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Welcome to this week's episode of How It's Played! This week we are discussing the recent change in leadership at our family friendly, and fan favorite company, Nintendo. Reggie Fils-Aime recently decided to retire from being Nintendo's President. How will this affect the company and what will happen from here on out? All of this and more on this week's episode of How It's Played.
Even a person who has never played a video game before has heard of Tetris. The player is tasked to line up falling blocks in a horizontal row, and once a row is cleared, they get points. The goal of older Tetris games is simply to survive while getting as many points as possible, but newer entries all try to put their own spin on Tetris. At the end of the day though, Tetris is Tetris, and can’t help feeling a little stale even with new mechanics. The game has literally been released on every single game console, even the freaking Philips CD-i had Tetris (complete with an unironically good soundtrack). Games like Puyo Puyo Tetris or Tetris Effect add enough bells and whistles to overpower the Tetris-ness of the experience and end up being pretty amazing games as a result. It’s clear that there’s still potential for Tetris to be more than just another puzzle game with falling blocks.
The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board.
by Tanner Kinney
by Tanner Kinney The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board. If there’s one video game genre that defines the second half of the 2010s, it’s battle royale. Coming out of nowhere with mods of games, like Minecraft: Hunger Games or the Arma 3 mod that later became PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, it quickly became wildly popular. The genre was massive on Twitch, with PUBG having millions of concurrent players despite being a fairly rough game in terms of mechanics. The genre would later completely explode through Epic Games’ Fortnite: Battle Royale, which is certainly the winner winner, chicken dinner of the genre… or is it? Recently, a true challenger has arrived to take on Fortnite and is actually giving it a run for its money. That challenger is Apex Legends, a game from Respawn (developers of Titanfall) that released out of nowhere and quickly gained quite the audience. The game has found a playerbase of 25 million within its first week, and completely eclipsed Fortnite in terms of viewership on Twitch. Epic finally has a fire under its butt to start delivering on even more player demands, and competition is definitely healthy. And then, even more out of nowhere, Nintendo announces Tetris 99 during their February 2019 Nintendo Direct, a Tetris-flavored battle royale game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS-9Y9apW0Q&feature=youtu.be Yes, you read that right, Tetris, but a battle royale. And it actually works way better than it has any right to work. It’s honestly incredible to see something so strange as a puzzle battle royale, but it makes you think: what other games/genres would work for battle royale? I’ve rattled my brain and scratched out some amazing ideas, and have come up with a few games that would be perfect as battle royales. And don’t worry developers, if you take my ideas, you don’t even need to call me. We’ll both know where it came from, even if no one else does. Forza Horizon Starting with one of Microsoft’s four amazing first-party franchises, Forza Horizon should be a battle royale. A racing battle royale? Okay, that makes sense, but the game doesn’t have car combat mechanics of other franchises like Mario Kart or Twisted Metal, both of which would work better. Ah, but you see, that’s not thinking outside the box. How can you make Forza a battle royale within the mechanics of Forza? Simple, you play on the idea of the storm closing in on you. Picture this: 100 cars line up to traverse a treacherous, massive racecourse in line with Forza Horizon 4’s United Kingdom. The race starts, and shortly after a quick headstart a powerful storm follows the racers. If you’re too slow, you get devoured by the storm. Racers need to not only focus on their own racing, but also the people around them. Car upgrades will be placed around the track as ways to upgrade your car’s stats to be more defensive. If your car is stronger than another car, you can simply run them off the road and into the storm. Combine that with traps and roadblocks littered throughout the map, and you have a racing experience that is tense and addictive. And, since it’s still a race, the winner is either the person who lasts the longest or the one to reach the finish line first. If you’re unable to cross the finish line, you don’t actually place. It’s ingenious, and you could have a ton of different maps and locations for this, as long as they all fit 100 cars. Or, maybe even a modest 30 cars. Actually, scratch the cars, have it be 30 people running on foot. And the storm is a giant lizard firing meteors. Or a shark. Now THIS is a truly original idea, never before seen. Infamous: Second Son Infamous: Second Sun was a disappointing game, I’m not gonna lie. It was okay, for sure, but it’s nowhere near as solid as either of the first two Infamous games, mostly because of the protagonist and his boring Conduit power. Delsin Rowe can steal another person’s power by touching them, and therefore has tons of potential in what he can do, but ends up with a set of powers that is just kind of underwhelming. So, how is that at all relevant to battle royale? Look at Delsin’s power again: he can have a full loadout of different powers. The game starts with each person dropping into a city, whether it’s Empire City or New Marais or Seattle. The player can find and drain certain power sources to pick up a variety of powers that have their own set of abilities. Some can be defensive powers, some can be more offensive powers, some can even be fully utility powers. Each different type of power has an energy meter that can be refilled by draining various power sources or downed players. A fire fight in the game could have one person using ice powers to try and pin down another player dashing around with Neon, looking for a sniping angle. The storm in this game is a giant storm similar to ones created by The Beast. There would need to be less players and probably some kind of limit to how many powers someone can hold, but an endgame battle between two fully-powered up titans would be something that could be a legendary viewer experience. It’s a shame Sucker Punch killed the Infamous series, and we’ll likely never see this kind of game be made. Maybe we’ll get Ghost of Tsushima: Battle Royale. Super Mario Maker This one is a no-brainer, right? Nintendo needs a battle royale, and Nintendo doesn’t ever do anything normal and, let’s be honest, Super Mario Maker 2 will need a winning game mode that isn’t as bland as the random level mode from Super Mario Maker. The solution is, of course, battle royale. This idea is similar in terms of players outrunning a storm, but it’s not an auto-scroller, since auto-scrollers are bad. It’s a purely endurance experience. To give a video that paints a picture of what I’m thinking, here’s a video created by Patrick LeMieux using footage of many different Super Mario Bros. runs done by Andrew Gardikis. 