Mewby Dick

Okay, it seems that since I've been away, the amount of Pokémon I need to worry about has grown considerably - by 156, to be exact. This brings my ultimate Pokégoal from an already ambitious 493 to 649, a figure that makes me want to weep in the corner of my bedroom.

Source: http://i-am-bleu.deviantart.com/art/All-649-pokemon-216558162

Add to that the fact that come October, at least 50 new Pokémon are headed our way (though I'd be surprised if the number doesn't end up being closer to 100), and this daunting journey just got dauntinger.

So, to keep something of my sanity, I'm going to focus on my original goal, which was to collect all 493 Pokémon that existed prior to Black and White's release. Only after that will I start worrying about the Generation V Pokémon. Once October rolls around I'll probably get started on playing X/Y either way (I'm only human after all), but for the purposes of this blog, the goal for now is to fill my SoulSilver Pokédex.

Before we go further, I want to fill everyone in on the Pokémon I obtained since I had stopped blogging in 2010. As I mentioned in my last post, even though I didn't blog, I had kept playing until around March of 2011, and I had also kept detailed notes of my journey.

The most important acquisitions were no doubt the legendaries, most of them acquired via promotions at my local EB Games. Beating Trainer Red allowed me to catch a Groudon, whom I named Pangaea. I mentioned catching a Latias, and thanks to the promotions I also managed to get my hands on a shiny Suicune, shiny Entei, and shiny Raikou. I had already caught a regular Suicune previously, but hey, the more the merrier. Also, thanks to Wi-Fi events, I managed to obtain a Celebi and, most importantly, a Mew.

Obtaining a Mew is particularly exciting. Growing up with the original games, owning a Mew was that impossible dream. The green light of the distant dock. The great white whale. Everyone at school knew a best friend of a cousin or a brother's co-worker from Japan who had managed to capture one, but no one had seen one for themselves. No matter how many times they tried to use strength on the truck near the SS Anne, the great pink mouse eluded them. Now that I finally have one, it's good to know that if I ever had to meet my younger self in the style of Disney's The Kid, for all his disappointments, Young Aaron would still be happy to know that at least one of his lifelong goals was accomplished.

So that's 11 legendaries in the bag. I still have 24 legendaries to go, but I think at this point the only ones I can obtain solely through SoulSilver are Articuno, Moltres, and Latios (Diagala, Palkia, Giratina, and Rayquaza are also possible to obtain, but you need certain other Pokémon for them). I can get another eight through my copy of Pokémon Pearl when I fire that one up, plus four more from my Ruby copy. However, after those I'll have to be resourceful for the remaining few, specifically the event Pokémon.

The rest is a bit boring, but for completion's sake I'm listing it here. Feel free to skip ahead if you don't really care about which particular Pokémon I've caught, but here's a fairly straightforward list (species followed by nickname in parenthesis):

-Chatot (Dictabird)
-Carnivine (Wyndham)
-Dunsparce (Dumbsparce)
-Whismur (Murmel)
-Makuhita (E. Honda)
-Plusle (Pika Who?)
-Minun (Pika You!)
-Numel (Fergie)
-Spoink (Hamton)
-Spinda (Sad Panda)
-Absol (Bubastis)
-Larvitar (Qwantz)
-Charmander (Smaug)
-Lickitung (Terezi)
-Tyrogue (Segal)
-Mudkip (Vorinclex)

 
Additionally, I managed to catch a Finneon, Shellos, Pachirisu, Clefairy (Ariel), Spritomb, and Feebas with my Pokéwalker. I also caught another Vulpix, and traded it to my sister for a Growlithe named Gerald.

Evolution-wise, I managed to evolve:

-McLovin into a Dewgong
-The Flood into a Parasect
-Hecate into a Nidorina and then Nidoqeen
-Ash into a Ninetales
-Morrigan into a Golbat
-Laura into a Gloom and then Vileplume
-Baxter into a Venomoth
-Duffy into a Wigglytuff
-Macavity into a Persian
-Toothless into a Dragonite
-Plucky into a Golduck
-Gerald into an Arcanine
-Ursula into a Poliwhirl and then Poliwrath
-Bland into Weepinbell
-Hentai into Tentacruel
-Epona into Rapidash
-IG-88 into Magneton
-Sloth into Slowbro
-Smaug into Charmeleon and then Charizard
-Ariel into Clefable
-Hexxus into Muk
-Pubert into Kinger
-Voltaire into Electrode
-Seabiscuit into Seadra
-Jabu Jabu into Seaking
-Klaatu into Xatu
-Mallow into Quagsire
-Clegane into Houndoom
-Qwantz into Pupitar

 
...and that's just the Pokémon I caught before quitting in March. Since picking up SoulSilver again, I've actually been fairly productive, adding at least one entry to the Pokédex every day (though often more). So far, I've managed to catch:

-a level 3 male Aipom (Caesar)
-a level 5 male Heracross (Lennon)
-a level 27 male Skarmony (Toomes)
-a level 40 female Corsola (Lola)

and evolved:

Qwantz into Tyranitar
Floaty into Octillery
Sobotka into Linoone
Vorinclex into Marshtomp, and then Swampert
Nymeria into Mightyena
The Orphan into Kirlia, and then Gardevoir
Segal into Hitmontop
and finally, Murmel into Loudred


...okay. Whew! That brings us up to the absolute present. I realize that at this stage in the game I'm getting towards the end in terms of Pokémon I can catch solely through SoulSilver. For now I'm really just narrowing down those few Pokémon that have slipped through my grasp, while fighting at the Saffron city gym and Indigo Plateau in order to evolve the Pokémon I have left to evolve. I'm also sorely in need of evolutionary stones, so I should probably start hitting up the Pokéathlon soon. Once I'm finished with all that, it's on to Pokémon Ruby, but that will probably still be a few months (or dare I say... weeks?) away.

Pokémon Count at 118:11 hours of gameplay: Seen 366, caught 257
Professor Oak says: If you Headbutt a tree, sometimes a Pokémon might fall out!

Anyways, thanks for bearing with me. Now that we're all caught up, the next blog should be a bit more fun.