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WTPT – Banned Episodes

The Pokémon Company has announced that they will be revealing a new Pokemon RPG in the February 2010 edition of CoroCoro Comics (think Shonen Jump).

For now, we can only speculate as to whether this is the upcoming Fifth Generation or not, though there was some mention of “a rebirth” and “new Pokémon”. The only non-ambiguous details we have about this game is that it’s an RPG and that it will be released (in Japan) this year. Thank you, Google Translate.

Since the Mystery Dungeon series is also technically an RPG, there is the slight possibility that the announcement will be an expansion to that game-line. Then again, the developer on the main site is stated to be GameFreak, and they usually work exclusively on the main-line Pokémon games.

Let’s just hope that this announcement will lead to some interesting results

[Pokemon of Japan]

[Bulbapedia]

View the very first appearance of Gary using the new episode database!

Another cool new feature that was included in this huge upgrade is the introduction of the Pokémon Trainer Club, which is the equivalent to the Daisuki Club in Japan. My Pokémon accounts have now been replaced by Pokémon Trainer Club accounts, which can be used to participate in the Organized Play portion of the site along with a few other interactive aspects.

Speaking of which, Organized Play has now been split into two categories: TCG and Video Game. This club is also responsible for many events in the past years in which players could obtain exclusive Pokémon.  As one of its first events, the Pokémon Trainer Club has announced that they will be hosting the “Special Colored Pichu” event at GameStop from January 30th to February 14th.

The website has also been updated with all of the new Heart Gold/Soul Silver artwork, a complete TCG database of the trading cards, and loads of new mini-games to play. More additions to the site can be expected to arrive soon, but if you haven’t already checked it out, it’s definitely worth a visit!

The new layout.

Therefore, we will name the three stereotypes. We will name the first stereotype, competitive battler, Gary. We will name Mr. Social interaction Brock, and Mr. Catch ‘em all Ash. This article will talk extensively about those three characters, give some examples, and maybe see what makes them tick.

Up first is Gary. Possibly the most common on the forum. These guys play only to battle people on Wi-Fi. Their greatest joy is seeing their perfect IV Scizor sweep a team. They scoff at Ash and Brock, and cannot understand the concept of casual game play. Not that this means these users are mean or anything: they just think the game is made for competition. In fact, these users can be some of the nicest guys on the forum. They can be found hatching million eggs, or resetting for that perfect IV against a legendary Pokémon, or if they are not doing that, they can be seen EV training that one Pokémon they like.

A few examples of these guys on our forum are Starship Pain, Deztroya, and Picklesword. Smogon perhaps is the best example of a Gary-nest out of countless other sites out there.

Then we have Brock, who is somewhere in the middle. These guys battle to find interactions between Pokémon. They like to see that NU team win against an OU team. Their greatest joy is seeing that one team win after countless losses. Even if they lose 300 out of 340 times, the 40 times their team won makes all the loses worth it. These guys are engineers, always looking to progress the game. They don’t battle to win. Rather, they battle to have fun. These guys can be seen making up new movesets, catching new Pokémon, and talking about their new team with their friends.

A few examples of Brocks on our forum are (but not limited to) MeowthMix, Mister Mauer, and MCPuppeteer. Serebii is the best place to find Brocks, out of countless other sites out there.

Ash is the guy who bought the game to beat the storyline, to beat the contests, then to catch them all! They play because Pokémon is fun, not because they want to battle competitively. They like to use their favorite Pokémon, no matter how “stupid” it is to use them competitively. Seeing their Kecleon beat Cynthia’s Milotic fills them with joy only rivaled by that same Kecleon beating a contest or two.

A few examples of Ashes on our forum are HighMadameShmoo, Mira, and Reigning Dragoness. The Pallet Tribune, to some degrees, contains a large number of Ashes, but to this day there has not been a Pokémon community solely dedicated to noncompetitive playing.

And the categorization ends here. All three player profiles are unique in their own merit, and none can be ranked higher than others. What about you, TPT? Are you Ash? Gray? Brock? Maybe you are all three at the same time! No matter what you are, don’t forget to have fun playing the game, and moreover, know that there’s always room for more diversity!

10. Theme Decks
Theme decks have been coming out since there has been a Pokémon TCG. The first was the 2 Player Starter Set in 1998. Theme decks usually contain cards from one or two energy types, along with the other essentials for playing the game (coin, play mat, etc), and run about $10 or so. The themes differ depending on the deck, but they usually have something to do with the energy type or types of the cards in the deck. They also usually include one holo card, like Machamp in the 2 Player Starter Set and Vaporeon in the Water Blast theme deck. You can find these decks online or at stores that sell Pokémon cards, like card stores or even Target, Wal-Mart, and ToysRUs.

