AGENTS ARE GO!!!

HEEEAAALLLP! AGENTS ARE GO! Whenever you hear those words, the Elite Beat Agents will be on the scene helping you out.

Elite Beat Agents is without a doubt, one of my favorite Nintendo DS games ever made. At the time, I thought that the game sounded stupid and silly. But then I decided to check it out because of how I heard about the game play, and I fell in love with it. The history behind this game's creation is very interesting. You see, Elite Beat Agents was developed by a Japanese company called iNiS, which is an acyromn for "infinite Noise of the inner Soul." With a slogan like that, I guess it is safe to say that they're mostly a developer for music games. Their first game made for the DS was the Japan only, "Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan" or "Go! Fight! Cheer Squad" Which is basically what the game play of Elite Beat Agents was based on. The reason we got Elite Beat Agents was because of how many copies of Ouendan were imported outside of Japan, and Nintendo saw note of that and decided to bring the series over to the US. During one press release, they even referred to Elite Beat Agents as the American version of "the cult import hit Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan." When you mention the fact that this game is going to be the American version of a Japanese only game

The game play is pretty straight forward. You tap these balls known as Hit Markers that appear on the touch screen in numerical order. You get points based on how well timed they are. 300 for Perfect, 100 for Good, 50 for OK, and an X for Bad. Also, there are times where you then hit the number and follow a path, this path is known as a Phase Marker. Within this path, a ball appears and you have to keep your stylus on it at all times. They also follow the same mechanics as Hit Markers with the scoring system there is also random intervals where you have to spin a circle known as Spin Markers. You have to spin this and fill up the bars on the side before a circle closes in on it. Spinning it even long after you fill up the bars on the side is a good thing, considering that it does boost your score, I do recommend spinning it as fast as you can. For every consecutive note that you hit, there is a multiplier that will boost your score as well. Like most other music games like Guitar Hero and the like, you have a life bar. If you do well on a song, you get a positive scene in your scenario. If you do bad, but not fail the song completely, you'll get a failed, but hilarious scene. If you let that life bar drop to zero, you have to start all over again.

What does the scoring system do? Other than ranking your progress on the song, with the usual rankings of D, C, B, A and S, there is also a ranking system where you're given separate title and can be used to unlock 3 more songs in the story, which you can then used to rank up yet again. You can also check back on your progress of a song by hitting replay after finishing a song., and you can choose to save it for future reference or not.

The story in this game... well... uh... it's kind of hard to describe really, and that's OK, because every scenario is a standalone adventure until the final 2 songs/scenarios where everyone else bands together for the big bad. You can be helping someone like a babysitter trying to ask her boyfriend to go steady while trying to calm down these kids she has to babysit, to a movie director that's trying to finish his movie, to helping a white blood cell who is personified as a hot nurse fight a virus that is infecting this athlete, to helping a retired baseball player fight a lava golem at an amusement park. I think that's a perfect example of how the jobs can range from pretty mundane stuff to extraordinary, out of this world stuff.

As for the agents you control, they depend on the difficulty you're playing on. Easy gets Agent Spin, a rookie among the lowest ranks as his rank is even lower than the back-up dancers of Derek and Morris. He's sort of looks like Agent J from Men in Black, which would kind of it with his rookie motif. Agent J, he's the guy you play with on Normal and the one you see on all the promotional material. Think of him as the Mario, Link, Pikachu, Samus, Fox, etc. of the franchise. Agent Chieftan is the #1 agent. He looks more like a Blues Brother in appearance. Then for the very hard mode, you have the Elite Beat Divas, the only playable females in this game. They're basically a separate unit that dresses differently than the males. Instead of wearing suits like the males, they were very revealing clothing and wield pom-poms. There is also their Commander in Chief, Commander Kahn. Who watches for problems to send his agents to solve. You could also play as him after beating the game with everyone.

As for the song selection, I will say that when it does come to music that I'm not really the paragon of good taste when it comes to that kind of stuff. However, I will say that most of the cover songs in this game were better than the original. This song made me like an Ashley Simpson song of all things. That song was called "La La" which was about how she wanted to be your sex slave. According to some research, I found out that Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" was one of the worst songs ever made. Really, I was shocked to learn that after the heartwarming segment it was paired with. I will also go on the record saying that the covers in this game had me singing the songs to myself, they were just that good.