4:57 (2013) by Patrick LeMieux from Patrick LeMieux on Vimeo. The video, if you can’t tell what it is, shows a cloud of Marios running through the level. That cloud is actually hundreds of Super Mario Bros. runs layered on top of each other in one video. Whenever Andrew G. would reset a run, that clip is removed from the video. So how relevant is this to Super Mario Maker: Battle Royale? Well, this is how the game would look. You are running against 99 other ghost Marios in a user generated level. The game would operate in rounds, with you competing against other people to see how many random levels you can clear without dying. Once you die, you get removed from the run and can either watch people battle it out or (more than likely) rage quit and queue up again. As a sudden death round, you could bring in a firey auto-scroller mechanic, or simply put in a high-death count level to try and kill the remaining players. There are enough bad Kaizo levels to kill off unprepared players. It could be a great twist on the typical Mario format, and one that I think would be perfect. World of Warcraft Now, you may be thinking, “wait, you mean like a PVP mode? That wouldn’t be so bad! Each class can drop and pick up spells and duel other players like in traditional PVP. It would just be PVP with extra steps, but it might be okay!” And sure, that’s a perfectly terrible idea. Because here’s the thing: if you’re playing World of Warcraft right now, as Blizzard dies around it, you ARE playing the battle royale. Look around you, the community is fleeing and bleeding out. Updates are releasing and still aren’t fixing the problems in the game. Battle for Azeroth has problems within the story that may never end up being fixed. Heroes of the Storm lost most of its funding for esports and development in general, and the cracks in the world are starting to form. And these layoffs make it clear your game is no longer the success it once was. If you hold it together for the longest amount of time, sticking to the game even as the once populated landscapes become barren around you, you can win this battle royale. The last player on the server before it permanently shuts down is the winner. And then, you gain the ownership of a private server of the game, and it becomes a simulator of running an MMO. It’s a game with so many layers. The ultimate twist? Once the playerbase of your new MMO begins to plateau, the battle royale begins anew. It literally never ends. Wall Street Kid And here it is, the ultimate battle royale experience: Wall Street Kid VR: Battle Royale. It’s a VR game based on the hit NES classic, Wall Street Kid. You’re a young person and receive a sizable amount of money from a dead relative. Of course, instead of splurging on way too much avocado toast, you decide to invest in the stock market. The competition is tough, as you compete against thousands of other people to make the most money and live the best life while still paying for your family and their frivolous expenses. You watch as your demands for more profits destroy once great companies while you reinvest in strange products and other things. The market shifts without your control, and one bad investment can send you into the red. Here’s the twist: once you go broke, your game doesn’t end. You have to live in a simulation of being in debt, with no options and no way out. You can’t close the game; you are trapped in the simulation. There aren’t too many options to exit the simulation, but you can turn the world upside-down in a whole new fight for survival for those still playing the stock market: the revolution. It’s time for those who went broke to fight those who are living a life of luxury. It’s time for the hungry to start eating the rich. Arm yourself, and become the storm closing in on those making as much profit as they can before the world falls apart around them. This is the future of battle royale, and would likely kill the genre, so please don’t release this unless you are prepared for the consequences. Because those consequences will bring the battle royale experience right to your doorstep. It’s fun for the whole family! Sources: The Verge, Kotaku, Dexerto, Vimeo, Youtube Images: Forza Horizon, Push Square, Alt Char, The Vintage Game Spot Featured Image: Roy Wood
As always, the first week of the LCS is one of the most important weeks in the split despite not really meaning much in the grand scheme of things. It’s the perfect time for teams to show their stuff, flex their new rosters, and make a good first impression. It’s also the time for teams predicted to do well to absolutely collapse and fail, leaving a bad impression that may stick with them through the rest of the split if they don’t turn it around quickly. There are always excuses for a bad first week performance with plenty of chances to turn it around, but it certainly doesn’t help the public’s knee-jerk reactions.
As always, the first week of the LCS is one of the most important weeks in the split despite not really meaning much in the grand scheme of things. It’s the perfect time for teams to show their stuff, flex their new rosters, and make a good first impression. It’s also the time for teams predicted to do well to absolutely collapse and fail, leaving a bad impression that may stick with them through the rest of the split if they don’t turn it around quickly. There are always excuses for a bad first week performance with plenty of chances to turn it around, but it certainly doesn’t help the public’s knee-jerk reactions. So of course, here are some knee-jerk reactions based on two games, including some predictions for the whole split. After all, if they suck now, clearly they’ll suck later. Teams can never improve, and FlyQuest will be the top team in North America. Liquid, Texas, and #WeFlyQuest The 1-1 teams are cool and all, but they are clearly bad. If you can’t win all the time, you’re a loser team. Sorry Cloud 9, hope Sneaky’s cosplay can keep your team afloat. We here only talk about the ultimate winning teams, the best teams in the League, all tied for first place. Those teams are exactly who all analysts predicted to be the best teams, Team Liquid, Clutch Gaming, and, of course, FlyQuest. Okay, those are clearly jokes. Cloud 9 is still probably the second best team in the League, and Team Solomid are definitely better than they looked against Clutch. However, it’s still important to talk about these teams since they are, in fact, the best teams as of week one. The team that needs the least explanation is Team Liquid. As it turns out, the best team in the League with the best players in nearly every role is still the best team. Their wins were relatively clean, but they do have one weakness in Impact seemingly underperforming. Can that really be exploited when the rest of the team is performing at max capacity? No, not really. Someone will eventually challenge Team Liquid, and knowing history it’ll probably be the Golden Guardians, somehow. The surprises, however, come from Clutch Gaming and FlyQuest. Now, both teams didn’t have difficult schedules, but considering a number of analysts had FlyQuest at the bottom of the League due to their mediocre roster, it was still surprising that they won at all, even against the Golden Guardians. FlyQuest seem to have players with all their heads screwed in tightly, moving in-sync with each other. Pobelter in particular has been performing well, and top laner V1per looked great as well against Hauntzer, who was formerly a pretty strong laner and threat. I still don’t think that they’ll be amazingly high after they play against better teams, but they are serious playoff contenders. Also, it makes me laugh as a Ball State student to say #WeFlyQuest. I'll be supporting them through the rest of the split. Clutch Gaming, on the other hand, ended up facing an Echo Fox that seemed like a solid team and a TSM who genuinely look like they could win the split. In that respect, it’s more impressive that Clutch pull out big wins against both teams, even if neither were the cleanest games in the world. The games were built off the back of Huni (at least against Echo Fox) and Tanner “Tanner Time” Damonte playing out of their minds. Damonte in particular went full “Tanner from high school,” bullying Beardsen and TSM back to the summoning platform the moment he picked up a lead. Huni had a big brained pick on Rush against Echo Fox and started snowballing that game from there with amazing equalizers. Again, much like FlyQuest, they look like serious playoff contenders. As opposed to some other teams… The faith is gone, buried by Darshan On the other end are the 0-2 teams, who all look admittedly pretty bad, week one jitters aside. The only exception would go to 100 Thieves, who may just be having some synergies issues combined with a tough schedule, facing both TSM and C9 in week one. It’s clear that 100 Thieves have some weak individual lanes, but