Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Pokemon Direct Breakdown - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

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What's up and happy Pokemon Day this beautiful Thursday, February 27, 2025. Of course, I am your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by Blessing Adioia Jr. Happy Pokemon Day, Tim. And Andy Cortez. Love celebrating Pokemon Day with you all. Every single year. My favorite day with you.

Right here's a day that we remember that we know to celebrate. What are you guys going to do for Pokemon Day? Same thing I do every day, which is play an insane amount of Pokemon Go and Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket, you know? I love that. I'm also going to sit with some of my best friends and talk to them about Pokemon Zah. I want to talk about Pokemon champions.

Yeah, that too. That seems interesting. Yeah, a lot to talk about today. Maybe not as much as it potentially could have happened. But a lot to talk about, of course, we're about to break down everything we just saw in the Pokemon presents for Pokemon Day 20 25. We're doing that because this is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every weekday we get together to break down the latest in video games, whether it's reviews, previews, big topics of conversations, shitty lists, great lists, anything in between. We're talking about it right here. We also do a daily news show called

Kind of Funny Games Daily, where we commentate on all the news. And we're going to be doing that after this episode. Schedules a little bit out of whack today, but we're going to get to all that good stuff that you know and love. If you want to be part of this show, you've got a super chat on YouTube. Please, any Pokemon questions you have for us, whether it's about what we just saw, whether it's about what you want to see in the future,

what you're disappointed, you didn't see. If you just have any questions for us about Pokemon in general, what's Andy's favorite Pokemon? I'm sure you don't know the answer. you can find out. Just super chat away. I don't know the answer. The FrogNet already superchats in saying

Mega Evolution's cool because it's like Digivolution. I completely agree. And we'll talk about that later. Oh, wow. Yeah, I don't put that together. Bear, do you know Andy's favorite Pokemon? Yes. I know something cool.

That's the thing is I know Andy Wallenof to know. It's some Pokemon that has a really cool design to it. I don't even know. I think it's more of a nostalgia thing. Yeah. That's a little hint for it. Well, okay, so I don't know. Is it one of the Evolutions?

I don't know which one it is because I don't know. When it is, because I don't know if it's the original or the evolution of it. But I do know the... It's kind of both. It's a tie. I know the family. Is it... I think I know too.

Is it like Gangar, Gasli, like those ones? We saw him today. We saw him today. Saw him today. I said, my boy. Oh, fucking... Wait, not Totodal, is it? No, that's one of my boys.

Scralop and Arcanine. Oh, that makes sense. That makes so much sense. That makes so much sense. That makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. And Tim, just as a reminder, you know, for people listening to the podcast right now,

who didn't get to watch the... reaction. Hey, remember last year when we did a crazy cool Pokemon Nicklock with custom Pokemon sprites and everything? Nuslock slash Nicklock 2.0 is happening this coming, nope, sorry. Friday, March 7th. Friday, March 7th after Game Showdown, Pokemon Nuslock 2.0. Marker calendars. And if you want to get caught up on what the saga was,

this Saturday blessed. There you go. March 1st. At what time? Mountain time? 10 a.m. Mountain time. 12 p.m. Eastern. Yep. 9 a.m. Pacific.

9 a.m. Pacific. This Saturday. For our normal scheduling. Yeah, this is exciting though, Andy. Yeah. This Saturday, I keep saying this. Required viewing for everybody.

You don't have to be live. If you can, that'd be cool. People are going to be in the chat hanging out, catching up and having a good time. But the VOD will be available three hours condensing Nick's entire first journey through Generation 1 in Fire Red and Conto. You're going to want to say.

see this. You're going to want to remind yourself, even if you have seen it before, because next week the boys are embarking on the biggest adventure yet in Pokemon Soul Silver. Yeah, very sad. It's about to be an amazing time. And he's been working his ass off, editing the little sprites and doing a whole bunch of cool things in a DS game, which I'm so impressed by. So you're going to want to see all of that. So yeah, a lot of Pokemon fun coming up in the next month or so. Yeah, March, Friday, March 7. Big, a little marathon show. And for people who are going to be like, this isn't a real Nuzzlock. It never was. It was a Nicklock. it's permadeath.

There's really the only rules that we're following. We're not doing like the only catch one in this region and blah, blah, blah, no, no. It's like we want to catch as many as we possibly can, but permadeath rules are applied. So watch the three-hour super cut this Saturday at 9 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube. com slash kind of funny games to see all of the most hilarious moments, all the most heartbreaking moments where we had close ones die. We should, we'll talk offline about this because I want to come up with a strategy for it. but we should come up with some type of system that Nick can win rewards

because I feel like Nick might need some Tim Traynor tips through this whole thing. Okay. Because there's a couple key moments that I, I don't know how we can get this chat to not spoil things for Nick in this game. It's going to be impossible. You know, it's going to be impossible.

I'm just going to say this right now to you boys because I know there's no way Nick's watching this. Yeah. The third gym and Jodo, when you face Whitney, her milk tank. Oh. Uses rollout. That might be a game ending moment.

It's going to kill his entire time. That'll be a game. If he is not prepared. Yeah. Like, that's a really good call. It will kill everybody. It's a really good call.

Yeah. Well, we can maybe have, we can maybe have trainer Tim pop up in a little, like, you know, codec or something. Oh, that'd be cool.

You know, because they have a cell phone in the game. That would be really cool. Let's figure this out. Let's figure this out. Because, yeah, no, like legitimately, it's,

or maybe we just don't tell it, but just let it wreck his entire team because it's going to. Yeah, what's the contingent? I know you guys lost a lot. lot of Pokemon in the first Nick Locke. Yeah.

