Top Ten of the Week #8 - Does this battle make my butt look fat?

[Maxpphire]

Ampharos and Wobuffet are my favorites, I don't really have type specific favorites.

[Jermungandr]

Y'know guys, I'm not gonna make this a rule because I know it would mean less people would even participate, but I gotta say, these lists are a lot more interesting to read if you include some reasons for your choices. Even if it's just three or four words. Otherwise it's about as interesting as reading a shopping list, at least in my personal opinion. Just sayin'.



Anyways, my choices for this week ...


I've never personally been much of "hardcore" pokemon player, so I've always had a tendency to make my choices based on aesthetics rather than what their actual statistics or abilities are; in other words, whichever 'mons I thought looked the cutest or the coolest. So don't expect my list to be anything like the makings of an actual good team ...




Normal: Dunsparce
Now, I've never been a user of Normal-type Pokemon in the past. As far as I've always been concerned, Normal = Boring. That was until I played Pokemon Y and one of these chubby little bastards ended up being one of my first catches in the game. And ... he ended up carrying me through a large chunk of the game. It might have been because he learned Rollout really early and this generation had a lot of critters vunerable to Rock-type moves early on? I'm not really sure, but his Glare move was also super freakin' useful. I eventually switched him out right before the Electric gym just to give my other monsters a chance to get any use. On top of that ... he's really freakin' cute. I didn't care for the whole Pokemon-a-mie thing, but I admit I did play with him a few times in it just because he's so goldamn adorable when he's happy.



Fire: Growlith/Arcanine
There's a lot of cool things about Arcanine, but one of my favorite details about him is how he's based on the ancient Chinese interpretation of what lions looked like ...

Which is way WAY cooler than the lame actual lions introduced in the latest generation (god those things are so stupid looking). I am also super fond of Arcanine's prevolution, Growlithe, because no matter how they try to draw him, he always looks like he has ATTITUDE.

My runner up would be Vulpix/Ninetails, of which I just realized I have never actually owned one. Huh.



Water: Greninja
Love at first sight, man. I knew I had to have this guy the moment I laid eyes on a pic of him for the first time. This guy is such a shameless Strider reference you can't tell me it's not intentional. The head spikes, the scarf, the color scheme ... it's all so blatant. I've never even actually played a Strider game in my life but despite that something about the reference makes this guy all the more awesome; and even if that reference wasn't there, his design is still the epitome of cool. I love this guy.



Grass: Chikorita
Grass is one of the hard ones because there are a lot of good ones, but I think I'm going to go with Chikorita. She's just really adorable is all, and that's really all there is to it.



Electric: Raichu
I've never been much of a fan of Pikachu, but I have to admit Raichu is pretty damn awesome. Aside from having a superior design, one of my favorite things about this guy is that if you have one that learned Surf and use him in Pokemon Stadium 2 (and maybe the first Stadium as well I'm not sure), he will use the lightning bolt on his own tail as a surf board. That's something a stupid ol' Pikachu cannot do. Suck it.



Ice: Piloswine
This guy is, without a doubt, one of my all-time favorite Pokemon. I don't even know if he's actually good or not, I just love his "I don't give two shits about anything" design. I'm honestly very not a fan of the mastodon evolution they gave him in later generations. I'll keep my piggy the way he is, thank you very much.



Fighting: Hawlucha
This guy is AWESOME. If this were a traditional Top Ten list, this guy would definitely be in the running for the #1 slot. Even if that were not the case, he'd still win this category easily for being one of the few Fighting type pokemon with a design that's not straight up stupid looking.



Poison: Ivysaur
Gosh, Poison is hard one to pick because I don't really like any of them. I guess I'll go with Ivysaur, because whatever. Never cared much for Venusaur but Ivy has a nice spunky teenager look to him.



Ground: Donphan
Hmm ... Ground type has so few good choices, but of the few that are good it's really hard to pick between them. I guess I'll go with Donphan, because his concept is pretty cool. Also because he reminds me of Wheel Kirby back when that ability was cool.



