top ten favorite pokemon

People that know me well know that I'm nuts for Pokemon.  People that know me really well, know that I'm especially fond of the dark type.  On this list, I'll refrain from putting a lot of dark types on the list.  Without further ado, my top then favorite Pokemon (applause)!

Number 10: Kingdra

What's cool about Kingdra?  Well it's the only water/dragon Pokemon (barring Palkia).  It is also my favorite dragon type.  I think its got a cool design (resembles a seahorse).  In the video game it's underrated which makes it even more lovable in my opinion.

Number 9. Arcanine

Ta da!  It's Arcanine!  The non-legendary legendary Pokemon from generation 1.  A bit of hilarious argument erupts around hardcore Pokemon fans stating that Arcanine is a legendary Pokemon.  The only basis for that is that it's pokedex description classifies it as legendary but it isn't.  Why do I like it?  It is a big dog of fire!  What's not to like about that?  It's freaking awesome!

Number 8: Chikorita

Let's talk about Chikorita.  It is a cute grass type starter that was overshadowed by Cyndaquil and Totodile in generation 2.  Why do I like it?  I like it for the pure sake of an exploitable glitch that was present in generation 1 and 2.  Chikorita learns Razor Leaf at level 8 and Razor Leaf had it's own special glitch to it.  Razor Leaf would have a 100% critical hit ratio (it was supposed to be about 30).  This was the reason that I always chose it in Gold/Silver/Crystal.  However, the glitch got fixed and that's why Chikorita is low on this list.


Number 7: Gardevoir

Gardevoir is my favorite Pokemon from the third generation (my least favorite generation).  It's the only human-like Pokemon that isn't creepy as hell (barring Gallade, a newer evolution of Kirlia, Gardevoir's pre-evolution).  It was tough finding a picture that wasn't of a sexual nature.  Being the only Pokemon that resembles a human, creepy fanboy artists jumped on making Gardevoir look as sexy as possible.  THIS THING IS A DIFFERENT SPECIES!  *Shudders*  I love Gardevoir all the same.

Number 6: Terrakion

Generally, I wouldn't put a legendary on my list but this guy is an exception.  He has an amazing type combination that no other Pokemon has (rock/fighting).  He has amazing stats in the video game and is a ferocious opponent.  He looks freaking cool, like a bull, or cow, or some really large bovine.  He takes the cake as my favorite legendary of all time (sorry Suicune).

Number 5:  Staraptor

This is Staraptor, the undisputed king of bird Pokemon.  Every generation has a meh normal/flying type. Generation 1 and 2 shared Pidgeot, Generation 3 had Swellow, and Generation 5 had Unfezant.  What makes Staraptor reign supreme over all of them?  Brave Bird/Close Combat.  Staraptor gets those two ridiculously powerful moves that chew up the other birds and eat them for breakfast.  I love you Staraptor.

Number 4: Whimsicott

IT'S SO FLUFFY!  Don't you just want to hug it?  This adorable guy was brought to us in generation 5. Despite his looks, he's one of the most deadly Pokemon in the video game metagame.  It has the ability to make any non-attacking move it uses to go first.  That makes it awesome.  It takes number 4 because it's so adorable!!!!

Number 3: Tyranitar

Oh yeah, top 3 here we go.  Tyranitar is a giant armor plated dinosaur.  When it comes into battle it summons a sandstorm.  Oh yeah, it looks really cool too.  It has a unique type combo shared with no other Pokemon (rock/dark).  It's well worth the effort to get a wimpy little Pupitar clear up to level 55.  When you do, you get this amazing behemoth.


Number 2: Absol

Absol and Gardevoir are my favorite Pokemon out of generation 3.  Absol is described as the disaster Pokemon, whenever it appears, a storm or earthquake is not far behind.  People had grown to fear it, to see it as a bad omen.  But I want to give it a hug!  Look as that amazing fur!!!  I love you Absol!!!!


