Pokémon Go updates I want to see

Yes I am still playing Pokémon Go, I stopped for a short while but the spate of updates in the last six months to a year have really added longevity to the game. I love the way the gyms have changed and how they have added research tasks. There are, though, still some frustrations I have. I thought, therefore, that I would do a blog post about some future updates I would like to see…

Removing Pokémon from gyms

I live in a rural area. Recent updates have put a gym close to me. However, as not many people are near, if you pop a Pokémon in the gym it can be there for a week. It is really annoying when you go and put a Pokémon in another gym and that one gets knocked out earning you lots of coins then, after seven days of holding my local gym, my Pokémon is beaten on the same day. I don’t make my fifty coins but I’ve been there for ages! Could we have it that you can pull Pokémon from defending gyms? It’s not fair to take them then put them back in all healed, so could we have a feature where you can remove your Pokémon but not put a new one in until the gym has fallen? At present I have three Pokémon who have been in rural gyms for a week. I want to see my coins but can do nothing about it!

Shinys in 7km eggs

If you are like me then you have nearly all the Alolan variants that come from 7km eggs. I am now avoiding getting the 7km eggs, waiting till my egg stack is full before opening presents. To keep this part of the game exciting, could we have shiny Pokémon in 7km eggs as well? Maybe the likelihood of getting a shiny could be far less than getting an Alolan variant, to make it fairer.

Trading centres

Again, this is due to the fact I live in a rural area. All my friends are some way away therefore I don’t trade, only send presents. Could some gyms or pokéstops have, or be, trading centres? We could leave Pokémon there and then friends could pick up Pokémon left from their trading centre. Maybe it could be a trade request and when someone comes to that trading centre they could trade their Pokémon. Again, to make it fairer you could increase the stardust needed for trades this way, and, like gyms, you need to be close to the trading spot. So basically I would go to the trading centre spot, leave a Pokémon there and request one other (or a list of say three so the other player can choose which to trade) and pay my stardust. Someone else comes along and sees the trade and decides they want the Pokémon I left. They pay their stardust and the trade is complete. We both get notified and get our Pokémon. They could even make it so the likelihood of getting a lucky Pokémon was lowered when trading this way and that you can only leave one Pokémon at each trading centre at a time.

Candy converting

If, like me, you are catching every Rattata you can see to get the youngster award, then you will have lots of Rattata candy just sitting there. I think I have over 1,500. I don’t need it, I don’t want it. Could we therefore get a system to convert candy? Maybe different candy could cost different amounts i.e. if I wanted to convert my candy from Rattata to Growlithe it would cost 5 Rattata pieces for 1 Growlithe. Maybe if it was for Charmander candy it could be 10 pieces for 1. The rarer the Pokémon, the more their candy costs. It would get rid of a lot of unused candy.

Training in gyms

Ok, so they used to do this and I only have a bronze badge. I want a gold one please. The original idea was to raise the level of the gym by battling in a gym your team already held. The higher the level the more Pokémon could be added. Why not have it back but this time you could win prizes like coins, pokéballs or medicine. Maybe you could only train at each gym once per day, again to make it fairer. Just an idea, in fact I train without rewards just to get that achievement!

Event Pokémon in the Pokédex 

The Pokédex has updated for Alolan versions and Pokémon such as Unown and Spinda with multiple forms, as well as for shinys. Could we have the different version of Pikachu shown as well? I have all the event versions (Christmas hat, party hat, cap etc.), it would be nice to see them in the Pokédex. Obviously this goes for other Pokémon such as Squirtle squad! Can you tell I play Pokémon mainly for the collecting elements?

Generation 4

I don’t think I need to say anything about this. It is coming isn’t it? I have tons of Murkrow and Roselia candy just waiting!

 

So there we go. Some ideas for future updates. Hope Nintendo and Niantic read this and put some in place. Right, I’m off to hunt for Magikarp so I can finally get through task set six of the Mew special research!

Breath of the Wild

Like others before me I will continue to heap praise on Breath of the Wild

It is very rare I get to play computer games these days and even rarer that I blog about them. That alone should tell you how amazing I think The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is. I know I am a little late with a post about it but I could not help but add to a growing list of items that heap praise on the game.

