I put a Pokemon in the chamber and I pull the fucking trigger. BLAM!

A new Pokemon has come out.

This means that, as is my almost semi-annual ritual, I must play through it and beat the Elite Four. I must decide whether or not I want to collect them all (last time, I did - it took me 300 hours to get all 493. There are now almost 700 of the damn things).

Reading the reviews, the usual complaints still seem to apply. The structure of the game hasn't changed. You still fight 8 gyms, then the Elite Four, blah blah blah. Many of the new Pokemon are reskinned old ones (Woobat in particular both looks stupid and even sounds like Zubat). The story is very childish. The challenge remains low throughout the game. And the endgame is way too time-intensive for those who don't suffer from OCD.

Yes still, I'm having a blast. I don't really know why... Is it because I am completely unfamiliar with all the new Pokemon? Discovering how they evolve and learn moves is fun, sure, but I can't shake the feeling that my Fire starter (who just evolved and added a Fighting type to it! Sound familiar?) doesn't really bring much new to the table besides a new name and evolution line and slightly different move list.

Which is true; it does not. The core of the Pokemon series hasn't changed since... Well, it never has. Every game is like 1998 all over again. Yet I still play them. I cannot figure out why. I suppose, as it has been suggested before, I think Pokemon is my Madden. I may not be able to pick up a new version every year, but every other year or something close to that, I buy a new (or newly remade) Pokemon game and do it all over again.

I'm also about fifteen hours into Radiant Historia. The game is tough, no doubt about it. I'm loving the story quite a bit, though, and the battles certainly aren't unfair. The characters are really well written, and I absolutely love Stocke. He is such a well-written character it is crazy. And he is likable too! He is not a surly asshole, nor is he a mute protagonist.

The game still suffers from the lack of a minimap, and I must say the battles can be a bit long (as in there are way too many enemies to deal with quickly. Come on, Atlus - eight guys, six of which can petrify my three characters? REALLY?!) but again, they aren't too bad. The boss battles in particular are great - they are a bit puzzle-y, and also take some endurance.

It all comes back to the story, though. Jumping back and forth between the two timelines is a blast, and seeing characters on different sides of the battle lines is really interesting too. The dialogue between the two sides is still very intriguing. I would say the game is worth playing for its story alone - the good battles are just gravy. Seems to be a lot of sidequests, too, if you're in to that sort of thing.

I also played through and beat 9 Persons, 9 Hours, 9 Doors as well. Like the Phoenix Wright series, I put everything else on hold for this excellent classic-adventure-style game. The story, like in PW, was excellent (up to the ridiculous, and I mean absolutely bat-shit insane STUPID true ending), at least in its presentation. What I liked about the puzzles was that they weren't too easy, but they all had logic to them. Many of them involve digital roots, and I kept thinking "Okay game, you are going to run out of puzzles involving digital roots soon and you will be boring and I will put you down," yet they never ran out and it never got boring.

I also got two endings that weren't the true one, and they add some flavor to the main plot. The first one I got ended in my player character's untimely demise, and I didn't even get to find out who killed me. The game lets you replay it after you beat it, and skip any text you have already seen - allowing you to make different choices and see the rest of the game. The goofy overall plot is almost sort of justified in the way the game makes you get one certain ending to be able to see the REAL one, but not really.

One last game: Pac-Man Championship Edition DX. I never thought Pac-Man would ever be relevant after the 1980s. But he is - and he is awesome. Not much to say other than I am in the top 2,000 of over 150,000 for the 5 minute main level. Quite proud of that, dorkily enough. Easily, easily worth the 5 bucks I paid for the game (and looking back, would have easily been worth the 10 it would have cost if it wasn't on sale).

God damn I love videogames.