Lavender Town PokéCenter

Amazing Tiger & Bunny x Pokémon Fan Art by 結衣

2012-02-09T15:39:00.000-08:00

One of my recent obsessions that I have been preoccupied with to the point that it rivals all other obsessions in my life is Tiger and Bunny. Tiger and Bunny is a 2011 anime about heroes. Set in a fictional future American city, certain citizens have powers and use them to fight crime on live TV! It's got a great plot and is exciting and well-paced, but what really got me into it were the characters. If you're wondering why I'm talking about this on my Pokémon blog, it's because Pixiv user 結衣 has created amazing pieces of fan art featuring Tiger and Bunny characters with Pokémon!

Many of the Tiger and Bunny heroes use elemental attacks (fire, ice, etc), and 結衣 has paired up each of them with an appropriate Pokémon as well as a matching attack. My translation of the artist's original title is below each image in bold. Click on the images to go to the Pixiv page.

Oji-San and Rentora's Wild Bolt!
Kotetsu T. Kaburagi / Wild Tiger x Luxray

Bunny and Bashamo's Blaze Kick!
Barnaby Brooks Jr / Bunny x Blaziken

Keith and Cobalion's Heart of Justice!
Keith Goodman / Sky High x Cobalion

Nathan and Fire's Overheat!
Nathan Seymour / Fire Emblem x Moltres

Rose and Lapras's Sing!
Karina Lyle / Blue Rose x Lapras (aahhh this one is my favorite)

Bison and Toranseru's Harden!
Antonio Lopez / Rock Bison x Metapod (I guess because he has a lot of armor but can't really do anything?)

Ivan and Tekkanin's Double Team has been Detected
Ivan Karelin / Origami Cyclone x Ninjask

Pao-Lin and Denryuu's Thunder Punch!
Huang Pao-Lin / Dragon Kid x Ampharos

Saito-San and Gonyonyo's ...
Saito-San x Whismur

Definitely check out the rest of the artist's work! (Just remember that Pixiv has a looooooot of nswf stuff.)

Adorable Halloween Pokémon Plushies!

2011-10-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

Hello PokéFans! Long time no see! I've been busy and, to be honest, I haven't really been thinking about Pokémon that much lately. Shocking, I know, but I'll try to get back into the PokéSpirit soon! For now, I wanted to share something that I only recently realized existed—something that combines three of my deepest passions (Halloween, Pokémon, and plushies): Halloween Pokémon plushies!

It seems that at least a couple sets of these have been released by The Pokémon Center since as early as 2008. The fact that I was previously unaware of their existence leads me to believe that someone was purposely keeping me in the dark as part of some vast conspiracy to prevent me from being happy. The good news is, many of the plushies are still available on Amazon and other online retailers! They aren't cheap, but judging by the quality of the plushies from The Pokémon Center that I own, they should be well worth the price.

2008's set is painfully cute. That Piplup! I'm going to be having dreams about that Piplup until I get my hands on one. Chimchar is just as sweet with his stash of lollipops. Croagunk is the only one from this set I could find on Amazon, and he's pretty great, although Glameow probably wins for being the most adorable/seasonally appropriate...and then there's Halloween Golbat, which is just a regular Golbat with a tiny orange hat. Golbat, you even suck at Halloween.

The entire 2008 Halloween set is available at ToyWiz for extremely reasonable prices! Come to me, Piplup.

The 2010 set consisted of Pikachu wearing a purple witch hat and holding a pumpkin, Umbreon carrying a lantern for some mysterious reason, Espeon with a candy sack, Gengar with a pointy witch hat and pumpkin, and Sableye as a not-entirely-convincing witch. I want Gengar the most out of this set, but Espeon is a close second. I normally like Sableye quite a bit, but I'm just not feeling her as a witch.

Next up is 2011's set, featuring the best (?) Pokémon from Black and White! First up is Minccino as a prince...fairy thing, and Purrloin is pretty cute with her candy pumpkin and mask. Lampent is the clear winner of the bunch. He doesn't even need a costume, since he's already terrifying. He just gently caresses a Pikachu-shaped pumpkin while staring deeply into your soul. I don't know how I feel about Axew. Is that supposed to be a witch costume? Is he wearing a cape or some kind of bowtie? Finally we have this year's Pikachu, wearing a Halloween scarf and a tiny top hat. 2011 kinda phoned it in.