I remember when I was in my late teens and ended up playing Morrowind for 14 hours straight one day (I felt pretty rough after that!). Never before or since have I dedicated so much time to one computer game. However, that is what I feel I could do with Breath of the Wild were it not for work and having children. I have already fired up my Switch for a quick session and lost track of time, saying I will play for an hour and ending up on there for nearly three. It is that brilliant blend of open world sandbox style game play along with a gripping (if not pretty much the same as every other Zelda game) storyline to follow. I cannot get on with massive multiplayer online games and I find sandbox alone does not offer enough incentives to make me play, I like a bit of old school but with an added twist of new age stuff. Oh yeah, before I go any further I must say I am a bit of a Nintendo fanboy but I am not ashamed to be biased towards the Japanese giant. If you want a nice balanced review you have come to the wrong place.

So I suppose the real questions are why do I love the game so much and why is it better than previous Zelda games? I think it is because they have ripped apart the Zelda rule book, keeping some of the best features but changing many. No longer is the game linear, you can do any dungeon in any order. If you can call them dungeons, more like a few puzzles. Although I do not think there is a bad Zelda game in the main series, they all were starting to resemble not quite so good rehashes of Ocarina of Time, usually adding in one or two unique elements. But this new incarnation is so much different.

I really like the shrines, they condense the ideas of dungeons into one or two puzzles and in turn do not need to conform to the dungeon you are in. I feel this makes them more creative, it is not a case of, “oh I have just unlocked the hookshot so all the puzzles in this section of the game will require that.” You actually get given all the powers you need at the start of the game so have to really think about which you use where, making some puzzles really clever and meaning there are more than one way to solve them. The idea of combining shrines as travel portals and the way you get extra hearts and stamina from the spirit orbs they give you also make them fit into Hyrule much better.

Link is going to be poor now he can’t get rupees from grass, might find a few in pots though!

There is a great Zelda t-shirt that has Link as a hobo holding a sign that says ‘will cut grass for rupees.’ You can now no longer do this, you have to be a lot cleverer with your money. This goes for hearts as well, now you need to be a skilled chef and combine ingredients well and take what you create on your journey, stocking up before you set off. It all requires a bit of forward planning, almost as if Zelda has grown up. I cannot tell you how many times I have died in battle due to being ill prepared or just rushing in.

The world too is huge, so many areas to explore but it has been designed in such a way that you will not wander for hours before finding something. I mean you will wander for hours just to see what is over the next hill, and the one after that, and the one after that but there is always something there. Along with this you can use the travel portals so you can get to an area you know quickly if you are lost.

I really like the different armour that you can change for different situations and the fact you can upgrade these as well as accessing increased skills such as climbing, stealth and swimming up waterfalls. It would be nice if you could do the same with the weapons. Some break far too easily and if you have not stocked up on good weapons you can come unstuck in a battle when your best blade bites the dust. Maybe a Morrowing/Oblivion/Skyrim form of fixing weapons via an item, or a blacksmith you can access to mend them for rupees would help.

I am, rather sadly, really excited by the camera app on your Sheikah Slate (yes I know it is a medieval iPad!), the idea of collecting images of each item to make an encyclopedia of all you will encounter on your travels excites the collector in me. I know you are supposed to use them with the detector to help you locate items but I just want a full set of pictures, much like a small child with a sticker book.

This post may be a loved up splurge but all in all The Legend of Zelda:Breath of the Wild is a world-class game and one I hope will win game of the year. There is enough to draw in old Zelda fans with links to previous games, such as characters and locations, as well as gameplay for new fans; there is even enough new features to make hardcore Zelda fans feel it is fresh and new. The only real improvement I would like to see is a level system where the more you use a weapon the better you get at using similar ones, like a stat for spears, swords, bows etc. As well as this there could be an overall set of stats that could be levelled up. Maybe that is a bit too much Elder Scrolls or maybe it is because I am the archetypal level grinder, trying to upgrade my characters and find as many secrets as I can before I embark on the main quest.