Number 1:  Umbreon

Should have been obvious from the start.  My internet name (moonlitumbreon) is inspired by this picture.  I don't know why I love this guy so much.  It looks so cool, red eyes, yellow circles, and a pitch black body.  It has been my favorite Pokemon since generation 2 and it always will be.


Till Next Time...

Let's talk about Castlevania

Anyone who knows me, knows that one of my favorite series of video games is Castlevania.  I may be cheating a little bit but I haven't played/beaten all of the classic Castlevania games (1-4) (blasphamy!).  I actually want to talk about the ones that I have beaten and discuss rather or not it can hold up in 3D with one of the more recent games Castlevania Curse of Darkness.

The general plot behind all Castlevania games is you play as ________ Belmont (usually) and you're going into Dracula's castle to kick his ass!  AWESOME!  In the first one you play as Simon Belmont and the game is ungodly hard (but amazing).  The second one is crap, I haven't played it but you can look at the AVGN (Angry Video Game Nerd) review on www.cinemassacre.com for Castlevania II Simon's Quest.  Or you can see Egoraptor's compare and contrast of Castlevania 1 and 2 on youtube.  In Castlevania III you play as Trevor Belmont who was the first Belmont to hunt down Dracula.  Why is it that only Belmonts can destroy Dracula?  Because they are the only ones who can wield the legendary whip, Vampire Killer.  In almost every Castlevania game, you're weapon is an awkwardly awesome whip.  Basically, with most Castlevania games, you're hunting down Dracula with a whip.  With all that being said, lets dig into the Castlevania games that I've beaten, starting with Castlevania Symphony of the Night.

Truth be told, Castlevania Symphony of the Night is my favorite game of all time.  In this game you play as Alucard (backwards for Dracula) and you're doing what else?  Beating the crap out of Dracula!  This is the first game to adopt a completely non-linear play-style.  Non-linear means that it isn't always clear where you're going but clear enough, this usually involves backtracking to an area that was previously unreachable.  Let's look real quick at what this game did right.

1: IT'S HUGE!
This is a huge game, you are effectively exploring the whole castle twice. *Spoiler* Once right side up, and once upside down when the dark wizard Shaft creates a mirror image of the castle on top of the old one *end spoiler*.  There are so many rooms to explore, enemies to find, it's great!

2: Weapons!  As opposed to previous games where you just had your whip, you have many many options in this one.  You can use swords, axes, throwing weapons, and equip all kind of armor.  You can equip the kind of sword that fits your playstyle.  A weaker quick striking one for people who like to go faster, or a big heavy sword for people who prefer power over speed.

3: Sub Weapons!  Sub weapons have always been part of Castlevania, the original sub weapons are holy water, knives, axe, and cross.  Alucard can use all of these plus a few more, I don't remember what they are at the moment but they aren't terribly useful but sub weapons are very powerful and a great part of any Castlevania game.

4: MUSIC!!!!  The music to this game is fantastic.  Every Castlevania game has amazing music and this one is no exception.  The most notable piece of music is "Dracula's Castle (AKA Alucard's Theme)" which plays when you're exploring the beginning areas of the game.  Other music in the game is good, like the Marble Gallery area and boss battle music.

This game isn't without it's faults, there are a couple of glaring issues but none so bad that it wrecks the game.

1: Where do I freaking go?!  This is an issue that I've had in both of my playthroughs of the game.  90% of the time the game is crystal clear as to where you should go (or at least you can figure it out).  The one part where I get stuck is Castle A (I'll call Castle A the normal Castle and Castle B the reverse one) in which there is a bridge that you have to break.  In order to break the bridge, you have to make a Skeleton Ape enemy appear and break the bridge for you.  How is anyone supposed to figure that out?  First of all, there isn't a Skeleton Ape in the room to begin with, you have to go to a well hidden room, and hit a switch.  That's the only part of the game where I get stuck and it annoys me because the game is very enigmatic about it.

