amphibious_ReViews

As the biggest multimedia franchise in the world, Pokémon has a lot riding on the timely release of its mainline games. Everything from cartoons to cards relies on the characters, locations, and pocket monsters introduced in these titles, so a delay of a game would mean the delay of everything else in the pipeline. Obviously, that can't be allowed to happen, so no matter what state a game is in when the release date rolls around, it's gotta come out. In the past, that hasn't been much of an issue for our pals at Game Freak. However, they took a huge gamble on their latest release by switching out the series' familiar linear structure for a brand new open world, and they paid the price. Pokémon Violet is riddled with performance bugs and graphical glitches that gave it a pretty bad name in the video game community. I experienced many of these issues myself and was disappointed by them, but I was far too impressed and engrossed by the rest of the game to really care that

Over the past 25 years, Pokémon's pop-culture dominance has grown astronomically, making it the highest-grossing media franchise of all time by a pretty significant margin. At the start of it all was a humble pair of monster-collecting RPGs that encouraged collaboration and competition between real-life friends, classmates, and coworkers. Now, over two decades later, we have received seven more "generations" of Pokémon games, each leaving that classic formula virtually untouched. Each of them saw massive success, showing just how strong the foundation is, but with repetition often comes boredom. Because the competitive side of Pokémon is so important, major adjustments can't really happen without running the risk of inadvertently damaging a huge draw to the franchise. However, with each successive release that avoids altering the formula, players' interest in retreading old ground fades a little more. Pokémon Legends: Arceus singlehandedly destroys that compla

Pokémon X was a big deal for me. I had just gotten my hands on a 3DS when the game was announced, and having already pumped hundreds of hours into FireRed , my only mainline Pokémon  game at the time, I was absolutely ready for something new. I easily could have picked up any game from the DS era to satisfy that itch, but watching the teaser trailers advertising mega evolution and the gorgeous 3d everything, I knew that wasn't really an option. Once I got my hands on the game, I knew I had made the right choice. From the moment I first heard the opening theme to the day I completed the national dex, I was absolutely enamored. I consider Pokémon X and Y to be the start of a major transition for the series. While most of the traditions and tropes from the previous five generations are still present here, there are some important changes and additions that mark a new direction for the mainline series. Obviously, the game is in 3d instead of 2d, but there was a waterfall of changes

Like it's recent predecessors , Pokémon Sword aims to keep the series fresh by shaking up previous staples and adding exciting new gameplay features. After the Let's Go games got me excited for new possibilities and directions in the main series, Pokémon Sword worked hard to deliver. However, as a collector, I was very put off by the absence of hundreds of Pokémon - so much so that I almost didn't even play the game. Luckily, I was so distracted by everything that this game does right, that I nearly forgot about it's issues. In their imitation of the mobile game, Pokémon Go , the Let's Go games did away with the series standard of random encounters in favor of having all of the Pokémon wander the world in plain sight. My number one wish for the series going forward was to adopt that feature permanently. With a little modification, Sword and Shield did exactly that, and it was amazing. Gone are the days of constant interruption of your adventure, and in their

I wouldn't consider Ultra Moon  my favorite game in the  Pokémon  series, as I enjoyed a select few titles even more, but it was definitely the most exciting structurally. After the series seemed to get itself stuck in a rut, gyms were replaced with island challenges and everything became a bit more interesting. I felt like the focus wasn't just on making my team stronger, as the island challenges often revolved around strategy and deeper-thinking as well. All of the mainline Pokémon games up until this point were almost identical in structure. Following the mantra, "if it isn't broken, don't fix it," since the mid-1990s. The seventh generation of  Pokémon  games didn't change the formula so much that it felt like a different series, but it shook things up enough that I finally felt like I was experiencing something fresh and new again. This dichotomy was illustrated perfectly through the newly introduced "Alolan Forms" of  Pokémon  found in th

When I saw the announcement that remakes of the original Pokémon games were coming to the Switch , with Pokémon Go integration, no less, I knew that I had to buy one. The first teaser trailer actually prompted me to redownload Pokémon Go in preparation! Right off the bat, Let's Go had some big draws for me. As Kanto was the first region that I explored, I was pretty excited about seeing it reborn in 3d. Pokémon Go integration meant that effort I put in on my phone translated to reward in the game, which made Go even more fun. Plus, it was the first full-fledged Pokémon title on the Switch , so it was almost necessary for me to buy it. After all of my excitement, I am happy to report that the game totally delivered! One aspect of the gameplay that I didn't expect to be a huge draw was interactions with your partner Eevee (or Pikachu). However, that became one of my favorite parts of the game! I gave my Eevee an adorable hairstyle and outfit, and we crushed the elite fou