[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, everybody. What's up? This is Bryce Rankins and Brian Romero. Hello. At another exciting episode of Sneaky Geek, our 51st episode. We did it. We did it in two parts, so it's maybe 50.5. We're not sure how we're gonna divide it. Yeah. Dave is here. Dave, say hello.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Hello. With jazz hands.
[00:00:15] Speaker A: Yeah. And then Nick is here as well, with jazz hands. And Shannon's here as well.
[00:00:21] Speaker C: Homing with jazz hands.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:26] Speaker C: This is a podcast, Shannon.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Jazzing the hands. Actually, all of us.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: All of us are jazz handing.
[00:00:34] Speaker C: All of us are jazzes.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Nick.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: Come on, Brian.
[00:00:42] Speaker D: Wait, that's not jit. This is jazz hands.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Jazz hands. Oh, wait.
[00:00:45] Speaker C: Do it again. Do it again.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Jazz hands. Spirit fingers.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: I've only got one finger with spirits.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: That's a lot of nuts.
[00:00:53] Speaker C: This is a podcast, and that was a middle finger that we just saw.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: So this week, we are continuing our conversation about Pokemon and all things Pokemon and the franchise and how great it is. It is a continuation of our last episode. If you haven't listened to that, I highly recommend it. You should. If you are just joining us, Shannon was on our very first episode of Sneaky Geek. We absolutely adore her. We're so happy to have her back. Nick is our video game historian who has been on our podcast a number of times to tell us all about all sorts of things, ranging from console wars to the Mario movie with Bob Hoskins, our comic historian, who happens to have a wealth of knowledge of things. But we brought him on because even though he's usually our comic guy, he loves Pokemon. All of us have hours and hours and hours logged into Pokemon, and we have researched this extensively and had a group chat and a Google Doc. And hopefully, that organization will make this episode streamlined and not at all scattered to the winds with topics and conversation.
[00:01:55] Speaker C: Oh, you're funny. You're funny. You got jokes.
[00:01:59] Speaker E: I do.
[00:02:01] Speaker D: Funny man. Funny man.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Anyway, thank you so much for joining us. So, without further ado, this is Sneaky Geekmon.
[00:02:30] Speaker C: Pokemon has Pokemon the most fun.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: Pokemon. Pokemon.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: Pokemon is an undeniable obsession with children across the country.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Pokemon is now in full mania.
[00:02:40] Speaker C: So segue realways into other types of competitive style pokemons like unite and other things to make Pokemon challenging for us adults.
We have the Nuzlock, if you will. Who here is familiar with the Nuzlocke? I am okay a little bit, but.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: I've never done one.
[00:03:03] Speaker C: I think this whole concept just comes from lovers of the Pokemon franchise wanting to replay their games at a higher difficulty. Which, with these new games coming out, making it easier and easier for kids. And for those of us who work with kids, they don't need it that easy. Like, you could give them a challenge. I promise they'll handle it. But whatever. I digress.
There is the Nuzlock challenge. Yeah.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: It'S easier for me.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, the grinding was a lot, right.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: But that's why I haven't beaten red yet, because I started it as an adult.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
I haven't beaten leaf green, either. It's the same thing. You get to a point where you have to grind in order to win the next battle, and you never do.
Post games, I fall out of, I missed the experience share a little bit, or, like, I liked that experience share in the later games because it made it so you didn't have to have your level five Pokemon be swapped out first turn just to get half of the XP from a battle that they otherwise couldn't fight. There was all these strategies that felt like you had to go around the game to level up, but you kind of bring that stuff back with the Nuzlocks, because the Nuzlock challenge is how to make Pokemon hurt.
That's how I like to think of it. Here's what you do. In a Nuzlock challenge, you are only allowed to collect one Pokemon on each route of the game. The first Pokemon you run into on the route is the only one you are allowed to catch, meaning you don't get a choice in what Pokemon it is. And if you fail, if you flub that up, like, for some reason, you accidentally kill the Pokemon or that the Pokemon faints or you fail to catch it before it runs away, you don't get a Pokemon. You have to wait till that next round. And this is a rule that people say you need to do for Nuzlocke, though, I think some people don't.
