Day 17 - Prepare for Trouble

Okay, I've been playing for about 22 hours now and I gotta say: Team Rocket is probably the lamest video game villain I've ever encountered.



I mean, villains are necessary in a game in order to keep the stakes high. The more villainous the character, the higher the stakes, right? That's probably why so many villains in video games want to either enslave the world or unleash some demon who's going to devour the world (think any Final Fantasy or Zelda game, for example).

So basically Team Rocket is this group of reprobates bent on taking over the world. Okay, you have me so far.

Now how does Team Rocket go about this goal? Well, so far, their plans have involved...

1) Selling Slowpoke Tails for really expensive on the black market (no, they don't kill the Slowpokes, and to be honest, the Slowpokes don't seem to mind).

2) Turn a Gyrados red by evolving it too soon, or something.

3) Take over a radio station so that you can broadcast “Team Rocket Rules!” over the airwaves.

Annnnd that's it. As you can imagine, the stakes are never really all that high, and I never really care. Now, that being said, I'm only partway through the game, and may have yet to come to the part where they drive a bus full of explosives into the United Nations or unleash a thread of anthrax into the drinking water, but at the moment you can colour me unimpressed.



Now, I know what you're thinking: “But Aaron, who cares if Team Rocket is a lame villain? That's not the point of this game! This is Pokémon, in which the story is really just a means to an end, and that's the exciting gameplay!”

To that I say.... well, yeah. I guess you're right about that. But still, there are plenty of games out there with great gameplay and a great story. For once I'd like to see a Pokémon game with both.

At the very least, though, Team Rocket has provided me with plenty of battles, given me lots of opportunities to level up my Pokémon. As such, I've had quite a few of my guys evolve in the past few days. ChickenBoo grew into a Pidgeotto, and Amy into a Raticate. I promptly ditched Amy and started training Buggin Out in her place. He quickly grew to a Kakuna, and then a Beedrill, at which point I swapped him out for Psycho Fox. Psycho Fox grew into a Kadabra. The slot is now being occupied by my Machop, whom I've named Maraxus.

Oh, and Swayze evolved into a sweet Haunter. Here's a pic (courtesy of my brother David):



On top of those I've also caught a metric shitload of wild Pokémon in the last few days. They consist of:

-A level 22 male Vulpix named Ash
-A level 20 female Diglett named Resetti
-A level 24 male Farfetch'd named Ferdinand
-A level 15 female Jigglypuff named Duffy
-A level 17 Magnemite named IG-88
-A level 17 male Rhyhorn named Rocksteady
-A level 17 female Sunkern named Flora
-A level 5 male Eevee named Lockjaw

Not to mention a Venonat, Oddish, Wobuffet, Bellsprout, and Dratini on my Pokéwalker. On top of that, Oberyn evolved into an Arbok, courtesy of the hard work he's been doing on my Pokéwalker. He now looks appropriately awesome.

That brings me to 75 Pokémon, which means I've added 20 Pokémon to the 'Dex in the past three days. I think it's clear at this point that I'm not in the prisoner-taking business, I'm in the Pokémon-taking business.

And brother, business is booming.

Day 17 Pokédex count: Seen 145, caught 75
Professor Oak says: You're training them well. You know that some Pokémon don't evolve just by battling with others, right?

Say wha, Professor?

I can talk the Pokétalk, but can I walk the Pokéwalk?

This past Saturday night, my girlfriend and I were supposed to meet up after I had finished work (around midnight). Unfortunately, there were a few mixups, near-misses, and crossed wires, all of which were exacerbated by the fact that her cell phone had died, leaving me unable to get into contact with her. Long story short, I spent a good few hours going all over the city trying to find her, firmly believing that she may have been abducted and quite possibly killed.

As night wore on and I ran from location to location, hoping to find some clue as to her whereabouts, a creeping image began to pervade my thoughts: that of my girlfriend scared and helpless, at the mercy of some street gang or psychotic killer, praying for help that would come too late. The thought sickened me, made me feel weak and nauseous, frustrated to the brink of tears.

As it turned out, she wasn't dead, had simply thought I finished work at a different time, and waited for like an hour longer than anyone would have reasonably been expected to before heading to my house. When she found out I had gone all over the city looking for her, fearing the worst, she was touched. Then I told her that the one thing that had kept me going through the ordeal, kept me strong – that one thought that kept playing itself in my head, urging me on despite wanting to break down in despair – was knowing that I was racking up some sweet mileage with my Pokémon Pedometer, or Pokéwalker.

Not so much with the touched.

So what is the Pokéwalker? It's a portable pedometer peripheral that comes packaged with your purchase of the new Pokémon, of course.

Basically, you're allowed to transfer any one of your Pokémon to the small device. Like a pedometer, it keeps track of the steps you've taken. For every 20 steps you take, you earn 1 Watt. The more Watts you earn, the more items you unlock, and the stronger your Pokémon grows. What's more, you can even catch Pokémon on the device that you couldn't catch otherwise!



For me, this is perfect. I'm about average at playing Pokémon, which is a bit depressing considering the median age among people playing this game is like negative three. However, I can safely say that I'm above average at walking around in circles like a moron. The Pokéwalker has now given me, for once in my life, an edge at something.

Consider my job: I'm a Customer Experience Representative of a major book chain. This basically means I have to walk up and down the rows of the bookstore for 8 hours a day, seeing if anyone needs help finding what they're looking for. In your average day of work, I'm walking a little bit more than 20,000 steps (that's 1 thousand Watts). Yes, I've heard that there are ways to cheat the device (thanks for the link, Eric), but I don't plan on doing that, as it goes against my Pokémorals. Hell, I don't need to do that. I even hear that walking is healthy for you. After all, I'd hate to end up like these kids.

In other Pokémon news, didn't play much this weekend, spent most of it with Rebecca to celebrate her not being dead. Two of my Pokémon evolved, though – Tokek into a Feraligatr and Moloch into a Nidorino.

Other than that, I caught a level 14 male Koffing (Cap'nTrips), a level 13 female Miltank (Cudley), and a level 16 female Meowth (Macavity). On my Pokéwalker, however, I caught an Elekid, Murkrow, Smoochum, Onix, Machop, Tentacool, Shellder, Grimer, and Voltorb.

As you can see, the Pokéwalker has been quite instrumental in my quest of catching 'em all. Of the 40 or so Pokémon I've now accrued, 14 of them have been from the pedometer. Many of them are fairly commonplace, but some I'm pretty excited about, such as Elekid. I have a feeling he's going to be in my lineup for the longterm.



This post is dedicated to my Ekans, Oberyn, who's been tirelessly racking up all these Watts on my Pokéwalker.