The graphics, you have 2 different styles. On the top screen, there are some comic/manga inspired drawings. They are pretty high quality stuff. The details on certain characters are pretty amazing. From the strands of hair, to the muscle tone, these guys really had their work cut out for them. The bottom screen has the agents dancing. I will say that despite how blocky the Agents look on the DS, and I do keep in mind that when it comes to rendering 3D graphics, the DS isn't the king in that department, that were rendered pretty well. They have separate dance moves for every song, and it's not like that you'll see agents repeat all the same movements that they do during the songs chorus. You won't see the handstand they do in "Canned Heat" anywhere else, or even their funny dance in Material Girl repeated on any other songs. To that I say, kudos to all those guys that programmed the agent's models to do that. I wonder if they used reference or created them on the spot. But either way, I still like that nice touch.

I will say that when I did take the chance to listen to some of the songs, learn the meanings of their lyrics and such, and most of the time, it doesn't make sense. I mean one scenario is about a baseball player who feels all washed up, and tries to save one his fans from a fire breathing golem. The song that went with that scenario? "The Anthem" as made famous by Good Charlotte. Of course that's just one example, considering that this whole game is filled with it. In fact, I think it might be easier to just list the songs that actually fit the scenarios in question. The one off the top of my head has to go with the second to last stage, set to Hoobastank's Without a Fight. Considering that you're fighting what is considered the ultimate evil at this point, and the song is about fighting back, it is the most fitting song. I guess Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" can work as well. Seeing as how that song is about someone you love and hold dear to your heart, and the person in this song does have someone that they hold dear to their heart that is no longer with them. In fact, the song selection was one of the reasons as to why some friends of mine in High School gave this game a pass. Such a shame really, they were missing out.

All in all, this game had some decent game play and charm to it. You can find this game either at your used video game retailer, or on an online store. Since I think that Nintendo stopped manufacturing this game and sending major retailer’s new copy.

Favorite Pokémon of the Generations. GENERATION 1!

Anyone who knows me knows that Pokémon is one of my favorite Nintendo franchise made. I've been a fan of it since Day 1 when the anime came over and Red and Blue were all the rage. It's been a very long time since the Franchise has started out. We have had 4 Generations of Pokémon for each handheld system, having about 493 new monsters into the mix, and now with Black and White, we're looking at 649 of the little guys. With that I plan to look back at some of my favorite monsters from each Generation, leading up to Black and White release. That's right, ranging from Kanto to Johto to Hoenn to Sinnoh to Unova, I'll be listing my favorites of each type. How will I be handling this, well it will vary based on both design and battle prowess.

Let's start off with Generation 1. Keep in mind, that the Steel and Dark types weren't made official yet. I could give either Magnemite or Magneton the spot, but I'm going with Generation I setting with this list, so just expect the original 15 types, then when I get into Johto and beyond, all types will be covered.

Normal- Snorlax- As a kid, I always liked that big sleepy bear that would block my path. He was pretty strong for a Normal type, and could take a hit or two before going down. Sure he had low speed, but I didn't care due to how much payback that thing can deliver. As for it's design, it was pretty neat. It somewhat reminded me of Totoro.

Fighting- Hitmonchan- A fighting type with boxing gloves? That was pretty unique, considering that most of the Fighting types in were based on various forms of fighters, the Machop line reminded me of Pro-Wrestler, Hitmonlee was like more kicking related, and Hitmonchan is a boxer. I've always had a liking for Boxing, and Hitmonchan kind of had this charm in it that made me pick it above the rest.

Flying- Farfetch'd- Yes he is ultimately Pokémon's joke character. A joke I saw on Smogon sums his situation up right. Scroll down to the Opinions part of the page. It has the lowest base stats in the game for a Pokémon that doesn't evolve, can only be obtained in a trade in which you give up the potential to have an even better flying type, but man I just like ducks, especially one that holds an onion leek as a weapon. He reminds me of a samurai in a way. Because of that onion leek, and his semi samurai looks, he had a cool design that I put above the bird I use the most in Kanto, which is Fearow.