Is there a contingency plan of like, if we lose everybody? Is it just grind time? Like, what's so? It's grind time. Now, the last time I was pressured into giving them more ultra balls where Kevin kept being like, but we could just get more ultra balls, right? Andy, I'm like, well, no. And he was like, but you can, you can mob them in there.

Right. I did break that rule because it was like, at one point, wasn't there a room filled with rare candies? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I had Nick walk into a room and just nonstop rear candy. That's great. Okay, that's great. That's great. Oh, man. But anyway, that is later. Not that far, though. The first, the super cut is coming out in just a couple days. A couple days Saturday. So get hype for that. But today, we got a whole bunch of super cool stuff. Right after this, we're doing games daily. It'll be me and Greg. And then after that, we're doing an extra long monster hunter wild stream. Today is the day. If you're in hunting monsters, whether they're pocket size or real, real big, today's the day for you. If you're kind of funny member, you can get today's Gregway soon.

Thank you to our Patreon producers, Delaney Twining, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Karen Lidner. Today we're brought to you by Greg Miller's Live Chicago show and BetterHelp. But we'll tell you all about that later. I want to get into it, the topic of the show. We just reacted to the Pokemon Day. A whole bunch of things, obviously. We know Pokemon Concierge season two being announced.

You can get the first couple episodes on YouTube now. Pokemon Go, just reminding people of the Unovator stuff going on. Pokemon's sleep is getting kind of epic. You're going to face your nightmares, but I'm not interested. Pokemon Masters, year 5.5 celebration. I love that. Why not? Pokemon Unite getting a couple of the homies back, Sween and them.

So cool. Pokemon trading card game Pocket is continuing to dominate our time. We got Triumph and Light coming tomorrow. Special gifts today. Mega Evolution cards are coming to the actual Pokemon trading card game for the first time. Big Evolution seems to be back in a big way. I'm very excited for that. And then we got kind of a couple of the big pieces and news.

Latin America is going to be getting actual translated. They're the 10th language now going forward for Pokemon games. That's awesome. Probably going to result in even more sales for these Pokemon games. And also the trading cards and all of that stuff. And then we got the two games being talked about Pokemon champions and Pokemon Z-A. Andy Cortez, overall, what do you think about that? that Pokemon presents.

I did love the speed of it. It was quick. It was snappy. We just saw a bunch of glimpses of different properties they've been messing with for a long time. That, Blessie makes a great point. It's like, wow, this still exists. That's kind of surprising, but good for them. People are employed and people are making stuff.

Overall, I'm a little bit disappointed. I'm a bit disappointed by what Z.A. is. And we'll get into that a little bit later. Because that's the main reason why I'm here. When it comes to something like Pokemon Champions, that's something I'll download and check out for 15 minutes. But ZEA is the reason why it's like, holy shit, big brand new Pokemon game.

And yeah, a little bit, you know, underwhelmed by it. I'll just say that. Very interested in that. Plus, what do you think? I'll say this wasn't my favorite Pokemon presents, but also I don't think is one of the bad ones. I think overall, the thing I liked about this is what Indy just said it was the snappiness of it.

and how much there is to cover as far as what Pokemon is, right? Like, when you go through it, Tim, you talk about concierge, you talk about sleep, you talk about Masters, you talk about Unite, you talk about the card stuff. And I think the thing that impresses me, I guess more about Pokemon, rather than just Pokemon presents, is the range of projects that they have that are targeted at hardcore in various ways, whether it be Pokemon United or Pokemon Go,

or the more, I guess, casual slash broader fan base, when you're talking about something like sleep or you're talking about something like Cafe. Pokemon Cafe is something that when it was revealed years and years ago, it felt like a, oh, this would be a cool, like, one and done kind of thing. You're putting this out as a fun, like, you know, thing that fans can pick up and play around with and probably move on from. The fact that we're still here and you're still giving updates to Pokemon Cafe,

which feels like something that wouldn't be updated this long, like that's pretty cool, that's pretty neat. And I love that they have this venue where you can go through all these things in such a snappy way and go, here's concierge, here's this, here's that. Like, we got updates for all of it. And it feels like they're, you know, treating Pokemon in a way where, like, they're viewing it from all angles and, like, trying to figure out how to adjust from all angles and, like, promote all these different kinds of ways to interact with Pokemon.

And I think that stuff is cool. When we talk about the big things, Pokemon Champions is probably the thing that jumped out at me the most. I'm also excited for Pokemon Z-A, but I think seeing that trailer for it felt almost like a, like, like, water to the face of, oh, yeah, this is what this is going to be, right? Like it's going to be more of what we've had before with Pokemon Legends and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, right? Like we're still firmly in the switch generation of Pokemon. This isn't necessarily going to be the big jump in Fidelity.

Not that we're even ever going to get a big jump in Fidelity, right? But like, this doesn't look. I look at this for Pokemon ZA and I don't have the biggest confidence that it's not going to run as badly as the other couple of Pokemon games. And I think I've just kind of resolved to that of, all right, well, hopefully it's fun. Hopefully I'm into what they're doing with, you know, it being in the city and you have in the wild area. and then having a different kind of battle system. I think it's going to be fun to dig into and talk about. But Pokemon Champions is the thing for me where I'm like,

oh, damn, that sounds really cool. And I know that sounds like what we've had before with Pokemon Battle Revolution on Wii and Pokemon Coliseum and Pokemon Stadium. It's on 20 years ago. You're talking 20 years ago. Yeah, that's thing is you're talking about 20 years ago. And I know like with Pokemon Stadium, you're also talking about things like Jim Leader Castle and mini games and so many things that give that personality.

