Missy's Game Shelf

Rare we get a Pokemon Presents this late, but here we are. Let’s look over last weeks Pokemon news and see what else is happening.

World Championship this year in California. Everyone get ready for this years Championship, Scarlett and Violet, TCG, GO, and Unite are all getting top players. Honestly I only watch the Championship for plays like the Pachirisu, a player who attacked his own pokemon to ensure terrain change, and other unexpected plays.

Pokemon Concerige

I remember this being announced a few years ago and now more episodes are being announced for September 4th. Honestly the Pokemon look good and stop motion doesn’t look bad, but the human characters don’t look as good, maybe that one is just me. I don’t particularly like that style so a bias already exists, but if you enjoy this or are a fan of this style give it a shot.

New Show The Misadventures of Sirfetched and Pichu

It seems to be a story from Pokemon’s perspective which is fine. What is the interest in stop motion recently? It is set for release 2027 and that is all we know about it trailer didn’t offer much, but seems to be a comedy and is seemingly at beginning stages.

Pokepark Kanto

Pokepark is a store dedicated to Pokemon located all over Japan. People outside of that likely are aware the Nintendo Store in New York started off as a Pokepark before expanding to include all Nintendo franchises. So they are opening an attraction in Tokyo, Japan in 2026. Aside from forests and such we don’t really see anything about this.

Apps

Go is debuting an event Eturnatus and revolving what seems to be the Darkest Day featured in Sword and Shield along with Gen 8 Starter Gigantamax forms, Carmine and Sinistea are joining Pokemon Masters EX which makes me think Kieran and Ogrepon are not far behind, Lapras will be debuting in Pokemon Cafe Remix with a captains outfit, along with new decorations based off water Pokemon and the sea with Alolan Meowth, Totodile, and Mincino all geting sailor outfits with Jigglypuff getting a summer fun outfit that seems based on a Smash Bros skin, Amber Canyon is releasing for Pokemon Sleep and the Suicune Entei and Raiku event is happening (maybe again I am sure they were already in the game feel free to correct me later). Unite is celebrating its fourth anniversary with the release of Latios and Latias along with a new game type Electrode Volleyball and the Pawmi line is coming to Unite as well.

TCG

A new pack likely to promote and coincide with Legends A-Z called Mega Evolution is coming in September. featuring the return of Mega Evolution cards.

Pokemon Friends

A very simple (likely geared towards children) puzzle game that seemed based on terrible mobile game ads. released for switch, ios, and android.

Main series updates

Switch 2 owners are getting a free update to try and make the Paldea games playable, along with Tera Raid events in both versions featuring the Ruinous Pokemon in a shiny Pokemon event involving 1 million players fighting them. Does Scarlett and Violet even have 1 million people still playing it?

Pokemon Legends ZA

While there wasn’t much information we didn’t already know. I did ask a few questions during the direct. The biggest reveal was a new Mega for Dragonite, but that was it. Some information was revealed on the plot and characters. I think the bigger questions are there other new or returning characters aside from Emma and AZ. Will we see the four rivals from the X and Y games (Calem/Selena, Shauna, Teirno, and Trevor) and will Professor Sycamore or his assistants Sina and Dexio return?

I keep thinking in a perfect world this dude would just take responsibility, apologize, and take an L. That is not happening and if it makes Pirate feel better I am sure Blizzard will take you back Activision is known for hiring scum so you’ll be welcomed with open arms. Sarcasm aside I’ve never seen someone go from beloved in the community to dirt so quickly. He had four major controversies back to back and while several did cover these I feel like some of the anger from one bled to another. First, World of Warcraft now there are reasons I don’t play this game anymore, but a large reason is players like Pirate Software. There are players who work together and make sure everyone is okay on a team, then there are players like Pirate, he insults people who just started playing and abandons team members to die. World of Warcrafts raids are team efforts if you need to run you need to make sure everyone can get out. Now he was playing as a Mage, a largely support role in any game, they are responsible for buffing team members and healing. Rather than admit he panicked and ran rather than help, he doubled down yelling his team said run and he was out of Mana (ignoring the fact everyone could see his inventory and seeing two items that would fix the issue). Could he save his team, probably not, but he could have tried, absolutely. Next, he decided to beef with Stop Killing Games. He misrepresented the initiative to the point people like MoistCritical/ Charlie, Asmongold, and others including myself had to step in. For the record, I believe laws can sometimes be adapted elsewhere so while SKG is mostly an EU and European thing right now who’s to say people in the US aren’t already paying attention to it. I won’t get into the initiative now as I wrote a whole artitcle about it already and for anyone who hasn’t signed that petition in the EU yet please sign and outside of Europe please spread word about it. Lastly, he decided to keep his code knowingly unoptimized. Code is meant to be simple and understandable. He makes mistakes, but the thing he needs to do he won’t. For a chapter based game most of which has their own code per chapter, Heartbound, I guess he felt the code was good enough for release and that is fine, but he needs to patch it with a more stable build or you know code it correctly from the start. Also he likely lied about creating games for Blizzard, now I’m not saying he didn’t work there, I am saying he likely only worked QA and small amounts or basic code. Even then with his father there we can’t really know if he was just handed the position or not. Code can’t be complicated and while the bare minimum looks good on stream any experienced coder or even someone like me who has never coded, but knows people who do will tell you spagetti only looks good on a plate, but if you are coding it prepare for pitfalls and pain.

