So, my sister had her daughter in November 5th last year.  And it took me almost four months to realize she was born on Fizz Whizz Night.  I fail as a Fizzy fan.

Anyway, I'm hoping Basic Fun makes at least the first six Twinkle Eye ponies so I can get her a Fizzy when she's a little older (maybe give it to her on her 5th Birthday).

So, pile on me with Fizzy and Fizz Whizz night stuff.

I honestly can't remember the name of this episode, and I don't care.  Apple Family does apple things, and that's about it.

Anyway, discuss.

At last, we have an episode with ABSOLUTELY NO MAIN SIX.  Instead, we concentrate on Grogar and his Legion of Doom ripoff.  I was apparently not that far off with my trust fall joke in what he's been putting the three through.  However, it's time to get to work as he has a job for them.

I don't know who here plays Pokemon, but this is a rant about the latest generation of Pokemon games and will contain spoilers.  So, be warned.

I recently finished Pokemon Ultra Sun (I got Sun and Moon for Christmas in 2016, but decided to play the Ultra Sun version when I heard it was coming out).  And can I start out with that.  Game Freak, you're on a system that allows for DLC.  Why did you need to make these completely new games?  There is very little altered in the Ultra versions, so you could have easily put the additions in a DLC pack for ten bucks instead of making a new set of games for 40.

Unfortunately, this is not where my complaints stop.  The 7th generation is the point where Pokemon stopped being fun.  Once I was done with the game, including the aftergame campaigns, I was underwhelmed and not amused.  I hope all the hipsters are happy, because Game Freak finally changed up the formula like you had been whining and sniveling for and the new formula stunk.  This is the first story line in a Pokemon I do not look forward to playing through ever again.

Where to begin with this trainwreck.  Well, let's begin with the characters.  I hate Hau.  I don't even love to hate him like the rivals from the first and second generations.  I just plain hate him.  I hate that dopey grin he always has on his face, I hate how you seem to run into him every two seconds and he wastes your time with five minutes of dialogue which is basically explaining everything your about to be forced to explore anyway (I'll get to that in a minute).  He might as well be floating behind you the entire game going "look, look, listen, listen".  Actually, no, that's what's next.

Why does the PokeDex talk?  Why does it not just talk, but talk constantly?  Why does it have to extend conversations with its banal input that adds nothing but more lines of dialogue to get through?  Why does it have to say something every time you turn on the game?  Who at Game Freak thought this was a good idea, and why did no one say "That's dumb?"  After playing the game, I want to pack Hau and the PokeDex in a rocket and launch them into the sun.

Even Lily got on my nerves.  At least she has a story arc in which she actually grows as a character.  However, she's not the character.  So, her story arc intrudes into a game where it doesn't really matter and feels like a distraction.  If Game Freak wanted to do a story where a character has an arc, then they should drop the nameless, voiceless trainer thing and have you play as that character.  There are plenty of RPG's still out there where you play as a set character with a story to them, and I think playing as Lily probably would have elevated the storytelling compared to viewing by proxy.

Then we get into how they changed up formula.  Gone are gyms and in are...gyms under a different name.  The Island Challenge did not impress me.  The challenges were not too different from the traps in Pokemon gyms, and the Trial Captains and Kahunas were basically the same thing as gym leaders.  The only addition of note were the Totem Pokemon which were just bigger versions of common Pokemon that upped their stats to be a semi-legendary.  They were hard to take down, but were more frustrating than a challenge to be enjoyed since you typically put the Pokemon best able to take them down quickly at the beginning of your team to keep them from getting in a position to sweep your team.  In other words, they're like the bosses from Paper Mario Sticker Star (you know, the one EVERYONE hates).

I also didn't like how you were led by the nose.  I start off where you were being led from place to place on the first island.  I figured it was okay because they were easing you into the game.  However, it didn't stop.  You were led from point A to point B through the entire game.  Even what were usually side quests to partake in at any moment were turned into required story points.  It felt less like a journey of exploration and discovery and more like a guided tour with the most annoying tour guide ever.  The Alola region didn't even feel like that interesting of a place with little capturing my curiosity like previous games did.  Though, this game seemed to force you to do so much, little was left as voluntary (and I was too tired of the force sightseeing to really care what else there was).

