Games I Love: Pokemon Red

I said I was going to make this post about Mike Tyson's Punch-Out but I changed my mind. I bought Pokemon Black 2 about 2 weeks ago and I've been playing through slowly but surely.

September 30, 1998 was D-Day for this game. My friend Dan and I had an agreement in place. He was going to buy the Blue version of the game and I was going to buy the Red version of the game. If you haven't played a Pokemon game, you need both versions to capture all the potential Pokemon to be had. Several are exclusive to a particular version of the game.

Dan, I think, put about 120 hours into the game and I put somewhere around 105 hours into the game over the course of a few years. We also had numerous battles over a few year period. I think that was pretty evenly divided between us.

The game itself is a really deep RPG. Pokemon are varied by type and are strong/weak against other types. There were 150 Pokemon in that version of the game. So you had a lot of choices for your team. It's very addictive if you get into the grind of leveling your Pokemon and evolving them to stronger creatures.

I've continued on with the series, I don't think Dan did. Things have gotten more complicated as time has gone on. I think Gold/Silver and the White/Black games have been the class of the sequels. I still have my Red game with all of my original Pokemon.

This was easily my game of choice through the last two years of high school.

All-New X-Men #1

This won't be a standard blow by blow review of the book. Mostly just my reaction to it. Anyways, this book is part of the new Marvel Now initiative. Over the next 6 months, most of the titles will be getting new #1 issues and getting new creative teams. Unlike DC, they're not throwing everything out and starting over again new. So far this is the 4th book from Marvel Now that I've read. I liked the first 3 books a lot.

I play the same game over and over with the X-Titles. I said I wasn't going to get Wolverine and the X-Men, I caved. I said I wasn't interested in this book and then I kind of started peaking out of the corner of my eye at it coyly for the few weeks leading up to it's release. My wife wanted a copy of Gambit #5 so that seemed like a good enough excuse to wander into my local comic shop (LCS if you want to get into comic book nerd internet lingo) and pick up a copy.

All I can say after issue 1 is bravo Mr. Bendis... bravo... You just added this book to my buy list for the immediate future. The long and short of the story is that Cyclops is free after the events of AvX and has gone full blown rogue with Emma Frost and Magneto. He's freeing mutants by any means necessary and is calling himself a mutant revolutionary. The X-Men's hands are tied for fear of a civil war. Beast decides to go back in time and grab the younger versions of Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Angel and Jean Grey to try and talk some sense into the present day Cyclops. Beast manages to use some Back to the Future lines to great effect here.

A lot of the X-Titles in recent years have been about the darker turn in the methods of Cyclops and that trickling down to the X-Men teams as surviving became more and more important. There have been ramifications among the various characters as time has gone on. It appears that all of that is exploding here and I'm really enjoying it. I also handed it over to Kelly and she seemed to enjoy it a lot as well.

This book probably shot to the top of my read pile for the near future. I'm really excited for issue 2 to get here.

Geek NBA Preview Part 6: Pacific Division

Golden State Warriors:

Holy crap... I kind of like this team. Klay Thompson is the real deal and will be a great NBA player. Stephen Curry is a solid NBA point guard even if he shoots first and asks questions later. I like Andrew Bogut when healthy. If he stays healthy all year this team will be tough in the front court. That's a huge if though as he's managed that once in his NBA career. I actually think there's some solid depth in the front court with Harrison Barnes, Richard Jefferson, David Lee and Carl Landry up front. This team has some tools to work with this year.

LA Clippers:

I'll go with the positives first. I like Blake Griffith, I like Chris Paul and I like Grant Hill. Past that, I don't like a lot of the moves they made this offseason. I don't like the additions of Lamar Odom, Willie Green or Jamal Crawford. The SG position is terrible when Chauncey Billups isn't on the floor. I dislike the center position for this team as Jordan/Turiaf/Hollins are a really poor combo at the position. I think this team will be playoff bound again but I think they didn't improve their team like they could've.

LA Lakers:

The nightmare scenario kind of happened immediately with this team. They're currently 0-3 and Nash has suffered an injury. I don't think it's time to panic yet. There's 79 games left in the season. I think the panic button time is if they're still under water after 30ish games. I think this team will win in the mid 50s of games and be a contender in the Western playoffs. The Thunder dealing Harden was a blessing for this team as their biggest opponent took a serious step back.

Phoenix Suns:

I'm going to start off and say, this team isn't making the playoffs. With that said, I like how the Suns rebuilt themselves in the wake of Steve Nash leaving the team. I like their starting 5 quite a bit. The do lack depth though and Jermaine O'Neal is a terrible NBA player by this point in his career. I will be interested to see some of the moves this team makes in the future.

Sacramento Kings:

An all around bad team. Bill Simmons ripped them pretty hard on his podcast a few weeks ago. It really sums up this team greatly so here's the video...

Geek NBA Preview Part 5: Northwest Division

I know, I know... the NBA season has started and I didn't get this finished. It happens, life has been busy the last couple of weeks. But I'll go on with the show and try to get this done by the end of next week.

Denver Nuggets:

I like this team quite a bit. There's no superstar on the team but this team has good chemistry and plays hard. Igoudala comes to town and he brings good defense and is a solid contributor for any team. I can see this team winning 50 games this year and having a solid seed in the playoffs.

Minnesota Timberwolves:

This team made some big strides last season and were threatening to finish with a record above .500 until Rubio and Love got hurt. This years team brought in Brandon Roy and Andrei Kirilenko. Roy, if healthy, would provide a great scoring option for the team and could be a huge difference maker down the road. The downside is Love and Rubio are still hurt and this team can't really go anywhere without them. I think this season is already a wash for them.

Oklahoma City Thunder:

James Harden leaves and this team takes a serious step back. I thought going into this season that OKC had a legit shot at getting back to the Finals and winning it this time around. Unfortunately, they couldn't come to terms with James Harden and shipped him off to the Houston Rockets. Harden was a great defender and he really anchored the team when Durant and Westbrook were off the court. The team still has Durant and Westbrook who are top 20 players but their road to a championship just got much harder. I still see this as a team that wins more than 50 games but now I don't see them having the punch to beat San Antonio or the Lakers in the playoffs.

Portland Trailblazers:

I like their front court quite a bit. Aldridge is a good player while Hickson and Batum are solid front court players. I think this is a 30ish win team though. Outside of those guys, who's going to hurt you on this team?

Utah Jazz:

I'm not sure what I think of the Utah Jazz. There's some talent on this team. Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Marvin Williams, Mo Williams, Randy Foye and Jamaal Tinsley all have their moments and can all contribute to a winning team. This team could surprise some people and win just enough to get the 8 seed or they could suck completely. I'm having a really hard time deciding what I think. I will say though, that this team did a remarkable job of rebuilding after Boozer and Williams left town.