they’ve been able to come together before with strong teamplay. Unfortunately, against some actual teams they’ve just rolled over and died, with Ssumday getting drafted some picks that aren’t his best and Huhi truly transforming into a North American midlaner, complete with questionable teleports and getting bodied in lane by imports. Aphro hasn’t seemed to be doing well either, still, and it’s a wonder whether Bang will start popping off or if he’ll be cashing in his paycheck on vacation. Either way, 100 Thieves have a lot to prove in the coming weeks. The teams that do look terrible are the 10th place champion Golden Guardians and Counter Logic Gaming. Golden Guardians played against what should have been easier matchups and lost both of them, playing like a team of solo queue players picking random champions as opposed to a team with a coach and analysts. This team believes they’ll be the ones to challenge Team Liquid (and historically, the Golden Guardians do), but I have more doubts here than ever. Champion of deaths in Contractz looks like he hasn’t improved at all, Hauntzer has had some questionable plays, bot lane looks fine but is still underwhelming at times with Olleh being Trolleh, and Froggen. Froggen is always hyped up and has his teams blamed around him, but his CLG.EU and Alliance days are long gone. The man is a fan-favorite, but he’s just hasn’t been able to perform in a way that shows his former glory. This team still has some potential, but are becoming heavy underdogs in their games. Finally, Counter Logic Gaming. I ranked them 5th because I’ve always been a CLG fan and I’ve never lost the faith. I’ve followed the team since before the Donezo Manifesto, being the underdog in the CLG-TSM rivalry. I was there for Coach Scarra, picking up Darshan, their MSI run in 2015, all of these things I have fond memories of. CLG is lucky that relegations are dead, because this team is quite literally looking worse than academy teams. And I don’t say that as hyperbole, they lost to OpTic Academy who played in LCS due to Arrow’s visa issues. Sure, Crown was there, but it is just depressing to see CLG constantly let me down. They haven’t won against TSM in years, they’ve been missing playoffs, and overall they just aren’t good anymore. Even if they try to play a 7-man roster like Cloud 9, the roster doesn’t look good at all. They can pick up early leads but continue to fumble them, just like last year. At least they picked up former TSM Weldon as a sports psychologist, because their fans are gonna need therapy after what looks like another terrible split. Quick predictions for Week 2 Day one will see TSM beat Echo Fox, likely because Rush runs it down on Karthus for the third time despite the jungle nerfs. Cloud 9 will easily rout the Golden Guardians, EU rookie Nisqy absolutely humiliating EU veteran Froggen while Svenskeren runs circles around Contractz. 100 Thieves will somehow, someway, pull out a win against Team Liquid since Doublelift decides to try and play Cassiopeia for the first time ever; It’s still a close game. FlyQuest absolutely runs over Counter Logic Gaming, with Darshan leaving mid game and no one even noticing. Clutch Gaming will take a hard fought victory against OpTic, but Huni will end up getting 10 kills and 10 deaths equally like the legend he is. Day two starts with Golden Guardians getting a random win against 100 Thieves, with Contractz just power-farming the whole game and still having more pressure than AnDa. Echo Fox will defeat OpTic Gaming and continue to aim towards their goal of going 1-1 every single week, perfectly balanced as all things should be. Clutch Gaming will also humiliate Team Liquid, with Piglet going Season 3 World Champion against the team that was his old breaking point. FlyQuest will tie Clutch Gaming for first place after defeating TSM, as former TSM players in Santorin and WildTurtle are no longer TSM’s brothers. Finally, CLG will almost win but throw it away last minute against Cloud 9. It will later be discovered that Zeyzal was playing using an SNES mouse, but still managed to land an amazing Alistar engage to turn the game around. Although I didn’t include predictions for last week within the article, I ended up going 6/10. Not bad considering I predicted only two games correctly on day one. We’ll see if my predictions continue to hold up at the end of the split. We’ll also see if I can hit Plat elo again, or if my duo partner Nolan and I will stay hardstuck Gold II for the rest of eternity. Needless to say, it’s not looking good right now. Let’s hope those ADC changes in the next patch actually do something to improve bot lane! Remember to check back next week for more predictions and hot takes. Images: Twitter Featured Image: Twitter
Disclaimer: This review is of the Nintendo Switch version of the game and was played primarily in portable mode.
by Tanner Kinney Disclaimer: This review is of the Nintendo Switch version of the game and was played primarily in portable mode. YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is a game I’ve been following and anticipating for quite a while now. This game was never on Kickstarter, being mostly a passion project built by a small studio over the duration of five years. The game showed promise and was picked up by a publisher relatively quickly, and many people have been eagerly anticipating the game. Through much hardship and even a death in the family, the two brothers at Ackk Studios have done a ton of work to make their dream game come to life. And it shows; this game has a lot of genuine and honest heart and it was clearly constructed with love. That makes it all the more painful that the end result is a game that is so charming and captivating in presentation, but is also such an absolute trainwreck in writing that it came under a number of controversies within the first few days of release. It’s tonally inconsistent, frequently cringey, occasionally misguided, but absolutely captivating to watch in motion. A lot of games are described as trainwrecks, but only YIIK has been able to capture the “can’t look away” element of the equation. To sum it up in a way the game itself would: the two parallel universes where I love and hate this game exist in this universe at the same time. The charming exterior If there’s anything YIIK does right, it’s nailing a fantastic and unique aesthetic. The game is an urban RPG with heavy inspiration from the Mother series (or Earthbound, for the Westerners), and that clearly shows with enemy designs, backgrounds and the general feel of the world. However, it’s still its own distinct piece of media, refusing to blend into the crowd of Mother-inspired games that have become strangely popular in the past decade. It’s 3D in a way that looks like a game from the N64 era, with sharp polygons and flat textures for models and environments. However, it also has some gorgeous artwork for the main cast of characters during cutscenes a la the Persona series, forgoing facial animations for detailed character sprites representing emotions during cutscenes. It’s colorful and pleasantly retro, making it a visually interesting game. Musically, YIIK doesn’t disappoint either. Although there are a number of songs that are dissonant, repetitive and sometimes just uncomfortable to listen to, they fit together with the world and the rest of the soundtrack in a way that many games don’t accomplish. It reminds me a lot of Undertale in the way that YIIK’s composer Andrew Allanson incorporates a singular motif throughout much of the soundtrack that draws it all together. One of my personal favorite tracks, titled “Minor Conversation”, is delightful in how it portrays the nature of the world and its themes through a relatively simple song. The themes of tragedy and hopelessness that are core to the narrative find themselves played out in the soundtrack, while the themes of hope and overcoming the odds play out in many of the battle themes. Special recognition should be given to the track “Into the Mind,” which was composed by Undertale’s Toby Fox. It’s an amazing track on its own, and fits in