Flying: Honchkrow
Oh shoot, when I was initially listing these out I accidentally wrote down Hawlucha for both fighting and flying. Um ... um ... gotta find someone else ... okay, how about Honchkrow? I've never actually owned one of these guys, but damn if this guy doesn't look like a gangster.

... that's "gangster" with a hard "R" by the way ... I mean he literally looks like a mob boss.



Psychic: Mewtwo
I don't care if it's cliche, Mewtwo is one of my all-time favorite Pokemon; and that's coming from a guy that's never watched any of the anime shows or movies. In particular, I've always been super fond of his incarnation from the first generation:

       
In which his sprite looks much more like a grotesque genetic abomination, which is what he is supposed to be. The games that came after this gave him a progressively sleeker and sleeker look, which I've never thought were nearly as cool. Still, it hasn't made me appreciate him any less.



I think that's enough from me for now. I'll post the rest of my picks later after I get myself some sleep.

[Helmo]

I'll touch up on my list a bit then.

Normal: Miltank

Omg, during my heartgold playthrough this thing was a BEAST. Body-slam utterly (no pun intended) destroyed almost everything, and when it didn't OHKO it almost always paralyzed them. That in combination with milk-drink made her pretty much unstoppable

I've loved Miltank ever since.

Electric: Electabuzz

This guy right here... Don't even get me started. I've used Electabuzz on several games (and his evolution) and is somewhat similar to my Miltank in that I really feel in love with him during HG. Also cool ass design he's a fucking oni! Real bro.

Poison: Zubat

Bats are probably my favorite animal (I have a lot and the list is always changing but bats always make the top). I really like Zubat's design it looks really intimidating but cute at the same time (as a bat should be). Woobat isn't really anything too special and Noibat is ok, but Zubat has always been my favorite. It's actually proved pretty useful to me in Little cup and Crobat isn't too bad either! Also I like the color scheme and overall simplicity.


Fire: Volcarona

I'm drawn to it almost like.... a moth to a flame...
I mean you can tell it's powerful just by looking at it and it's so pretty too! One of my favorite looking ones for sure.


 

[Jermungandr]

Bug: Joltik/Galvantula
I have a hard time picking a favorite between these two. Joltik is friggin' adorable, but Galvantula's design is pretty cool too. They're pretty dang useful too. This is probably one of my number one "I want one as a pet" pokemon, but that would probably be a disaster.



Rock: Tyranitar
My favorite all-time real-life animal is most definitely the Tyrannosaurus. And to people who claim you "can't pick extinct animals" can go screw themselves. Anyways that pretty much sums up why I like this guy, although it's a bit lame that he's only a little over six feet tall. I know that technically the latest generation has an even more tyrannosaur-like Pokemon, but I dunno, I fell in love with this guy a long time ago and it's hard to just replace him like that.



Ghost: Litwick
There aren't really many ghost-type pokemon that appeal to me. Haunter is pretty cool I guess, and I do like the adorable design of Pumpkaboo, but I think Litwick squeaks ahead just slightly in the cuteness category. It's a pity that his evolutions are so lame looking in comparison, especially his final form.



Dragon: Dragonair
Never been much of a fan of Dragonite, but Dragonair is pretty cool. Most dragons seem to have a lot of shit heaped into their designs, but I've always been a fan of more simple designs, which is probably a pattern you might have noticed amongst my choices thus far.



Dark: Umbreon
Dark is a toughie because there are a lot of cool Dark types, which is understandable since it was a type that was invented pretty much to BE the "cool" type. Umbreon gets my top pick though, even though I'm aware he's not actually that good of a pokemon. He was one of my favorites way back in the second generation, though, and I used him a lot in Pokemon Stadium 2. I haven't had the chance to use him in any generations since then, but I'm currently playing HeartGold for the first time and will probably get one again just for nostalgia's sake. There's just something about his design that screams "loyal companion" to me.