Poison- Arbok- It's a snake, and they're awesome. Well OK, I think the anime might be helping there since Arbok was Jessie's main mon, and Jessie was one of my favorite member on the team. I kind of like that mark on it's belly, and it's pretty cool how they do differ subtly from region to region. If you look really close enough, you'll notice that. My only complaint about it is, that I kind of wished that they kept the marking if they were from a different game. I mean, even though you couldn't see it from the back, I thought it would be pretty cool to see someone have an Arbok from the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions.

Ground- Nidoking- I was going to put down Nidoking as my favorite Poison type, but when I realized that back then the only Poison move it knew that could do damage was Poison Sting, and Toxic, and that other ground types weren't my cup of tea. But anyway, Nidoking is a pretty good mixed attacker, both back in the day, and now. Considering it's base Special Attack is only 7 points lower than attack, I don't feel like that giving it a special attack is a waste for a move.

Rock- Golem- For some reason, I don't remember a single trainer in the game that used Golem. Which is a shame, since Golem was pretty decent for the most part. While Rock types did kind of suck back in Generation I, with most of them having double weaknesses, like Onix, Kabuto, Omastar, etc. I thought that Golem was pretty decent, especially since I was able to use him after trading to my brother's Red version, then back to my Blue.

Bug- Scyther- Back then, Bug type was sort of like a joke. They really weren't that strong, didn't have that many powerful moves, which was kind of a shame, considering they were the only thing that were super effective against Psychic types. I am convinced that if Bugs weren't gimped in this gen, the likes of Scyther and Pinsir probably would have had a strong Bug Type move on them, and they would have been on teams to counter the likes of Alakazam, Mewtwo, Hypno, and most likely OHKO them. As for Scyther, I kind of like his design, I like the blades he has

Ghost- Gengar- Yeah, Generation only had 3 Ghost Types, all of which came from the same evolution family. But Gengar reigns supreme within his line with his neat shadow design, and being a pretty good special attacker with a nice speed stat as well. He's pretty much one of my favorites to use on my battling teams due to his hit hard and fast approach.

Fire: Arcanine- The noble beast of Arcanine was one of my favorites back in the day. As far as capture fire types goes, he was the best. With boasting high attack strength, decent speed, he was a pretty decent mix attacker. It also helps that he's pretty strong for a monster that only evolves once. His noble and regal appearance also set him apart from the likes of Nintales, Charizard, Magmar, Moltres

Water: Poliwrath- While Poliwhirl is a favorite of Satoshi Tajiri, I myself was a fan of it's evolution. It might be because it also contains one of my favorite types, Fighting. But Poliwrath weird Frog design puts it above the rest of the water types for me.

Grass: Bulbasaur- it's the nostalgia in me when I pick Bulbasaur, but really looking back, there really weren't that many Grass types that I liked in this Generation. I guess it also helps that Bulbasaur was the first Pokémon I ever picked in a Pokémon game and that he help me beat the Elite Four.

Electric- Jolteon- Jolteon takes the cake as my favorite. He is one of the fastest creatures alive, has impressive Special stat. the only downside for it was it's limited movepool back in Gen I, and lack of good special attacks, but it was one of the few monsters that was able to go toe to toe with Lance's Aerodactyl.

Psychic- Mr. Mime: Ah yes, the game breakers of Generation I. If you had a Psychic type on your team, mostly the likes of Alakazam, Hypno, Starmie, Exeggutor, and if you had early access to it, Mewtwo, you can pretty much breeze through the game. Though looking back, Mr. Mime was one of the fragile Psychics. Though, thanks to it looking like a mime/clown, it became my favorite.

Ice- Lapras- This generation only had 5 of them, and most of them were dual types. But Lapras sort of stands out for me in a way. I always kind of liked this Loch Ness inspiried monster, and I thought it was perfect for traveling with. Also, there is something calming about Lapras design that I find relief in.

Dragon: Dragonite- Well like Ghost types, Generation I only had 3 Dragon types, all of which belonged in the same family. With this Dragonite was the first among the Psuedo-Legendary, which are fully evolved Pokémon with base stats totaling 600. While it's sprite was pretty derpy, and I'm still trying to figure out how Dragonair got wings, and turned a different color. I mean what the hell is this, and how did this become this? It's pretty much the only Dragon in the game, and I liked it for what it was worth.