with the rest of the game perfectly. Some props should also be given to the voice cast, who do an incredible job bringing life to a script that is less than amazing. To top it all off, the combat itself, despite being a point of contention with many people, was one of my favorite parts of the game. It’s your typical turn-based RPG combat, although it plays more like Paper Mario or Legend of Dragoon than your typical turn-based game. Each attack the party does has a minigame attached to it. If you do the minigame well, you deal more damage. Additionally, all enemy attacks have a minigame attached to them. Compared to something like Paper Mario, these minigames can be surprisingly complex, like the top-down action game you play for Vella’s Banish ability or the Simon Says-esque game for Claudio’s Bushido ability. It keeps itself fresh to play through, despite some problems that do ruin the experience during the final stretches of the game. The skeletons in the closet All of those great aspects of YIIK --and I do genuinely believe they are great-- aren’t left on their own though. Much like the game’s own narrative, there’s a darkness that hides behind the pleasant retro exterior. I’m talking about the true badness that has had the internet referring to this game as YIIKes. To start, let’s touch on the combat again. It’s fun at first, and remains pretty entertaining throughout, but it’s not without its problems. The game is slow-- as in reeeeeally slow. That’s not just talking about the loading times on the Nintendo Switch version (which are almost Sonic 06-bad), that’s talking about combat itself. The game includes both a speed-up and slow-down feature for combat. The slow-down is tied to the “Time Energy” meter, and is used to succeed in the tougher minigames or guarantee dodging enemy attacks. The speed-up is an optional, but necessary feature to use since all combat animations are twice the length they should be. An attack has four components: the transition to the minigame, the minigame itself (which can last upwards of 30 seconds), the attack animation itself, and then the animation of it hitting the enemy or the enemy dodging. This applies to every single attack, enemies included. It’s cinematic and fun to watch at first, but it gets tiresome and slow during later fights in the game. Even with speeding up, some fights last way longer than they reasonably should. But that’s not even the bad part of the game. It’s annoying, but it’s not necessarily that bad. The really bad part of the game is in the writing. Remember the mid-2000s webcomic craze? Back when Penny Arcade (the comic) and Ctrl-Alt-Del were at their peaks in popularity? The writing in those comics is, in hindsight, typically pretty embarrassing, being a splurge of references to games while being fairly devoid of actual joke and punchlines. YIIK has writing on that level, and the biggest criminal is Alex Eggleston himself. He takes the cake for most unlikeable RPG protagonist, dethroning the former king, Tales of the Abyss’s Luke. He’s pretentious, self-absorbed, abusive and overall very embarrassingly cringey for most of the game. Even after he supposedly learns his lesson in Chapter 3, he still has some pretty bad lines, just not “I don’t care about your dead sister” bad. There are also some controversial themes and moments within the game, and after doing research on them it definitely hurts the overall experience when you think about it. At the very least, maybe having a grave dedicated to Iwata in some dude’s backyard next to graves with jokes on them is a little misguided. The line-by-line quips themselves are bad, but even worse is the overall narrative. It can never seem to find its footing between “quirky and wacky” and “thought-provoking and moving,” and ends up failing to balance the two in a good way. Most notable is an out-of-place joke during Chapter 3 where Rory’s Mom is “all leg” (aka a giant leg), which directly follows cutscenes involving Alex being a massive tool about Rory’s dead sister. There are a number of interesting ideas in the story, particularly how it plays with the concept of parallel universes, but it ends up just fumbling and failing to make the most of some genuinely interesting aspects. It’s so close to being good, but it just falls short. The compelling disaster of it all These problems would generally mean that the game wouldn’t be recommended. These problems should keep the game shelved and sent to the abyss of obscurity. And perhaps it’ll find itself there. Yet, despite all of its problems, there’s something so incredibly compelling within YIIK that I couldn’t stop playing. The genuine heart this game has is infectious, and there are still plenty of interesting ideas and locations that a player will want to keep exploring and diving deeper into, even if these ideas don’t live up to their potential. The story itself, despite numerous idiosyncrasies and general tone-deafness, is fascinating to watch play out. And yes, even through getting stuck in walls, opening shop menus during combat, having the Switch version ask me if I’m using an Xbox One controller, bugging out puzzles so they don’t work, and even discovering that the main character is in love with a girl who is a reference to a real life tragedy in a somewhat insensitive way didn’t stop me. This game is amazing to experience, even though it hurts. For those who love watching terrible stories unfold, this game is the perfect trainwreck. Featured Image: GOG Images: GOG
by Tanner Kinney The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board. Season 9 has (almost) begun, and that means it’s time for another year of drama, suspense, OMEGALULs, fully-stacked tears, and dozens of clown fiestas. The meta of the previous year became admittedly pretty stale, despite the previous Worlds Championship being one of the most high-octane tournaments in terms of action around the map. I feel I can speak for a lot of people in hopes that the meta of season 9 will be less focused on murder and more focused on better teams winning games. I personally don’t think Riot will do it, but they’ve surprised me before. Like with Patch 8.11, which made my duo partner nearly quit the game. Onto the power rankings, these were decided after a pretty lengthy discussion with a panel (Discord server) of experts (my friends), based off of a few qualities. We looked at the potential of the teams and the previous results of the teams and their individual players, along with keeping in mind the volatility of certain rosters and players. Although these are ranked traditionally, we grouped them into three groups since it is, admittedly, a pretty close call: The Top Three, The Middledogs, and The Bottom Feeders. Let’s just get into it. The Top Three 1. Team Liquid I know, this is the shock of the century. The best team in North America gets only upgrades for their roster, and they’re still the best team? Quite frankly, I’m shocked. The team retains its top laner Impact, jungler Xmithe, and bottom laner Doublelift. In addition, they picked up Jensen, formerly of Cloud 9, and CoreJJ, World Champion and former member of Dignitas. They have either the best in each role or the second-best in each role, so it’s hard to find a reason they aren’t number one. My only hold out is seeing what kind of synergy the new members have, but I have faith they will perform domestically, then fail to get out of groups at MSI. Again. 2. 100 Thieves I’ve slept on 100 Thieves before, and they exceed expectations. Then they drop a good player, then another good player, and then they show up for their vacation in Korea off the back of a strong Spring Split. Fans were outraged at 100 Thieves for quite a while after the PR disaster surrounding Cody Sun and Meteos leaving the team, but they’ve pulled it around for this split. They got a serious upgrade in the bot lane with Bang, and brought former CLG Huhi and Aphromoo back together for high quality roams. For once, I have faith in the Thieves to do well. I think the only thing I’m concerned about is Bang going on vacation in North America, picking up a paycheck in beautiful Los Angeles. I don’t think he’ll be like Piglet though. At least, I hope he won’t be like Piglet. But we’ll get to him later. 