Pirates biggest problem isn’t the internet hate he is getting, nor is it the near 100,000 followers he’s lost in the last few weeks. It isn’t even the lack of taking responsibility and actually understanding a situation before speaking. While all of those are attributing factors, his biggest problem is he is a child in his 30s. Think about it when criticized he doesn’t take it well and throws a huge tantrum banning the only people who still support him and try and help him, then refuses to take responsibility and runs to daddy’s money or company.

I didn’t think I would ever have to make this post, but I feel like a lot of people don’t know what this movement is really about. Most can agree that the things Publishers are trying to get away with are terrible and possibly illegal.

So what is Stop Killing Games? Recently, espicially with the Switch 2 and a situation with Ubisoft awhile back. Developers and publishers can put in a kill switch and make consumers unable to play the games they buy. Further rather than refund the money people spent they can just keep it. This is unsurprisingly illegal in some places, but not everywhere and consumer protection laws aren’t covering this. Stop Killing Games’ main objective is to prevent this and have the backing of consumers who want to buy a game and it is theirs. No one complains when some server gets shutdown, because often the single player content still works. It should be no surprise that I support this simply because when I buy something I expect to be able to use and keep it. I feel like without legal action companies will just keep getting away with this.

This is a legitimate question as there are similarities to both games I’d argue contributed to both games to fail. First both games were made by newer companies made up of veteran developers led by the former Producer of successful games. For Mighty it was Keiji Inafune who was the lead and part of the Megaman series up until he left and started his own company. this all happened shortly after Capcom announced and subsequently cancelled a number of Mega Man games.

I would say Mindseye followed the same path being made by the former producer of GTA and with how long it is taking for GTA 6 as well as the failure of GTA Definitive Version anger at Rockstar would be similar. Similar to Mighty expectations were through the roof for the same reasons. Take Two and Rockstar disappointed people so they tried to find an alternative and it didn’t work out. People instead got a $60 bug filled incomplete mess of a game that really doesn’t help either of their price tags.

Now, Mighty Number 9 took a Kickstarter that when adjusted for Kickstarter fees costed around 2 million dollars (The final Kickstarter was at 4 million dollars). While Minds Eye final numbers are not public though rumors state half a billion that is not something I can confirm.

Now don’t misunderstand, games like these can succeed XSEED Games are former developers of the Harvest Moon series and have gone on to create the excellent Story of Seasons games and while Yooka Laylee had a rough start the Impossible Lair is a lot of fun something expected of former Rare Ware. Do I think people get too hyped for games from former developers? To an extent yes, but do I blame them? Not really. It is fair to say everyone can be excited when a familiar developer creates something new.

Thank you all for your patience sorry for the rather abrupt break last week.

I’m going to take a break from writing for a bit I haven’t been happy with my recent posts and before that had a migraine for about a week. I’m better now, but I still want to take a small break so I can keep giving my best work. Burnout added to writers block is never a good combination so I’m hoping stepping back for a week or two will help a bit. I’m sorry for anyone who was looking for a review or news today, but I hope to be back soon.

There are few Rom Hacks that I question whether they are deserving of their reputation. Pokemon Unbound is one of the best, Gaia is a close second and so on. Light Platinum makes some of these lists too my question is why? It is a terrible Rom Hack of Fire Red first there are so many early gift Pokemon and while this isn’t so bad you can get a Growlithe, Elekid, and Milotic within the first few minutes, next it takes so long to get Running Shoes I tried to use speedup, but after I did it crashed, lastly everything is at a snails pace in this hack pacing both movement wise and story take so long to get going. The game also has a bad habit of stopping the game pretty much to explain things any Pokemon fan could tell you. It stops you just to give you the Headbutt TM and explain how it works then uses it as an excuse to introduce Red. I get that not many would be aware to use Headbutt for hidden items or Pokemon, but every Pokemon Fan knows Red (the hardest and secret boss fight in the Gen 2 games and protagonist of the first games). You also meet Diamond who becomes your rival. While there is no grinding it is so slow to do anything I barely reached the first town before giving up on this game because of its pace. Now, none of what I mentioned is enough to give up on the game and call it the worst there are far worse Rom Hacks. So why did I call it the worst simple I am sure the creator of this hack is aware of its issues yet is still remaking it with the same issues and no changes that is what made me label it as the worst. Not any of its previous issues the fact someone believes so much in this game and still not add quality of life changes to essentially make the same game twice without any improvement.

One of it not the best Pokemon Rom Hack. Pokemon Unbound comes with a new region, updated features including an exp all, multiple difficulties, and a new story. It looks and plays like something Nintendo would make. It has a good story and good difficulty curve. If you do get stuck you can open a mission log at anytime to see where to go and what to do. Gyms usually have additional challenges on top of battles and this is something I really like. The first gym is filled with fog so the player needs to figure out how to deal with it, another gym has Pokemon that aren’t dark type take damage at the end of every turn so you either bring healing items or take the opponent out quickly. For the record I don’t like difficulty hacks or Fakemon roms so Unbound is good as it isn’t trying to make things hard or add unbalanced Pokemon. It feels unique I don’t like hacks that just make things harder there are about 20 emerald hacks that just retell the story, but make things significantly harder and as for fakemon I just don’t like them. You can tell a lot went into this game from custom maps, added side quests and new challenges it is all around an amazing game to play and gets you excited for what Skelli and their team are making or if they continue to make things.