Well, I encountered a list of new names for the Pokémon you can encounter in the Unova region, and here they are as followed, along with their Japanese names. Note, most of the romanizations come from Bulbapedia's listing of Pokémon obtained in the Unova dex. If you don't see one with a slash (/) next to their name, that means they retained their Japanese name. One more thing, this list doesn't give out the names for the 3 Event mons of Gen V, Keldeo, Meloetta, and Genesect, so they weren't included.

Victini

Snivy/Tsutarja

Servine/Janovy

Serperior/Jalorda

Tepig/Pokabu

Pignite/Chaoboo

Emboar/Embuoh

Oshawott/Mijumaru

Dewott/Futachimaru

Samurott/Daikenki

Patrat/Minezumi

Watchog/Miruhog

Lillipup/Yorterry

Herdier/Haderia

Stoutland/Murando

Purrloin/Choroneko

Liepard/Lepardas

Pansage/Yanappu

Simisage/Yanakkie

Pansear/Baoppu

Simisear/Baokkie

Panpour/Hiyappu

Simipour/Hiyakkie

Munna

Musharna

Pidove/Mamepato

Tranquill/Hatooboo

Unfezant/Kenhorou

Blitzle/Shimama

Zebstrika/Zeburaika

Roggenrola/Dangoro

Boldore/Gantoru

Gigalith/Gigaiath

Woobat/Koromori

Swoobat.Kokoromori

Drilbur/Mogurew

Excadrill/Doryuzu

Audino/Tabunne

Timburr/Dokkora

Gurdurr/Dotekkotsu

Conkeldurr/Roobushin

Tympole/Otamaro

Palpitoad/Gamagaru

Seismitoad/Gamageroge

Throh/Nageki

Sawk/Dageki

Sewaddle/Kurumiru

Swadloon/Kurumayu

Leavanny/Hahakomori

Venipede/Fushide

Whirlipede/Hoiiga

Scolipede/Pendra

Cottonee/Monmen

Whimsicott/Erufuun

Petilil/Churine

Lilligant/Doredia

Basculin/Basslao

Sandile/Meguroco

Krokorok/Waruvile

Krookodile/Waruvial

Darumaka

Darmanitan/Hihidaruma

Maractus/Marakacchi

Dwebble/Ishizumai

Crustle/Iwaparesu

Scraggy/Zuruggu

Scrafty/Zuruzukin

Sigilyph/Shinbora

Yamask/Desumasu

Cofagrigus/Desukam

Tirtouga/Purotoga

Carracosta/Abagoura

Archen/Aaken

Archeops/Acheos

Trubbish/Yabukuron

Garbodor/Dasutodasu

Zorua

Zoroark

Minccino/Chillarmy

Cinccino/Chillaccino

Gothita/Gothimu

Gothorita/Gochimiru

Gothitelle/Gothiruselle

Solosis/Yuniran

Duosion/Daburan

Reuniclus/ Ranculus

Ducklett/Koaruhie

Swanna

Vanillite/Vanipeti

Vanillish/Baniricchi

Vanilluxe/Baibanira

Deerling/Shikijika

Sawsbuck/Mebukijika

Emolga/Emonga

Karrablast/Kaburumo

Escavalier/Shubarugo

Foongus/Tamagetake

Amoonguss/Morobareru

Frillish/Pururiru

Jellicent/Burungel

Alomomola/Mamanbou

Joltik/Banchuru

Galvantula/Denchura

Ferroseed/Tesshido

Ferrothorn/Nattorei

Klink/Gear

Klang/Gigiaru

Klinklang/Gigigiaru

Tynamo/Shibishirasu

Eelektrik/Shibibiru

Eelektross/Shibirudon

Elgyem/Riguree

Beheeyem/Oobemu

Litwick/Hitomoshi

Lampent/Ranpuraa

Chandelure/Shandera

Axew/Kibago

Fraxure/Onondo

Haxorus/Ononokus

Cubchoo/Kumasyun

Beartic/Tsunbear

Cryogonal/Furiijio

Shelmet/Chobomaki

Accelgor/Agirudaa

Stunfisk/Maggyo

Mienfoo/Kojofu

Mienshao/Konjondo

Druddigon/Crimgan

Golett/Gobitto

Golurk/Boruggu

Pawniard/Komatana

Bisharp/Kirikizan

Bouffalant/Buffalon

Rufflet/Washibon

Braviary/Wargle

Vullaby/Baruchai

Mandibuzz/Barujiina

Heatmor/Kuitaran

Durant/Aianto

Deino/Monozu

Zweilous/Jiheddo

Hydreigon/Sazandora

Larvesta/Meraruba

Volcarona/Ulgamoth

Cobalion/Cobalon

Terrakion

Virizion

Tornadus/Tornelos

Thundurus/Voltolos

Reshiram

Zekrom

Landorus/Landlos

Kyurem

While this list is speculative at best, there have been quite a few names on this list that have been confirmed recently, like Sewaddle, Excadrill, Alomomola, Deerling, Basuclin, and Watchog, getting new names and Swanna retaining it's Japanese names. With this mind, I am having more stock in that this leaked list might be true. I'm keeping tabs on them on a wordpad document, because I feel like it, and I find it better so that way I can have a personal list on hand so that way I can see what people are talking about on other message boards like Bulbagarden, since most Pokémon fansites do have a liking for calling Pokémon after their Japanese names, while some prefer the English. Myself, I prefer to use English names when possible, but I'll keep that as a topic for another post. With that said, I'll be keeping tabs when new names are announced, and up until either someone leaks the ROMs, or I get the game.