3. Cloud 9 Cloud 9: Worlds 2018 Semifinalists, first North American team to do so since the creation of the LCS, and they are sitting at a comfortable “run the gauntlet” 3rd place, again. Their comeback in the summer split was something of magic by 4D Chessmaster Reapered, bringing in rookies, tanking the first half, and motivating their good players to do even better and make it to worlds. The team has made no changes aside from losing Jensen, picking up the young former midlaner of Splyce, Nisqy. That’s expected to be a downgrade, but not enough to really tank C9 if they continue to perform at their Worlds level. We’ll see if they actually do that though, or if Reapered will need to motivate his roster with some crazy swaps. The Middledogs 4. Team Solomid To say that Team Solomid (TSM) had a rough 2018 season would be an understatement. This team that was absolutely stacked with talent got booted in Spring Split quarterfinals by some weeaboo playing Thresh, and in the summer they brought it back toward the end but lost out in the gauntlet to Cloud 9. The team got blown apart for 2019, retaining only Bjergsen and Zven. They picked up an upgrade for support in former Echo Fox Smoothie, a new jungler with former OpTic Akaadian, and a new top laner with Turkish solo queue talent BrokenBlade. This roster looks great, but they also have a lot of questions surrounding them. Will BrokenBlade perform to expectations? Will Akaadian perform to the level of his rookie split? Will Zven and Smoothie have great synergy? I would say if the answer to all of these questions is “yes,” then TSM will be a top three contender. Otherwise, they’re just better than the over average teams. 5. Counter Logic Gaming Counter Logic Gaming also had a rough transition into franchising, betting on ReignOver for two splits in a row and underperforming wildly. It was only after roster changes were made at the very end of the summer split that the team started to look like it had some life. Now, with a significantly different roster, CLG is actually not looking so bad. This team has made some decent upgrades to their jungle with the promising rookie Wiggly and in midlane picking up OpTic’s only shining star in PowerOfEvil. The team doesn’t look like it’ll be a split winning team, but they’ll definitely make playoffs at the very least, which is a massive improvement from last split. 6. Golden Guardians The Golden Guardians, defenders of the 10th place spot, also went to blow up their previous roster in a spectacular way. They may have kept the underwhelming Contractz in jungle and Heimer one-trick Deftly in bot lane, but have picked up an actual team around them. Fan-favorite (and former superstar) midlaner Froggen is joined by TSM’s Hauntzer and Team Liquid’s Olleh to create a roster that should get into playoffs but seems just average. They won’t get to the top, but they won’t drown. They might even get to semifinals if TSM underperforms again! If anyone is a dark horse team, it is the Golden Guardians. 7. Echo Fox Echo Fox was very promising last split, and performed fairly well, but they self-destructed toward the end. On top of that, controversies within the organization and their dropping of Fenix and Altec turned the once popular underdogs the enemy of the people. It was cathartic to see them faceplant at the end of summer last year, to say the least. This split, they’ve essentially adopted Clutch Gaming’s old roster with Solo, Apollo and Hakuho (for top, bot and support respectively), while bringing back Fenix and picking up fan-favorite Kind Boy, Rush. This team, since it has the core of old Clutch, likely won’t outperform old Clutch. At the very least, I think there’s a chance they can surprise people again in quarter finals, but the lack of big talent on the roster makes me doubt how high they can climb. The Bottom Feeders 8. Clutch Gaming Speaking of Clutch Gaming, here they are at the bottom of the table. Clutch similarly blew up their roster after a disappointing summer split, seemingly trading three of their players for Echo Fox’s Huni and Damonte. They also promoted their academy botlane in Piglet and Vulcan to the big leagues. The only returning member is the anchor of Clutch last split, who somehow is still employed despite how terribly he did in the previous split. Perhaps Piglet requested it, but otherwise it doesn’t bode well for a team that already doesn’t look great on paper. Huni can be an amazing player, and supposedly Piglet can be as well, but these two have such massive lows that it’s hard to argue they can get into playoffs. If Echo Fox last year was the mental boom team, this year is Clutch. I don’t have faith in the roster to perform, and maybe they will, but I can’t give them the benefit of the doubt. 9. OpTic Gaming Introducing our starting lineup for Week One of #LCS: Top: Dhokla Jungle: Meteos Mid: Crown ADC: Asta Support: Big#OPTWIN #GREENWALL pic.twitter.com/NnE83SVzbE — OpTicLoL (@OpTicLoL) January 24, 2019 (No, they don’t have a YouTube video. I don’t know why.) Also known as: Crown Gaming. OpTic’s roster last year certain underwhelmed the diehard GREENWALL, and even with them almost reaching playoffs in summer, they fell just short. There were some impressive players stuck with some imports cashing in paychecks. So, OpTic made the decision to swap out their great midlaner for former World Champion Crown and their mediocre jungler for both Meteos AND Dardoch. This team still has their anchor in the botlane with Arrow, their average support with Big, and their promising top laner Dhokla. This roster shouldn’t be bad right? Unfortunately, I have a gut feeling that their expensive import in Crown is just here to go on vacation and cash in a paycheck. Why would he come to North America otherwise, especially OpTic of all places? With Arrow being potentially the worst in the League as well, this team could end up having no threats in place. Maybe I just don’t have faith in Crown, but realistically this roster lives and dies based on how he does. I don’t think Crown will get OpTic to playoffs alone. As it turns out, OpTic is using their academy ADC in Asta. I don’t know what that means for OpTic, but I don't think it's much. 10. FlyQuest FlyQuest made it into playoffs last split with some surprisingly good play, but their roster was always kind of weak. So, what changes did FlyQuest make? Well, they picked up the notorious middle-of-the-pack midlaner Pobelter and a Riven one-trick (okay, he was good in Academy) in V1per. This team, with solid players like Santorin, WildTurtle, and even their support in JayJ, would in the past be a playoff contending team. But the League has evolved since franchising, and nearly every other team has some highlight player. Echo Fox have Rush and Hakuho, Clutch has Huni, OpTic has Crown, Golden Guardians have Froggen, etc. What sort of power player does FlyQuest have? Are they just hoping V1per can dumpster kids like it’s solo queue? I personally don’t think so. But hey, I’ve been wrong before, and maybe I’ll be wrong here, but I don’t think they’ll perform to the level of the rest of the League. And those are the rankings, feel free to send me emails when TSM ends 8th place and OpTic smashes everyone. I’ll appreciate those emails before I delete them. Personally, this was hard to judge because every team is looking pretty solid and has the potential to surprise everyone (FlyQuest aside). It really is just based on gut feelings and, as we’ve seen in the past, teams will take time to get their stuff together for playoffs. At the very least, I can be confident in saying TL is first place. If they don’t end first, I’ll only play support Amumu for an entire month. Apologies to my solo queue teammates in advance. Make sure to tune into the LCS, and watch out for more LCS recaps in the future. Sources: YouTube, Twitter Images: YouTube, Twitter Featured Image: YouTube
Disclaimer: This review is of the Nintendo Switch version of the game, played primarily in handheld mode.