9. Pokémon Cards Holiday Bag
Pokeorder.com features this holiday set, which retails for $49.99. It contains 5 different booster packs, 1 holo pack, 1 Pokémon grab bag, 1 deck box, and 50 card sleeves. All of this comes in a nice holiday-themed bag. I’m not exactly sure why this retails for the amount it does, but you do get quite a lot of stuff for the money, especially considering that just the “grab bag” by itself (containing 75 cards) runs for $29.99.

8. Pokémon Advent Calendar
This item was released in October 2008. It contains a set of 24 cards from several Diamond and Pearl expansions, each with special foil stamps of snowflakes on them. It also contains one regular Diamond and Pearl booster pack and a base of some sort for the cards. The promo cards include Abomasnow, Stunky, Plant Cloak Burmy, Chingling, Glaceon, Munchlax, and the Sinnoh starters. I’m not sure if you can find it in stores, but it retailed at theintoy.com for “from £14.67” (about $24 at current exchange rates); however, it is now out of stock.

7. Regigigas Colossal Box
This was released in February 2009, probably as a promotion for the Regigigas giveaway at ToysRUs the following month. It contains the usual promo card of the featured Pokémon common to the special boxes in both a playable and a jumbo size. This box also includes 2 Diamond and Pearl booster packs and 3 Platinum booster packs. This appears to be the first special box set to feature Platinum expansion cards. It retails for £18.15 (about $30) on Amazon UK.

6. Classic Trio Sets
This trio of Pokémon TCG tins was released in conjunction with the release of Diamond and Pearl. The tins feature the three Sinnoh starters – Turtwig, Piplup, and Chimchar–respectively. They have a slightly different shape and design than other collector’s tins, being larger and less rectangular. The sets include holographic reprint cards of their featured starters, two booster packs of late-released cards from the EX series, and one Diamond and Pearl booster pack. They retail for $10 or so.

5. Giratina and the Sky Warrior Collector Tins
These TCG tins were released in Spring 2009, in conjunction with the U.S. debut of Giratina and the Sky Warrior, the 11th Pokémon movie. There are three of these tins, featuring Dialga, Origin Forme Giratina and Sky Forme Shaymin respectively. They each contain a Lv. X promo card of their featured Pokémon and two booster packs apiece from the Diamond and Pearl and Platinum sets. They were originally supposed to also include a Trading Figure Game figure, but this idea was dropped when the TFG was discontinued. A set of all three tins retails for $36.86 on Amazon, so the tins probably retail for about $10 individually.

4. Darkrai Premium Box
This large box set features, among other things, the Darkrai card that made #8 on my promo card list. The box includes the card in its playable size as well as a jumbo size, as is customary for the premium boxes. The jumbo Darkrai card was the first jumbo card to be released since the jumbo Shadow Lugia card. Aside from the Darkrai cards, the box includes one EX Crystal Guardians booster pack, one EX Dragon Frontiers booster pack, and one Diamond and Pearl series theme deck. This box retails for $29.99. You can find it online or at Target.

3. Arceus Poster Pack
Released on November 4, 2009, this special box set is the first box set released for the newest TCG expansion, Platinum: Arceus. It features an Arceus promo card (from the DP Black Star promos) that is level 100 and has the attack Judgment. It also contains 2 booster packs apiece from the Platinum: Arceus expansion and the POP Series 9 expansion, which contains cards originally released at special Pokémon Organized Play events. You can find it in stores such as Target and ToysRUs for $11.99.

2. TCG Puzzles
Looking for a nice free gift to send someone over the web this year? Then give them a fun re-playable gift by sending them a free TCG-related puzzle this holiday. You can find these available for download at go-pokemon.com in the “Fun Stuff” section. The currently featured ones are from the Platinum expansion, but they have ones archived going back to the EX Dragon Frontiers expansion.

1. Platinum Arceus Collector’s Tin
Due to release December 16th – just in time for Christmas – this tin is the first collector’s tin from the new Platinum: Arceus TCG expansion. It contains 4 booster packs from this new expansion along with a special foil Arceus Lv. X card (there are 3 different ones in the expansion set) in a tin with a nice display window for you to display your favorite card. The tin itself features Arceus on the front in all its glory. Since there are no restrictions on how many Arceus cards you can have in your deck, this tin can be the start of a super-powerful all-Arceus deck that will provide quite the challenge for your opponents. I do not know what stores will sell it for; prices are varied on those online retailers who have it.

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In conclusion, these 10 gifts will surely bring a smile to any Pokémon fan’s face for the holiday season. Except for #9, none of them are very expensive either – an important consideration in these tough economic times. So go out there and bring some cheer to the holiday with these great gifts. Have a happy holiday season – no matter what holiday you celebrate – and keep collecting!

This is what happens when you forget to put the fire out before you go to sleep on Christmas eve.