My other hope for future Zelda titles is we get to explore a new world, so many are set in Hyrule now that it is all getting a bit boring. Even though Hyrule is central to the plot I would like to explore new locations and meet new creatures. Link’s Awakening and Majora’s Mask were set in different locations and were both strong games in their own right.

I hope this homage to Breath of the Wild makes sense, it is more spilling thoughts onto a page than a balanced reviewed but I wanted to post about it because, more than anything else, it is affecting my writing schedule. Right I could go edit one of my manuscripts but instead I am off to see if I can find a bear to ride on, because that it just plain awesome!

Nintendo Fan Boy (a new poem)

As an ICT and Computing teacher I come across a lot of students that are gamers. The vast majority are either X-Box or PlayStation lovers and have a bit of a chip on their should when it comes to Nintendo. This seems to stem from the thoughts that Nintendo make kids games and that the graphics are not very good. I try to explain it is about gameplay but they have none of it. This frustrates me, but what frustrates me even more is that if you mention games like Mario Bros., Zelda, Mario Kart and Smash Bros. they think they are great games. Also most used to own a Wii and enjoy playing on it. Now I know that I am not a first person shooter aficionado but I can see the merits of different gaming systems, why are youngsters so close minded? To release my frustrations I have written another bad poem entitled ‘Nintendo Fan Boy‘. You can read it in my collection ‘Bad Poetry You probably never want to read‘ on wattpad. I hope you enjoy the irony in it.

Luigi’s Mansion 2

Luigi’s Mansion 2 does what few sequels do, improves on the original

Computer games are one area of life I have had to sacrifice for family, work and other hobbies. When I do end up buying a game it is generally played sporadically in any half an hour I have spare. Very few games now get me wanting to come back and play again and again unlike the old days when I could not wait to get back onto the game once more. Whilst I have liked recent games I have purchased, including Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8 and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (yes I am a bit of a Nintendo fan boy!), none have really given me that buzz I used to get as a teenager. I bought Luigi’s Mansion 2 on release date but it has been sitting in its cellophane wrapper waiting till I got time to play. Other games have been elevated above it due to my gaming preference but this summer I finally got around to starting it. At present I am about seven hours into the main game and I am thoroughly surprised, maybe it is that thing I have mention so often where you do not expect a lot and thus get more than you bargained for.

The original Luigi’s Mansion was quite an easy game with a clever control system for hoovering up ghosts, this was limited as it was all that the Gamecube could handle at the time and thus it was quite quick to complete. The novelty of the game, playing as Luigi and having to light up areas and hoover up ghosts, made it an instant classic but it was clear a sequel was always going to be more of the same and probably not very exciting. Whilst it was a classic when you delve into the mechanics it was not really the sort of game that set the world alight (if you pardon the pun!). That is probably why it has taken so long for a sequel to appear.

Enter the Year of Luigi and we got Luigi’s Mansion 2, yes there are the same functions of shining a torch on a ghost and stunning them then sucking them up but there is so much more substance. Having different mansions and levels within the game gives a clear progression, especially as you can go back with new equipment to collect secrets such as gems and coins as well as capture Boos. What I have found really clever, though, is the puzzles in this version. For instance, in the original you could suck up water, ice and fire but in this version you have to interact with objects such as pulling cobwebs onto a fire to set off a chain reaction or using a special light to find hidden objects. One of my favourite puzzles so far was using a bucket to set off a switch, however I needed to fill the bucket full of slime first so it was heavy enough to activate the switch, which added a little bit more thought to the game. The ghosts are harder to catch as well, moving a lot faster than those in the original. There also seems to be clearer differences, some ghosts hide and you need to find them whilst others wear items that need to be hoovered off them first. There are even ones that spit dirt at you that you need to avoid as you suck them up. Further to this there is more of a scoring system. Rather than just the amount of treasure you get rated on health lost, ghosts hoovered up and speed of completing a level. These make you want to go back and retry levels to not only find more secrets but also to beat a previous rating. This adds replay value which the original game did not have and makes it overall a lot stronger. Finally, and possibly the cleverest addition, is that of multiple mansions with their own unique twists and styles. It is like playing a Mario Bros. game where each world has a theme. The puzzles are based around these themes and as such that makes the game more enjoyable and the puzzles a lot cleverer.

