Pokemon suicide squad!

Woulda been a good crossover idea, actually. Scroll all the down on this entry to see what I thought of the latest entry to the Justice league movie series. For now, amma talk about what just might be my favorite franchise of all time!

Just so you know, I won't be talking about pokemon go. I have no interest in getting involved in it.

This year is the 20th anniversary of that franchise no one can pronounce. It will be celebrated with a whole new game this november, pokemon sun and moon, the start of generation 7! Technically two games, but we all know that it's essentially the same. Personally, I'd hoped they'd time the release with the date of the original green and blue versions.

Unless you've never read my journal before, you'd know I am completely obsessed with pokemon. It's a huge part of my life and will continue to be. I've played at least one game per main installment (i.e. one per generation) and I've spent around a total of 200 hours per gen. Not counting spin-offs. But where did my whole pokemon journey begin?

I honestly can't remember when the whole madness started, but I remember the craze itself. For some reason, pokemon was EVERYWHERE! I was interested, but didn't get into it until the shitty anime aired in Sweden. I got my first pokemon game not long after that, which of course was the yellow version.

There's two things I can't stand regarding pokemon. First is Team rocket LETS NAB PEKACHU BOOM BLASTING OFF AGAIN LET'S DO THE EXACT THING NEXT EPISODE and second is generation 1 purists. Y'know, those deluded assholes who think the not-so-well programmed first two games (yellow is surprisingly not mentioned) were the best because they grew up with them and the 151 first pokemon are the only ones that exist and are perfect no matter how horribly designed they are or their actual usefulness in battle. It's 20 years now and can't we all agree that gen 1 wasn't really all that great? It got the ball rolling, of course, but other games does the whole formula better. Everything that makes this game great another one in the series perfects. Not counting the Mew or Old man glitches, they were awesome.

First off, even for its time, the graphics were unimpressive. Most notably, the laughable sprites of the pokemon. Seriously, look up how they looked in the original japanese green and blue, you'll find at least one that'll make you snicker. Yellow really improved on this, though. The melodies themselves are memorable, but some songs aren't too great in its execution. I honestly cannot describe this one, because I know knowing about music terms, but it's like some notes almost have no effects and are almost blended into each other. Like there's almost no pause between the notes in some songs and are almost mushed together. However, all this is minor. What ISN'T is how utterly useless most pokemon are (still relevant in every gen) and how op psychic is. They introduced dark for this one reason. Then dragon started to run amok since gen 3 but wasn't "nerfed" until xy, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Also, to any gen 1 purist: Why the hell is it so important that you have to bring up the menu and manually select cut or strength every time? Why not just walk up to it, press A and have an option to use it right away?

Honestly, I hope sun and moon just lets you use your HMs by walking up to, say, the cut tree and just pressing A. No option, no dialog box, no pokemon animation, just the effect of the HM. I understand fly, but the touch screen could be used to fly instantly on whatever map app the game has. Hehe, rhyming...

Actually, despite its many flaws, I consider red, blue and yellow really solid games. Not perfect, but enjoyable. Yellow is more polished and more fun overall (like how you can get all three starters), so I consider it the best. Everyone has already praised gen 1 to death, so why add more? Just remember that these games have certainly aged, and not all that well, unfortunately. Still, it's a fun experience and I recommend it. If nothing else, it's fun to see where this behemoth of a franchise had its humble beginning.

Before I forget: The pokemon anime is absolute garbage and I adore it. The plot is stupid, the animation is passable at best, the movies are pointless, but it can be genuinely funny at times and a lot of characters are surprisingly memorable. Some of its music is good, but most sound effects are meh. It's my brain food, the ultimate so-bad-it's-good. Or rather so-awful-it's-HOLYSHITIADORETHISSOMUCHWHYISMYCUMBLUE when it comes to the delightful shipteasing. Look up my journal and see the entries I've dedicated to the shipping for more info.

I honest to God can't remember when I got yellow, because it seems like it wasn't TOO far away from gen 2. Most likely two years or so. Needless to say, I was sooo hyped. New pokemon and such are a staple and a must now, but this was the first time it ever happened. Club Nintendo (essentially swedish Nintendo power) even had some shitty piece of paper in one of its issues which would somehow enable you to get pokemon gold or silver on release day if you turned it in at your local video game store or whatever. This started a tradition which has lived on ever since; getting the first core game on release day. Only one exception so far, but I'll get to that.