But I do like the return to, hey, here's a console slash, I guess, a battle-focused title where you can bring in the Pokemon you own, you can, you know, partner or rent Pokemon or however they put it in this, right? Like, I love that kind of Pokemon game because I think there are so many people that just want to battle. I think there is just fun in battling and trying out different teams of Pokemon and stuff. And so I think that's the thing that's jumped out of me the most. So, yeah, overall, I had a good time with this, but I think there have been better of these

presentations. What do you think, Tim? I'm kind of right there. I mean, like, this is everything I expected. It's not what I hoped and dreamed for. But I also think that this year, that's kind of a good, okay thing. Like, we are in an interesting place with Pokemon games, but also with the Switch and Switch 2,

where I'm kind of like, I'm not really in a rush for more right now because I would rather it take their time and wait, especially for ZA being the big presenting title here. Like that, the legend RCS game wasn't my favorite. I preferred Scarlet violet. I like the traditional go to the gym's Pokemon. on the battle side of things. And I don't really like the let's go back in time type stuff.

Everything we saw of ZA here seems to solve a lot of that. I think that the new updated battle system could be very interesting. I'm not sure it's going to work. But I do think that it seems to be a nice blend of what we all, as kids imagined Pokemon Stadium would be, which is a bit more like you're actually out there controlling the Pokemon and like a little bit more active. But even just the positioning of it,

like that level of strategy seems more interesting to me than the, I forget what it was called, but like hard attack or soft attack that they had in Legends Arceus, which was taking the core battle system, but like just tweaking it a little. But this seems way more focused on the battles, which I'm excited for.

Obviously, I think it's easier to look at the things that weren't here that I'm kind of like, like, where's the OG Pokemon? Where's the NSO Pokemon games? At some point we need to get them, whether they're a paid collection or not. Like those games are coming back. We know it.

Where are they? Any Gen 2 or Gen 5 remake, something like that, a detective Pikachu 2 announcement, a lot of things that I'd be looking forward to most weren't here. But again, not mad about that because next year's the 10th anniversary. Next year, the Switch 2 will be out. Sorry, 30th anniversary. Next year, but Generation 10.

Right. So it's like all of this stuff starting to add up where I'm like, oh, next year's Pokemon Day, I think it's going to be one for the books. And yeah, with that, like a genuine surprise. here with Pokemon champions. So like, I look at this as like, hey, like, it met my expectations and exceeded them a little bit because there was a surprise that I still want more information on

before I'm actually excited about it, but I'm definitely interested, and I think that that is a product that is good. If it works and is what I assume it's going to be, I like that they are taking the more hardcore competitive, like battle side of Pokemon more seriously. We've got a tease of that at the end of the ZA thing of the, like, battle towers are a big thing

in the Pokemon games of like, it kind of decides, like, does this game have a good post game or not? Like, is there a challenge tower of being able to, like, battle with like, essentially it's Pokemon Stadium on crack. Yeah, can you put your Pokemon to the limit? Yeah, and like, that stuff's so cool, right? I'm so unfamiliar with the concept.

Is it, are you fighting, like, the computer or is it other? Yeah, yeah, and a lot of the times, like my personal favorite of that type of system was, I think it was Pokemon Black and White too, where you end up facing like it's like a tournament in america and you face off against all the gym leaders and all the old characters like come back and have like souped up teams and stuff and it's like that's cool you know it's almost it's not endless but it feels like an endless amount of worthwhile

content um so that could be cool because yeah they ended it being like uh a battle promotion begins and like they were very like weird about it so who knows what it's going to be but that does that was that was a very spatoon like ending the way that they uh sort of show off splatoon news Yeah, yeah, yeah. People in the chat were also saying that I was wrong that there was mega evolution in the trading car game before. I totally missed a lot of the trading card game for many, many years. Right. Apologies about that. But yeah, I mean, I guess let's start with Zha. Let's kind of talk about that. Andy, like you're a little disappointed. Let me know more about that.

Well, it's what I expected visually. I don't think I expected a massive leap. And granted, we'll likely be playing this on more powerful hardware around that. time was what I'm hoping at least it'll still be the switch one version though I think so yeah but like you would hope that it maybe runs better you we'll see we'll see um and and I guess my issue with it is like I I shouldn't be too bummed out because this is a sort of this is not a main line the the next big you know black and white scarlet violet violet whatever this isn't one of those big titles right yeah this is sort of the in between sort of side story that Legends RSI has started off.

And I guess they're doing a good job of going for something different, catching Pokemon in a city. But I guess for me, it's like so much of the Pokemon adventures, like seeing them out in the wild and in trees and in nature. And they have these little wild zones here, but that is kind of like just the safari zone in a way times 10 because it seems like there's going to be a lot of different wild zones. Go ahead.

Just jump in here. I do, I mean, I could be wrong. I think that there's going to be many biomes. I imagine we're going underground. I imagine that we're going to be going to some different, like, this is a big ass city in the game. And I wouldn't even be surprised if we end up leaving a little bit too. Like, I don't think this is all that it is.

I could be wrong. Yeah, I guess like I thought they would have shown off some of that stuff in here. If they were showing off a bunch of different NPCs, I thought we would have, if there were other locales to visit, I thought that they would have shown that. But it was so focused on the city. So that's just the impression that I'm getting.

And I guess it would just feel weird to see a goddamn, you know, right on in an alley. And I get the idea of walking in the city and seeing, you know, little bird Pokemon here and there. And that makes sense to me. But I wonder what the larger experience is when you are trying to explore and find more rare Pokemon. Because I guess, you know, being out in the wild, being out in the forest or some sort of scenery with nature makes more sense to me. you know, when it comes to how I viewed the old Pokemon games and how a lot of old Pokemon games have sort of been presented. So I was just a little bit disappointed by it only being city.