2: There's an uber weapon?!  If you want to wreck the game for yourself find a weapon called the Crissaegrim (I might be spelling that wrong).  It's the most powerful weapon in the game and you can find it about halfway through the game.  Admittedly I've used it on both of my playthroughs and it kills the challenge.  Why?  It has the highest strength of almost any weapon in the game and one push of the attack button hits the enemy 3 times.  Once you get it, you're attack will be doing about 80 per hit, multiply that by 3 and you do 240 in one second.  Most bosses have less than 3000, in other words, any boss after that point dies in 10 seconds.  It kills the challenge and it can kill Dracula in under a minute, if you want the game to remain a challenge, DON'T USE THE CRISSAEGRIM!

Now I want to look briefly (I've gone on for awhile...) at the GBA/DS era Castlevania games.  I'll look at them as a whole because they generally share the same strengths and shortcomings.

The Castlevania games on the GBA are Castlevania Circle of the Moon, Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance, and Castlevania Aria of Sorrow.  All three of them are good games but Aria of Sorrow is the best of the three.  Long story short, Harmony of Dissonance is too easy and boring, Circle of the Moon is ungodly difficult.  Aria of Sorrow is a perfect blend between easy and difficult.  Let's look at what they did right.  The ones on the DS are Castlevania Order of Ecclesia, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, and Castlevania Portrait of Ruin.

1: Nearly all the strengths of Symphony of the Night.  Every Castlevania game from that point adopted a non-linear style copying what Symphony of the Night did right.

2: Bosses, Castlevania games are well known for challenging bosses.  What the GBA games did (not the DS games) that was interesting is bosses you fought earlier in the game, later became regular enemies!  This tells you, holy crap, I've become so strong I can plow through this used to be a boss without any problem!  The bosses are also creative and creepy (Legion, ugh).  Some of them are larger than life, in every game you fight Death!  Yes, Dracula is so powerful that he commands Death!  Wow.

3: There's multiple play modes?!??!?!?!?!?  Perhaps what I like the best about the GBA/DS games is that there's multiple play modes.  You usually get to play as one of the support characters (Aria of Sorrow) or your main character's rival (Harmony of Dissonance).  When doing these extra play modes it's more challenging because it's a throwback to the original style of Castlevania games.  For that, I love it!  There's also a boss rush mode that's freaking awesome.

The GBA/DS games all face the Where do I Freaking Go? Problem and a few more that make them irritating.

1: Less RPG, more platforming.  The biggest culprit of this is Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow.  Sometimes you'll get to a hard boss and you're ill equipped to defeat it!  What do you do?  Well you backtrack to that one area to get that one item that you sell to get enough money to buy another thing to do the thing at the thing!!!!  In other words, what happens if you can't defeat a boss?  4 hours of leveling up!  Plow through the boss, move on to the next one, easy.

2: Gimmicks.  The GBA and DS games each have their own gimmicks that make the game salable, that's all well and good but some of them are just awkward.  The biggest offenders are Circle of the Moon and Order of Ecclesia.  I can talk more about Circle of the Moon because I kinda sorta hacked Order of Ecclesia.  In Circle of the Moon, you get cards that allow you to perform magic spells with the aid of your whip.  It's in your best interest to get all the cards because otherwise the game is impossible.  Dead serious, if you don't get the stupid cards, the game cannot be beaten.  The game forces you to submit to its gimmick!

Finally I'm going to talk about the game I'm currently playing called Castlevania Curse of Darkness.  This game is a 3D platformer instead of a 2D platformer like the rest.  There have only been 4 3D Castlevania games ever.  2 were on the N64 and were absolute flops.  The other 2 are on the PS2, one of which I'm playing now.  I'll simply talk about what I like, and what I don't like.

What I like

1: Combat system:  It has a combat system similar to Kingdom Hearts, one of my favorite games of all time, and that's cool.  You can pull of lots of combos and stuff with your weapon, it's great!

2: Bosses:  Boss battles have a lot of buildup and drama to them, they rely on cunning and guarding to get yourself to victory.  They're also quite hard...  The boss battle against one of the side-characters, Saint Germain, was a lot of fun.