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WTPT – Pokemon Rumble

Now, I’m not naïve-knowing what I do about the music industry, there are very likely financial, legal, and possibly even technical hurdles to releasing some of these songs, so I’m not trying to blame or vilify The Pokémon Company International (or anyone else in particular). Instead, I’m making a list (a wish list, perhaps) of the ten songs I’d like to see up for consideration the next time a US Pokémon album is being made. To be fair, this was a really hard list to make, and I had to pull from the list of songs I was familiar with and could review easily, so some songs you might have expected (like that one from “Do I Hear a Ralts?” everyone keeps talking about) might be missing from this list:

10. Diamond and Pearl
Performed by: Chris “Breeze” Barczynski
From: 10th season theme

Yes, believe it or not, I actually like this song, and I really do hope it’s on the next English Pokémon CD, though I will admit it is excessively looped in “O’er the Rampardos We Watched!”. Even so, I still love its in-your-face style and beat.

9. We Will Be Heroes (Movie Version)
Performed by: John Loeffler
From: The Rise of Darkrai

In a rare lead vocal performance, John shows up for the opening theme of the tenth movie, and he doesn’t disappoint. A supporter of the dub since the earliest days, John gives a great, heartfelt performance that compliments the introduction of Alamos Town to the viewer.

8. Master Pokémon
Performed by: K01
From: Shown in theatres before Pokémon 4Ever, Top Toons Tune on Kids’ WB

A blend of lo-fi, voice samples, and clever imagery, this mini-music video suggested you “let your Mankey wear your hat”, among other oddball ideas. Also, who could forget that lovely British woman rapping out those lyrics?

7. Side By Side – Pichu and Pichu
Performed by: Peter Thom
From: Pokémon Channel, Pokémon Chronicles

In addition to Peter’s distinctive gritty voice, the instrumentation in this song makes it an instant classic. Not many Pokémon songs feature a honky-tonk piano and a banjo, but this one pulls off both well. The Pichu sound effects are great too.

6. Battle Cry – (Stand Up!) (Movie Version)
Performed by: Erin Bowman
From: Arceus and the Jewel of Life

Opening credits superimposed over battles has become a staple in the Pokémon movies, and while some people may not like them, they are an effective way of drawing the audience into the film, and how well that works always depends on how good the song that goes with it is. This one does a fantastic job, expanding on the season 12 theme beautifully, and it has a great bridge to boot. It also brings a smile to my face every time.

5. I’ll Always Remember You
Performed by: Kirsten Price
From: The Rise of Darkrai

Admittedly, this song doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the movie (technically, Darkrai actually misremembers more than anything else, mistaking Alice for her grandmother), but I still had to include it just because it’s so beautiful. Kirsten does a great job, and the song really holds from beginning to end, with some great instrumentation along the way.

4. Pikachu’s Coming
Performed by: J.P. Hartmann
From: Pikachu’s Pika-Boo (Short from Pokémon 4Ever)

One of the best guitar songs in the franchise (right up there with the original theme, in my opinion), this song is all about having fun. Speaking of guitar, don’t forget to listen to the instrumental version in the end credits, which has even more guitar work from John McCurry.

3. Celebi-R-A-T-E
Performed by: Russel Velazquez
From: Pokémon 4Ever

This is probably the glitchiest Pokémon song ever written. A large number of synth instruments and vocal effects are combined to create a rich audio landscape, embellished with a wide range of sound effects. To top it all off, the song actually employs the technique of backmasking-when the end of the song is reversed, a voice can be heard repeatedly saying, “Yo! Detour!” (come on, this is Pokémon-what were you expecting?).

2. Make a Wish
Performed by: Cindy Mizelle/Asuca Hayashi
From Jirachi: Wish Maker

In a rare move, this track combines English and Japanese vocals in a single song. The result is a beautiful blend, and a fitting end to the sixth movie. It’s also one of the best uses of strings in a Pokémon song. Arguably the best part is towards the end, where Cindy and Asuca play off each other incredibly well, particularly considering that the two parts were likely recorded thousands of miles away from each other and likely months apart as well.

1. Born to be a Winner (Movie Version)
Performed by: David Rolfe
From Pokémon 4Ever

When I first heard the fourth season opening TV theme, it was a real treat for someone who had been following the show since 1998-the partial remake of the original theme seemed like a perfect blend of old and new-until I heard this movie version. The TV version was good, even great in its own right, but this totally blew it away. The vocals were incredible, the instrumentation was excellent, and everything clicked. Of all of David’s works in the series, this one is my favorite.

Having written this, I look forward to hearing your responses as to which songs I’ve missed and which songs you can’t believe I picked. If there’s one thing I know (and love) about the Pokémon community, it’s that it has a wide range of opinions on a variety of topics, including music.

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WTPT – Art of the Capture