And I hope you're right. I hope we do see a lot of other locales, in which case I will likely change my tune because I'm hoping we see other stuff that isn't just buildings and urban landscape, you know? Yeah, I mean, I do think it's going to be all in the city, but I think there'll be parks. And I think that there's going to be like ways

that they find different biomes within the city. city like yeah to make it like here's the rough area mr mayor you have two nuclear bomb Pokemon style like you have the Pokemon like a decimate a city out here in central park I don't know why they're just out to run free this guy's really freak he does have a tail bear he does have a tail maybe maybe it goes maybe it's really long but also I memories are starting to unlock about Pokemon X and Y seeing him and seeing his little eternal buddy I fucking love X and Y

it's so good I'm not a big X and Y I know it makes it's all about friendship Tim it should be most your shit yeah I know I like rivals to be rivals though I don't like to be like hey we're a group of friends but it's like four of us Andy it's like three of your friends and they're traveling with you like all

Are all these humans Pokemon? What? Like I'm looking at go back to go back a few seconds because there's some people back to back around like you look like you're half Pokemon bro yeah we were talking about the tall guy like this guy look Vinny looks like he looks like he came out of a poker ball. And this guy, like, yeah, he, that's a tail, right?

Yeah. Interesting. She's got, like, the quacksly hair, it looks like, the lady there. Yeah. He kind of has, like, the quacksly hair. Anyway, the tall guy also looks like, you know, the, his basketball career was cut short due to health issues. Like, he has to retire, like, 26. Bless, what are you thinking?

Yeah, I mean, I understand where Andy's coming from. And I think I share some of those things. But still, I think because. because of the way I view this game, which is way more as a side title, like, I'm not mad at it, right? Like, I'm looking at it. I'm looking at the presentation. I'm looking at, like, you know, how the characters look, how the world look, how all these things are. And I am like, oh, okay, cool. Like, it's more of what we got out of Scarlet, more of what we got out of the last Legends game, right? More of what I think you can expect out of, I guess, this era we're in

of Pokemon, which is games that look like this. And, like, I guess for me, Scarlet worked well enough where I know Scarlett was rough, right? And Scarlett was unforgivable levels of jink. But also Scarlett was very fun. And if I play this game and I'm like, all right, cool, like, this is fun enough to get me to that next generation of Pokemon, then I'm down for it. I am very intrigued by the combat system. I think the idea of like how you position and like the moves you do having certain ranges, right? And so like, oh man, the Pokemon's far away. I want to do a flamethrower. I want to do a move that is going to be like, you know, be more of a projectile or distance kind of move or oh they're you know doing a flame throw towards towards me so i'm

put up some kind of barrier or things like that right i i like the layers that that can add in in terms of strategy and battle even though i know i'm with tim a little bit of like is that going to work you know is that going to be as thought out as you would like it to be because that does sound very complex um i think that could also be fun though and so i'm i'm overall into what i'm seeing although I think after waiting a year after like that initial reveal trailer, I don't know. I think part of me was like, but what if it's more? Like what if it's something different? What if it's something that is special?

But I think this is to be expected what we saw. Yeah. I'm right there. It's funny because like I think to me like this, I was saying this to Gray a couple days ago. Like the one thing I didn't want to happen is the trailer first starts up for my first reaction beat. And it wasn't. Like the last couple games, the first time you see him, you're like, oh, these are ugly. and like it's not good.

And even legends, we were excited because it's like, oh, they're going for a breath of the wild type thing. This is insane. But that was a choppy, choppy trailer. And it was like 540P also. This isn't choppy.

You know what I mean? And I feel like that's what the year was doing. And it's about to be two years. Like this is now by far, because they're saying late 2025, like this is about to be by far, like the longest gap we've had for a Pokemon game. And even if it's not a full on new generation,

like they are treating this like a semi mainline. at least a new line, right? Yeah. A core line to the Pokemon franchise. I've been saying this a while, so I don't want to repeat myself too much, but I've never been the biggest X, Y, person. I don't really love Calos that much.

And Legends wasn't for me for a lot of different reasons. This seems to be moving in the right direction, but kind of like solving some of the things of like, I didn't like it being in the past. And so, all right, cool. Now it's in one of my least favorite regions. It's like, you know, having said that, I love Totodial.

So I'm excited for getting my boy back. two generation two Pokemon's is a choice though yeah like I don't know if I love I'm not mad at it but I don't love it It just seems weird Like I don't know why they would do that But I also think it's gonna make a lot of people happy

Like a lot of people True want to see these back So Battle system like we're saying like I'm very interested in it I do like the seeming focus on battling in this compared to Legends RCS, like evolution like all this stuff Like this is so up my alley

Like I love it And I want to see more the idea of getting new mega evolutions is always exciting as well because terrestrializing was like my least favorite of the gimmicks so far that we had in scarlet and violet yeah me too um but yeah this this looks looks cool but yeah i don't look at this and go like i need to play this right now um so yeah overall it's like this kind of this is exactly what i expected i'm happy it doesn't look like an absolute disaster mess in terms of performance what does it coming out i guess later in the year do for you as opposed to yeah a lot

people I'd say I would I thought would have thought May or like mid mid year I I think it's a good thing like I think that the most important thing for Pokemon to do as a brand at this point with the the core game specifically is to get back on a track of trust um with the the general gaming mainstream audience like I feel or like like a commentating audience I would say because um I mean clearly the game sell right millions and millions like scarlet violet are ridiculous right but I think that the sentiment around them is kind of like oh man Pokemon games are janking and shitty and like that should not be the way that the biggest franchise in the world has talked about um so like maybe it's not the

highest fidelity or maybe it's just like you know people look at it oh we've played this game before whatever yeah that criticism's fine but if people's criticism is like if the game is a fucking joke and you are on like uh exclusive to nintendo's console like that that shit ain't I think that puts this game in a, I think, more important position. Because I would have thought that, even though I, as far as we understand, right, this is a Switch 1 title, right? It's just like, maybe once we get the Switch 2 presentation, though, I have to skew. But I don't think we expect that. I think we just expect the Switch 1 skew.