I couldn't find confirmation as to whether there was a similar 2009 set or not. Searching just seems to turn up this "Cut" Rotom, and I'm not even sure how that's supposed to be a Halloween edition. Because he's orange? They could have at least wedged a lollipop into his wheels. Whatever, I still want him.

Hilariously Terrible Bootleg Pokémon Stickers

2011-04-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I bought a giant box of random "vintage" (i.e. mostly stuff from Generation 1) Pokémon stuff on eBay. For around $25 I got a giant Meowth plushie, some books and manga, a talking Lucario figure (MIB) and some miscellaneous loose figures and cards. Obviously I was mainly in it to score the Meowth, and pretty much disregarded the rest of the stuff after a brief glance.

The other day I was organizing my bookshelf and I started leafing through one of the random Pokémon books (a "book" of cut-out papercrafts) and noticed some sheets sticking out of it. Unbeknownst to me (and possibly even to the seller), this lot contained an amazing gem: two bootleg sticker sheets from Taiwan, showcasing the absolute worst Generation 1 Pokémon clip art ever created.

The funny thing is, I actually remember buying these exact same stickers from the local comic/anime shop when Pokémon first came out. I'm pretty sure I knew they were bootleg at the time, and the images made no sense, but despite this I was still willing to shell out $5 (each) of my hard-earned money, simply because it was POKéMON, and god I really had to have any Pokéthing I could get my hands on. (Note: this sounds ridiculous now that Pokémon merchandise is so ungodly plentiful, but at the time, the only mass-produced American Pokémon goods were those crappy KFC Zubat plushies.)

I don't really want to open them because the paper is such shite quality I'm pretty sure they will disintegrate immediately upon exposure to oxygen, so I've scanned and archived the sheets, highlighting my favorite ones.

(click for larger image)

My favorite stickers:

Dratini, Dragonair, Dragonite, and random Chinese dragon that is not even remotely a Pokémon.

Fire Pokemon badly pasted over an MS paint drawing of "fire". (See also the "water" version of this, complete with random seaweed. Makes me wonder where the "grass" version is.)

Magmar and Mewtwo, jus' chillin' on the same sticker...for some reason. (This sticker is on the sheet opposite a similarly designed one of Shellder and Starmie. At least those ones are semi-related in that they are both purple-hued water Pokémon. Why are Magmar, a crappy filler Pokémon, and Mewtwo, an ultra-powerful legendary that was the central plot to the movie, lumped together? Because they're both bipeds?)

This one is pictured twice because it's on both sheets: the full image on one, and a cropped image on the other. Sweet, right? A bunch of Pokémon have put their differences aside to hang out together in a pile of flowers. All of them look relatively normal and happy, except for Meowth, who looks deranged and evil, presumably about to pounce on Pikachu and tear him to shreds.

Make sure to view the sheets full-sized, and comment with your favorite sticker!

Snorlax Eats Stuff!

2011-04-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

I had this idea and started taking photos for it awhile ago, but now I've finally got the actual blog up and running! Presenting Snorlax Eats Stuff, a Tumblr photo blog!

I also made a Squidoo lens featuring some of the top Snorlax Eats Stuff photos. I may be trying to keep up with a lot of Pokémon mini-projects, but don't worry, I'll still update here as often as possible. ^^

Dark Type Pokémon, or The Fall of the God of Psychic

2011-03-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

Oh, Sabrina. You remember Sabrina, leader of Saffron City's gym: the unassuming little girl who uses Psychic-type Pokémon. At this point in the game, you haven't fought very many of those, but if you were smart, you picked up an Abra early on. By now, you should have a faithful Kadabra (or Alakazam, if your parents loved you enough to buy you a Game Boy cable. Mine didn't.) by your side, kicking the ass of Machokes left and right. Knowing this, you can probably guess that Sabrina will be tough to beat.