Steel: Ferrothorn
I like this guy mostly because he's the biggest dick in the Pokemon world. You can't touch him without taking damage, he further punishes you by dropping spikes on the field so you can't move without being punished, he has super high defense in addition to abilities that regenerate his health. He's not likely to kill you, but he sure loves to irritate the heck out of you while you're fighting him. What a douche.



Fairy: Mawile
Mawile is a pokemon that kind of went under my radar for years. In most games I'd usually catch one and then leave it in my box without ever giving it a second thought. I wasn't even aware it was a Steel-type pokemon, I just kind of assumed it was either Normal or Ground, that's how little I was interested in looking into it. Then X/Y came out, and I of course wanted to try out the new Fairy type, preferably a dual-type, and Mawile seemed like an interesting choice. And it turns out it was a really good choice, because this gal is AWESOME. And very useful. And the design is actually pretty awesome, but I don't think I really comprehended what it was supposed to look like exactly in the past (that the giant mouth is actually its ponytail). It's quickly racing up the list as one of my all time favorite pokemon, but I'm not quite sure if she's in my top 10 yet.

[psychospacecow]

I included my reasons. They're grass types, unless its a fire type.

[Jermungandr]

Sounds like someone wants to be a Gym Leader.

[psychospacecow]

Sounds like someone wants to be a Gym Leader.

You're darn tootin'!

[Jermungandr]

Okay we're gonna do an easy one this week.

Week #4 - Licensed Games

People love to hate them, but once in a blue moon we get one that's actually pretty good. What are your favorites?

... or if you don't have any I guess you could just post ones you hate. Whatevahs.

And before you get all technicality-nerd on me with "Ummm ... technically sixty percent of all video games are 'licensed'",  here we are talking specifically about games based on non-videogame franchises. I.E., games based on movies, cartoons, comics, fast food, cereals, et cetera. But you already knew that didn't ya? Some people just like to be difficult ...

[psychospacecow]

I still play Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 sometimes...

[Koopaul]

#1. Ducktales
#2. Darkwing Duck
#3. GoldenEye 007
#4. The Simpsons Arcade Game
#5. Batman Returns

Hm... Can't think of any more right now.

[Yawackhary]

My favourite game of all time does have a license (OutRun 2006 with those Ferrari) as well as liking various racing games and even a couple of sports games (such as NBA Street Vol. 2) but if we are talking strictly a licenced game then...

GoldenEye 007 and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron on the N64 are my childhood favourites having some strong memories of both games with their gameplay styles and having plenty of content as well as a few cheats here and there. The soundtrack of GoldenEye to this day I still listen to it. Sadly both of these I haven't been able to play for years since modern TVs don't really like the N64 especially PAL units and emulators are just too poor to play them to the point where I don't think any are playable for Rogue Squadron.

Bugs Bunny Lost in Time is another of my childhood favourite licensed games and a very componentally made 3D platformer. I don't care if the game is easy; I really enjoy the stages, the music, the bosses, the graphic style and the various references towards the cartoons (the storyline I think is based off a short).

Another Star Wars game that is my favourite is the Sega arcade game Star Wars Trilogy Arcade [the 1998 one, not the earlier one that got ported to the 32X]. I really like how it is faithful towards the movies, the graphics at the time were really good and still think it has aged gracefully. At one point every time I went to Spain, I always played on this game and sadly never completed it. Rather like Rogue Squadron, I can't play on it but for a different reason and that is because it never left the arcade... It would have been good on the Wii.

Others that I've enjoyed are Simpsons Hit and Run, From Russia with Love and the double licensed Lego games even if they are buggy (Lego Star Wars 2, Lego Batman 2, Lego Marvel Super Heroes). Suppose Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine counts since it was licensed from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon rather than the Sonic games.

I have heard of some licensed games that are really good such as The Chronicles of Riddick, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Everything or Nothing but have yet to play them, same thing for Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage [one of the few anime/manga games that I have]. Shame that there wasn't a decent Blues Brothers game.