Remember how I said everything gen 1 does well other games does better? This is the prime example. The world is bigger, more pokemon, two new types, you could travel to Kanto and beat your past self, the music is almost flawless, the graphics were better but not great, you can use HM moves easier, it used real-world time, breeding was introduced, etc. Its shortcommings are minor. Some remixes of the gen 1 songs could have been better, the song in Dragon's den kinda sucked, the Team rocket thing was just a waste of time, the animations for the attacks weren't great, it was tedious as hell to try to hunt down those dogs, etc. Fortunately, crystal is even better, especially with its handy location tag that pops up whenever you  move to another route or city. It even had shitty animations when a pokemon was sent out, which I never saw since I ALWAYS turn off battle animations since it's a waste of time.

While I'm not sure if it's THE best generation so far, it's definitely top 2. As usual, gold and silver has aged, but crystal improves on a few things. It still holds up. I recommend the crystal version, check it out!

Funnily, had it not been for me, trucy91 would have never played any pokemon game. He described blue as "cozy".

I think gen 3 is one that gets a lot of shit at times. It had impossible hype since gen 2 was such an improvement and ruby and sapphire was gonna be the thing that'd make you buy a gameboy advance. I mean, it sold well, but it seems like it didn't quite live up to the hype. It's just the impression I've got, 's all.

As for me, I really liked it and yet was kinda underwhelmed. To this day, gen 3 has the most amount of original pokemon I liked, including my absolute favorite, that being Deoxys. Because it's cool. Still, I guess I was just disappointed in the overall gameplay. Perhaps I expected more. It's not disappointing, it was just maybe the first time the formula started to get old. Regardless, I still played the shit out of it and I sorta regret not getting emerald. Actually, no, I have ORA(L)S.

I will say, though, that gen 3 holds up. It has the same classic fun factor the other games introduced, and keeps most of its strong points. Though I have no idea why there's no day-to-day transition. Seriously, why even have a game affected by real time if you're not even gonna have a night? Waste of potential, I'd say. Or lazy. I liked the addition of contests, actually, though I'm kinda sick of it now. Either way, as of now, ruby, sapphire and emerald hasn't aged all that much. Yet. You've probably tried one of 'em, but if not, give emerald a shot! It's the better of the three.

On a final note, gen 3 is probably the one I'm the least passionate about, but I don't know why. Not gonna talk about firered or leafgreen because I never bought them and gen 1 is actually better.

It was around diamond and pearl that I started rewatching pokemon again. For some reason, gen 4 revitalized my interest in pokemon again, and did so with a goddamn passion. Trust me, I was obsessed during this gen. Moreso than usual. Not because the games were spectacular - I'd say there's others that are way better - but perhaps it was a huge stepping stone for me in that it just opened up for a lot of possibilites for me. Most notably two gens of goddamn ship teasing. Or maybe I just really liked Dawn and May. Or the fact that they remade my favorite pokemon game at the time IDK OK GOOD

Got diamond on release day. Think it's 10 years ago now. I'm fairly certain gen 4 is the one I spent the most time with. Hard to tell. To be perfectly honest, it's not the best gen imo. Because it's just another pokemon game with not that much difference. However, O think it by this point had introduced enough pokemon that I finally felt somewhat ready to go through battle towers and such. I spent most of my daily life just growing berries, raising pokemon ad just hanging around in the world. Maybe the games weren't that great, but it was a time when my mnd needed pokemon and this was more than satisfactory. It was new and I liked it more than sapphire at the time, and my gold was ruined because its inner battery had run dry. Diamond and platinum (which didn't happen unil later) just happened to fill the roll. Oftentimes, I'd just goof around in the game while listening to music (usually Madvillainy, though).

Like I said, I started to catch up with the anime and the movies, which in turn helped quench my thirst for pokemon AND SHIPTEASING AS A BONUS! In hindsight, this might be the period of my life since gen 2 where I lived and breathed for pokemon. As a form of expression.

That said, diamond is a good game. It has the same strengths and shortcommings as gen 3, mostly. Platinum was actually a huge improvement, with gym leader rematches and move tutors. I recommend it, but it might not be the most interesting today as it doesn't have a real wow-factor to it.

Then black and white happened.

Since yellow, crystal, emerald and platinum had all been so much better than the non-third versions, I decided to save my money and just wait. You can imagine how frustrating it was for such a huge pokefreak like myself. I had seen videos and I tried to follow the anime (pretty sure it was around this point I decided to watch every episode of pokemon, which I deeply regret, and I wrote in my journal to keep my sanity intact).

Weeks tuned to months, but no third version of pokemon black and white. I told myself to stay true to my principles and not give in to pressure by buying it anyway. Which I didn't.

Kinda.