3: The little summony guys!  This game's gimmick, you have summons called Innocent Devils.  There are several different types of them (since when did this become Pokemon?).  Why do you want them?  Because they are amazing in battle!  They will save your ass!  Also, it's not terribly difficult to get a powerful one.

What I don't like

1: The lock on?  The game has a seemingly pointless lock on system.  I'd only find it useful if when you're locked on, your character aims his attacks towards what he's locked on to.  He doesn't, it just makes the camera your mortal enemy, the camera then points to whatever you're locked on to and you lose sight of your surroundings.  The only time it's useful is when you're trying to steal something.

2: There's no mini-map.  What was great about the DS games is there was a mini map on the top screen so you could tell where you're going.  In this game you have to press select to access the map, not a big issue except when you get to the biggest problem the game has...

3. EVERY ROOM LOOKS THE SAME!!!  I kid you not, it's true.  As a result I get turned around so often it isn't funny!  Why do I get turned around?  Fighting enemies makes your character move around the room, once enemies are gone, there are no distinct landmarks to tell where I'm going or where I came from.  That's because every room looks the same!!!  As a result you have to press Select every 30 seconds to make sure you're going the right way, because the game clearly won't help you with that.

Can Castlevania work in 3D?  I think it can!  The things I like, I really like.  The game needs more distinct colors so you don't get turned around.  It needs a mini map like the Kingdom Hearts series utilizes.  What it does well, it does really well.  I would love to see more Castlevania games in 3D.
Well, that was an unnaturally long post...
Till Next Time...

Jet lag! Isn't that fun?

I've returned from the magical land of Cambodia!  I am experiencing the magical sensation that every overseas traveler gets, jet lag!  I magically avoided it by sleeping at the right time going to Cambodia but this time it's a bit different.  On my flight back I didn't sleep so my sleep schedule has been completely fu**ed up!  YAY!  The morning after I got home I woke up at 6 am, a normal time.  Could I have escaped the wrath of jet lag?  Haha nope!  The next day I woke up at 1:30 in the freaking afternoon!  I went to bed at 11:30 and slept for 14 freaking hours!  The fun doesn't stop there, the day after I went to sleep at 9 am and slept until 4 pm!  To be quite frank, my body has no effing clue what time it is.  This brings us to tonight, am I sleeping?  No!  I'm staying up all night and now I'm staring at a lunar eclipse.  Lunar eclipse happening right now between 5-6:30, next one isn't until 2014!  The moon is pretty, and I won't be sleeping until ???

Till Next Time...

The Powerpuff Girls

Even though this blog is entitled 'film', film is a broad word and it covers the entire art form of filmmaking. In this case, I will be including TV and cartoons in this blog as well.  I want to start it off by talking about something very near and dear to me that isn't Pokemon.  THE POWERPUFF GIRLS!  Created by Craig McCracken (who has the most awesome last name ever), they were originally to be called the Whup ass Girls, I assume that was deemed inappropriate by Cartoon Network Executives.  The main characters are: Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup (The Powerpuff Girls), The Professor (their creator/father figure), The Mayor, Ms. Bellum, and their colorful assortment of villains.  Their arch-enemy is the evil genius monkey Mojojojo, whose only goal is to destroy the Powerpuff Girls!  The Powerpuff Girls fight crime in the City of Townsville saving the world before bedtime.

Some may look down on this show as a kids show because it features three little girls as the protagonists and has cutesy animation.  That's what it is on the surface.  It swaps between being cutesy and being hardcore.  The Powerpuff Girls are 5 and thus are still growing up, learning to share, eat vegetables, etc.  Frankly this show is a wild card and that's what makes it so charming.  It's also one of the first cartoons to be self-aware and make 4th wall jokes.  It doesn't go out of its way to do that, in fact, that's what the Narrator is for.  The Narrator is the invisible voice in the sky that introduces and ends each episode.  He is the one that often makes 4th wall jokes making the cartoon very self-aware.  As proof of the cartoon being aware of its self-awareness, there was an episode in which the narrator was kidnapped by Mojojojo, and he told the Powerpuff Girls what to do.  It was very funny and well done.

