Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Wishlist: Future Pokemon installments

I have been a fan of Pokemon since the beginning, and it is one of those extremely rare cases were every installment feels unique and yet familiar at the same time.  With that I do still have some ideas for my "Ultimate" version of the game.  Keep in mind this is my personal list, and yours may be different, and I invite you to leave a comment below with things you want to see.

1. Full Map

       Considering this is a huge task, I don't expect to see this until at least the next generation of handhelds, especially since they games finally made the switch to full 3-D.  But eventually why not make a Pokemon game that utilizes all the regions?  It can even be a major anniversary edition.  Basically I want to be able to travel the new region, and then take my same team back to Johto and Kanto.  Plus with more to do, the chances of getting Pokemon to lv 100 goes up considerably.

2. Online Play

       This seems to be the one thing everyone wants.  Gen 5 sorta had this, but imagine if they took the next logical step with it.  Rather than enter some nearby players game as a random NPC, why not connect you two games and interact on equal terms?  Online gaming has been around for over a decade now, and Pokemon is the perfect franchise for Nintendo to finally get in on the action.

3. All Starters Available

       I'm fine with being forced to choose a starter, but I want the other generation's starters to make a return.  Perhaps by utilizing the other ideas above, online with all regions players could choose where they start and thus which Pokemon they can choose to start with.  Or how about you can earn them by doing tasks within the game.  I currently have most of the starters in my Black version ready to move up to X or Y, so this isn't a huge problem for me at the moment.

4. More Evveelutions

       The Eeveelutions are my all time favorite Pokemon, they have decent power, and their is one for just about every situation.  That being said I really want to see an Eevee for every type.  For example my brother is a Dragon trainer, and I am an Eevee trainer, there is a joke between my brothers whenever someone asks a hypothetical chioce, Por que no los dos?  Which means "Why not both?"  Imagine a dragon, ghost, or Steel Eevee, or even better yet, a legendary Eevee that could hold it's own with the likes of Mew, Deoxys, and Celebi.

5. Return Mewtwo to his rightful place

       This may already be happening with X and Y, but when I was a child Mewtwo was the most powerful Pokemon in existence, and there was even a movie that proved this.  But now there are at least one legendary from every game that can match him, and now there are even Pokemon stronger than him, this is stupid.  Now it's Mewtwo is the most aggressive Pokemon, but since Gen 1 his Pokedex entry states he uses as little energy as possible to save it for battle.  As of now Mewtwo is tied for 3rd strongest Pokemon...3rd behind a fuzzy Llama and an alternate form for an Ice Dragon who is useless otherwise.

       If I made this list a year ago it would be have been much longer, including things like full 3-D, customizable player characters, new types, and riding Pokemon, but these are just a few things  already announced for the upcoming X and Y versions.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Top 10: Supervillains

I already did a top 10 Superheroes, so I thought it was only natural that I did the Supervillains next.  Please keep in mind this is my list, and therefore is based entirely on opinion.  So without further delay; here is the list.

10. Darkseid

Starting off this list is Darkseid.  No matter the medium, if Darkseid shows up; crap hits the fan.  Ruling over a planet called Apokolips with an iron fist, Darkseid made it to my list thanks to the animated universe.  Growing up in the 90s he and Apocalypse were the 2 most powerful baddies of my childhood, and Darkseid was always more interesting to me.  His powers are similar to Superman, but he cannot fly and his eye lasers seem to defy all logic.  It is for these reasons he is only number 10 on the list.

9. Green Goblin

What makes the Goblin such a great villain is not his powers, costume, or secret identity...but the fact he enjoys it.  Norman Osborn was a crooked business man until his accident.  Since then he has terrorized New York, murdered countless people, saved the world, controlled the nation's security, destroyed Asgard, and that's just a short list.  The whole time he was doing these things he had to reuse the Goblin formula, meaning deep down he prefers to be the goblin.  But it was Willem Dafoe's amazing performance that puts him on my list.