All in all I am loving Luigi’s Mansion 2, it is a clear step up from the previous game in the series and that is something I have struggled to say with so many games in current series that are being churned out. I think only Animal Crossing: New Leaf (which I reviewed previously) and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword have done that in the past five or so years. Even games such as A Link Between Worlds and Super Mario 3D World were a little disappointing when compared to their predecessors. If you have a 3DS and are worried that Luigi’s Mansion 2 is just like that Gamecube game you played years ago then don’t worry, sometimes you need to wait for a sequel and that is most definitely the case for Luigi’s Mansion 2. Basically, get out there and buy it!

Im turning over a new leaf in Animal Crossing

New Leaf, is this finally the Animal Crossing game fans have been waiting for?

Due to my hectic lifestyle (or rather work as I call it), I tend not to play too many computer games.  This is shown by the fact that I have played ZombieU for three hours since Christmas and Luigi’s Mansion 2 is still in its lovely cellophane wrapper. Recently, however, I decide I would purchase Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS (I’m not a Nintendo Fan Boy I tells ya!). Unlike the other games I have recently got, I felt Animal Crossing was more pick up and play as well as being the sort of game you could leave for a week then easily come back to. I wasn’t expecting too much as the previous Animal Crossing games have been rather samey with just a few extra features. They have felt like upgrades rather than new games. Right, so I am now designing a t-shirt with sleeves as well as a body section and have a cafe under the museum. Hardly worth forking out another thirty quid for. Safe to say I went into this one not expecting much, but three days in and I am loving it. And it is all down to one simple fact. They have locked down a lot in the game. You still have all the stuff from before, but now you need to earn it. The cafe, Shampoodles, upgrading Nook’s store, the Happy Room Academy. All these are unlocked as you accomplish different goals, giving the game an achievement feeling rather than an aimless wandering vibe. Further to this, the idea of being mayor adds a new dimension, not that it is much more than deciding on what projects to build. The great thing is that what you want to build is again based on how far you have got and even better is the fact you need to care for your town or you will get bad approval ratings which means you cannot start building any projects in the first place. Rather than getting annoyed with the citizen for asking you to help only to get a poor t-shirt you would never have bought from the shop in return or pulling up endless weeds for no apparent reason, you know now that with every weed and every successfully aided citizen your approval rating goes up and so does the ability to make your town your own. There is also this strange thing about the game, unlike something like Pokemon that frustrates me every time I start a new iteration and play pretty much the same game again, Animal Crossing feels like a new beginning and I happily catch the same bugs and fish I have in previous versions.

Nintendo have also added some little features such as having bottoms as well as tops to your clothes and being able to customise the outside of your house. Another annoyance they have ironed out from Let’s Go To The City is the time it takes to get to the shops. Endless boring loading screens and Cap’n’s tedious stories disappear, instead it is just a quick jaunt over some train tracks (there are no safety warnings about level crossings though….tut tut Nintendo!). Another feature I am guessing will come in later on is the Nook’s shop upgrading. This used to leave me frustrated as you had to wait a day before you could sell anything. But now we have Re-tail instead of the recycling point in the main area of the town which I guess means I can still sell my stuff there. So far the new version is the first that feels like a new game and I am yet to discover the diving suit, re-emergence of the tropical island or how street pass mode works.

For once I am wanting to play a computer game when I get home rather than write, read a book or watch a film. I really hope the enjoyment continues and there are lots more surprises in store, for instance the catalog at Nook’s store is not there so I am hoping that appears when/if the shop upgrades. Now all they need is to place in the update I have always wanted, getting a sports stadium and being able to play one-off games and tournaments against other towns. They could have something like three on three games and you select the villagers you want on your team. If they set aside a whole day when each game was on you could play anytime on that day but also have specific online tournaments at certain times. You could even buy upgrades to play more sports i.e. you choose to start with football then when you upgrade you get swimming, next upgrade you choose baseball and so on and so forth. Actually you might want to scratch that one as I will probably end up getting addicted and start thinking I am hedgehog and talking in little beeps!

