Tuesday, January 8, 2013

NERD CULTURE SMACKDOWN: NEW POKEMON X & Y VERSIONS ANNOUNCED ON THE 3DS!

NERD CULTURE SMACKDOWN PRESENTS

CLICK THE LINK ABOVE FOR THE LOVE OF ARCEUS! Alright, exhale, inhale, and relax- NEW POKEMON! Okay, so I knew there was gonna be a big Pokemon announcement from Nintendo and I figured it was either going to be a Ruby and Sapphire remake for the 3DS (although I'd prefer they skip and just make Emerald cuz its superior) OR it would be about a new generation of Pokemon rather than a new spin-off series. I didn't expect the amount of information we got and, I must admit, I am as excited as I get with each announcement of a new gen of Pokemon. And so, after not doing a Nerd Culture Smackdown in weeks I am going to give you my initial feelings on the trailer and the revealed Pokemon. Heck, this might be what kicks of me doing Pokemon of the Week articles! WARNING: Nerd Culture Smackdown reflects my opinion on the moment I write the article and may not reflect reality.

First up, I wanna say that I will lose my crap if the music if the amazing theme from the trailer is used in the game; one of the most overlooked elements of the Pokemon games is the music and this new iteration of a classic theme pumped me up. Now, that I've got that out of the way, lets talk about the graphics, which you can see in the trailer and the picture above; I'm satisfied to see that they took Pokemon B & W II's graphics up a solid notch and, although the human's heads are as big as their bodies, it is a nice step toward the right direction. The environments look pretty interesting and make me think we're getting a Europe theme (look at the Eiffel-like tower above). The last thing I gotta say is that I hope that the protagonists are customizable this time around.

I also like the use of cell-shading for the Pokemon rather than Polygon-style I had expected. Just look at those pinchable cheeks!

Now let's take a look at the three  starters and the two legendaries:

Our first Pokemon revealed was Chespin, a grass starter (look at the green text and grass sprouting out of his head) and I have mixed feelings about its design: on one hand, we've never had a mammalian grass starter so the design could lead to a really cool evolved form with, since I'm seeing a mole or chipmunk, I'm seeing a Grass-Ground type in its final evolution. But, on the other hand, the design is a little wonky with a lot of little details that just feel sort of random and remind me a little too much of Patrat. I'm optimistic though.

I find Fennekin, the fire starter, to be too easy of a design and in fact, in my opinion, its the least interesting of the three-- I always start with the Fire starter in my first play-through of a generation of Pokemon games but Fennekin is making me hesitate in a way that Tepig never did (I love Tepig!). We've had lots of fox pokemon- between Vulpix, Ninetails, all of the Evee Pokemon and more- and the combination of a fire fox is just, well, boring. Its a cute design, but I wish it wasn't a starter. Then again, its final form could be insanely cool, so we'll have to see...

Believe it or not, Froakie, the water starter, is my favorite design of the three. We've had frog Pokemon, but his design looks fairly intriguing with the bubbles around the neck and on the nose (that's what I assume they are). I don't have a ton more to say about it, but I can foresee some neat stuff for this Pokemon's evolutionary design.

The legendaries look really cool and unique; the Y-legendary (I assume) appears to be some sort of dragon, dark, or flying type bird pokemon combo and the way he has three wings with claws (check out the "tail") makes him look pretty cool and I can see some interesting Pokemon designs are ahead.

Like the X-legendary (I also assume) with these awesome Christmas antlers and long legs that give him this really impressive look; I'm not really sure what type he'll be yet.

And that's all folks. Please leave some comments and argue with my opinions (cuz they're probably wrong!).

Do we get to go to Space? 0.0