There are also a couple of double licensed games that I really like such as Wangan Midnight and Initial D Extreme Stage on the PS3 [cars are licensed and they are based of a manga] however the slight language barrier puts them down a bit (story of the former but menus are localised, menus of the latter but is an arcade game). Wangan Midnight feels like a mixture of a successor to the Tokyo Highway Challenge series and like a Japanese Midnight Club game while Initial D feels like a Sega arcade game which it is and some of my favourite games are old school Sega arcade racing games.

[Gwen]

1.): Goldeneye 007 - tons of time was put into this as a kid, between multiplayer and the campaign. I had to avoid doing too well to avoid threats of titty twisters from one of my cousins lol.
2.): The Lord of the Rings games based off the movies, specifically The Two Towers and Return of the King - Yeah I'm using a two for one deal here, but they're pretty much the same game but they're solid as fuck games with way too much replay value.
3.): Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup - I really wish they'd rebuff this game for the modern consoles, but give it way more depth and technique, as while it's still fun to play today, it's waaaaaaaaaay too simple.
4.): The Lawnmower Man - I'll still play the shit out of this whenever I visit my grandparents. It's a great game.

If I remember, I'll add more later.

[Goemar]

I have no idea if the Arkham games count as license as yes, it's the Batman license, but it's not based on any particular Batman. Still, the Arkham games are damn good.



Choujin Sentai Jetman

Honestly, I have no idea why I like this game, something about it's simply graphics appeal greatly to me. It's not the best NES games but kicking people and seeing them explode never gets old. Also the giant robot fights are kinda cool.



TMNT: Turtles in Time

Nothing needs to be said. Except, Re-Shelled - you sucked balls...



Monster in my Pocket

Absolutely great game, fast paced punching people, throwing keys at people, 2 player co-op - amazing game.



Bucky O'Hare

In another dimension, another time and space,
A parallel universe was fallin' on its face
When out of the chaos, who else could it be
But the animal adventurers from S.P.A.C.E.?

Bucky! Captain Bucky O'Hare!
Mutants and aliens and toads beware!
You're looking for adventure? Well, this is it,
With Jenny, Deadeye, Blinky, and Willy DuWitt

Seriously though, this game was awesome. Awesome platforming, a level select, getting to play as the different characters (each with their own abilities) after saving them. Really freakin' hard - but damn good.]



Goof Troop

This game is so great I think it's actually now more well known than the show it's based off. Seriously search for Goof Troop on Google images and most are of the game. Possibly the most fun 2 people can have on a Super Nintendo. Grab a friend, a sibling or your other half and treat yourself to co-op at it's finest. Great puzzles, great music and just great fun.

[psychospacecow]

Hey, why's this a top ten? Most people probably aren't going to reach that.

1. DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for reasons stated above.

2. Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories.
This game is an oddity. Its terribly balanced, doesn't reflect the end product it is designed to represent, uses characters in ways that don't fit them, and its all because at the time this game was released, Yu-Gi-Oh! was in a big line of change. The card game we've come to know as Yu-Gi-Oh! wasn't the focus of the original series at first. It was really just a bunch of miscellaneous games held by the satanic Yami, and Duel Monsters was a knock-off of Magic The Gathering called "Magic and Wizard". The card game got popular, and its original rights were given to Bandai for production. See, this is relevant because Forbidden Memories was made when the rights for Yu-Gi-Oh! had just been given to Konami. For all intents and purposes, Yu-Gi-Oh! really wasn't a complete card game yet. The style used by Bandai and the style used by Konami were pretty different, with Konami's interpretation better fitting the manga equivalent.
So, you have the ground works for a card game that no one knew what to do with yet, for a series that had just made its way off the ground without a focus on said card game, a transfer of rights, and characters that were still in development. Naturally, Forbidden Memories doesn't play like any other game in the series, and that's what makes it an interesting mark on licensed game history. To give you an idea for how extreme some of these got, the game came out December 9th 1999 in Japan. One of the characters, Shimon Muran (Simon in game), didn't make his anime appearance until April 21st 2004.

3.
Star Wars Battlefront 2.
Massive battle strategy game in the PS2 era that didn't suck? Yes please.

[Jermungandr]

I have no idea if the Arkham games count as license

Yes it counts.