by Tanner Kinney Disclaimer: This review is of the Nintendo Switch version of the game, played primarily in handheld mode. The Tales series is one of the longest standing Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) franchises. Starting with Tales of Phantasia on Super Famicom, the series was successful in Japan, but as with other storied franchises like Shin Megami Tensei, it didn’t get big in the West until the GameCube/PS2 era. Since then, the franchise has had a number of great games like Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Xillia, and the most recent entry with Tales of Berseria, but it still feels like they just blend into the background compared to bigger titles. So, it was a surprise to see Microsoft give a spotlight to Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition during their E3 showcase. It makes sense given that Vesperia was originally a 360 exclusive, but this release brings the Japan-exclusive PS3 port to all of the modern consoles for the first time. After playing through much of the Nintendo Switch version of Vesperia, it’s safe to say that this is definitely one of the best Tales games out there. However, compared to other big JRPGs and even its own series, Vesperia is missing a hook to keep a player fully engaged. A standard Tales tale Tales of Vesperia follows Yuri Lowell (voiced mostly by Troy Baker), a ruffian former knight who just wants to help his people in the slums of the capital city. After getting thrown into and promptly breaking out of jail, Yuri and the player get railroaded into an adventure that cannot be escaped. Along the way, he meets a cast of colorful Tales characters, including some real winners like Rita and Raven, and uncovers a conspiracy set to escalate a great war. It’s all well and good, and there are some fun character moments, but it never really gets to a point where I was like “Wow, I need to keep playing to see what happens next!” It just goes about its business, with next to no side quests to break up the main story. I will say that, at the very least, the characters don’t get as obnoxious or make as many dumb decisions as other Tales casts, but they also aren’t particularly interesting. Sure, you can play as Yuri’s dog Repede, but it just feels that most characters in the game lack a strong, engaging personality. Yuri is probably the most complex character in terms of his motivations, but even then it can get a little tiring listening to Yuri be vague and mysterious for 15+ hours. On top of that, the world in this game feels rather lifeless. You can talk to a bunch of different people in towns, but most of them don’t have much to say that isn’t already apparent. During the first story arc of the game, there is almost nothing to be gained by talking to civilians. I never would’ve expected side quests and side content to be such an important part of a JRPG, but without these options, the game just feels like it’s missing something. Sure, too many sidequests can be overwhelming, like in Xenoblade Chronicles, but the complete lack of them just makes it so the only way a player can gain EXP is through ol’ fashioned grinding. These side quests and side stories do begin to develop after the first story arc, but by then the railroading is just too powerful and seemingly inescapable. This may be a breath of fresh air to some, but for me it ended up just making me feel more bored than any fetch quest could. Classic JRPG-style with a fresh coat of paint Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is gorgeous to look at, especially compared to its predecessors in Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss. It makes sense, considering this game was the jump from PS2 to Xbox 360, but it still holds up very well in the remake. The main cast has some of my favorite designs in the series, and the dungeons are all very detailed and great to explore. The towns in the game are also all varied in their designs, which makes their overall emptiness that much more apparent. Even when stacked up against Tales of Xillia, the game holds up by maintaining a silky smooth framerate in battles and cutscenes, only really tanking on the world map when playing on the Nintendo Switch in portable mode (The game’s framerate differs from system to system). The in-game models may be more simplistic, but it’s charming without hurting the overall quality. The music in the game also has some earworms and stellar tracks, which is actually a surprise for the series. I usually don’t notice the soundtrack in Tales games, but this game had some great songs. The various battle themes are all wonderful, and the towns all have great music of their own. Sound design overall is pretty satisfying, with meaty hits being given appropriately meaty sounds. Plus, Vesperia has one of the best OPs in the series, only being beaten out by Zesteria’s incredible “White Light”, which was unironically the best part of that game. The best and worst of Tales combat Tales of Vesperia’s combat system is essentially just an improvement of the action combat style from Symphonia and Abyss, with all of the best parts of that system being left intact. Combos are quickly executed and flow nicely into all of the different kinds of artes, and with nine unique playable characters in the Definitive Edition, there’s a little something for everyone’s tastes in playstyle. I had the most fun playing as Karol, with his meaty hammer/axe attacks, and Rita, who uses her vast array of spells to one-shot weaker enemies, but most of the members of the party are fun to use as well. I didn’t really enjoy playing as Raven, but primarily ranged/trap-setter characters in Tales games have always been underwhelming to me. However, there are also parts of the combat that show their age. Balance adjustments made to stunlocking and getting stunlocked are seemingly absent, with some solo fights against large groups of enemies ending in Yuri just getting slowly knifed to death 74 damage at a time. On the same coin, spellcasting at a fast enough rate (with your AI partners using their brains) can permastun some boss fights, which ends in some pretty anticlimactic battles even with the Overlimit system. Some boss fights also have special mechanics built within them that, when fulfilled, gives the player some kind of advantage. Some of these are rather straightforward, like baiting the enemy into stunning flowers, but others are a little less obvious. One boss in particular requires the player to play as a specific character, use a specific arte in a specific place at a specific time, otherwise the enemy will heal a fourth of their HP. If you don’t know that, you will end up trying to beat the boss by stunlocking it into submission which almost actually works before they put up stunlock immunity and heal to full. On top of that, the quality of life addition of the “retry battle” button that was added in Tales of Xillia does not make an appearance in Vesperia. Although the game is at least generous with save points, there are a few tough battles placed in tough spots, either sandwiched between a bunch of cutscenes or after some unavoidable enemy encounters. It can lead to frustration, especially if the loss is to cheap stunlocking or cryptic special mechanics. But, at the end of the day, it’s still great Tales combat. I’ve always been partial to the more freeform combat of Symphonia and Xillia, seeing the restrictions to combos made by Zesteria or Graces as a massive detriment, and this game has got some of the best of it. There aren’t too many games that allow you to take down massive golems and dragons as a dog with a tiny knife, but Vesperia delivers there. It’s just a shame the game around it is nowhere near as compelling as the combat is. Featured Image: Nintendo Images: Nintendo
The biggest cinematic joke of the past decade has got to be the DC extended universe (DCEU). It’s gotten to a point where beating up on Warner Bros’ pathetic attempt to cash in on the extended universe trend set by Disney-Marvel is just stale and sad. Wonder Woman almost doesn’t even seem like it was a real movie because it was actually good, despite being forgotten almost immediately due to DC’s cinematic disaster of Justice League polluting the waters not even six months later. The promising Shazam! trailer at Comic-Con this year was paired with a trailer for Aquaman that looked just as schlocky and terrible as the rest of the DCEU. Needless to say, hopes for this being a good movie were at rock bottom.
by Tanner Kinney
Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers for Mortal Engines.
by Tanner Kinney
With the holiday season rolling around, a great last minute gift to grab is a video game. Even those who aren’t super game-inclined can get a lot of use out of a new game console or new game. The only question is deciding which games are naughty (read: terrible) and which games are nice. Here’s a quick guide to great game purchases this holiday season.
