As promised, today’s episode of Pokémon Sunday brought the now not-so-surprising reveal of Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. While the actual revelation wasn’t particularly mind-blowing, the episode did feature a few seconds of gameplay (posted after the break) that will likely whet the appetites of many a pocket-sized monster fanatic.
The gameplay itself isn’t that interesting — the protagonist merely walks in circles a few times — though we do get a good sense of the Pearl and Diamond-esque art style the remakes will adopt. Also, if this clip is any indication, it looks like your starter pokémon will follow your character around in a Pokémon Yellow-esque fashion. We feel so sorry for Pokémon detractors. If you guys had hearts, that news would make them feel pretty warm.
There’s plenty of essential sightseeing spots and activities any tourist must partake in during a visit to Japan, such as hitting up the local jumbo-sized arcades, dropping by the beautiful Sensoji Temple, and falling in love with a washed-up actor in a luxurious hotel. However, according to travel site TripAdvisor.com’s Top 20 most popular Japanese tourist destinations in 2008, the third-hottest locale for visitors was Tokyo’s Pokémon Center store.
It seems a little silly that a retail outlet dedicated to Poké-merch was so outrageously popular amongst Japan-bound travelers last year. Then again, where else are you supposed to heal your sick or injured pokémon — the veterinary hospital? Don’t be ridiculous.
Toys R Us is holding another of its periodicPokémon giveaways next week. If you’re still playing Diamond and/or Pearl (or if you want to load up for Platinum), bring your DS and game to a local TRU between March 8 and March 21, and you can pick up the “Colossal Pokémon” Regigigas.
If you are planning on getting Platinum, a Regigigas might be a worthwhile provision. According to the news item, having a Regigigas in your party in Platinum causes Regice, Regirock, and Registeel to appear periodically in Sinnoh. Can you really sit by while Pokémon go uncaught? See you at TRU.
Today's update over at the dojo involves Classic Mode, the formal single player campaign of the game where you progress through various stages, battling random enemies until you reach the end. The matches can vary in that sometimes you'll fight opponents who are metal or giant, and occasionally you'll have teammates. The stages chosen are the same every time, however, as stage 1 is Link's and stage 3 is Pokemon, etc.
With this morning's Smash Dojo announcement, we thought that today was as good a time as any to remind you about why Meowth is the awesomest Pokemon of all time (the anime character, not the species). Of the hundreds of reasons we could bring up to support this argument, we've picked out five for you to chew on:
Meowth is one of the VERY few Pokemon who can converse with humans. Respect.
Meowth actually taught himself to speak and walk upright, all so he could win the heart of a female who rejected him. He eventually got over her trifling ways and pursued other flames.
Even though he grew up in Hollywood, Meowth has a Brooklyn accent. That's just how he rolls.
Like Pikachu, Meowth doesn't bother with that Poke Ball mess. He has more dignity than that.
Because of Meowth's intense determination to mimic human traits, he never learned a lot of battle moves, including his species' signature attack, Pay Day. Despite that, he still rocked Brock's Onix, acting as both trainer and Pokemon, throwing buckets of water on the boulder-ish creature.
BONUS: Meowth cranks dat Soulja Boy.
To further prove our point, we've embedded past the post break two clips from "Go West, Young Meowth," quite possibly the finest Pokemon episode in existence. There might be superior episodes that don't currently exist in our present dimension or timeline, but we haven't seen them yet.
Skipping making an appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Meowth is returning in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. As you might expect, his attack deals with showering the battlefield in precious, precious gold coins.
For such a greedy little guy, it's somewhat odd that he'd choose to part with some of his fortune just to put the hurting on your enemies. But, at least he has the good greed to never part with that coin on his head.
Are we happy to see him returning to the field of battle?
Update: Turns out, there was another update at the dojo we overlooked. The controls for using the Wiimote are also explained.
That’s right, only today, on September 29th from noon to 3PM you can get a free download for Manaphy, the famous Pokemon character, to your copy of Pokemon Diamond or Pokemon Pearl. It’s only at ToysRUs, and they give you $5 off any DS game you buy at the store.
This Manaphy will be Level 50 and comes in a Cherish Ball and holding the Red Scarf item. It has the following move set: Heart Swap (which it normally doesn’t learn until Level 75), Water Pulse, Whirlpool, and Acid Armor. You won’t be able to upload it to the Global Trade Station. There are a few instructions to getting Manaphy that you can see in the picture to your right (click on it for a readable big poster).
Once you get Manaphy you need to do the following: you need Mystery Gift to unlocked it on your game (Diamond or Pearl). To get Mystery Gift, you go to the 3rd floor of the Jubilife TV station and talk to the guy near the bottom of the screen on the left. Use the words: “Everyone Happy” and then go to Wi-Fi Connection. Save and quit and you’ll see it.
PS: You might remember that ToysRUs did a similar event a year ago for Pokemon fans to get Mew. So this might be a yearly event. — Thanks for the tip monkey79
Just as we suspected, the Pokemon Trainer's Final Smash maneuver has all three of his comrades getting in on the action. Dubbed the Triple Finish, the maneuver shows all three Pokemon dishing out a huge attack for some combined carnage. The closer the opponent is, the more damage it inflicts.
Check out some images of the attack in action below.
We know a lot of people have been waiting for Pokémon Snap, because they tell us. Frequently! It should come as a comfort to those people, then, that the game is scheduled for release on Japan's Virtual Console on December 4th, which makes a release in other territories soon after a near inevitability. We admit to a fondness for the nonviolent rail shooter ourselves, and it's aged rather well for an N64 game.
An N64 game on the VC is big enough news (they can only come out during a full moon on a warm night, and then only if nothing is there to spook them), but the release of Pokémon Snap also carries some news that is significant to the very nature of the Wii's classic game download service. You will be able to send your in-game photos to Wii Friends. We don't necessarily think Pokémon photo sharing is, itself, a killer app or anything, though we'll probably take advantage of the service if we can generate awkward enough poses. This is the first time that a Virtual Console game has had functionality added to it (instead of having functionality removed) and it means that Nintendo is not above going in and changing a game for a good reason. As long as that reason is Pokémon. Also surprisingly, the game will be the normal 1000 Wii Points.
On December 10th, six days after the Japanese launch of Pokémon Snap, the American Virtual Console will feature the rail-photography game. To promote the release, the online Toonami Jetstream channel will show a week of Pokémon cartoon episodes featuring Todd, the protagonist of Snap who was hamfistedly crammed into the show to help sell cartridges.
Why should you care about a Pokémon spinoff game? We'll recap:
It's a pretty okay game
Judged against other Pokémon spinoff games, it's a freakin' masterpiece
Expanded functionality allows you to share photos with Wii Friends
(if you're me) More attention on PokémonSnap could finally get the "photography game" genre going, or at least convince Hudson to let us download Photograph Boy.
So, in conclusion, Photograph Boy is a great game. What? Oh, right. The Pokemans thing is good too.
First footage of Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver revealed originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 10 May 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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