Even actual Pokemon battling was pathetic.  So many trainers had just one Pokemon, and you almost never came across one with more than three.  Even in Victory Road (or whatever they called it), even after becoming champion.  Remember when you ran up against trainers with four or five Pokemon as early as just after the first gym?  And I found most of the Alola forms to be underwhelming and inferior to the originals.  Especially Diglett/Dugtrio.  And few of the new additions are Pokemon I would want to use compared earlier kinds.

Then we get to the Limit Breaks I mean Z-moves.  I never used a Z-move in my playthrough.  I was willing to accept Mega Evolutions, but Z-moves are just a step too far.  Stop making these stupid gimmicks.  The games were fine without them.  They were BETTER without them.

The overall story didn't grab me.  Team Skull were fun enough (though their rosters were as bare as any other trainer in this game).  However, they were more a gang of punks (actually they were a gang of the punk trainer class only with gaudy necklaces) with no real impact on the story.  They were Team Rocket without the malicious disregard for life.  Actually, raiding their base was one of the high points of the game.  Aether or whatever they called themselves (I really couldn't care), was almost completely nonexistent for the "dramatic twist" so they had little impact even though their actions were supposed to be driving the story.  The addition of the Ultra Recon squad in the Ultra version was yet another unwelcome distraction.

Really, that's what all of this can be summed up as, it was all distractions.  The previous two generations (as well as Platinum) had given us a sense of grandeur to the events around us.  We were dealing with deep and rich history regarding the local legendary Pokemon and what the evil team was up to.  Here, we suddenly have aliens with this light stealing monster who would have come out of nowhere if it was not drilled into our heads every five minutes whenever the Ultra Recon Squad showed up.  And that was an improvement over the original story where Lily's mother merges with one of the ultra beasts only so she can throw Pokemon at you.

In the end, I found the experience to be a slog I don't feel like repeating.  There are some rays of light.  PokeRide is an improvement over HM's or other moves with field effects.  Would have liked an 8th one (I'm not including Mantine Surf since it was more a mini-game) for like Dive or Dig so there were as many as a normal compliment of HM's (actually, include Dive and Dig and get rid of Mudsdale and the rocky terrain).  Mantine Surf is a blast to play and the best way to rack up BP Game Freak has thought of yet (and you have access to it early).  However, these were superficial to the problems with the game in general.

As the title suggests, I'm starting a new game on the Blue Version.  It'll be one of many times I've played through the original game just for the fun of it.  It's rather basic nowadays, but sometimes basic works.  Really, after slapping way too many bells and whistles on their latest games, Game Freak could stand to get back to basics (by basics I would say where they were in G5) in their next game.

Yes, that fan novel I wrote last year.  Well, I'm going through an edit and rewrite to clean things up.

I've also gotten it up on Archive of Our Own.  Check it out.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/13043400/chapters/29834688

I've been working on revamping my "Little Ponies Lost" idea that the G1 ponies were originally from Equestria and sent to the world of G1.  I wanted to slow the pace a bit with the ponies having to find Dream Valley after some adventures of them wandering in this strange world.  Having to actually learn the language and meeting the peoples and getting an understanding of what they're facing.

Then the show dropped the Season 7 finale in my lap with some interesting details.  The runes caught my attention in particular.

The premise is this.  Starswirl the Bearded has gone missing...again.  This time, it's not limbo, but to another world.  As a young stallion, Starswirl was obsessed in creating spells to manipulate time and space.  Although he failed many times, he gained the attention of one with the knowledge that he sought.

The creature was a queen of a powerful empire with incredible technology and magic.  He spent years there studying its magic.  He went there an aspiring magician and returned a legendary sorcerer with the knowledge of two worlds.  His various portal spells are based on the magic of this world.

Since he has returned from Limbo, he has gone back to see how his friend's empire has fared over the past millennium.  However, more than a year has past with no sign of him.  It is feared something has happened to him, and a world with a powerful empire when the ponies were just a fledgling society poses a grave risk.  It is decided to send a small cohort to look for him.  Since soldiers would be seen as a provocation, a group of civilians posing as merchants, explorers, and fortune hunters.  However, the world they arrive in is nothing they were expecting.

So, thoughts on this idea?