Now I want to talk about my personal favorite episode called 'Speed Demons'.  It's an episode in which the Powerpuff Girls travel forward through time to an apocalyptic Townsville.  The premise is that they were going on a vacation for the weekend to get a break from fighting crime.  Buttercup decides that they should race home after school.  They do, and they move so fast that they break the time barrier.  The time barrier is a term I'm using loosely, it originated in old Flash comics.  It was explained that The Flash could move so fast that he could travel forward in time, breaking the time barrier so to speak.  In the apocalyptic Townsville, they find that their house and the Mayor's office are just about the only things left standing.  In their ruined house they find an old senile Professor attempting to recreate the Powerpuff Girls.  At the Mayor's office, they find Ms. Bellum clutching the mayor's had and sash, implying that he died in whatever befell Townsville.  The Powerpuff Girls then go to their ruined school where their teacher, Ms. Keane is standing there.  From her they find out that they're 50 years in the future.  Upon learning this, their most sinister, and kind of hilarious villain emerges.  HIM.

Him is on the left and the Pokemon Scizor is on the right.  I put Scizor there because I think they look similar (the claws?).  Him reveals that when the Powerpuff Girls left for the weekend, he took over.  The Powerpuff Girls beat the crap out of him and he transforms into his super freaky demon form.  The Powerpuff Girls scream and fly off into space.  They fly back down to Earth at a supersonic speed breaking the time barrier, returning them to Townsville.  The episode concludes with the girls reuniting with the professor and they don't go on their vacation after all.  This episode is my favorite because of the surreal creepy nature to it.  I saw this episode when I was like 9 and was interested in that topic ever sense.  It inspired me to read books like 1984, Brave New World, and Farenhiet 451 when I was older.
I might as well sign off in respect to the awesome narrator.
So once again the day is saved, thanks to The Powerpuff Girls!

Scott Pilgrim Versus the World

Every generation has a movie that truly defines them.  It was argued that Juno would be that movie.  In my opinion that was a very well done and comical movie showing the drama and dangers of teenage pregnancy.  My generation is not about getting high schoolers pregnant however.  My generation, which is anyone born from roughly 1985 to 1995, grew up with cartoons, tv sitcoms, video games, comic books, and indie rock.  A movie for my generation would capture all of those things into a little (poke') ball.  They all seem like polar opposites, is there a movie that possibly do that?

The answer is yes.  That movie is Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, I will straight up say that this is one of my favorite movies ever.  I have many reasons for it.  The main reason is that the chemistry between Scott and Ramona (the two main characters) is normal.  Their relationship is depicted in a normal non-hollywood way.  Michael Cera (Scott) acts very much like a normal person!  He is delightfully awkward and awesome at the same time.  Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Ramona) is the mysterious, cool, beautiful girl of Scott's dreams.  However if Scott and Ramona are to be together, Scott must defeat Ramona's seven evil exes.

What is it about this movie that captures my generation?  The first thing you will notice is that this movie is way different than most movies.  It is extremely stylized.  It's like a comic book and a video game had a baby.  What I mean by that is if Scott punches someone, you see the word POW!  Like a cartoon or comic book.  It's a little strange to get used to but it ultimately makes the movie really enjoyable.  Being a gamer, I am actually able to pick out most of the references within the movie.  There are musical references to Final Fantasy II and Legend of Zelda.  The band is named Sex Bob-Omb, a Bob-Omb is a walking bomb enemy found in Super Mario World.  The fight scenes imitate games such as Street Fighter III, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, and Soul Calibur.  If you've ever played any of those games (like I have), you will feel right at home.  Even more specifically the Soul Calibur reference is within the battle with Roxie Richter (Evil Ex number 4), she imitates the character Ivy using a living sword (a sword with an extendable blade, may or may not be fictional).  Ramona imitates the character Astaroth by using a war hammer.  Details, details...

