Greenalink reviews Mega Man 11

Developers: Capcom

Publisher: Capcom

Release Date: 02/10/2018 or 04/10/2018 for Japan

Average Price: US $30 or £25

Filesize: just over 2GB

Website: http://megaman.capcom.com/mm11.html

Eight and a half years since the last Mega Man came out, a lot of new gems such as Shovel Knight were released along the way and some big flops such as Mighty No. 9 which wasn't received well at all, does the 11th entry of the long-running series has a spark of life to a popular genre or is that spark a complete dud?

Features

8 Robot Masters turned bad

2 gameplay altering gears

3 pellets on the screen at once

2 voice acting options

1 robotic dog

Not 8-bit man?!

The team took a big risk and gave another shot at the non 8-bit atheistic approach which hasn't been done since Mega Man 8 (PS1 1997) or the 3D Graphic 2.5D Mega Man 1 remake: Mega Man Powered Up for PSP.

A certain fan base from another franchise tend to have a universally positive track record if it stuck to the 16-bit Genesis atheistic, nearly the same can be said for Mega Man in 8-bit, that said the nostalgic style had some limitations and by removing it allowed the team to implement more/new ideas to the series.

Graphics

Powered up by MT Framework 2.x, Mega Man series isn't the most taxing game to run than say Monster Hunter World, I was initially concerned when watching the debut trailer last year during the 30th Anniversary event due to the 30fps cap on the video itself but the final build has changed my mind completely thanks to some decent visual effects that couldn't be pulled off completely if it stuck to the 8-bit approach including shadows, light glow from giant flames and detailed gear attacks sequences (2 of the main bosses will transform), heck destroying Sniper Joe will have its shield flying away from the destruction for a few seconds. It's the first new Mega Man game to be played in a widescreen ratio (PSP doesn't fully count) which in a way does affect the level design for boss fights since the in-game camera is fixed during those parts. When Mega Man equips to a different weapon, not only his colour changes but his physical appearance too, especially the helmet piece which is based on the Robot Master he took out to obtain it.

"You're skating on thin ice!"

Sound

To describe the background music it used a limited soundfont/instruments but it's not the original chiptunes back in the day although part of Fuse Man's theme is very close, it kinda reminds me of the in-house, dance-friendly style used in EX Troopers but minus the vocals. There were some complaints about the default volume settings as bgm tends to be washed out by other effects, so during my playthrough, I set music a few points higher and lowered both voice and sound effects, this did allow me to listen to the melody of each track much more easily. Sound effects were done by foley work which simply means that it was re-created sound from real life, retro sound effects wouldn't be as effective with the new visual approach to this game, noticed how the 1up Mushroom Power-up in Super Mario Galaxy for example used modern sounds rather the classic Super Mario Bros sample.

There's bonus (pre-order) DLC which plays an alternate soundtrack during the main stages, they are very pleasant to listen to and made me wish that it was treated as an unlockable bonus for beating the game. The English voice actors performance against Mega Man 8 is a huge step up with Mega Man sounding more like a teenager rather than a female sounding eight year old, Robot Masters have a variety of accents and personalities that adds a lot of character than bosses featured in previous games, even if some of them sound pretty cliche, such as the angry, short-tempered Blast Man and the playful friendly natured Bounce Man.

Mega Man unleashing Double Gear which only works if the user is at low HP

Gameplay

The structure is identical to Mega Man 9 as players start off with stage select and afterwards complete 4 final stages, part-way through the game you can unlock Rush Jet. For Mega Man's abilities, however, he regains the ability to slide and charge shot which were passed over to Proto Man in 9 & 10, the charged Mega Buster has a bit of extra utility thanks to a guard break mechanic against opponents wielding some kind of shield, they become vulnerable to other attacks after blocking a powerful Mega Buster shot. His new mechanic and main feature to the game thanks to Dr. Wily's prototype called the Double Gear system allows him to increase his attack power and/or speed by slowing everything down for a couple of seconds. The amount of inputs from Mega Man 9 -> 10 -> 11 is quite staggering as all 4 shoulder buttons and the right stick have use in the game. By not using the 8-bit aesthetic, level design has a bit more freedom and creativity by removing the restriction of using the camera's Y Co-ordinates.

Power Gear is effective against mid-bosses and end of level bosses mainly because you can quickly activate the gear, use an effective weapon and then deactivate it, this is vital against end of level bosses because some of them die after taking 4-6 hits from a power gear boosted weapon they are weak against.

Speed Gear is handy for tough platforming segments and most importantly study and dodge powerful attacks from enemies. I tend to use this for moments where I would have a better chance to avoid it by slowing down time. I like these additions because it adds a lot more depth and most importantly for speed gear, makes boss fights more manageable if used correctly. The gears add a breath of fresh air.

For the actual levels, both Fuse Man and Bounce Man stood out the most during my playthrough because in a level design perspective it took advantage of what the new engine can do over the retro style engine, MM 11 is also notable for featuring mid-bosses in every regular stage, some of them share the same weakness as the end of level boss, some do not and after taking them out you are rewarded with a checkpoint and some small energy pellets.

Similar to Mega Man 7 - 10, you can pick up parts to buy upgrades and/or consumable items to make a tough level easier to beat, the best upgrade I got was a refined speed gear upgrade where the Blue Bomber is completely unaffected by speed loss during his speed gear activation.