See ya next time.

Nuzlocke Challenge has begun!

I'm finally going through with my plan to do a Nuzlocke run in LeafGreen. As for my self imposed rules, especially since Nuzlocke doesn't have definitive rules, this is what I'll be doing for my run:

-The player may only catch the first Pokémon encountered in each area, and none else. If the first Pokémon encountered faints or flees, there are no second chances. However, I am ammending the rule so I don't end up with duplicates. Say I encounter a Rattata on Route 1, catch it, and encounter one again on Route 2. I will be under no obligation to catch that.

-Any Pokémon that faints is considered dead, and will be put in the Graveyard Box. I don't feel like releasing them, and them in a box makes for a great reminder for me saying that "Oh hey, I did capture on Route 4"

- I am nicknaming all my mons so they're not just some nameless mooks.

- I will only use the trading feature to evolve any the mons that require trading to evolve. Since I am doing Kanto for this one, that means I will only use it for Graveler, Machoke, Kadabra, or Haunter, provided I catch and decide to raise one on my team that is.

-A black out/white is a "game over," even if there are Pokémon left in the PC.

- I will log most of my progress on this board, though I will keep a back up of it elsewhere.

Right now, my journey starts with a Squirtle I named Daxdiv, the trainer is obviously named David, with the rival trainer being named Dhana, after a friend of mine from High School. I encountered a Rattata on Route 1, since I didn't catch it, Route 1 is meaningless to me except for grinding, even though I fought it near the point where you don't have any Pokéballs.

After delivering the Parcel to Prof. Oak, getting my Pokedex, and getting my 5 complimentary Pokéballs, it was about time to get Daxdiv, Level 8, some teammates. My first mission was to go to Route 22, the first Pokemon I encountered was a Rattata Level 3. Caught it and named it Joey, who knows, maybe it will top percentage like a certain trainer's Rattata in Johto. ;) Then I went to Route 2 and caught me a Pidgey, whom I named Squit, after one of the characters from GoodFeathers segments in Animaniacs. After grinding and hoping that none of my team dies, I decided to fight Dhana on Route 22. Squit was able to take down both is Pidgey and Bulbasaur with relative ease. After fighting Dhana, I decided it was about time to go into the Viridian Forest, but first I stocked up on some Potions, and some Antidotes. As for the first creature I encountered, it was a Caterpie, Female, Level 4. Caught it like the rest and named it Wormy.

After trekking through the Viridian Forests and killing various Caterpies, Weedles, and one Pikachu (Why couldn't I encountered that first.) I was able to make it to Pewter City without any casualities, and oh yeah, Wormy evolved into a Metapod. I healed up at the Pokemon Center, and decided to go for my first badge. Daxdiv took the front lines and fought against the trainer with the Geodude and Sandshrew, thanks to that fight, he was able to learn Water Gun, which he used to OHKO Geodude and Onix, also Daxdiv activating Torrent might have been a bit of an overkill. With that, I have one badge and seven more to go before the league. How long will my team survive? Tune in to find out.