by Tanner Kinney With the holiday season rolling around, a great last minute gift to grab is a video game. Even those who aren’t super game-inclined can get a lot of use out of a new game console or new game. The only question is deciding which games are naughty (read: terrible) and which games are nice. Here’s a quick guide to great game purchases this holiday season. Nintendo Switch The Nintendo Switch is a fantastic game console, and it already has such a great library of both first party and third party titles in the second year of its life. Great games to pair with this console are Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Pokemon Let’s Go!: Pikachu and Pokemon Let’s Go!: Eevee, and coming out soon is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Just one of these games alone makes the console a worthy purchase, but two or three of them give it a ton of replay value. Add on the dozens of great indie games on the Nintendo eShop like Hollow Knight, A Robot Named Fight!, Stardew Valley, and many others and there’s a lot of great content to purchase for the holiday season. If you want my recommendation, wait for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to release and purchase that with a one year subscription to the Nintendo online service. That, along with the best portable and affordable Fortnite experience, will tide over both rowdy kids and bored adults until the next gifting cycle. PlayStation 4 The PS4 has had a fantastic year for exclusives to add to its already amazing exclusive line-up. If you haven’t already purchased a PS4, now is a fantastic time to do so. With titles like Spider-Man, God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, the entirety of the Kingdom Hearts series, and more niche titles like Persona 5 and the best version (aside from PC) for Dragon Quest XI, there’s a lot to see and play. Add on next year’s exclusive titles like The Last of Us Part II, Control, Ghost of Tsushima, and many others, and it’s clear that the PS4 is still set to impressive for another couple years until the next in the PlayStation console line launches. While you’re at it, pick up Spyro: Reignited Trilogy and play the original games of a classic mascot on its home platform. You deserve to treat yourself. Xbox One Well, at least Crackdown 3 is releasing next year? Allegedly? And that Forza Horizon 4 game was okay. The upcoming Gears of War 5 might even be pretty good too. Plus, with a strong backwards compatibility lineup, the best Xbox 360 games can be played on a modern console, some with significant improvements like Final Fantasy XIII. It’s not the first choice of console for most to get, but it’s a pretty good one if you already have PS4 and don’t like baby games from Nintendo. Avoid This If you aren’t sure what game to buy for someone, young or old, here are a couple of rules. Licensed games (games based on movies or TV shows) are almost always bad. First party console titles, on the other hand, are almost always a safe bet, even if it’s not a very recognizable franchise. Massive open-world games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey may have a lot of playtime value, but more concise experiences like Dark Souls or Octopath Traveler are more memorable for gifts. And please, do not under any circumstances purchase Fallout 76. Todd Howard is a liar, and there’s no price point on this Earth aside from Bethesda paying you to play it that would convince me to say it’s a worthwhile transaction. I don’t care if you loved Skyrim or Fallout 4. Play Skyrim on Nintendo Switch, or mod the PC version into your own personal experience. Fallout 76 is a big ol’ lump of coal, no matter how cheap you can get it. Images: Wikipedia Featured image: Tt Shinkan
The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board.
by Tanner Kinney The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board. Pokemon is one of the most beloved game franchises of all time. Millions around the world are engrossed in the franchise, whether it be through the main series games, getting deep into competitive battling, or valiantly trying to reclaim to local gym at the Pizza Hut for Team Valor in Pokemon Go, it’s hard to escape the franchise. I’ve never stopped loving Pokemon, and of course have my own personal favorites, but that’s lame to talk about. Personal favorites usually suck anyways and are low-tier trash Pokemon. Today, we’re taking a different approach to selecting the best Pokemon. To celebrate the release of another Gen 1 remake/sequel/reboot in Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee (pronounced roughly like “Ay-vay,” as shown by the first trailer for the game), we’re going to analyze using hard science to determine which ten Gen 1 Pokemon are objectively the best. This hard science will include exclusively classic Gen 1 Pokedex entries, competitive tier lists, anime appearances, and strength in the manga Pokemon Adventures. In some cases, Gen 1 logic (Psychic-types having only one weakness, broken critical hit system, etc.) will be used to determine Pokemon strength. There will also be no ties, because ties are a cop-out and there’s always a way to decide, objectively, which Pokemon is the best. By deciding objectively, not only is this list superior to biased “top ten Pokemon” lists, but surely no one on the internet can argue with the hard science presented in encyclopedia entries written by actual 10-year-olds and then interpreted by nerds on the internet. There are a few noticeable absences though, and I’ll get those out of the way now: the legendary bird trio (Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres) are absent because to dispatch two of three of them you just need to chuck a rock at them. Mewtwo is also absent because this list is organic and GMO-free, for your health and mine. 10. Flareon During my research, I was trying to determine which, if any, of the Eeveelutions would make the cut in the top-ten. Unfortunately, none of them are really too powerful in any capacity, unless you consider the fact that Vaporeon has the ability to dissolve into water using Acid Armor. Flareon in particular seemed like a failure, considering it was basically a joke Pokemon with its low speed, bad typing, and no useful Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB) attacks. However, the Pokedex entry paints a different story. It says in the Pokemon Stadium Pokedex entry that, “[Flareon’s] fiery breath reaches close to 3,000 degrees. Its body temperature exceeds 1,650 degrees when storing fire inside.” You may be thinking that’s not significant, but in reality, think about how Kanto is inspired by Japan. That means that, in Kanto, they’d likely use a system of heat measurement in line with Celsius, as opposed to Fahrenheit. Through these deductions, Flareon’s “fiery breath” is able to reach a heat of 5432 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Steelforge.com, this means that Flareon can melt every single metal excluding tungsten and rhenium. Flareon not only melts hearts, it also melts pretty much everything else. 9. Jigglypuff This one may lose some people, because not only is Jigglypuff not fully evolved, it has a bad stat line, and can be taken down by pretty much anything. Jigglypuff is seemingly a big, round, adorable target. Yet, this would require the opponent to actually be able to do anything to attack the Jigglypuff. As shown in the anime, particularly the episode “The Song of Jigglypuff,” Jigglypuff’s song has the ability to send any person or Pokemon into a realm of sleep. Jigglypuff put the entire city of Neon Town to sleep during the end of the episode, and judging by the passage of time it was at least a full night of rest. There is mention that enemies who do not fall asleep to Jigglypuff with be a great danger to it, yet in Gen 1, there were no abilities on any Pokemon. Without Soundproof, even the strongest of foes can be lulled and escaped from/drawn on. This isn’t even to mention Jigglypuff’s standing in the competitive tier list of Super Smash Bros being stronger than such great heroes as Samus, Link, Ness, and the main-man Mario himself. 