Top button and right button are dedicated to Rush Coil and Rush Jet respectively which is fantastic because it no longer slows down the pacing of the gameplay. Single button slide and Rapid firing are additional commands but involve sacrificing other 2 buttons. Top players set the gears to the rear shoulder buttons (L2/R2s) and map slide to front left shoulder and rapid fire to front right shoulder, changing weapon can be done by using the right stick which does take some time getting used to.

The game feels 80% old school and 20% new school by adding voices (again), realistic sounds and new game mechanics

Spoilers alert!

I played the entire game on the normal difficulty which is the ideal challenge factor to compare it to previous games as the easier 2 difficulties have some notable tweaks to make it more accessible to lesser skilled players. There were some cheap deaths in some of the areas for Impact Man, Acid Man and even Wily stage 1 due to either pits or lots of instant kill spike traps. Wily 1, in particular, had an odd difficulty spike because nearly every room that had platforming either had spikes or pits which can be a concern if Mega Man gets hit by an enemy. That said if you're dying a lot in Wily 1 then practically you are not using every weapon available. Then Wily 2 didn't have the same issue and I will say that Wily 2 is somewhat nowhere near as brutal as the first Wily level. Wily 3 and 4 had a bigger focus on boss fights and kept platforming to a nearly absolute minimum which I felt was a bit of a step back as nearly any other Classic Mega Man game had at least 3 platforming focused stages. The only other criticism is that there was only 1 theme for Wily Castle and not 4 (Mega Man 9) or 5 (Mega Man 10).

Superhero mode is the highest difficulty in the game and it's treated very differently to Inti Creates' Mega Man games. For starters the level design enemy placements are exactly the same, what is different are the lack of 1UPs, E-Tanks and HP/Ammo Energy refills, to make things worse, Mega Man takes slightly more damage than usual. The only source of recovery are E-tanks (+M-tanks) and extra 1UPs bought from the shop, then the bosses themselves are enhanced in various ways! Block Man, for example, unleashes a Power Gear boosted block dropper making it very hard to dodge the falling blocks without slowing down time with speed gear, Torch Man's dive kick comes out ridiculously fast, simply put they are a lot faster and have (slightly) enhanced versions of their attacks. This is not for the faint and hearted, it's the definition of unfair hard mainly aimed towards veterans of the series.

Block Man is easily the most memorable Robot Master in this game

Spoilers ends here!

Value

Taking notes from the recent 2 games, Mega Man 11 has a decent amount of content for not only completionists who want to beat every in-game challenge for Gold but also the speedrunning community too to get very good times. There are some silly modes where you have to move the oven robot as far as possible within a certain time limit, every platforming level has a challenge focusing on low shots (attacks), low jump count, balloon attack, medal collection, score attack and time attack. Some of these modes encourage the player to think differently when trying to aim for the gold medal. Balloon attack and Medal Collection are both identical as they involve collecting but the gameplay differences are night and day as one has to avoid red balloons and destroy the blue ones by touching or shooting at them, the Medal Collection mode has enemies on the screen as usual and the medals are found in hard to reach areas and require using either Rush Coil or Rush Jet (in some cases Speed Gear to slow down falling blocks).

Score attack is probably the most disappointing as it has a few flaws due to game design such as respawnable enemies to grind for more points. To obtain the gold medal in Block Man and get over 50,000 one player decided to exit and re-enter the final room before the boss doors to respawn Anti-Eddie for roughly 200 points per kill.

Lastly, there's Dr Light's challenge which is a series of 30 tough rooms to playthrough and dying even once is game over, I haven't gotten past room 10 yet which shows a lot of practice is required.

I managed to reach number 1 for fastest Medal Collection in Block Man's stage for at least a day.

Version differences:

Nintendo Switch highest resolution is 1080p but has amiibo support to obtain free items.

PS4, Xbox One and PC (with good graphics card) can be played at an even higher resolution. 

Load times are all decent, even on the Nintendo Switch. 

I played a lot of Azure Striker Gunvolt on the PC a few years ago with an Xbox 360 controller and by complete surprise had nearly no issues with Mega Man 11.

Conclusion:

The 11th entry might not be the best Classic Mega Man ever but it does get accepted to be part of the good games club. The biggest selling points are its unique features to classic Mega Man, ranging from modern game engine tech to "practice makes perfect" level design that are for the most part a step into the right direction.

Mega Yes

+ Custom Controls

+ Rush Coil + Rush Jet buttons

+ Speed Gear to help study boss patterns
+ Executing a really good speedrun is rewarding to watch back thanks to replays.

+ A lot of achievements to encourage multiple playthroughs.

+ Nearly all of the weapons are useful and Power Gear helps take out bosses very quickly.

+ Some pretty good music tracks, including the Instrumental DLC variants.

Mega No

- Acid Barrier is almost useless.

- Fewer platforming levels and less background music tracks than usual in Wily's stages

- Odd difficulty spike for Wily 1 -> when Wily 2 is not as hard... casually at least

- Controls can feel wonky if using the right stick and trying to select the correct weapon.

- You are an 8-bit loyalist and would rather wait for a fan demake of Mega Man 11.

