Tuesday, August 14, 2012

You won't see this anywhere else!

Preaching to the choir much? The Kanto starter poll ended up in a crushing victory for Venusaur, gathering no less than 171 out of 271 votes. Blastoise came a distant second with 66, while Charizard could only muster 34. Anywhere else, you'd need a sample of about 40 people to have 34 Charizard votes... but not here! I'm proud of you guys! Kidding, you're free to think whatever you want. Fact is, I don't hate Charizard, I just don't think it's worthy of all that hype. It looks average, it fights average, it's just average.

Next up is a poll on the subject of my last blog: is Pikachu overmarketed? Let me tell you a little story: when Pokémon first was unleashed in North America, I dismissed it as something for little kids, mostly because of the overly cute mascot. It was on the recommendation of one of my brother's friends that I started playing, and the rest is history. But the fact remains that I almost passed up on it just because of that goddamn rodent. It is just THAT overmarketed, in my opinion. And that's insulting to the many, many, MANY great designs they made over the years that deserve some of the spotlight.

26 comments:

  1. For some reason I thought the next poll was going to be "which is your favourite Pikachu clone". I should have learned by now to expect better than that from you, Slowflake.

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  2. My view on this issue is the following. Pikachu is VERY popular and is no doubt the most famous pokémon around. It's over-marketted because it's so famous. If something is going to bring in money, it's going to have to bring in more money for Game Freak and Nintendo, allowing them to make more great games for the franchise, so it makes sense to market the most popular of the franchise with the public to attract the money.

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  3. My opinion is somewhere between Yes and sort of.
    Yes, they are definitely over marketing Pikachu, but not to the point of giving the franchise a bad image.
    A CHILDISH image, especially for the anime. GOD! I think that the anime has actually devolved, when it started, it felt more like it was made for the 10-13 demographic, and not the 6-10 demographic of today...
    The games, well... Some do view the as childish, where as i think that they are just simplistic in many areas...
    I can guarantee you that not many ten year old kids are gonna beat the game too quickly...

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  4. YES. Pikachu is the sort of thing that makes non-Pokemon fans laugh at Pokemon. WE know its great and all, but non-fans will just think that its for little kids just because of how Pikachu, Jigglypuff and other 'popular' Pokemon look. But did you know Clefairy would have been the mascot of the series (Clefairy was meant to be in Pikachu's place in the anime but they changed it at the last minute)? It would've been even worse then.

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  5. I won't say Venusaur is bad, because it's not. It just doesn't have any moves to work with in the games in which it's usable. I am aware that in Gen I, as long as you're faster, Razor Leaf is always a critical hit, but the fact is, that's 110 damage without the chance of a critical hit, as opposed to Blastoise's Surf, or even Charizard's Flamethrower, both of which are 95 damage with a slight chance of a critical hit. Of course, I'm splitting hairs here.

    My thought is, instead of an Electric-type rodent for each region, they should make a rodent that evolves with a Stone for each region. Minccino is a step in the right direction, and I think it's perfectly marketable with parallels to Ash's Pikachu that would translate well to the anime. I just think Pikachu gets all the hype it does because it was part of the first generation, which was when Pokemon was at the height of popularity.

    Still, accepting Pikachu as a permanent fixture in Pokemon, I've always maintained that it's not that far fetched to base a protagonist off the male player in any particular generation and BS him getting a Pikachu. That way, the anime stays fresh, and Pikachu remains the mascot through and through. Everyone wins! Sadly, that will never be the case.

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  6. Where was the, "F*** yeah, it is overrated!" option? Sadly, many peoe see Pikachu as cute, so the girls get into it. Many boys know Pikachu because of the anime, where it can beat a Rhydon, Onix, and Dragonite 1-on-1...but it cannot beat a Seaking. Problem: as you say, little ones tend to like what the older people like. The franchise may get more views if, say, Zapdos or Mewtwo of Gen 1 were the series mascots.
    I am not covering the cover legendaries because they are on the cover for the people to go, "Whoa! That thing looks totally awesome! I must buy this game at once!" If they wanted a more modern approach with their mascot, good choices are including, but not limited to (this is my opinion): Tyranitar, Houndoom (Christians that are not me would LOVE that), Garchomp, Zoroark, Hydreigon, Zebstrika (only looks cool, does not play the best), and Terrakion. With the exception of Zebstrika and, to some extent, Zoroark, all of these tear crap up while looking cool. If they must go with cute, may I suggest Jirachi, Azelf...even Masuda's favorite Victini?...

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    1. You got a point there, Masuda's own favorite is a Pokémon whose design comes from a very similar mold to Pikachu's, except it's just better on all accounts. Fresher, cooler, more powerful, name it.

      Also, perhaps the greatest irony in what the anime did was that Seaking eventually DID become impervious to Electric attacks after all these years. At least the ones found in the Dream World, which are the only ones worth using. Well, they really aren't, but considering the alternatives...

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    2. Even though said favorite Pokemon of his is not very good competitively despite having the single most powerful Fire move in the current game in terms of uncalculated Base Power (I am aware that Darminitan's Flare Blitz is stronger when calculated with STAB and Sun). Personally, I would think Jirachi would be a better mascot because it is not outclassed competitively (it DID get Metagross lower in OU and Bronzong in UU)...