Pokémon is like an ultra-complex game of rock-paper-scissors. Everything is strong against something, and weak to something else. So what is Psychic weak to? Bug and Ghost. Great! I picked up this Gastly in Lavender Town. And hey, in the anime, Ash beat Sabrina with nothing but a Haunter, so all I have to do is get this thing up to level 25 and I'm set!

My ticket to victory.

Aaaand then you get to the gym and realize that something the anime neglected to mention about Haunter is that it is a dual-type Pokémon: Ghost AND Poison, which makes it horribly weak to Psychic attacks. Oh, and it only has two Ghost moves: Lick (crap) and Nightshade (double crap.) One blast from Psybeam and Haunter is KO'd before he even gets a chance to whip out his tongue. Your ass: instantly kicked.

Your many painful defeats at the Saffron City gym left you with a bitter taste in your mouth and an important lesson: the Pokémon world is set up with a system of checks and balances, but Psychic-type rules all. Better start leveling up that Blastoise.

Obviously this all changed with the "discovery" of Dark-type Pokémon in Gold and Silver. Now there are good, powerful moves that are super effective against Psychic-types, AND Dark-type Pokémon are completely immune to all Psychic attacks.

WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW

Gold and Silver also tempered out Psychic a bit with the addition of the Steel-type, which is resistant (but not immune) to Psychic-moves, as well as the addition of pure Ghost-types and more powerful Bug moves. From Generation 2 onward, Psychic-types were demoted from terrifying demigods to impotent, sorry bastards who can be obliterated by a fucking firefly.

My problem is that I still have PSYCHIC=KILL EVERYTHING deeply ingrained into my head. I still think "Bite" is a Normal move. Then I encounter a level 16 Poochyena, and half my team is writhing on the floor in agony. I realise that the game needed to be more balanced, and that the advent of Dark and Steel also meant that Fighting-types stopped being so utterly useless, but I still remember the good old days when all I had to do was feed Rare Candy and PP Ups to my Kadabra and the Pokémon League Championship was mine for the taking.

Side note: There's a lot of talk in the Pokémon fan community about the possibility of a Light-type to counter the Dark-type. I thought it was fairly obvious that Dark-type is the counter to Psychic-type, but this would imply* that Psychic-type were somehow "good", which contradicts my assumption that Psychic-type Pokémon like Alakazam and especially Mr. Mime are inherently evil.

*Not necessarily, I suppose. It may be a case of evil versus more evil.

Links:
The Top 5 Dark Type Pokémon
Pokemon Season 1 Box Set - Indigo League
Pokemon HeartGold
Pokemon SoulSilver

Pokémon Airlines

2011-03-27T17:31:00.001-07:00

my Woobat is in like the top percentage of Woobats

2011-03-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

Gonna try to do more Pokémon art these days, so look for it here or at my deviantART page. :)

TM Trouble

2011-03-22T19:58:00.000-07:00

A lot of buzz has been going around about new features in Black and White, namely that TMs can be reused. This makes sense; when I buy software or a DVD, it doesn't explode after one use. So now we don't have to stress out about which move to teach to what Pokémon. They can all learn Thief if we want them to! This is a special breakthrough for me because maybe, for the first time ever, I'll actually use a TM.

In the previous 4 generations of Pokémon games, I never used my TMs. Like, ever. Any of them. Not because I couldn't find them, or didn't care for the moves they held, or because I had some stupid notion about keeping my Pokémon "organic". I didn't use them because I was saving them. For what? Naturally, the ultimate Pokémon team that I never actually bothered to put together. You know, the perfectly balanced, fully EV trained, level 100 power team, each with a move set carefully planned to be unbeatable. I was saving my TMs for SuperAerodactyl and GigaHitmonchan.

So any time I'd think, "Hey, maybe this Pokémon would benefit from a new move," and start to boot up a TM, I would reconsider. Once I used it, it would be gone. Gone gone. It wasn't like Rare Candy, where I at least had a chance of picking another one up. With a few exceptions (like ones sold in shops or Game Corner prizes), there was only 1 of each TM in the entire game.