- Not all of the tracks are as memorable as the previous games 

Grade: B+

 PC Steam Review code provided by Capcom UK

Greenalink reviews Lumines Remastered

Developers: Resonair

Publisher: Enhance Games

Release Date: 25/06/2018

Average Price: US $15 (Switch) or £13.49 (Switch)  £9.99 (Steam)

Filesize: just over 830mb

Website: https://luminesremastered.com/

A classic puzzle game from the mid-2000s for the PlayStation Portable makes a return in an HD remaster for modern platforms.

Features:

40 music skins,

44 Avatars icons,

Lots of beats

A variety of modes

What made it a classic?

Game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi designed the game as an interactive walkman and a dream machine thanks to the headphone ports which made it possible to play with good sound from anywhere. Mizuguchi is pretty famous for previous audio heavy games including Space Channel 5 and Rez and decided to make it less daunting to casual players by making it a puzzle game. The game itself is definitely easy to play and understand and it's also hard to master, there are some unique game mechanics which made it stand out from many other puzzle franchises.

Graphics

Originally a PSP game, the visuals have been redone with native HD textures/sprites meaning you won't see jagged edges on your avatars, other than that it is mostly the same, visually elegant.

Sound

A key feature of this game, if you were expecting new tracks that are exclusive to remastered, prepare to be disappointed. On the flip side, this version has a higher quality bit-rate than the ones used in the previous versions and it's fantastic to listen today, especially for gamers trying this game out for the first time with a variety of excellent pieces of music, ranging from feudal Japan style, digital voices and even house beats.

One notable addition is trance vibration which allows any spare rumble supported controllers to feel the bass across your body. This mode is mostly useful for Nintendo Switch users as it can use up to 8 Joy con, 2 to play the game and 6 placed around your body including jumper pockets, trouser pockets (to USA readers this is pants).  and under your feet. PS4 is limited to 4 PS4 Dualshock 4 controllers and while Xbox One is up to 8 (big) controllers. PC Steam users vary depending on how many rumble supported controllers you have.

Gameplay

The core mechanic is simple, create a 2x2 block to clear it, however, the twist is that a vertical timeline needs to sweep over these blocks to erase them for good. If a timeline sweeps a 2x2 it counts as 1 square, if it sweeps a harder 4x4 square it counts as 9 squares. If the timeline sweeps at least 4 square per lap, it gains a score multipler bonus, repeat this process during the next laps to get a x8, x12 and a x16 bonus.

This is tough for BGM skins that have a fast tempo but you can still clear blocks quickly in general but the opposite can be said for slow tempo BGM skins simply because, while it does give the player more time to clear 4 squares per lap, the timeline moves more slowly meaning that it will take a little bit longer to sweep through the completed squares.  Every once in a while a chain block appears and depending on the colour, placing it next a block of the same colour will cause a chain connection of a single colour which will get erased by the timeline, a well placed chain block can change the momentum of the playfield significantly.

The game gets surprisingly tough at level 30 out of 100 where the blocks start to naturally fall a bit faster than usual, making it tough to plan moves ahead, this is a much bigger problem when there's a huge stack of blocks over the entire playfield.

Value

Besides the usual Challenge mode, there are other ways to play the game. Puzzle mode is a series of mini-levels where you have to make a shape within a certain time limit.  The puzzle count was increased to 100 by featuring puzzles from Lumines 2 and later games.

Time attack mode where you clear as many blocks as you can within a certain amount of time. The playstyle involves minimal movement and rotations to not only save time but also clear more blocks. time categories include 60, 180 and 300 seconds,  This mode used to have a 600 second category but it was removed in the Remastered release.

Vs CPU/Vs 2P modes involve clearing more squares than your opponent per timeline loop in a tug of war fashion, the more times you win each loop the winner gets a bigger playing field whilst the loser struggles with the smaller playing field. I have 2 complaints about this mode:

1) Both players don't even start off with the exact same block RNG sequence which can make a notable difference in the early game.

2) If you decide to quit part way through the vs CPU mode after completing a few stages, you have to start all the way back to the very beginning.

The second issue puts PC (and home consoles to a lesser extent) at a disadvantage if you want to have a break and save power on electricity whereas the Switch version can be done by putting to sleep and not use up any electricity (other than low on battery charge).

As a non-portable release, this mode features 2 players without needing a second console/second copy of the game, this is a huge plus over the original. The game is not planning to have online vs 2p mode other than online score leaderboards and I guess that is mainly because the background music and timeline are 2 majors factors that can cause a catastrophe if the game heavily desyncs due to a laggy online connection.

Mission mode never appeared in the original game but was featured in Lumines 2 makes another appearance to the Remastered game, it's essentially a visual training mode to teach players solutions during certain situations, it is a very important mode for new players to figure out how the flow of the game fully works.

Shuffle is an extra challenge mode where you play through the BGM skins in a random order which essentially makes no 2 playthroughs the same, this was added mainly because the original was pretty linear.

Overall:

A great puzzle game makes a decent remaster debut.

For a double dip purchase, you are getting the best quality audio this time along with gameplay content-wise that were introduced in later games.