      Why do I think that the DW Seakings are a reference to that humiliation of Ash's Pikachu? Then again, why use Seaking when, in any tier, you can find better Waters. Granted, like you, I do have sort of a soft spot for Lapras, who outclasses Seaking, despite still being NU because it is slow, half Ice, and weak to Stealth Rock...

      The only point to Seaking is that old meme involving him...

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  7. It's because of Pikachu's appearance in the original Super Smash Bros that I ever learned about the very existence of Pokemon, because back in the days, it was still a quite obscure game in my region. It's for this reason that I can't get myself to actually hate it, but I do admit that I'm starting to get tired to see it get all the spotlight. I don't have anything against it being a staple of the franchise, but still... would a little variation be that hard ? Overusing the same successful element has never payed off in the long run and many old franchises are currently learning it the hard way. Let's hope that Game Freak realize this before it's too late.

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  8. Pikachu is way over-marketed, of course. However, I find it easy to ignore most of the time, because I don't follow the anime. In the games, Pikachu is nothing but an afterthought, except in the case of the Pikachu-centric games. The most annoying thing is probably the sheer number of events based on Pikachu, none of which are interesting. I'm going to go with option two because of this.

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  9. I still think that they should go down the Pokémon Adventures/Special route and re-do the marketing for each generation. New main character, new mascot Pokémon, new everything. It shows that the franchise is changing, would still draw kids in (with great designs), but also not turn people away so long as the designs were good (which they inevitably are).
    Anyway, yeah. I don't think Pikachu gives the franchise a bad image, but I do think that it's overmarketed. People basically only know of Pikachu, and it gives the impression that nothing new's happened with the series for over a decade (which is probably true of the anime).

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    1. Yeay in Pokemon Adventures/Special Pikachu has a big role but not so big it get,s annoying. But i don,t like Pikachu. It one of these pokemon that look like they can,t do much but they can while it are others like Bedrill where it are the opposite.

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  10. Well, now seeing as it's getting its own 3DS color Pikachu Yellow, exclusively in Japan of course. http://sickr.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/nintendo_3ds_xl_pikachu.jpg

    I know they released other Pikachu themed systems too, but this is a recent one.

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    1. Yeah i rather would want a Tyranitar based DS then freaking Pikachu!

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    1. Did you follow his extremely simple to follow rules, which can be readily accessed on his channel page?...

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    2. Yes. I wasn't rude or calling him names or anything that violated his rules. All I did was say that I like Vanilluxe and Garbordor and said that both can be helpful if used properly.

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    3. No, you said it could be useful if used with Hail, Blizzard, Mirror Coat or Mirror Shot. FUCKING MIRROR SHOT. On a Pokémon that gets Flash Cannon, which still is lightyears away from standard on Vanilluxe, no less (probably because Steel sucks donkey dick at offense). Last time I checked, it was the polar opposite of properly. And you kept saying it over and over whenever the subject popped up. Quite frankly, I'm having trouble deciding if you're just being honestly wrong (and I mean WRONG) or trolling, but you know what? Thinking about it some more, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Ban lifted.

      Oh, and for the record, it can't be useful if used properly if your opponent uses one of the 500 Pokémon that are better than it properly as well. "It can be useful if used properly" equates to "only use it when you're far better than your opponent", which means that for any good player who knows better than to judge a potential opponent as being unworthy, this very sentence is the shit stamp of disapproval.

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    4. I'm sorry I pissed you off, and no I wasn't trolling. I just get a little agitated sometimes when I perceive that because I like a certain Pokemon that I'm an idiot for liking it. Didn't mean to cause a fiasco.

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    5. No, I apologize, I was in the wrong. Not for Vanilluxe sucking, but for banning you. See, the problem is that sometimes it's hard to tell. You're entitled to your opinion, you can like Vanilluxe if you want, but to say it's competent in battle is a very generous stretch.

      Either way, this whole thing at least gave me an idea for something to talk about in the future, so thanks for that.

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    6. Thanks for being cool about this whole thing. I know I made my major fuck ups, but I'm glad you're being nice about this and I'm glad I gave you a new thing to discuss.

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    7. Another thing you don't see often on the Internet, a rational and reasoned argument that ends in both parties being cool with each other.

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    8. Don't worry about it too much, I also got on Slowflake's nerves at first and I'm surprised I never crossed the limit of his patience myself. The most important thing to remember is to never make the same mistake twice. :P

      But on a more serious note, you shouldn't expect him to keep any "emotional attachment" or "nostalgia" values in mind when giving his own opinion. I admit it kinda pissed me off as well at first, but you just get used to it. After all, if people used their logic a little more (Ok, actually, MUCH MORE...) instead of letting their emotions act as a trigger to violently defend their opinion, there would be much less flame wars on the internet. (And maybe on a larger scale, but I think it would take much more than that...)

      Remember that it's not because something is bad that you can't like it.

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    9. Rational and reasoned? I can't speak for Katie here, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't, in retrospect. I've attracted and seen many different kinds of trolls, with all kinds of different behaviors, and in this case I let the will to defend my channel get the best of me. Some of them behave in a similar way, but in this case it's become pretty clear that Katie had no malicious intent, and in fact just didn't know better.

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  12. Yes!! I'd rather have Excadrill, Hydreigon, or even Cincinno than that annoying rodent

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  13. The final starter forms, main legendaries, stand-out badass Poké, and even generic crap like Watchog would make a better mascot, considering that they actually represent that region than some fame-humping rodent.

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