I think my hesitation may be trauma from wasting a TM doing something really stupid in Blue, like teaching Dig to a Diglett, but most likely the problem is rooted far deeper. I do the exact same thing with real life objects: I save them up thinking that they'll be more useful in some future event which, of course, never comes. I was so desperate to be the well-prepared ant (as opposed to the foolish grasshopper), with my giant stash of TMs just waiting to be used in the right moment. Instead I was just a dumbass lugging a giant sack of laser discs around Kanto.

Sidenote: I didn't just do this in the early games. My TM sack in SoulSilver is just as heavy.

Countdown to Black & White!

2011-03-02T22:17:00.000-08:00

Just 4 more days! Don't forget to stop by a GameStop store for their Celebi giveaway. You don't have to buy anything, just go lurk in a dark corner, switching game cartridges so you can download 4 of them on all your different games. >_> After you get Celebi, take him to Ilex Forest in HGSS to unlock a cool time travel Easter Egg! Be prepared to battle!

If you haven't preordered already, I highly recommend going through amazon.com. Both Pokémon Black and Pokémon White offer $10 rebates (good for purchases on amazon.com) if you preorder! So you can buy the game now, then buy some accessories (or this adorable Zorua plush) later!

For the record, I ordered White. I will eventually get Black so my boyfriend can play with me, but I wanted White first. My decision was mostly spurred by the fact that the exclusive area (White Forest) looked really cool. >_>

The Weedle Controversy

2011-02-17T21:16:00.000-08:00

I was recently ranting about how "back in my day" we didn't have online game FAQs and walk-throughs. We just had to figure out games by ourselves, or shell out cash for a game guide. The first game guide I had was an unofficial guide for Pokémon Red & Blue. It actually belonged to my brother, and we read the shit out of that thing. Last I saw of it, it was literally hanging together by a thread, every page frayed and worn.

While I'm sure I could have gotten through the game by myself, it WAS a handy guide (particularly the maps of Silph Co.), and, for being unofficial, it was mostly accurate. Mostly.

I've already mentioned in my first post on this blog that I was never able to trade in the early games, due to lack of a link cable. Since I would never be able to have a complete PokéDex, I placated my sorrow by—with the help of the game guide—making sure to capture every creature possible inside of Blue. Or so I thought.

Like most guides, this book had a list of the "version exclusives", that is—as I am sure you are all aware—Pokemon from the same generation that only exist in one version of the game. On the list of "Red only" Pokémon was the stupid, stupid, ugly piece of crap worm-mon Weedle. It was no stretch to make the assumption that—since they were found in the same areas—Weedle was Red's token bug Pokémon, and Caterpie was Blue's.

Except that it wasn't. Weedles were NOT exclusive to Red; they were found in Blue in the bug-and-occasional-Pikachu-filled Viridian Forest just as they were in Red, only at a very low rate. A rate so low that neither I nor the jerkhat who wrote the game guide that was my only access to Pokémon information for several years ever encountered one.

To add insult to injury, I only found this out a couple months ago. I have long-since erased my original Blue game (sorry Charizard), so I can't even go back and troll Viridian Forest hoping for the 1-in-25 chance encounter with a Weedle.

Meh. I'm mad, but not so mad that I'm going to track down the author of the game guide and shove a rabid weasel through his mail slot. Anyway, it wouldn't have really made much of a difference if I had had a Weedle; I would have evolved it into a Beedrill and then buried it in my PC, never to look at or touch it again. In a way, I suppose it's better that all the Weedles in my Blue game got to enjoy the freedom that Zubat and Geodude never did.

Facebook page, ahoy!

2011-02-04T21:03:00.000-08:00

Now you can "like" the Lavender Town PokéCenter on the Facebook. I hear it's what all the cool kids are doing.

Top 5 of Gen 5!

2011-01-28T20:31:00.000-08:00

I am aware that it is not Tuesday, yet I am still doing a top 5 feature. Days of the week don't control me.

Gen5 has been criticized from the very first silhouette leaks of the new starters for having horribly stupid-looking Pokémon. All I really have to say to that is HAVE YOU LOOKED AT GEODUDES? THEY ARE ROCKS WITH FISTS. Also, stop taking a video game targeted towards people 1/3 your age so seriously (like I'm one to talk.) Anyway, these are my five favorite Pokémon from yet-to-be-released-in-America Black & White!*

#5. Desukan / Cofagrigus

Kudos to Nintendo America's translation team for creating a nearly-impossible-to-pronounce American name for this guy. Co-fa-gri-gus? It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. I've always loved Egyptian-style stuff, and this has the added bonus of letting me imagine that Lucy from Elfen Lied is trapped inside a sarcophagus.