The ideal platform to play it on is the Switch version for many reasons including a higher resolution in portable mode and HD rumble support for the fancy yet crazy trance vibration. It's practically the dream machine 2.0 simply because this version wouldn't exist without the Nintendo Switch's HD rumble and sales impact in the past 15 months.

LuYES

+ Highest quality audio as of this release.

+ Trance vibration.

+ Online leaderboards

+ Good variety of playstyles, each mode has a different set of both effective and ineffective strategies.

LuNO

- Not the easiest puzzle game to unlock everything which can put some lesser skilled gamers off.

- Some removed options such as the 600 second time attack mode and a reduction of avatars icon count from 48 to 44 (some are from later games) may anger diehard purists of the PSP original.

Overall: B+

Steam Review code provided by Enhance Games

Greenalink reviews: Streets of Red: Devil's Dare DX

Streets of Red: Devil's Dare Deluxe

Developers: Secret Base Pte

Release Date: 12/04/2018

Average Price: $8.99

Filesize: Just over 600mb

Website: https://www.streetsofred.com/

Review note: I have played through the single player content of the game multiple of times. For multiplayer, I only had 1 good opportunity.

Streets of Red is an enhanced release of 2014's Devil's Dare which was a PC exclusive at the time. Now back on Switch and PS4 with a lower price.

Features

4 playable characters

2 unlockable characters

13 boss battles

18 regular stages

100s of zombies to splatter

Graphics:

A mixture of Black, Grey and Green reminiscent of Game Boy's original graphics along with the colour Red to heavily emphasize the blood. The framerate is an odd one as scrolling updates at roughly 30 frames per second when running but character movement (not animations) is 60 frames. Character sprites all stand out and are pretty recognisable too as you can guess what special abilities they have when fighting against them. The Deluxe version revamped the graphic designs for some bosses that were previously references to movies from the 80s such as the Terminator and Ghost Busters to references based on retro style games including Turtles in Time and Final Fantasy VII

The original version was based on Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator.
That was changed to Youtube gaming critic Jim Sterling.

Sound:

A lot of recent retro style beat-em-ups focused on either 8-bit chiptune or modern music. This one used a 16-bit chiptune which is ideal to Yamaha YM2612 used for Sega 16-bit console. Every level has its own melody and the most memorable track for me is Train Station (Train-2) which starts off with certain notes which sounds very Streets of Rage worthy. Voice recordings are super clear and not crackly compressed, they do sound quite repetitive for playable characters, especially 1 of the 2 unlockable characters who have limited combat options outside of specials.

If the game's title told you something, expect a lot of video game references.

Gameplay:

Combat is pretty simple but surprisingly deep thanks to Dash cancelling and setting up multiple fatalities which in return rewards the player with free food and more cash.

Fatalities are essential for extra cash which can be used to purchase upgrades, revive from an unexpected death, or getting a super high score.

The initial 4 characters have notable strengths and weaknesses.

Kingston has the ability to grab and perform an atomic bomb but he is the slowest walker/runner in the game. The original PC release was visually based on Gilius Thunderhead but the Deluxe version was changed to be visually based on Shovel Knight. His defensive special: Mighty Thunder is very Golden Axe like despite the change.

Axel looks like the all-rounder judging from his running speed and attack properties, he has the tools for almost everything that he can grab enemies from a distance thanks to his hookshot.

Queenie stands out as her special moves have unique secondary effects ranging from freezing enemies to recovering HP. Her weakness is that she isn't super strong when comparing to Kingston for both normal attacks and specials.

Jackson is intended to be the fast but weak character by removing knockback properties from his running attack and a low damage output standard combo. However, from my experience, he is by far the best when he gets his hands on enhanced Dive Kick which costs only 1 bar, deals up 20 damage and recovers very quickly.

Players can purchase an upgrade at the end of each round, the available power-ups are random with an enhanced special taking up the first slot and 3 others taking up the rest, perks vary from level to level and even playthrough to playthrough. Some are very good and some are not too bad, an excellent perk, for example, is the Black Flag which has a small chance to instantly kill any non-boss enemy in the game after executing a move which has a knockback property dealing an appropriate 666 points of damage.

Streets of Red has 3 difficulties, the hardest option stands out as it has an extra layer of challenge by adding bets. You bet high to allow more bonus money for each fatality kill against an elite enemy/boss but losing a life means having to pay a lot more money to revive. Elite variant from enemies/sub-bosses have a small chance of happening but when it does happen, they appear much bigger and have more HP than their regular counterparts. Elite variant from bosses is 100% after selecting the max bet. The easiest option (casual) does not allow the player to playthrough the good ending stages because they were Casual gamers and should try harder next time.

One possible gripe I can say about this is that you are dealing roughly 3-4 enemies at once with a rare 6 in some cases. Some say it makes it too easy but if one player had to deal with 10 enemies at once, special attack spamming would be a valid strategy as extra soul point drops (they fill up special bar) from weakened enemies will allow the player to perform even more special moves and can take out the rest without any problem.  The player's attack collision is too forgiving that it can hit enemies from behind the player, this does, however, lead to easy setups for multi-fatality kills.

After clearing a stage, you get a option to select 1 out of the 4 random upgrades.

 

Value:

Now this is where it gets interesting, the structure encourages multiple playthroughs to experience every single area as early stages can only access 1 area whilst later stages can access all 4 areas. This requires at least 4 nearly completed playthroughs to discover all 16 areas. No 2 playthroughs are the same thanks to the random upgrades the player can get at the end of each level.