The movie isn't without faults, there are several things I don't understand because I didn't read the comic books.  As a result, the movie seems to jump around at points.  At several points a door appears, I don't know what this door is, or where it leads.  This is apparently explained in the comic books.  Also not all of the characters get adequate development, the most significant character development happens within Scott, Ramona, and Knives Chau.  Knives is "Scott's fake high school girlfriend" from the beginning of the movie.  Characters that I would've liked to see more development in are Kim Pine (Played by Allison Pill), she is the drummer and is a very funny character because of her dry sense of humor.  Evidently in the comic books there is a sub plot with her.  I would have liked to see that!  It's these faults that make the movie fun to watch, even when the door appears and you don't understand what happens, it quickly jumps back to reality.

This movie is one of my favorites because it truly appeals to my gamer sensibilities.  People from an older generation, chances are you won't understand it.  Kids from the new generation won't understand it because you are growing up with your X-Boxes, and your PS3's and your online gaming.  This movie is completely and absolutely for my generation.  From a filmmaking standpoint: 8/10 (for trying something new and having pretty good success) From my stand point: 15/10.  From IMDB (Internet Movie Database): 7.6/10.
That's all for now.

The top 5 most disturbing bosses that I've fought in video games

Number 5: The Catbat (Wario Land 4)

What is this thing?  It looks like Catdog's cousin who got rejected for a tv show!

Number 4: Oogie Boogie (Kingdom Hearts series)

You might be thinking that he isn't scary.  He's only scary once you think about what he actually is.  He is a bag of bugs!  Gross.

Number 3: Zero Two (Kirby 64)

Just so we're clear, that is a floating bleeding eyeball with one wing and a halo.  Kirby is a kids game right?

Number 2: Destroyman (No More Heroes)

Okay a guy shooting a laser out of his crotch isn't threatening, it's hilarious.  He doesn't look scary at all.  So what's disturbing about him?  The setting of the battle.  After fighting your way through hordes of enemies you get to this guy.  All around the battlefield are charred corpses in pools of blood.  When he does some of his attacks like Destroy Spark or Destroy Buster, you see some of the corpses writhe and flail about.  That's disturbing enough for number two despite the fact that the fight against him is a joke.

Number 1: Is a tie! Legion/Granfaloon (Castlevania Series) and Beezelbub (Castlevania Symphony of the Night)

If you can't tell what that is I'll explain.  It is a gigantic ball of corpses with a core in the middle that shoots lasers and fire...

When you fight this thing it literally rains corpses and you will be destroyed by hundreds of zombies.  Yikes.  This thing gets points for creativity, points for WTF, and points for difficulty.

Beezelbub

Meet Beezelbub, a somehow still sentient rotting corpse strung up on meat hooks with the intention of killing you with gigantic killer hornets.  This guy/thing/abomination is just gross!  He isn't hard so I could look away part of the time when I was fighting him but goodness!  Does Konami pay people to come up with effed up bosses like this and Legion?  Anyway that's it.  I felt like posting this for whatever reason.

Minor update

Please see my other blog for information about my Cambodia trip.  You can find it here: http://moonlightumbreon-adventuresincambodia.blogspot.com/

Symptoms of boredom

1. You watch the same videos over and over again.
2. Watching the same tv show over and over again.
3. Trying to find some replay value in a game you've beaten 4 times.
4. When flinging cards around the house is an activity.
5. WHEN YOU JUST WANT THE FLIPPING DAY TO END BECAUSE THE NEXT ONE WILL ACTUALLY HAVE SOMETHING FUN/INTERESTING TO DO!!!

Anything else?

Woo I made a blog!

I finally decided to make a blog.  Back in the day people called this a journal but in the 21st century we have blogs (apparently).  I'm just gonna post whatever pops into my head, naturally about life, the universe, but most importantly, Pokemon.  So read and comment write random stuff but be cool, this is where I'm gonna talk about my upcoming trip to Cambodia!  So yeah...  That's it.