8. Doctor Doom

Personally; I can't stand the Fantastic Four, but Doctor Doom is a fantastic villain.  Doom is arrogant, powerful, and has diplomatic immunity.  The only issue I have with him is his power set, magic just has too many variables and is often too convenient for me.  Doom was the big bad behind one of my favorite games, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, where he outsmarts every other villain in the game, and he proves why he is one of the planet's greatest threats time and time again.

7. Doomsday

Doomsday will always hold a special place in my heart, the Death of Superman was a big deal when I was young (Yes the event predates me, but it was still a big deal) and Doomsday's design was really cool.  What makes Doomsday a great villain is he isn't a mastermind...he's an animal that happens to be the top of the food chain.  He also reshaped comic books forever, after he killed Superman he set events in motion that led to death becoming inconsequential. 

6. Joker

Joker is Batman's greatest villain, he scored so low on my list because as you will see, I clearly have a type when it comes to villains.  Joker is one of the few Batman villains I like, and usually when he gets involved his plans keep me guessing the whole time.  Joker however is the first character on my list that follows the number 1 rule of supervillains; a great villain is the heroes opposite, the other side of the coin.  And the colorful and outrageous Joker is definitely the brooding Bat's opposite.  On a side note, Mark Hamill's voice has been how I imagined Joker sounding since I was 5 years old.

5. Lex Luthor

Lex is a different kind of villain, he believes that what he is doing is right.  Lex feels Superman s a threat to society, and thus must be defeated.  At least that's how it all started, now his motives are a bit more greed oriented.  Another thing that makes Lex a great villain is that everyone knows his real name, yet he is still able to become president of the United States.  Not only does he believe he is in the right, he is able to convince others of this as well.  And just look at that image, can you imagine that in the next Man of Steel/Batman movie?  It would be amazing.

4. Magneto

Another villain who believes he is right, Magneto is a terrorist that feels in order for his kind to survive he must destroy the rest of humanity.  This puts him at odds with his enemies (Though surprisingly never really the Avengers) in his mission.  He has been a revolutionary, a terrorist, a political figure, and a member of the X-Men, though in a twist of irony Magneto has the same mindset as those who subjugated him in his youth, the Nazis.  It's this hypocrisy that only puts him at number 4 on my list.

3. Red Skull

Red Skull is has done something few villains can, he killed his nemesis.  Sure Doomsday killed Superman once, but he also died.  The Skull managed to win and for a while the world without it's greatest hero.  But more than that he was also deemed to dangerous to live once Cap came back.  And to add another accomplishment, Red Skull is so evil, other villains refuse to work with him.  Instead he uses his own very small list of accomplices.  In recent days Skull has been brought back in the form of a clone, exhumed the body of Charles Xavier, and experimented on it to give himself Xavier's telepathy.  Not only that, but in the most recent story arc he succeeds in destroying the mutant race; forcing the children of Apocalypse to go back in time to stop him.  His track record speaks for itself as to why he earned his spot on the list, but the next 2 are even worse.

2.Ultron

Ultron combines some of my favorite aspects of a supervillain: he believes he is in the right, has the power to back up his threats, he was inadvertently created by his nemesis, and he is brilliant.  The best part of Ultron is not if he will destroy mankind, but when.  Ultron is always upgrading himself, and the Avengers know, or knew rather, that he would eventually become too much for them to handle.  The recent event Age of Ultron was all about this and the heroes were only able to stop him once and for all with time travel.  But he is also very limited, and even at his best he could only take 1 planet.

1.Brainiac

Brainiac has never appeared the same for very long.  He had an extremely inconsistent origin story, that is until the New Krypton story and it was revealed there was a reason for this; none of them were the real Brainiac.  Brainiac collects cities, and there is speculation that he is responsible for Krypton's destruction.  Which means he also destroyed every other planet who's cities he has taken.  This gives him a death toll somewhere in the trillion...with a "T".  Brainiac has been in my mind the greatest villain since the first episode of the animated series.  And if the speculation about him destroying Krypton is true (we'll never know thanks to the new 52), then he manages to have created the most powerful and iconic hero of all time.

Well that's my list, if you have one feel free to post it, or if you have any other comments you want to leave.