Angry Birds is making me…well….um….you know….ANGRY!

I was never one to jump on the Angry Birds bandwagon, as a man who is turning 30 next year I feel a little embarrassed to mention my interest in computer games. I think it is actually quite sad that I won’t admit who I am some times, in fact computer games is the only thing I tend to hide. Right, it’s out there on the internet I can now go into a corner and weep in shame!

Anyhow, back to the irate avians. I had played crush the castle games on the internet in random periods of boredom so when Angry Birds came out a few years back I thought it was just another boring rock flinging type game. But those guys at Rovio had other ideas! The marketing executives took a somewhat stupid move in my opinion and decided to give Angry Birds Seasons away for free. Finding it on the app store I thought I’d see what all the fuss was about. In my opinion games apps are only for short-term play when your waiting for someone at the train station, have five minutes free before you need to leave the house, are on the toilet or are waiting for the wife to try on the sixteenth pair of jeans that day whilst you stand in that awkward imaginary sheep pen around the changing rooms whilst men hide behind smart phones trying not to make eye contact. But clever, smarmy, smart arsed Angry Birds had other plans. Damn it with its array of different locations each with unique and beautiful designed background art, each with different sorts of blocks and fiendish design. Damn it with its large array of different birds with varying abilities which continues to expand. Damn it with its clever hardness curve that starts easy but builds up to rather difficult. Damn its choice of levels so if I get stuck I can move to a different world and come back later. Damn it with its star system that makes you want to go back and complete levels with three stars. I want a life but you sir, you just wont let me! I even hate it when my wife says, ‘are you playing Angry Birds again?’ I feel like a scolded child, I feel like I am somehow doing something wrong, and worst of all I feel like I have been demoted to the lowest common denominator like I am a contestant on Big Brother or am appearing on The Only Way is Essex. In short it makes me feel dirty.

That is the things about Angry Birds, it is absolutely amazing. It takes a simple genre of game and makes it not only aesthetically pleasing but clever, difficult and diverse. I am constantly playing levels wanting a certain type of bird but not getting it only to take a step back and look at how my current menagerie could solve that dilemma. I can really see why it is such a big hit.

But then you see I though that was it, one free game that I play on a bit. I have times where I play it a lot, I have times where I don’t play it at all. Then Rovio hit me with a bombshell, they raised my annoyance. It was as if they looked straight into my chest grabbed my heart and started manually pumping it so the blood went round my body really fast. Yes you knew Rovio, you knew I was a Star Wars fan, you knew that despite Lucas making Episodes 1 and 2 I still love it, you knew that I was happy with the galactic world in spite of the Disney fiasco (actually not a bad thing in my opinion), you knew I’d buy it. It just kept flashing up, that little banner when I was on Angry Birds Season….’buy angry birds star wars, buy ANGRY BIRDS STARS, BUT ANGRY BIRDS STAR WARS!’ It was only 69p, I should not be annoyed. But marketing doesn’t work on me! Actually what is really frustrating it that it does but I know when it does. I could feel it taking over my body and I was aware. There I was on the app store, ready to download, oh wait I’ve got a new phone, I need to re-register my credit card details before I can purchase, I’ve won. Yes, no 69p loss for me. The next stage was a blur, my credit card was in my hand, what was I doing? 69p gone, but I tell you something it was worth it! I though Seasons was good but Star Wars is amazing! Little red Luke Skywalker bird with his lightsabre, Black Obi-Wan bird with his force push, Yellow Han Solo bird with his laser shot and big hairy Chewbacca bird. And the space levels with planets with gravitational pull, oh I’m in heaven.

I still don’t think it is right. I don’t want my phone to take over my life, but at least I know what all the fuss is about even if I feel like a hypocrite. Like the man who doesnt eat cake and the next minute is tucking into a slice of victoria sponge who the person who says wrestling is stupid and not real then is caught watching WWE Smackdown (that has actually happened to me). All I really want to say is that Angry Birds is not as good as everyone says, it’s better and it blows all my principles out of the water and thus makes me angry and overjoyed at the same time. Lets just hope they don’t bring out Angry Birds Pirates of the Caribbean or that’s another 69p I’m down!