If this were to come out like the month before the Switch 2 or any time before the Switch 2, I think that would put this in a different level of, okay, cool, this is like the transition. Like, okay, cool. Like, this is our final Pokemon title for the Switch 1. This coming out later this year, you'll imagine that this is going to come out after the Switch 2, which puts this in a very interesting place of this is going to be the first Pokemon game that people play on the Switch 2. And I think if you're going to do that, this game can't be like buggy. It can't be, it can't run like shit. I'll tell you what I love the UI.

I'm pretty interested in it. I like how clean it looks. Good font choice. Yeah, I mean, bless you, you're bringing up important points here. I do think that especially now seeing this and how. they're talking about it, I'm doubling down that it is a Switch 1 game. I don't think it'll have a Switch 2 skew, period. And

going forward, I think that that just means that the first Switch 2 Pokemon games can have even more eyes on it. And if it is Gen 10, there's just a lot of stuff that is very exciting. Pokemon's never released in like the first year of a new console though. So, oh wow.

It's going to be, I wonder what this means for Gen 10. I wouldn't be surprised if Pokemon Day next year we get a Gen 10 announcement, but then there is a similar kind of time frame of like it's going to be a while till we actually are playing it. Um, which I don't think is a bad thing necessarily. Um, but yeah, I do think that this is, this game is going to be a very big focus point for both Pokemon company and Nintendo. Um, and then positioning it in fall. Like I wonder what that means even around the switch to

lineup of, of games, right? Because like they're going to look at it. Exactly. They're going to promote it as if it's the same thing because for all intents of purposes, they are. Like if this game is playable on both like why like you're just promoting. to the same audience, whether they own a switch one or switch two. Yeah. Late 20, 25. All right, we're going to keep talking about Pokemon and get to a whole bunch of your super chats right after a word from our sponsors.

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And we are back. We were just talking about how the game looks, Andy. What do you have to say? Well, I brought up the trailer on my laptop because I was like, I wanted to like zoom in on certain spots and it looks way worse than it does like, you know, when you're watching it on a screen that's really close to you, it really, you know, the flaws really pop out.

We're watching for the reacts. We watch on a big screen TV. Yeah, we watch on the big screen, but, you know, It's other but like the, you know, I'm kind of really annoying about pixel vibes and looks, but on the big screen, it looked just a lot cleaner because we're further away from it. Yeah, further away, it's also like kind of like pairing down because it's like a screen capture and stuff. So, yeah, honestly, out here looks much better, which is so weird. It looks so clean out here. It's a mom and paw company, all right?

Leave Nintendo alone. Leave Pokemon company alone. Leave on leave that alone. During the break, we were saying, I was like, like, we didn't know what we had with the let's go games. Everybody talks shit about that. And then Sword and Shield came out. Everybody talked shit about that.

And it's like, God, their art styles were so much better than this. I talk so much shit on Sword and Shield. I love Sword and Shield. I talk so much shit on. Think about that first, like, town that you started in? How, like, beautifully detailed it was. Oh, my expectations at the time were, oh, we're finally going to get a console Pokemon game.

And then it looked like that. But then we got Scarlet and Violet, and I'm like, fuck, I wish it looked like that. The wild areas was, like, the real bad visual part of, Wild areas were like the tease of Scarlet and Violet. I'm just going to talk this down to succumb technically. I'm going to talk to this on to YouTube 1080P. That's what it is.

This game's going to look amazing. Yeah, exactly. This games would be a stunner. Yeah. When it's at 720P on the switch two. Visual delight. Bear, can you bring up some sword and shield footage and some Pokemon

Let's Go footage? I just want to look at it because like, specifically the character styles and like the shading on Let's Go. I don't know that we'll ever match it again. Like that to me, I'm like this is what I want these games to look like. And it was easier. It was like, you know, taking red and blue like grade base systems

and shit, but like, God. I mean, are you ready to admit that you hated on shining pearl too much? No. No, no, no, no. Because at least had our cell. At our stuff. No, that ourselves sucked.

I hated that shit. It had an art show. Since day one, I hated that shit. I like those little guys. He always loved them. They should have stuck with this, man. This is so cute, man. It's so good.

It still has a personality. Man, I'll be rude with you, Tim. I was going to be like, oh, man. Tyn, Barrett's going to bring this up, but you're going to be like, oh, shit, I was wrong. It's just like my roast in the glasses.

No, this is amazing. You could have told me this is Switch 2-footish. Yeah, I guess what we just saw, right? So that was, let's go Pikachu. That looks so good. Yeah, Pokemon, let's go. Fuck, I'm not to replay that shit. Yeah, no, I mean, I, after Scarlet and Violet,

when I got, like, super addicted to Pokemon again, I went back and I caught all of them. I completed the Pokedex in Pokemon Let's Go. And I was just, like, blown away by how good it looked. And then, yeah, I was, I popped back into Sword and Shield, too, and I'm like, damn, this shit has style. Yeah. I'm sorry for how I should talk to Sword and Sheila. I'm not bad.

I didn't realize what I had at the time. God, it's so funny. It is funny though because I obviously graphically just art style and all that stuff. Like this does look so much better than Scarlet Violet. But there is something about just the way the character moves and the way that things are laid out that this does feel more like a handheld game.

And Scarlet and Violet do still do feel like the first proper big 3D one, even though it's like they're, They're similar in a lot of ways. I think you could do this, though, with, like, a more, like, design-wise of the modern games. I keep this art style, but do, you know, something different, which they did try with the wild areas and stuff. Oh, let me tell you about open world games. Like, you can do this because everybody else does this. It's only Pokemon company that struggles with, like, ah, man, if we make it open, like, we got to make it ugly.