In 2018 standards, beat em ups are usually very short in length compared to big mainstream games but this interesting stage select structure does encourage multiple playthroughs.

Aside from Arcade mode, there is an endless survival mode which consists of killing enemies with a certain perk enabled such as more HP, damage or faster speed. There are 9 different set of enemy waves and it resets after every 9 waves with better average stats. I got up to wave 20 where the short enemies with blades had very powerful stabs dealing 21 damage which was fatal against the agile Jackson who has 55 HP max. I was disappointed that for the Switch version at least didn't have its own leaderboards, heck even an offline leaderboard for that mode would be a neat addition to track best scores from long survival attempts.

Multiplayer notes:

Secret Base said that more players = more enemies to kill. I think there weren't as many enemies to fight against in a 2 player playthrough when compared to a 1 player playthrough. Money is shared between both players meaning that we couldn't always pick the most expensive upgrade because we had to save some cash for the good ending chapters. One solution is to cross your fingers and get the pirate upgrade but play well at the same time afterwards due to 50% less HP penalty. Another solution is to add a small multiplier when having more players. Something like x2 cash for 2 players to x4 cash for 4 players. This should fix the money issue when it comes to buying upgrades. 

Playing the game solo does give me good opportunities to use a continue which costs money and the price rises after using a continue. This becomes risky in multiplayer because money is shared between 2 to 4 players, the only way for the lesser skilled player to not spend a dime on using a continue and carry on playing is to let the better player complete the stage.

Overall:

Streets of Red is one of the more accessible and better beat em ups for the Switch so this year, it might be a bit easy for veterans of the genre even when playing the highest difficulty but multiple characters and the stage progression structure increases replay value over many games from the 90s. Just like many other games of the genre, this one is best played in multiplayer where good teamwork requires creative special move combo setups and discussing what upgrades to purchase at the end of each level. For the Switch version, the lack of leaderboards for survival mode makes it hard to track records without pressing the screenshot button.

Grand Uppers:

+ Tutorial stage showing how to execute specials.

+ Simple but surprising combo depth.

+ References

+ Semi-linear level structure

Grand Downers

- References

- A bit on the easy side for veterans.

- No online 

Decent: B+

A review code was provided by Secret Base.

Understanding the cycle of Core Pokémon Games.

The Pokémon cycle and how to predict new releases accurately.

The 1990s Pokémon cycle.

Generation 1: Red, Green, Blue and Yellow
Generation 2: Gold, Silver and Crystal

Generation 1 

Started in February 1996 and ended November 1999, that is around 45 months.

The Pokémon Anime made its broadcast debut on April 1st 1997 and is still airing new episodes today, even reaching its official 1000th episode milestone in late 2017.

The core game releases is an oddball depending on the region. In fact, Generation 1 had 3 set of sprites overall.

JP Red/Green used the first set of sprites,

JP Blue aka International Red/Blue used the second set

Yellow used the third set.

The most notable change in Pokémon Yellow was allowing Charizard to learn Fly.

Move tutors did not exist at all.

Generation 2

Started in November 1999 but the anime focusing on said generation started in October 1999. The special edition (Crystal) was out a year later in November 2000 and introduced Move tutors (NPCs teaching moves) which expanded Generation 2 Pokémon's movepool very slightly. This game was the first to introduce a Battle Tower and the ability to play as a female trainer.

This generation lasted for just over 3 years as it ended in November 2002

The 2000s Pokémon cycle.

Generation 3: Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Fire Red & Leaf Green
Generation 4: Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold & SoulSilver

Generation 3

Started in November 2002 and was the first to have 3 major releases and 2 semi-major releases. Due to connectivity problems linking up Game Boy games to Game Boy Advance games, this became a fresh start for building a (competitive) team. It ended up being a much longer generation than usual as it ended 2 months short of 4 years (September 2006)

5 games in order:
Ruby & Sapphire 

200 obtainable Pokémon (+2 Mythical Pokémon)

Colosseum - 

The first game in the fresh start era to get

*Early access to certain Generation 2 including:

* Starters, just get a female one so that it is breedable to a newborn.

* Legendary Beasts without the fixed IVs bug and

* Ho-oh without special events.

* US version can get a Jirachi by using a bonus disk

* Japanese version can get a Celebi by using a bonus disk

* PAL owners were lucked out and had to play a really crappy Pokémon Channel game to obtain Jirachi.

Fire Red & Leaf Green

The first game in the fresh start era to get:
* Kanto Starters, Kanto bird trio, Mewtwo, the breeding machine: Ditto

* Move tutors focusing on moves that were TMs in Generation 1 including Softboiled, Mega Punch, Mega Kick and Seismic Toss.

* First games to introduce the elemental Hyper Beam attacks which can only be taught by fully evolved Kanto starters, this got expanded to other fully evolved regional starters in Generation 4, onwards.

Emerald

The game's special edition.

Main selling points:

* Completing the Hoenn dex allowed players to get a Johto starter,

* A non-special event Latias or Latios can be obtained without bugged IVs.

* New move tutors, mainly focusing on moves that were TMs in Generation 2 including Rollout, Elemental Punches and Dynamic Punch.

