Y-Me

     My wife gave me Pokemon Y for Christmas this year (spoiler warning, I'm a huge nerd).  Between the holidays and family obligations I finally got a chance to play it for a decent chunk of time today, and I gotta say, it feels like several steps forward for the genre.

     The core gameplay is there:  collect monsters, train monsters to beat local gym leaders, collect gym badges, challenge national monster champion, become the best (like no one ever was), stop an evil yakuza/mafia/ecoterrorist/activist group somewhere along the way.  The core of Pokemon doesn't NEED to change.  It's the trappings that surround that nugget of goodness that benefit from updating.

     Im going to assume a basic understanding of pokemon mechanics from this point out.  If you don't understand what I'm talking about, i recommend www.serebii.net for an explanation.  So, for better or worse, after about six hours of gameplay, here are my first impressions of Pokemon Y:

     New Monsters:

     - So far, the new Pokemon that I have encountered have all been interesting.  The new Fairy typing shakes things up just enough to be interesting without breaking anything, and I'm excited to discover what new creature will be around the next corner.

     New Mechanics:

     - EV training and happiness grinding are now mini games you can play at any time as well as semi-hidden in game variables.  Making training these attributes SO much easier.  I cannot stress enough how much this was needed, and is appreciated.  Training these attributes used to be such a long an tedious process that it almost wasn't worth it in game.  Competitive battling was almost exclusively done over the Internet on third party unofficial programs that can generate whatever perfect monster you want.  Sure, it's faster, but it lacks the oomph and feeling of accomplishment that comes with stomping face with a team of monsters at you spent hours lovingly raising.  This goes for the new breeding mechanics as well, which also received an update making it easier to pass down natures, abilities, and IV's.  All of this is EXTRAORDINARILY good for the series, and the fact that the mini games are pretty fun in and of themselves is just icing on the cake

     New Visuals:

     - All the pokermangs are rendered as fully animated in 3d polygons now, the battles look fantastic and the attack animations have even been given an overhaul.  The only thing that really needs to be said is that this is the first Pokemon game where I haven't turned off the battle animation within the first three battles.  The world has also been re-rendered to take advantage of the greater visual muscle of the 3DS, allowing for diagonal movement and a lot of perspective shifting.  This can be disconcerting but I find myself getting used to it and even missing the new visuals when I have to go back to the previous generations of games.  The actual 3D effects are limited to cutscenes and battles, but they are handled well, adding depth without too much noise.  You can still enjoy the game just fine without the 3D but it's an appreciated gesture.

     Misc. New Stuff:

     - Internet trades and battles went from a special building in a single city, to the top floor of every Pokemon center, to being integrated into the 3DS bottom screen menu over the course of the last three generations.  This has always been a move for the better, and having access to the Internet mechanics from anywhere in the game makes using the Internet nice and simple.  And then there's Wonder Trade.  Basically Pokemon grab bag gambling, any time you have wifi you can select any Pokemon (in your party or in your storage boxes) and send them off into the aether, the system then randomly trades your monster with someone else's monster.  It's completely random.  You may hit a common Lillipup or somebody may send out a legendary Mew.  You never know what you're going to get.  It's damn addictive, and I've spent an inordinate amount of time doing wonder trades.  Not only that: but whenever I see a strange new Pokemon my first thought (after 'what the hell?' and 'can I use this?') is how interesting that monster will be to throw up on the wonder trades.

     So.  There you have it.  I am THOROUGHLY enjoying the new generation of Pokemon and I can't recommend it enough to my friends who like this sort of thing.  My only gripe is that the app for transporting Pokemon from previous generations of games has been delayed by Nintendo.

     DAMMIT, Nintendo!  I wan't to bring over my custom-bred, IV perfect, EV trained, Moveset-Finalized Blissey!  I needs my white mage, Nintendo!  Don't hold out on me, man!

     Ta for now, loyal readers.  See you tomorrow!