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Episode 135: POW! THWACK! RAGE QUIT!

by Michael Cole and Neal Ronaghan - June 4, 2015, 6:53 pm EDT
Total comments: 1

Neal discusses obscure favorites from the past and the site's E3 plans. Oh, right, and video game music.

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Did you like this episode's game selections? Let your fellow listeners know in TalkBack! Think you've got a better choice that hasn't been used yet? Then send it my way and your request might be on the next episode of Radio Trivia: Podcast Edition! Heck, throw in a question and specific songs if you want. Just remember, it has to be a game found on a Nintendo system in North America (unless we say otherwise)!

Games featured in this episode:

  1. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U)
  2. Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge (SNES)
  3. The Wonderful 101 (Wii U)
  4. Pokémon X / Y (3DS)
  5. Jackal (NES)

(Highlight the text above with your cursor to view it.)

This episode was edited by Michael "TYP" Cole. All game music is copyright their respective owners. Intro music is copyright Jason Ricci & New Blood . You can purchase their newest album, Done with the Devil, directly from the record label, Amazon (CD) (MP3), or iTunes, or call your local record store and ask for it!

Talkback

3/5.

Game 4 is one I am highly opinionated on. Gen 6 has been an awful disappointment to me. it is the 3 steps forward, 4 steps back gen of pokemon. Lack of new pokemon designs (what's there is really good!), an engine that cannot keep up with the hardware it was designed for, a VERY serious game-breaking bug at launch, a regression in storytelling and overall map design, and a postgame so dysmal and filled with non-sequitur easter eggs that the whole of Pokemon X and Y felt like it was destined for some grand DLC scheme. instead, ORAS just came out in what I am sure was a hasty dev cycle considering the loss of such a lauded feature and the add-on of more mega evolution bullshit.

I was down for Megas at the start of gen 6, but now feel they are probably the single worst part about it. the level of power creep that these things cause is unreal. there's a handful I still really love that gave pokemon who were outright terrible some new logengevity, but there's also a lot of stuff that's like "This is a popular pokemon! let's just toss a mega evolution their way and to hell with the conciquences!" This, of course, has taken resources away from maybe improving some of the pokemon of the past who could really use the help, like Dunsparse.

I also think that the really aliased and pixelated 3D models for the pokemon look REALLY bad. I really honestly prefered the animated and rotating sprites of Gen 5 visually. that at least kinda reminded me of the PSX RPGs that were coming out at the time that Pokemon came out.

Most importantly, I dislike the soundtrack. that second song you chose is my least favorite route theme in the entire series, and it's what plays on the route the daycare is on! I cannot breed pokemon without finding a podcast or something, because UUUUUUUUGH that faffy lil' trumpet fanfare is godawful. I really don't like the wild battle theme. it is incredibly grating and sucks the energy OUT of the battle along with the shit-tier framerate. The Gym leader battle sounds like what would happen if you sucked all the fun out of F-Zero GX and that vomit-enducing theme for the recycled legendary pokemon is just... eurotrash with a measure or two of Kanto wild battle mixed in. The town themes fair a little bit such as the screne bell driven Anissar city and Snowbelle City, but... man, Black/White B2/W2 had such better soundtracks. also, the instrumentation for ORAS is like... really muted and there's like... only one or two songs in that whole soundtrack that I feel properly fit RSE's GBA Bombast, and one of those songs isn't even in the original games because its' tied to the Delta Episode, but I digress.

Lysander is a really stupid villan with a stupid plan to accomplish a noble goal in a really infintile way, and it clashes so much with the rest of his team that it's not even pallatable. Team Plasma is so much better. the multiple rivals are a neat idea in theory, but they all feel far more shallow in practice from some of the series' better ones like Silver or Barry or Cherren. there's also UI things that were just... far more cleaner and worked better in BW than they did in X/Y.

That being said, there are things I like. Pokemon Bank, PSS, Super Training, Pokemon-Amie, and hoarde battles are all EXCELENT additions. The ease of EVing a pokemon and the transparency is something I feel should have been incorperated into the games as soon as the internet blew the lid on how pokemon's stats are determined. It's also amazing that they've done so much more to give you a better shot at getting amazing IVs between Friend Safari, Legendaries breing garenteed 3 perfect IVs, and the destiny knot making breeding a whole lot easier. Fish Chaining is really great and fun to do (try fishing in a spot like... 50 times in a row without moving while having a pokemon with suction cups at the front of your party, like say... a Malamar!), and the availability of pokemon is just wonderful.

Oh, also, worst streetpass function of any 3DS game I own, period.

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