I mean, do me one more favorite, Barry. Pull up Pokemon, or sorry, Xenobled Chronicles 2. If we make it open We gotta make it ugly You know the rules here We know the rules We can't have a big console fucking game

Without making it look like shit You gotta choose one man Yeah the dream would be for Pokemon company To team up with like I don't know Just somebody to whip them into shape When it comes to

Model-less Well yes what I'm saying Yeah Like when you see like What's possible on the switch You're like Ah this is so upsetting It's so deeply upsetting

And you know what bless I think I want to play through Brilliant Diamond Shining for a minute I do like the art style of Brilliant Diamond, but that game is boring as fuck, though. No, you don't. This is Zeno Blaine Chronicles 2 from, oh my God. Cute eight years ago.

I can't wait to play Zillet Chronicles X. I'm looking forward to it. I want to try it out. Yeah, you're playing it too? Yeah, I want to try it out. Let's do a one-on-one review. I want to see. Zeno Blade Chronicles X.

I'm going to see what all the fuss is about. Kind of funny. It's first Zeno Blade Chronicles review. Mm-hmm. No, that's not true. We've had two. No. Cisco.

Cisco. And Nick Scarfinger. Oh, you're right. I forgot about Cisco. Super Chats here. CJ Splitson says, does this mean that ZA is the big holiday game, no Mario?

Pokemon's always done its own thing and never gotten, like, it's never really mattered what Nintendo's doing and what they're doing. They fly by the seat of their own pants. This will be a big

Nintendo game for the fall, but I do not think it'll be the, actually I can guarantee it will not be. Yeah, because you got to have a big Switch 2 thing. Yeah. Like, if this isn't a Switch 2 title, you've got to have something like,

for the Switch 2 console that is going to be the fall game and like Mario or something adjacent fits that my apology they march to the beat of their own drum Wait what did you say? I said they fly by the seat of their own band As soon as I said it

I was like that's not it News race just dropped Fuck that's hilarious Gabob says ZA definitely look like a Switch 1 only game Yeah 100% Oh yeah it was in 30 frames too Yeah you know

The fact that Not that I'm expecting Okay, well, walk with me here. This isn't even a very long walk, so you don't have to bring water or anything like that. Do we think the first indication of Switch 2 stuff, the YouTube videos will be higher quality? No. No. Really?

No. We won't get like a 4K YouTube video or 424P. It'll be 1080P until they die, and it will never, ever be 1080p 60. How dare you even think that? They might drop to 720. If I changed the game there. Yeah, I doubt it. I really, really, really doubt it.

I think that would be so cool to, like, indicate the change. The changes here. Yeah. I mean, is the Switch 2 going to be 4K? Oh, my God, are we doing this again? No. Be 4K. Don't say the lot of us.

4K. Raytressing 6MPS. Because if it's a 4K console, it has, you've got to upload your trailers in 4K, right? It's not going to be a 4K console. That's why. Dn8-149 says, I've wanted a dedicated battling game for a while, so I'm hyped, but I'm really hoping this will. allow for better animations.

Yeah, dude, champions, very, very interesting to keep our eyes on. The P and champions being the focus, I wonder what's up with that. It's just Pokemon. It's a Pokemon. No, it's a Pokemon. Can you go to the logo? I thought the same thing. I was like, oh, it's shaping a polka ball with a little stem on the end.

Yeah. Oh, okay, maybe they got a little too cute there. Yeah. I had the same thought. I was like, it's kind of ugly. I don't like that. But yeah, the idea of this, if it's what we assume it is, could be, very consequential for

Pokemon. So recently I was playing Pokemon Stadium 2, I guess sometime mid last year I was playing a lot of Pokemon Stadium 2 just going through Jim Leader Castle let me tell you, got to the Elite 4, oh, they're tough, they're tough, I'm not being the Elite 4 yet, but

one of the very special things about Pokemon Stadium is how good the animations are, like every Pokemon, like every move, like they have some sort of animation that like so many of them are unique and look fucking fantastic. And I can't believe that at that time you had that much variety in what in like how these Pokemon were moving like their idle animations like different animations for different kinds of moves and all that stuff I will love for them to replicate that like I know

it's tough because now you have so many Pokemon that is one thing that I worry about is like all right Pokemon champions are we is it going to be everything right or are we going is it going to be that iterative we're adding things as we go kind of thing that you get sometimes a Nintendo and Pokemon I do wonder how hard they're going to go with that stuff Um, I also wonder if we're going to get an announcer because I like the announcers. They make it amazing. Like that, that is the reason to play a stadium for battles over like other things. Yeah.

It makes it so much more exciting. It's epic. Yeah. This is kind of a random aside when we're talking about battle styles and the way, um, I'm need you all talk here because I got a sneeze on the way. Oh, I got a sneeze loaded up. Locked in the chamber, locked and loaded. It's right there. It's on the precipice.

It's gone. It's gone. It disappeared. When I looked at the, when we saw the sort of glimpse of what combat looked like in ZA and then going for a little bit something more active, right? It made me think how unique and how cool the combat was in Arco, very small indie title that came out last year,

and critics loved it. And it was like criminally underplayed and I'm part of the problem. I only put like an hour into it. But Arco had a sort of turn-based style where an enemy attacks you and you, and as they're about to attack, you kind of make your plan on how you're going to be moving on the battlefield. And it kind of reminded me of that, even though the Pokemon thing seems a bit more active. But I think even implementing something like this could be really cool and a change of what, a way to sort of change of the formula for what turnbase could be.

I think it could be really neat. Hire them. Hire those devs. Everybody love that game. Dirty Sloth sauce says, Love you guys, watch every day. Bless,

I'm so happy you're playing Dark Souls. By the way, check out the rare pack pull I pulled. It's in my profile picture. Oh, it's too small. It's way too small. It's in a tiny little circle.