* Expanded Battle Frontier

* Teaching Pichu family Volt Tackle

XD Gale of Darkness 

The last Generation 3 game to have new movepool updates, it's notable to feature Pokémon learning moves in a special way not normally possible including a Dragonite knowing Heal Bell and Pidgeotto knowing Refresh. There's also a special move tutor NPC who will teach Mew some extra moves including Hypnosis, Trick and Fake Out. Lastly, this is the only way to get a Lugia in Generation 3 without special events.

Generation 4

This was the first generation to support online play and also the last to release 3 different set of games. Started in late September 2006 and ended in September 2010 it was actually a few weeks short of hitting 4 years and is by far the longest generation ever, even the Pokémon anime setting which took place in Sinnoh lasted nearly 190 episodes.

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl 

The first set of games which introduced just 107 new Pokémon, and 29 of them are cross generation related which means they evolve to or from older Pokémon such as a Magneton evolving to Magnezone and a Happini evolving to Chansey.  The game was infamous for only featuring 5 obtainable Fire Type Pokémon before completing the game and obtaining the National Dex, 3 of them are related to a Fire Type regional starter and the other 2 are Ponyta and Rapidash.

Pokémon Platinum

The second entry of Generation 4, released in September 2008, this version introduced brand new formes for Rotom, Giratina and Shaymin. It also introduced the expanded Battle Frontier, early access to obtaining legendary Kanto birds and new move tutor attacks. The native Sinnoh Pokédex got expanded and featured even more Fire Type Pokémon.

Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver 

The third and final entry of Generation 4, released in September 2009, these versions were the first for many players to get a proper Johto experience in the post fresh start era. A new move through breeding was given to almost every breedable non-legendary Pokémon, most notably Feraligatr knowing Aqua Jet and Aggron knowing Head Smash.

This game introduced Flat battle where, all Pokémon that are above level 50 temporarily become level 50, regardless of their current level; however, Pokémon below level 50 will remain at their current level. 

This was the only way in a Generation 4 game to obtain

Kanto Starters, 

Mewtwo, 

Johto Starters, 

Johto Legendaries, 

Hoenn Starters and Hoenn Legendaries including Groudon and Kyogre.

More move tutors were introduced most notably Sucker Punch. These 2 games are the only versions where it's possible to transfer Pokémon with the move Defog to a Generation 5 game. This became a big deal when X & Y were released in 2013 as it provided a very useful improvement to the move.

The 2010s Pokémon cycle.

Generation 5: Black 1, White 1, Black 2 & White 2
Generation 6: X, Y, Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire
Generation 7: Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

Generation 5

The first new Pokémon games released in the 2010s and also the first time since generation 2 to release 2 generations on the same platform. That's how strong the DS was. This generation was the first to have fully animated sprites during the entire battle. The loops are always the same and their eyes even close when falling asleep. 

Black and White

Released in September 2010.

The first entry of Generation 5 had a story mode that was pretty unique as it only featured nothing but brand new Pokémon at the time making it a pseudo-Generation 1 experience where you can't capture a classic Pokémon like Gyarados or Gengar due to good stats, typing, moves, etc to help you out.

It introduced the most new species out of any generation with a decent 156, this is more than new Pokémon species introduced in generations 6 and 7 combined when you exclude both Mega Evolutions and Regional Variants.

Rotom's Appliance formes lost their Ghost typing and got replaced with a different type depending on the extra move learnt from the appliance.

The Pokémon Video Game Championships was getting bigger and bigger.

The first year (2011 Metagame) only allowed 149 Pokémon as it did not allow Mascot Legendaries, 3rd counterpart legendary and Mythical Pokémon.

The second year (2012 Metagame) allowed any Pokémon in the National Pokédex excluding Mewtwo, Mascot Legendaries and Mythical Pokémon.

Black 2 and White 2

The second and final entry of Generation 5.

The first ever direct sequel to a core Pokémon game, new animation sprite loops were given to the starter Pokémon of Generation 5. Move tutors made a comeback but some from the previous generation were missing including Sucker Punch, they were mainly used to give Generation 5 Pokémon more moves to learn. The place called Hidden Grottoes allowed players to get Pokémon to get a useful hidden ability including an Amoonguss with Regenerator and Dragonite with Multiscale.

The third VGC year (2013 Metagame) had the same rules as 2012 but the main difference is that it was played on Black 2 & White 2 which allowed Therian Formes of Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus and extra attacks/abilities from Move Tutors/Hidden Grottoes.

Generation 6

This Generation had a really big impact throughout 2013.

* The announcement showed full 3D graphics, a first for a core game series.

* The E3 trailer revealed a brand new type: Fairy which was introduced as a response to Dragon Type which was a great offensive type in past generations

* 2 Months before release introduced Mega Evolutions which changed how we know Pokémon forever!

This generation started in October 2013 and ended in November 2016

X & Y

Released in 2013, nearly all of the obtainable Kalos Pokémon had a hidden ability which was done by going through a friend safari. Breeding mechanics had an overhaul which allowed Male Pokémon to pass forward (hidden) abilities and female Pokémon to pass forward breeding moves. This gave Azumarill a huge buff as it was finally possible to learn both Belly Drum and Aqua Jet at the same time. The move Defog had a huge buff as it allowed the user to remove entry hazards from the player side.