#4. Shinbora

Bulbapedia suggests that the inspiration for this Pokémon comes from Nazca lines and Kachina dolls. I choose to believe that Shinbora is the product of a drunken night between a Xatu and like, 3 or 4 Unowns.

#3. Goruugu

This Pokémon is like one of the kind-hearted robots in the Robot Circus that helps Astro Boy come to terms with the fact that he's a hated piece of garbage that was disowned by his creator. I'm not sure if that actually happened in Tezuka's manga, but it should have.

#2. Shimama / Blitzle

It's an electric zebra with a mohawk. Electric zebra. Mohawk. Also it kind of looks like David Bowie, if he was a zebra.

#1. Dasutodasu

Oh god. God, yes. Nintendo obviously listens to my prayers, because they actually designed a Pokémon that is a big bag of garbage. LOOK AT THIS THING. I mean, look at it. It is obviously the product of hours of brainstorming as to what a bag of vomit and entrails might look like if it gained sentience. AND IT IS GLORIOUS.

*I thought really hard about purchasing Japanese copies of Black and/or White so I wouldn't have to wait until March. Then I realized that Japanese DS games cost twice as much as American ones. I also realized that I would have finished it and likely gotten sick of it by the time all my friends were playing it, and I would end up being ostracized as a Pokémon hipster when I inevitably told them, "I already finished that game months ago because I can read Japanese." Then they'd all go off to play and trade together and I'd be left alone. :,(

sad face

2011-01-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed that all the images on this blog are broken. In the same moment I lost my hosting (I was planning on switching anyway, but I missed the cut-off date), I lost my computer hard drive. -_- And while I had backed up most of my important stuff like my artwork, I didn't back up the images used for this blog.

In other words, I suck, so please bear with me while I get this blog back up and running. Pokemon Black and White is coming out in the US soon! So many new things to critique and make fun of!

AX Report Part 1: Cosplay!

2010-07-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry I'm so late with this! I've been working really hard since I got back from LA (after I took a mini vacation of course!) I'm finally back with reports of all the cool Pokémon adventures I had at Anime Expo 2010. I met a lot of really cool people, picked up some great new merchandise, gave out a ton of flyers and MUDKIPS stamps, connected with a ton of PokéWalkers, and even got to download a shiny Mudkip and Magikarp from one of the vendor booths (more on that later!) I figured I'd start with the best part: the cosplay!

I was really impressed with some of the costumes I saw! Unfortunately I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked, because I was working the entire time. T_T Anyway, click the cut to see the rest of the photos.

It's Woba Fett!

Some guys at a big Pokémon gathering outside (holding my flyers, hehe.) There were a ton of Pokémon cosplayers all in the same area (even Swimmer♂ and Swimmer♀), but I didn't have time to stop and take a lot of photos because I had to get back to work, heh.

Umbreon and Drifloon~♥

Cutest Teddiursa!

Some of my friends from TinierMe at the TM booth! They had the greatest costumes~

Everyone loves Mudkips. :D

And Flygons!

Mismagius!

Super cute Eevee and Jolteon~

Tropius and Meganium~

They let me hold their Great Ball. ^_^

Adorable gijinka Shaymin and Togepi ♥

Porygon VS Meowth: FIGHT!

2010-07-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'm back from AX and things are finally settling down again. Oh how I have missed the PokéCenter! I have lots and lots of AX stuff to update about, but first, an epic Pokémon battle!

(My friends were having a "The Letter P" themed birthday party, so I went as a Porygon, and Rain went as a Pokémon trainer. I actually won a prize for one of the best "P" costumes. xD btw, sorry my kitchen is such a mess; I'm the only one here who cleans it, and I was gone for a week. :/)

Biker Rain wants to fight!

The foe's MEOWTH used Fury Swipes!

PORYGON used Tri-Attack!