8. Nidoking Nidoking is a no-brainer for this list as he is objectively the fastest Pokemon in the Kanto region. You may point out that Nidoking’s speed stat is underwhelming and that it isn’t even OU according to Smogon tier lists, but Nidoking has the power to single-handedly take down every gym leader, trainer, rival, and elite four member (minus Brock) in under two hours. This Pokemon is THE face of Gen 1 Pokemon speedrunning, with only some runners using the alternative of Blastoise before eventually giving into the Nidoking. He may not have the impressive biological ability of other Pokemon, but it’s clear Nidoking can hold his own against tough competition. 7. Slowbro According to competitive research from Smogon, “Amnesia Slowbro has gone down in history as one of the most famous and well-known sets in the world of competitive Pokemon.” For those who are unaware, due to the lack of the special-split in Gen 1, special attack and defense were both the same stat, called “SPECIAL.” Amnesia is a move that raises the user’s special by two stages. This was Nasty Plot before Nasty Plot was even a move, and it turned certain Psychic types into absolute monsters to deal with. Slowbro is the second best behind Mewtwo and since Mewtwo is disqualified from this list, Slowbro makes a good replacement. Additionally, according to research from Bulbapedia, “Slowbro has lost the capability to feel pain due to the Shellder's poison.” It is an unfeeling, indestructible monster. Never anger a Slowbro, it won’t end well for you. 6. Machamp This buff boy is an incredible fighting type Pokemon, with a great attack stat and some real power behind its punches. Bruno’s Machamp in particular can pack a punch if you didn’t bring a bird friend with you. But Machamp is even more powerful than most people understand. It may be a manlet at 5’0” tall, but it is nearly 300lbs of pure muscle and meat. To top it off, according to Pokedex entries, Machamp can not only send someone over the horizon line with a single punch like the One Punch Man, but also can move mountains with a single arm. It can fire off five-hundred punches a second using all of its arms. And, considering Karate Chop’s broken crit rate, Machamp has a 55/65 chance to deal a critical blow with every swing. Machamp is objectively the strongest fighting type in Kanto and a real threat in any combat scenario. 5. Alakazam The ruler of organic Psychic types, Alakazam has remained a competitive threat consistently since the beginning of type. It’s not only lightning fast, but also incredibly bulky against other special attackers thanks to Gen 1 logic. It hits like a truck and tanks like a tank, and doesn’t even bat an eye while doing it. It literally uses psychic powers to move its body, particularly its freakishly large head. But Alakazam’s cranium is large because it contains a brain more powerful than any supercomputer. According to Pokedex research, Alakazam not only has an Eidetic memory, but also has an IQ of 5000. That’s at least twice the IQ of the average Rick and Morty fan! It can instantly identify weaknesses of foes, and with the overpowered Psychic typing, not many Pokemon are stronger in raw combat stronger than Alakazam. 4. Muk Now we are moving from “strong battling Pokemon” to “potentially apocalyptic Pokemon.” Muk is living toxic waste, built up from years and years of trash leaking into sewers. It is reported that this Pokemon’s mere presence kills plant life around it. Even accidentally touching Muk can leave someone in the hospital due to its dangerous toxins. This Pokemon thrives off the destruction of the environment. Even its footprints contain poison, according to the Pokedex. Muk can single-handedly destroy an entire ecosystem. Despite all of that, it’s a rather friendly Pokemon, as shown in the anime when Ash’s Muk endangers all life around it and clearly tries to kill both Professor Oak and Ash. It also engulfs a poor little Bellsprout, fainting it instantly. On top of all of that, Muk is a pile of sludge, so how do you kill it? It simply divides and creates more Grimer. Muk is unkillable and easily the most dangerous Pokemon on this list. 3. Ditto Ditto is on here for a very obvious reason: it can transform into any other Pokemon. It can transform into any of the Pokemon lower on this list, and even the two higher on the list than Ditto. In the anime, it is shown that Ditto can also transform into humans and other objects, including a cannon. The Pokedex describes it with much less power though, saying it is “capable of copying an enemy's genetic code to instantly transform itself into a duplicate of the enemy.” Yet, research indicates it can also transform based on memory. Although this list is using purely Gen 1 material, it is fair to note that Ditto was seen transforming into a Pokemon that didn’t even exist, which was later discovered to be Meltan. This means that Ditto could become anything it understands and can remember. Ditto can literally become a PokeGod. But, seeing as Ditto is the Green Lantern ring of Pokemon, it usually just transforms into whatever is in front of it. Nevertheless, the potential is there for Ditto to be the ultimate threat. 2. Mew Mew is of course on this list. In canon, Mew is the genetic core of all other Pokemon, and contains the DNA of every single Pokemon in existence, discovered or otherwise. This is why it can learn any attack and can even transform itself into other Pokemon (see Ditto for why this is so powerful). Mew was powerful enough to challenge Mewtwo, and has consistently been an über tier Pokemon for a reason. It is a legendary beast, the only Pokemon available through special events in Gen 1, although it could be obtained using other means. Mew was even able to hide under a truck for decades before people discovered it wasn’t Mew at all, just lies and deceit. Considering all of the facts around Mew’s objective power, it’s a wonder why it isn’t at the top of the list. What could be more powerful than the Pokemon that is all other Pokemon? With incredible stats and typing and legendary power, Mew is easily the most powerful Pokemon in the game. Yet, there’s one Pokemon that is so dangerous, so strong, it transcended the game world and endangered the lives of people in our world. 1. Porygon Yes, Porygon. The Pokedex refers to it as “a man-made Pokémon that consists entirely of programming code. It is capable of moving freely in cyberspace.” That seems pretty cool on its own, of course, since it could invade and possess technology before Rotom made it a gimmick. It does not need to breathe or eat, it can survive purely just by existing. That on its own makes it a very objectively strong Pokemon, but its subpar stat-line definitely says otherwise. So, what makes Porygon the objectively best Pokemon, the strongest of all of them? Porygon was featured in a major role in episode 38 of the original anime, in an episode titled (in English) “Electric Soldier Porygon.” This episode featured Ash and co. teaming up with a Porygon in cyberspace to battle Team Rocket. Don’t remember this episode? Well, that’s because this is one of the banned episodes of the anime, only aired once and never shown or released again. This episode reportedly caused over 700 seizures in Japanese people, primarily school children. The show was put on hiatus for several months, and for years following the incident there was a disclaimer in front of all Japanese television shows cautioning viewers while watching TV to view in optimal conditions. You can argue Porygon isn’t to blame for this, but I disagree. There’s a reason it was never again featured in a major role in the anime, along with any of its evolutions. Porygon is powerful enough to endanger real human beings, not just the ones in the world of Pokemon. That alone makes Porygon the strongest and, objectively, the best Gen 1 Pokemon of all the original 151. So, when Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee comes out on November 16th, remember to pack your Porygon so you can challenge any and all opponents both in game and out of it. As we’ve determined through extensive scientific research, it is clearly the best of all Pokemon. If you have problems with this list, take it up with the science. Facts don’t care about your favorite Pokemon. Sources: YouTube, ByteBSU, Bulbapedia, CNN Images: YouTube, Bulbapedia Featured Image: Sam Smith