A new mechanic was added to the Pokémon's stat page, an origin marking. This is a visual proof that the Pokémon was captured in a certain generation, a blue pentagon, in this case, meant that it was captured in X & Y and the later released Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire.

The first VGC year (2014 Metagame) only allowed Pokémon both old and new from the Kalos Pokédex which is roughly 453.

It's also the most famous year as a Korean player from the Masters division used a Pachirisu, an extremely non-viable Pokémon in theory yet managed to use its selling points to the fullest by paralysing his opponents with Nuzzle and using Super Fang to damage bulky Pokémon. It is part of a winning team to have the lowest base stat total. You can Youtube search "Pachirisu 2014" easily, there was a planned parade in Korea that got cancelled because it was that big of a deal.

Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire

The second and last entries of Generation 6, released in November 2014

Unlike the previous remakes, this one broke the mould by giving the cover legendaries (Kyogre and Groudon) brand new super forms. It was also the first time ever that new attacks and abilities were introduced that they were not programmed in X&Y. These moves were Origin Pulse, Dragon Ascent,  Precipice Blades and Hyperspace Fury. Another big selling point at the time was more Mega Evolutions, mainly focusing on Generation 3 Pokémon and Move Tutors for Generation 6 Pokémon to learn new moves. 

Lastly, it was possible to capture all Legendary Pokémon from Generation 1 to Generation 5 by using Mirage Spots, the main selling point of this feature was to use these Pokémon for both Online Battle Spot and Video Game Championships as they would have the blue pentagon. Strangely, Deoxys usually a Mythical Pokémon can be caught in-game right after Rayquaza without special events!

The second VGC year (2015 Metagame) allowed the national dex with exceptions to both Mascot Legendaries and Mythical Pokémon. Nearly every top player in each division had either a Landorus-T and/or a Mega Kangaskhan.

The third VGC year (2016 Metagame) allowed both the national dex and Mascot Legendaries (restricted), this caused many controversies as it puts a heavy limit on Team Building. To "balance" things out, players can only pick 2 from the Mascot Legendaries selection and the other 4 being pretty much legal in VGC 2015.

The most common combos were

Primal Groudon + Xerneas,

Primal Groudon + Primal Kyogre

Primal Kyogre + Mega Rayquaza

The other 4 were usually:
Smeargle - A speedy Smeargle can outrun most bulky mascot legendaries and shut them down with a Dark Void. This is huge against the best legendaries because their held item for 99% of the time isn't a berry which cures sleep status.

Talonflame - Gale Wings is a very good ability and combine that with base 120 Brave Bird, it has a very strong priority move. It can also use priority Tailwind to let its bulky invested teammates to outspeed offensive opponents.

Kangaskhan - One of the best Mega Pokémon from X & Y, a scary ability which has fantastic utility with the ability to hit twice. This can lead to +2 Attack boosts from Power-up Punch and can even deal damage against Substitute users.

Salamence - One of the best Mega Pokémon from Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, the stat distribution is simply incredible with special defence being average at best. A good offensive speed tier along with a good offensive ability to convert Normal Type moves (Return, Double-Edge or Hyper Voice) into Flying Type moves and get a x1.3 boost from it and that's not factoring Same Type Attack Bonus.

Generation 7

Released in the year the franchise turned 20 and a few months after the unexpected phenomenon that is Pokémon GO. This generation started in November 2016 and is still currently going as of February 2018.

Sun & Moon

The first game to introduce Regional Variants, this focused on classic Pokémon getting new formes due to the environment of the Alola region. Only 81 Generation 7 Pokémon were introduced in the game. This entry was notable for downgrading certain mechanics in the game from abilities to status conditions.

It was also the second time ever since Pokémon Yellow that elements from the X&Y anime mainly Ash-Greninja and Zygarde's 10% & Complete formes were playable.

A new mechanic called Z-moves are one time super moves which can change the momentum of a battle, it used up a Pokémon's item slot and certain Pokémon can learn signature Z-moves.  

Pokémon obtained natively from a Generation 7 game would have a black cross aka the Alola symbol.

The first VGC year only allowed 295 out of 302 from the Alola Pokédex, the extra Pokémon found by using Island Scan and Mega Stones are not legal. The pacing ended up being surprisingly slower as moves including Toxic and Recover were actually ok to use. The most used Pokémon were Arcanine and a Tapu. Arcanine being one of the few bulky Fire Type Pokémon with Intimidate to lower the opponents' attack stat and a diverse movepool made it an unpredictable threat.

Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon

The second and last entry of Generation 7 and the final core Pokémon games for the 3DS. Everyone was surprised to get a special edition nearly 1 year after the original Sun and Moon duo but things got more surprising as a few weeks before launch, a new trailer from a Nintendo Direct revealed brand new species of Pokémon.

The main difference is that past games revealed new formes of already existing Pokémon, this one was not the case as they cannot be traded to the original Sun & Moon games at all. More formes for Necrozma were added to the game, more breeding moves were added to the game.

Move Tutors had a big impact this time as a move called Defog finally made a return after a long absence from Pokémon Platinum and it allowed monsters from Generation 5 to 7 to learn this vital move for competitive single battles.