I'm just watching the Champions Trail. It looks like they got a god pack with like all full arts. Oh, nice. Oh, okay. You try to look at the robot picture. Reminds you have a tweet I saw yesterday.

I'm trying to stay off Twitter. right but you know one of my favorite category of tweets is like when uh women out dudes that have like families for like flirting with them in the DMs and stuff this guy like sent this woman a flirtatious DM like you're the most beautiful

whatever and she replied your wife and daughter are in your profile picture and he replied nosy bitch it's just it got me so good Andy's on one today Andy's on one today This is what happens

When he wakes up in 4 9 a.m. Yeah, you are, that is true That happens to wake up early. I'm like a gremlin When I wake up at 6 a.m. for a react Like, I have these I really wish we did do the Let's do it from home 6 a.m.

Like we've done in the last few years because the three of us in particular are always fucking on one after. Yeah, fucking disaster. Deer 6th says, I can get the red blue yellow and gold silver crystal being a big ask sure but not even announcing Pokemon challenge or pinball for NSO is crazy yeah it is you know it's there's no sense to be

made when it comes to the re-releasing of any of the Pokemon games or even just Nintendo Switch online in general so 30th sounds just so right though for the big ones yeah we'll see but like Pokemon pinball why not 30th made sense for Wind waker and uh Twilight Princess to come out but Pokemon Pokemon care about their anniverses and actually do things on them that's the one difference. Pokemon and Kirby. Shout them out. Do you think it's

because you know, cute little guys? And we've probably had this conversation before, but do you think it's because you can sell Pokemon stuff? You can sell a remaster

of Pokemon pinball and Pokemon. I don't think you can. Dungeon crawler, what was that one called? Mystery dungeon. Yeah. That you can sell.

But like pinball, like that's just a Nintendo Switch online drop. Like I, not everything they have is like a clear strategy of like, oh, they're waiting

because they're trying to make money from this. You know what I mean? But Pokemon gives me that vibe of like, I think everything else Nintendo owns. but like Pokemon.

But stadium is Nintendo Switch online? Oh, is it really? Yeah, well, that's how you've been playing Stadium too, uh,

last year. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah, I'm glad I reminded you blessed.

Yeah, no, that's how I've been playing it. And I've been playing it. Like, the games are talking about here. Like,

yeah, it is a little surprising they're not there yet. Um, Phil Shue says, super awesome to see my board total dial, finally getting some love,

my favorite of all time. Sathow underrepresented he's been for the last few years. Totally. feel you, absolutely understand what you're coming from. When Totadal showed up in Detective Pikachu in the movie, that was one of the first pop-off

moments for me. Like we see a little family of them in the wild and I was like, oh my God, this is insane. Where's number two? Give it to me now. And also, can we just shout out how, like, how predictable and normal, but welcomed Totadal's evolutions are?

I feel you. They make sense. We didn't get to the third one now. He's a skyscraper. And I was like, that's his father. Fuck it. You know, I had to foot Coco, most adorable little baby boy, and the middle one sucks and it's ugly. And the third one,

ah, ah, it happens. And everybody's like, I'm telling you for not looking at it. He was like, well, I wanted to be surprised.

Yeah, no, I get that. That TikTok still does numbers, by the way. Like, that TikTok I posted fucking three years ago

at whatever this point. I wake up every day with like 17 new notifications of people arguing or calling me ugly. That's what this thing looks like? Yeah, man.

It's real fucked up. That's real fucked up. That's almost Middle evolution pisses me off. Dude, me too. My middle evolution pisses me off for real. Me too. What were you going to say, Bless?

Detective Pikachu, too. Mm-hmm. That ever come out? Some of the game? The game, I did tell about the movie. And I was up to be like, Bless, what's wrong with you? I literally just dropped this up. Detective Pikachu do the game.

It did. Detective Pikachu returns. Did you know what came out? That shit came away. Wow. Yeah. All right. Yeah.

Well, that's a way smaller. That's like a, like, like, I just remember it. I remember waiting. I remember all of us being like, yo, where's the second Pikachu return? It came out October 2023, blessing. I've been seen Greg,

I've been seen Bless request Greg a code for that. I was like, okay I get it? I feed you too. Uh, Trey says love the Toto Diles back as a starter. Uh, feels a bit weird to have two Jodo starters,

though. Do you guys think Gen 5 remakes are being held off until Switch 2? Yeah, I mean, I do think it's, uh, there's a clear reason why the starters are gen 2 and gen 5. Those are the two gens that we've kind of been waiting to see

again, like their next due for remakes or reimagininges, whatever you want to call it, based on shining diamond and brilliant pearl, said those backwards. And that was Gen 4, so that line for Gen 5, and then Let's Go, Gonto, going to Let's Go Joto,

or whatever they end up doing for that. At this point, I don't think we're ever seeing that. I think the Let's Go games are done. Man, that sounds to me. I know, I know. But also, most people don't like those games because of how dumb down they are and all that stuff. that really bummed me out as well

yeah initially it did for me too but then years later after I got addicted to Pokemon Go I'm like this is the best thing ever for me Toyota's got a great shiny I just wanted an excuse to like go back to something like Jodo even if it's through let's go like I'll take the excuse yeah and uh with Gen 5 like it's I don't know

there's something about it that like we'll see like I don't know that I I don't know what the strategy going forward it's going to be I feel like legends might be the new wave for them of like doing different takes on a region, but it is a completely new thing. And it's a way for them to kind of experiment, you know?