At some point, I seriously couldn't take it anymore. A whole new world of pokemon was waiting for me to embrace it. So I did. Illegally.

Boy, let me tell ya, black and white are probably the most unremarkable pokemon games yet. I seriously can't remember a damn thing about it! Except maybe from Zekrom and Reshiram (still two of my favorite pokemon) and that you fought Gethsis at the end. I don't even remember where I caught Kyurem. I'm not gonna say it sucks, but it was extremely unmemorable. Especially since black 2 and white 2 were sooooooooooooooooo much better.

Dear god, let me tell you about those. Actually, do I need to?

My passion for black 2 should be evident. I even dedicated a week of my life where I did NOTHING but play that game and chronicle it on my deviantart journal. I've given it some serious thought as of late, and I think black 2 is the best pokemon game yet. Why? It's HUGE!

Seriously, after clearing the game, you'll be so busy if you wanna have fun in he world. There's pokestar studios, black tower, battle subway, PWT where you refight ALL GYM LEADERS FROM EVERY GAME BATTLE TOWER STYLE, a more polished online mode, dream world (now defunct along with all its online stuff) and lots of spag- stuff I forgot to mention. The only clear complaint I can think of is that it could show your EVs better and that calling Yancy is too random. Yeah, that's t, really. Obviously, no game is perfect and this is no exception, but this is one of the few games I've ever rated 9 on imdb. Which I still stand by. If you wanna know the rest, just google it.

What I'm trying to say is "BUY POKEMON BLACK 2" but some of its fun is gone with the closing of the online mode. It should be impossible to get all the medals without hacking now. Thus I'm not sure how it holds up now. However, the graphics are still good, the music is great, the menus are slick, and the controls are good. Curious? BUY POKEMON BLACK 2!!

Seriously, I'll never get enough of how high the framerate is during battle and how the pokemon pause briefly and then fall down. It's how I wish every pokemon battle would go. Also, gen 5 had the worst anime season, but at least it got us West bitches! Major creds to combuskenisawesome

That brings us to the current generation, which will be obsolete in a few months. I like it, honestly. I've reviewed y along with alpha sapphire (possibly the worst version names ever, random greek letter and some gemstone, is diamond Щ next?) on my deviantart journal already, so I won't go into detail. Can't say I recommend them now that sun and moon are so close, though. Its online features will still be functioning, so maybe it's not so bad if you wanna get ready for gen 7. If so, get omega ruby or alpha sapphire, it has more mega evolutions.

Speaking of, I didn't talk too much about the remakes because they are just that; previous games I've played before. Heartgold is probably my favorite since it had a key item which replaced all the music with the original versions. Seriously one of the best items in any remake. I only recommended ora(l)s since it has such a huge impact and might as well be the third version. No, I don't care if they remake diamond and pearl or not. Sure, it'd be fun to play, but I finished it 10 years ago. Might be why I wasn't the least bit salty why gen 5 had no remake, I just don't care. Black 2 was probably so big they didn't have time for a remake before production for xy. The opposite was probably true for gen 6, so glad I didn't wait for a third version. They better not make a third version of sm, but an actual sequel (sun 2 moon 2 lol) or a huge-ass remake of diamond and pearl. Preferably both. Learn from the things you did well, pokemon!

As for hopes for the future, sun and moon seem promising. There's not that much info yet, but I have an overall good feeling about it. I'm sure they'll deliver. I mean, they have a dickneck Exeggutor! If that's not proof it'll be good, I dunno what is!

To summarize, here's every generation ranked according to how well I like them:

1. 5 - Because Black 2
2. 2 - Crystal is probably the second best pokemon game and this gen had really good spin-offs
3. 6 - Xy and oras improved the online by a whole lot and the introduction of mega evolutions was great. Solid gen overall.
4. 4 - Generally a great time in pokemon for me personally. Platinum holds up, even without the online.
5. 1 - The one that started it all, but the only thing I REALLY like that can't be found in any other gen is the old man glitch. I still really like these games, especially yellow.
6. 3 - There's no such thing as a bad main pokemon game, this gen's are just the "worst" by comparison. It's like saying Link's awakening is one of the weaker Zelda games (ignoring CD-i).

Now, then. Suicide squad.

I really liked it. Sure, it's dumb and has plotholes, but the action was good (except maybe for a somewhat blurry anticlimactic final battle) and some of the acting was actually pretty decent. Plus one kickass soundtrack! I understand why the movie's getting panned, but to me, it's my kind of stylish over-the-top guilty pleasure. Great entertainment, especially in imax. Somewhere between 6 and 7 for me. Recommended!