Critical hit! The foe's MEOWTH fainted! PORYGON wins! PORYGON gained 375 exp and a cookie.

Who eats...what?

2010-06-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a big new feature here at the Lavender Town PokéCenter, so please bear with me while most of the other regular updates get neglected. :p Until then, please enjoy this Pokémon Pinball screenshot of Gengar getting pwned in the face.

While you're here, check out this guide to unlocking secret wallpapers for your Pokémon boxes in DPP and HGSS.

New Pokémon & Ochazuke Contest Winner!

2010-06-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

We have a winner of the Pokémon Ochazuke contest! Congrats to Ruth from Pennsylvania!

In other news, lots of new Black & White Pokémon have been released! Am I the only one who sees the close similarity between Chiramii and the Neopets petpet Faellie?

Not like it actually matters or anything. It's just a stupid fluffy mouse.

Big News!

2010-06-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right, I finally completed my National Pokédex! Sort of. I have every single Pokémon except for Manaphy, Arceus, and Celebi. But the game doesn't count event-only Pokémon for the actual achievement. (They still show up in the Pokédex, but it's considered "complete" when you have all of the non-event ones.)

And it only took me 12 years! I feel pretty good with that extra gold star on my Trainer Case, but I won't feel like it's _really_ complete until I get those last three. Of course, Black and White comes out in a few months, rendering all of my efforts completely pointless. Oh well.

Yay. Now where's my sack of pirate gold?

Victory Magikarp!

2010-06-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates lately! I've been pretty swamped at work preparing for Anime Expo! It's gonna be great fun though, so I hope to see some of you there! Rest assured I have some great things in store for Lavender Town that will be up very soon. :)

In the meantime, check out what happened while I was hunting for Pokémon on my Pokéwalker.

Pathetic.

Koffing's Great Adventure

2010-06-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

Went to the local dive bar with my boyfriend last night, and I asked him to babysit Toxxik, my Koffing who was on my Pokéwalker. We were standing outside, and he went to check the number of steps and accidentally dropped it.

It hit the ground on its side and started rolling down the sidewalk, off the curb and into a puddle of water! Of course I was chasing after it as soon as I realized that the black object spinning across the cement was MY POKéMON, and was able to grab it the second it hit the water.

I shook it off and dried it on my shirt, then pressed the button, praying it still worked. Well, it not only still works fine, but Toxxik had a big heart bubble and found 50 Watts! Apparently he enjoyed his little adventure—or maybe it was an escape attempt and he was just trying to throw me off the track. "Umm, I love you Ariel! Here's 50 watts! ^_^;"

Link of the Week: Black and White updates

2010-06-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of you have already seen this, but for posterity's sake, here are all the Pokémon from Black & White that have been released to the public.

My verdict? The legendaries are *awesome*, and I honestly think that Tsutaja is one of the coolest grass starters they've ever released. Either way, how can you hate that adorable baby otter?

As for Zorua and Zoroark, I'm kinda lukewarm. Zorua is really cute, but Zoroack's incredibly thin upper arms bother me. Unlike most members of the creature anime fan sector, I am *not* obsessed with foxes, so meh.

Pokédex Update

2010-06-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

After spending the greater part of 2 days fishing for a Relicanth that was holding a DeepSeaScale, I am now only 7 Pokémon away from a complete National Pokédex! The only Pokémon I'm missing are...

Huntail
Gorebyss
Salamence
Walrein
Celebi
Manaphy
Arceus

Now that I have both DeepSeaTooth and DeepSeaScale, Huntail and Gorebyss will be obtained as soon as I initiate a trading session with my boyfriend (I already have two Clamperls), and Shelgon and Sealeo are only 6-7 levels away from evolution. The only Pokémon I won't be able to easily get are Celebi, Manaphy and Arceus. I traded for a Phione while ago, but we all know they never evolve. :/ Anyone up for some trades? I have almost all the other Pokémon (or can breed them), and I'm totally willing to do trade/trade back just to get those last three in my 'dex.

Top 5 Tuesday: Abilities!

