...

The release of Scarlet and Violet as a Pokemon TCG set, and the introduction of gen 9 cards to the game, is very close. With this, we're seeing a new/old mechanic: Pokemon-ex.  Not to be confused with the slightly more recent Pokemon-EX, which are always Basic, Pokemon-ex are beefed-up versions of Pokemon with high build-around power.  However, this comes at a cost. When a Pokemon-ex (or Pokemon-EX, for that matter) is knocked out, your opponent takes 2 Prize Cards, not just 1.  Despite this, I believe that Pokemon-ex is the perfect mechanic for Scarlet and Violet. Perfect Timing True to the games' endgame theme of time travel, we're seeing a new swath of Pokemon for a past mechanic.  On the surface, this seems like a pretty basic point.  But when you include the specific Pokemon getting a Pokemon-ex, the real genius of this is revealed.  Every single Pokemon is either available in both versions, a new Pokemon, or a past/future form.  This, again, h...

Just a few months ago, I overheard a dormmate playing Pokemon Unite. He lamented the lack of skill his teammates displayed as if he just got paired up with the Three Stooges and Patrick Star. These teammates, to him, were unacceptably stupid.  I interjected to his unanswered curses with this: "you're acting like it's rude to be bad at a game." The only reply I got was "it is!" Surely, if his team could hear him, they'd get just as much of a rude vibe from these claims.  But therein lies the problem. Pokemon Unite, to Nintendo, was a moderate success. With one game, they've marketed to many demographics of both Pokemon fans and MOBA players.  But with that massive pool of opinions on how both types of game should be, you get a massively splintered community. You get people who think it's rude to be bad at a game. You get people who are rightfully a little miffed at those people. You get people who start drama on those people's behalf (or ...

The stage is set.  Leon has only one Pokemon left: the unbeatable Charizard of the unbeatable champion.  The crowd, despite the carnage against their champion, is still singing.  The Hall of Fame theme, a motif reserved for winners, becomes the theme of the cornered.  As Leon Dynamaxes his final fighter, you know he's doomed.  A single Max Rockfall from your Dreadnaw, and Charizard is down.  It feels anticlimactic.  You just downed the supposed strongest Pokemon in the whole of Galar with one fell swoop. But that single decision, the dynamaxed Dreadnaw, is part of why that Charizard is a great final boss. Very few encounters in Sword or Shield can be answered only by a Rock-type STAB move from a high-damage Pokemon. While the decision is fairly obvious, it's still a decision that had to be made.  It was premeditated, and you likely are training such a Pokemon with the Galarian master in mind. And if you don't run a Pokemon to counter that Cha...

The Kanto region's Pokemon and mechanics garner a lot of nostalgia, even for people who weren't alive when the original Pokemon games released. It's no surprise, then, that RBY Smogon battles are quite popular on Pokemon Showdown. The tiers found in this generation have been set in stone for a long time. Those tiers, however, are for a 6v6 Singles battle. What happens to the ranking a Pokemon accrues if it is the only Pokemon you can use? What happens if we pit every Gen 1 Pokemon against every other in a mano a mano fight to the fainting? Welcome to the Kanto 1v1 Round Robin. (This series assumes all Pokemon have their best 4 attacking moves, all multi-hits hit the maximum damage, and no moves crit. Chance effects that decide a battle round to the nearest whole number, meaning an over 50 percent chance indicates a success.) Alakazam Alakazam, for a long time, was considered the best OU Pokemon in Gen 1.  While it is still excellent, it's usage has declined due to th...