Similar to Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, Ultra Wormholes can be used to access different dimensions and capture Legendary Pokémon from Generation 1 to 6. These obtainable Pokémon would have a black cross that makes them legal for Online Battle Spot and upcoming Video Game Championships.

As of 2018, Pokémon is starting their second VGC tournament and it allows the entire national dex with exceptions to both Mascot Legendaries and Mythical Pokémon. Mega Stones are no longer banned making it a completely different environment than 2017.

Generation 8 in 2018?

So everyone is talking about Pokémon Switch, I for one would doubt that it will hit late 2018 for a few good reasons.

1) Core Pokémon games tend to come out for the latest handheld system nearly 2 years+ after launch.

2) The upcoming movie has a high chance of focusing on Zenora as a downloadable Mythical Pokémon and I'm hoping that the Pokémon Movie 2019 project will focus on Floette-Eternal flower forme.

3) Video Game Championships has not done the 3rd year and there's a good chance that it would reintroduce restricted legendaries otherwise Alola Symbol marked Pokémon from Generations 1 to 6 are wasted.

4) The anime tends to start around the same time as the games. Ash has taken out 2 out of the 4 Island Kahunas (pretty much Gym Leaders in Alola for the anime) and a third one will eventually happen according to the upcoming Ultra Guardians arc poster. Ash rarely enters the Pokémon League until after at least 100 episodes into the series and it is currently on episode 60.

5) The big important one, after releasing the original pair of Generation 8 games, Game Freak could release remakes of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl 14 years after the original DS release and add the ability to travel through  time and space to encounter and capture legendary Pokémon from Generations 1 to 7 and make them legal for upcoming Online Battle Spot matches and Video Game Championships in 2020, can you get the hint?

6 Things Inti Creates can do to improve the Switch version of Azure Striker Gunvolt

It has been over 4 months since the release of the Switch version of Gunvolt. A lot of users are saying for the first game it was the definitive version. I only half agree as I have played this game on 3DS, PC Steam and Switch. This is not a traditional review post, I wanted to share my opinions on how to make this release even better.

1) GV1 Bring back content from the PC version.

One of my main criticisms about the Switch version is the near lack of extra content. The only content that is new from a pure Nintendo player perspective are the 2 extra difficulty modes, Easy and Hard. Gone are the full game speedrun modes and survival modes. Is it possible to use Gunvolt 2's speedrun mode as a baseline for this game, having an in-game timer that only runs during actual gameplay?  In other words, there is significantly less replay value for this game over GV2.

2) GV1 Add the classic right stick flick command for skills.

In the PC release of GV1, the skills were only set on a Keyboard from F1 to F4, a few quick updates later and it was implemented to the right stick. The execution was simple, hit Up for skill 1, Right for skill 2, Down for skill 3 and Left for skill 4. When playing the Switch version, you select a skill with the right stick and then PUSH the stick 'RS' to activate the skill. This feels very awkward to execute in tight situations and pushing the stick may sometimes hit one of the four directions leading to a chance that you can activate the wrong skill by accident.

3) GV1 Add the quick skill shortcut button (X)

The Switch version of Gunvolt 1 added Dash Speed Wall jumps, a mechanic that was first introduced in the sequel. I was surprised that this little neat feature wasn't added to the game. The X button in GV1 is used to disable real-time text. I would have preferred if that button was set to Minus like in GV2.

4) GV1 Add other translations to the Japanese dialogue text.

This one doesn't bother me personally because I'm English and so I get to understand the lore of Gunvolt 1. But as of the Switch release, the Japanese dialogue text has only been translated into English and nothing else, unlike its sequel where even the 3DS release had translations from Japanese dialogue text into other languages.

5) GV1 Make Copen playable. (Azure Striker Gunvolt & Copen)

Ok, this one is a bit far-fetched and nearly impossible when you got to factor material, upgrades, memory expansions and EX weapons but you only need to amend Nova 2 by removing its barrier and use Shred Storm/Strike Saw to remove _FINALBOSS_ Voltaic Chain. 

Lower half of the screen is the EXP bar.

6) GV1 & 2 Show experience point bar without having to pause the game.

Usually, the exp bar gets shown in dual screen gameplay (3DS and PC when using certain layouts) but the Switch version is a pure single screen experience and the exp bar can only be seen when pausing the game. I wouldn't mind having it nearby the top left part where the HP bar is.

Bonus) GV2 Remove the kudos keeper style mechanic in GV2's speedrun mode.

The 2nd game's speedrun mode did get the in-game timer spot-on but what puts me off from running this game a lot is that it has Kudos Keeper on by default, this forces a more cautious play as it essentially becomes a no damage speedrun when done right. The extra high kudos does kill the difficulty when fighting against Zonda copy and true Zonda as they can be defeated in roughly under 10 seconds thanks to the 1000 Kudos bonus(es) from the previous bosses.  Some of the best speedruns tend to take damage on purpose to abuse damage invincibility and it leads to some creative route planning. That little mechanic should have been a separate speedrun mode similar to how it was treated in GV1's PC speedrun mode.

In conclusion, despite my 7 points on how to improve the game, they are the best version when it comes to performance thanks to the silky smooth 60fps and compared to the PC release, way less crashes.