2010-06-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

Abilities are great. They added some really dynamic stuff to the game and made you rethink all your earlier strategies. (I'm sure I'm not the only one who encountered a Chinchou and stood aghast as my Thunderbolt was immediately thwarted.) You can exploit them to great gains in double battles: try pairing up a Gyarados who knows Surf (or another all-field water move) with a Quagsire with Water Absorb. Quagsire's Earthquake won't hit the Flying-type Gyarados, and Gyarados can Surf to its heart's content, healing Quagsire in the process. You could also pair up a Rotom with Quagsire; Rotom will levitate above any ground moves, and Quagsire will be immune to any all-field electric attacks like Discharge. (Did I mention I love Quagsire?)

Here's a list of the top 5 best Pokémon abilities. I don't want to get into any stupid arguments about how your Vileplume is going to kick my ass with its suck-tastic Chlorophyll, so let's just call these my top 5 favorite abilities.

#5. Mold Breaker
Mold Breaker disables any opponent's ability that hinders the user's attacks. Which is a lot of them. Unfortunately the only three Pokémon that can have this ability are not all that useful otherwise, so this is only a great ability in theory.

#4. Liquid Ooze
Instead of describing it, I will use this short comic to portray why Liquid Ooze is awesome.

#3. Shadow Tag
I would say “as well as Arena Trap”, but Arena Trap doesn't work if the opponent is Flying-type or has Levitate (so forget trying to use Dugtrio against Cresselia, Latios and Latias!) Shadow Tag is the perfect thing to use against fleeing Pokémon, who are normally so infuriating that 9 times out of 10 I just waste my Master Ball on them*. As if we needed another reason to love Wobuffet!

*Guilty of that in Soul Silver with Entei. I had seriously thrown like 200 Ultra Balls at him already!

#2. Trace
The best way to use a Pokémon with Trace is to put it up against an opponent whose own ability prevents or reverses hits of their own type (a Ninetales with Flash Fire, or a Loudred with Soundproof, etc). Use Gardevoir against a Wooper with Water Absorb, sit back and enjoy the shower.

#1. Pick Up
Step 1. Catch 5 Zigzagoons.
Step 2. Put them in your party with one strong Pokémon.
Step 3. Profit!

Link of the Week: Spiky-Eared Pichu ramen!

2010-05-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

While we're on the subject of Pokémon food, check out these 7-11 Pokémon goodies based on the recent movie featuring Spikey-Eared Pichu.

Whenever I see stuff like that, it makes me wish I lived in Japan! If only I could walk into the corner convenience store and pick up all kinds of awesome Pokémon stuff...

Do You Ochazuke?

2010-05-28T01:07:00.000-07:00

Do you know what ochazuke is? It's a common Japanese "leftovers" dish made from rice and random Japanese stuff (nori, umeboshi, etc) with tea (o-cha) poured over it. It's a cheap, quick and easy meal, made even quicker and easier by the advent of instant ochazuke packets. In this case, instant ochazuke packets with Piplup faces in them.

That's right, it's Pokémon ochazuke! Each package contains 4 packets of instant ochazuke (2 Pikachu, 2 Piplup) and a random sticker with 80 kinds to collect (I got a decidedly lame Pokéball).

So, what exactly differentiates the Pikachu and Piplup versions? It's these little...things with their faces on them! I'm actually not sure what they are made of. They don't really taste like anything.

Let's try it! I've made my own ochazuke before, but I've never used the instant packets. I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Almost ready, just need to add tea. I used Lupicia's Fukamushi Sencha "Matsuri", a pretty standard Japanese green tea.

Looks totally delicious, right?

Actually, yeah, it is. It's surprisingly hearty and filling, and who can resist eating things with adorable baby penguins on them?

As a big fan of both eating effigies of cute characters AND fast, cheap meals where the only other needed ingredients are rice and possibly heat, I give Pokémon ochazuke 9 poffins out of a possible 10 poffins. It loses 1 point for giving me a crappy sticker.

New contest! Want to win your very own brand new package of Pokémon ochazuke? All you have to do is sign up for the Lavender Town PokéNews mailing list*! Just be sure to include your address and you will be automatically entered in the drawing. The winner will be randomly chosen from all users who have provided their address on June 18th. I'll even throw in some tea as well!

*Please only sign up if you actually want to receive the email newsletter!