Stadium 2 best old-school spin-off + gen 3 poll

That's the verdict that was reached in the most recent poll. 80 voters out of 185 chose it as the best spin-off from the first two generations, but behind is where the real show was, with an extremely close battle between TCG and Snap. At one point it looked like the former had it in the bag, but Snap came back with a late charge to take second place, 39 to 36. So these are the three games that will advance to the final round! Among the also-rans were Stadium 1 with 15 votes, Pinball 1 with 8 votes, Puzzle League with 6 votes and Puzzle Challenge with one solitary vote.

This week: generation 3 spin-offs! Vote away!

New poll series: Favorite Pokémon spin-offs

But first, the results of the last poll! 127 voters out of 201 type numbers using the buttons above the letters (either out of habit or because they have no numeric keypad), only 24 use the numeric keypad, and 50 alternate depending on the situation.

Now, this next series of polls will be about which Pokémon spin-offs are your favorites, and we're going to proceed by generation for this. One exception: gens 1 and 2 will be together, since gen 2 had the glorious total of TWO spin-offs, and it doesn't take a nuclear physicist to know such a poll would be a Stadium 2 curbstomp-fest.

Of course, at the end, there will be a final poll featuring all the top performers from each poll, and we'll crown a winner from there!

Happiness to play a bigger role in gen 6?

At least that's what Junichi Masuda is hinting at in his latest blog entry. And you know, this has the potential to be a great idea, if only because happiness has been around since gen 2, and it's never done anything aside from some evolutions and the power of Return and Frustration.

Now to know what that mechanic actually is...

Tornadus-T gone, Keldeo stays

Title says it all. Both decisions were landslides, especially Keldeo's. Honestly, I have a hard time figuring out what to think. On one hand, rain was wildly OP once again, so Tornadus-T going away isn't a disaster. On the other hand, this lengthens the list of abusers banned because of rain. Remember what I said about how I would've liked to see a Drizzle test where all the abusers, right up to Manaphy, were allowed? That's still a wet dream, but it seems to be just that - a dream.

Nine more months, then we can go Etch-A-Sketch on the banlist and wipe the slate clean once again. I can only hope Smogon thought it was a good idea to do so at the start of this gen (for the record, it was)...

Winners and Losers results now up + new poll

Who were the best and worst of 2012? Check it out now!

Next question is fairly simple. When you type, which set of numbers do you use, the ones above the letters or the numeric keypad? For me, it's always been the former. I don't know why, either.

A nice present on the channel tomorrow... maybe.

I don't want to promise anything, but I'm planning on doing something special for my channel tomorrow, so if it comes through you'll have something to look forward to. No, it's not for any special occasion, it's just because I feel like it.

Bold prediction: No Light type this gen either

Every. Single. Generation. ZOMG WE'RE GETTING A LIGHT TYPE THIS TIME. Last time it was because of Reshiram, and this time Xerneas is the culprit. Seriously, just... stop. Steel and Dark really only exist because gen 1 was so incredibly imbalanced, and while some types are still better than others, adding a new type isn't exactly what's needed to change this. Not to mention, introducing a new type now will make it incredibly underpopulated compared to the currently existing ones. A problematic that wasn't much of an issue in gen 2, if you understand basic math.

No Eeveelution... for now.

Well, the Unova League finale aired in the wee hours of the morning (for us North Americans, at least), and the mountain gave birth to nothing. Not even a mouse. I honestly can't decide whether I'm surprised or not. I mean, just thinking about it, the timing of that tweet I mentioned a few days ago... when you think about it, it's pretty ridiculous how it's just a legitimate trivia question. It was written two days before gen 6 was announced, and four days before the Unova League finale (a huge event by any standards) which featured a trainer that owns the entire evolutionary tree, who himself was the culmination of a big resurgence in exposure from the Eeveelutions in recent months. Of course I'm not saying it can't be a legitimate trivia question, but had it been anything else, it wouldn't have been written at any other time...

Stars and Turds of 2012 - The final round has begun!

Ten Pokémon vie for supremacy in the Star section, while nine others do their worst among the Turds! Who do you think is the most worthy? Vote now!

Announcement poll results

I'm closing this now, if only because I want to prevent vote-switching once the announcement does come in. Also, no screw-ups from the site itself! This bodes well for the impending Star/Turd voting...

A new Pokémon reveal was by far the most popular option, with 129 votes out of 233. It's also a very likely possibility, given the Eeveelution tweet situation. Coming in second, with 45 votes... RSE remakes? Guys, I'm not impressed. That's almost one out of five! After that we have the gen 6 games themselves, at 21 votes - and considering how much they're hyping this up, and the fact that Satoru Iwata will be the one doing the deed, it's quite possible. In fact, we could very well see BOTH the games and a new Pokémon being shown. Then we have the prospect of a spin-off with 16 votes, anything not in the poll with 14 votes (even though I think I covered just about every possibility), an event with 7 votes, and a new alternate form with the Forever Alone guy.

Just over 9 hours left as of this writing...

Edit: And as I suggested, we got a double whammy, with both the games and the starters, as well as what appears to be the uber mascots. Congratulations to everyone who got it right! (Though I suppose I could've included an option for both in the poll...)

New Eeveelution in the cards?

At this point it's purely speculation, but it's the best lead we have right now. From Pokébeach:

Pokemon's Twitter account posted this literally a minute ago. I totally said this on our Facebook page yesterday afternoon (:D), though it's possible Pokemon is very much aware of the fact that fans are speculating about a new Eeveelution and purposefully playing to this to trick us.

Trivia time! How many possible evolutions of Eevee are there?

Could they be hinting at a new Eeveelution in light of the announcement coming Tuesday? Ash is currently battling in the Unova League (in Japan) and one of the contenders, Virgil, owns an Eevee and all of its evolutions. Could we see his Eevee evolve into a new Eeveelution during the League? Blaziken was first introduced in the Johto League, after all. There have been many Eeveelution promotions these past few months, and the Genesect movie is also going to feature an Eevee mini-movie, so could this all be leading to a new Eeveelution or is this all just a happy coincidence? I don't know for sure, but it's all just a tad too convenient to not be leading up to something in my opinion...

Woohoo. I'm so thrilled. Fanboy squeals of delight over the most overrated of all evolutionary lines once again. (Quote from NicoCW:  I'm gonna be watching the news for areas that were flooded by semen.) I'd much rather have them make the three bad ones usable rather than make what will undoubtedly turn out to be a Dragon Eeveelution with the lack of coverage moves that's become the line's signature.

And yes, I know Pokébeach isn't the most trustworthy site ever, but there's nothing false at all about those signs...

Tuesday announcement will be worldwide

So that rules out a few possibilities. Rather, all of them aside from anything that pertains to gen 6. There has been only one worldwide announcement in the entire history of the 16-year old franchise, and that was for BW2. So clearly we're not dealing with a spin-off announcement, or an event, or something minor. This is going to be huge, that much I can guarantee. (If you want to change your vote on the poll, you can always do so, it's not like I can tell...)