Yeah. Joe Farrelli says, is champions the future of the VGC divorced from the mainline RPGs? Honestly, like, I think it might be. Like this, again, we have such little information, but like them making a product that is mobile and switch and key connected to Pokemon home, it's like, yeah, maybe they are really trying to,

to have a serious competitive landscape and be able to have tournaments and not have it tied to a generation or anything like that could be really sick and you can like use that to present it well right like if you put a lot of power into oh we want our tournaments to be epic we want um these battles to look great oh man scarlet is ugly but hey at least we have my champions where people are going to do their battles and we can put it up on a big screen to have it be a thing of you know putting all that presentation power into champions and having it you know shine Boys, I don't know if you remember this year, the Pokemon World Championships are in Los Angeles, Anaheim, technically.

Next year. San Francisco. No way. We're going to be there. Do we train? Oh, we got to train. What if we became the very best than no one ever was? It's time to get out of magic bless.

Time to come back. Time to go back. Is it like an evo type thing where the grand stage people are, wow. It's a big, big deal. They better have people in costumes, like, recreating the battles as they're happening. They don't do that. It's so cool. But I mean, no, it's like the VGC, they do the World Championships.

It's like Pokemon Unite, Pokemon Go, Pokemon, Pokemon, like, it's everything. But then obviously the main games, too. Sleep competition, baby, let's go. Think I'd win. Condor's Condor's says, Tim, it'll be three years between Scarlet and Violet and Z.A. I was talking about since announcement of ZA. But yeah, that's awesome. Like, that's wild that, like, it'll be that long for a core Pokemon game.

even core meaning whatever after this to come out like good good I like it because I got a real burn out like I don't know if you guys remember but leading to Scarlet Live I was talking so much I'm like I'm not playing this fucking game I remember because I think you sold me yeah I was the one who was playing it for review

and like halfway through I looked at him and I was like oh my God I remember him not being sold on it yeah and I was like Tim I think it's good like it's really good it's janky but it's good I was putting my foot down I'm like I'm not playing this yeah like just I'm fucking not doing it and then now I'm more than I've for me. Because of Scarletin Violet, just turned things around. That was the one that changed the trajectory of your future.

God, man. Definitely of my wallet. I can say that. Man, you would look out into the world and like the repeating tiling textures were straight up like banjo-cazoui levels or like Mario 64. It's like you would just see that pattern. It's so close up. Like Starling, like imagine like you lived in a world with like no hot Cheetos. Like hot Cheetos were never created. But then all of a sudden I gave you a bag and like it wasn't even hot Cheetos. It was just the Hot Cheetos dust at the bottom of the bag.

And he got to taste it. That's what Scarlet and Violet was. Where it's like, man, I wish this was an actual snack, but I'll lick the dust out of this stuff. That's what Scarlet Violin. Scarlet and Violet is hot Cheetos dust given to you and you've never had hot Cheetos before. And it's like, I'll take what I can get. The shit is fucking good. It's like when you see the little baby like drink a fruit punch for the first time.

They're like, oh, God damn. Yeah. Mellow fellow says, JPEG balconies on the buildings. Oh yeah. You know what I mean? Why would balconies need to be 3D? Yeah.

Kinetics says, Can't wait for the Nicklock. The last one had me tuning in live and chatting and giving tips. And I don't even have an office type job. I work in trades, but I just had to be there. Hell yeah.

Well, I can guarantee this one's gonna be worth being there too. That's the thing. I love when we can do big events that the community gets to hang out and like being in chat, being there for the big moments. Like everyone remembers when Tim died. You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah. But being there, get different. Everybody remembers running into Mike for the first time. I love it. I freaking love it. So yeah, everybody, prepare yourselves for next Friday.

Far and away, like a much larger success. Because I remember, obviously we had, it was a Twitch-only stream, and this will be Twitch-only as well because we're expected to go longer. And whenever you do a YouTube stream,

you have to, like, cut it at the whatever hour mark. And after we did that, I uploaded the YouTube bod that was recording for, I don't know how many hours. And that YouTube bod had like crazy views, even though there were already a lot of people watching live on Twitter. It was crazy the amount of success at Zaz. So we're hoping to have an equal amount of fun with the Soul Silver Nick Gluck this Saturday or next Saturday. What time, bless? After game showdown.

After game showdown. Friday, March 7th. What time is that mountain time? Time is game showdown at night? I don't know. either way it's going to be a great time but yeah everybody once again i keep pushing this because a lot of workers put into it i'm excited to share it with all your friends and stuff this saturday is going to be the uh nicklock uh one going through fire red so please watch that have a great

time share it with everybody get them hyped for the second journey to begin next friday yeah i saw somebody comment um i watched evan yon's like uh super cut stuff and uh but i'm still going to be there we paid Evan Young to work on this So it's like it's a generally kind of the same thing So three Over three hour video of all the best Funniest most heartbreaking moments In the Pokemon Nicklock 1.0

This Saturday at 9 a.m. Pacific time 10 a.m. Mountain time. Nope. 10 a.m. 11 mountain time. Yeah, mountain. You're right. Yeah, you're right. No, you're right. 11 central. No, no.

Where the fuck of the mountains. And like where the mountains are at. There's no mountains in central. You think there's mountains in Illinois? No, I don't know what mountains are. I'm not completely honest. There are no mountains in Illinois, I can tell you that. I saw my two eyes.

Timesos are stupid. It's flat over there. I agree. I hate to stop. Get rid of time zones, get rid of daylight savings. Yeah, man, let us know in the comments below what your real thoughts are on time. I think we need time zones. We don't need time zones.

We definitely need time zone. We definitely need time zone. It's all flat and it's all the same anyway. Everybody just worked on their own fucking time. It'd be fine. Listen, I'm with that. Yeah. We come and record a podcast 11 p.m. I'll do it.

What you think of them, time zones and Pokemon's off. We're about to do games daily. The energy has shifted. Goodbye. That's my hot Cheetos. Just the dust.