You got to name it. You got to give it a name so that it hurts when they go. Because if your Pokemon ever faints, ever faints, whether it's in a gym battle, whether it's just fighting another Pokemon in the grass, if yours ever faints, you have to release it. Or what most people do is they'll put it in a box, in a dead box, and they'll be like. Because they can't get rid of it. Because, come on, all of us Pokemon people are collectors at heart. We can't get rid of it.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: But dead Pokemon.
[00:05:37] Speaker C: Yeah. If I were to do a real Nuzlock, I will release it because I need to feel that hurt because it doesn't feel right if I don't do it that way.
The idea is like, if your Pokemon would faint, they would die. It's just kind of like adultifying the Pokemon thing in a way. And it's really a little bit more difficult because, right. You go into a battle and you have a selection of Pokemon you didn't pick, but Pokemon that you care about because these are the only ones you have. You can't collect anybody else, and if they all die, you lose. You have to start all over. So it makes winning the game a lot harder. People have tried other ways to make Pokemon harder. There's competitive Pokemon against real people, which I know very little about. But there's also, like, Pokemon randomizer, where people who will get into the code of the game will adjust it so that random Pokemon will show up on the routes instead of what's prescribed to you. So you can show up at the.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: First place for the chancy.
[00:06:38] Speaker C: Exactly. Actually, legendaries will show up on the first route, maybe.
Or you'll fish. I love when you fish in a randomizer because you fish out a geodude or you'll fish out something. Yeah, you'll fish out something really funny.
[00:06:50] Speaker D: And wild randomizers are huge in the speedrun community. I think SGDQ, AGDQ had a Pokemon randomizer as one of the games this past huge, huge category.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: Does it help with speed running to be random because you might get some wild Pokemon?
[00:07:07] Speaker D: It's a different type of, I guess, strategy. I don't run Pokemon games, but also with randomizers.
The badge sequences are different, so each gym. So, like, your first gym encounter might not be, it could be like an elite four gym leader or like elite four competitor. So it's just the whole game is random, and the objective is to complete accordingly.
[00:07:30] Speaker C: It's trying to kind of, I think, take some of the strategy out of the game and make it a little bit more chaotic sometimes depending on what you randomize. Because if you randomize the gyms, you go in there and, you know, this is the rock type gym, but that gym leader might not have any rock type Pokemon. So it's just kind of. Exactly. It makes it very random. And I think it's just for the.
[00:07:52] Speaker D: Chaos people and competitive people too, I would say. Yeah, because it makes you think on the feet of like, okay, I know the stats on this and how this type could beat this type better and type stuff.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: Because if I can, I just think that there are some people who love Pokemon so much that they know an insane amount of Pokemon because realistically, I mean, Bryce, you were saying you've memorized the 151 when you were a kid. There are other people who've been playing these games for years who, just because they've come up on everything, not only do they know the type advantages, but they know what kind of special ability that Pokemon has and what its base stat is and whether it has a higher special attack or regular attack. People know this stuff so well that at least making it random for the people who have all that knowledge makes it more challenging when the game feels so easy. Based on what I can confidently say is insane amount of knowledge.
As someone who is friends with some of these people, bless their heart. Bless their soul. I don't know how they do it. I am a noob at heart. Like, I have to print out a type chart.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: Are you talking about Dave? A little bit.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Dave is this, you know, it's funny.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: You're a shiny person in the favorites.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: On my, I've got my. Where'd it go? Here I have a type chart saved for both the regular games and for Pokemon go and for the terror raids in Scarlet and Violet. So, yeah, I still struggle with that.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: Even as a player.
[00:09:39] Speaker C: It feels good to know you have a cheat sheet, but there are definitely people who know this stuff, like, off the top of their, off the cuff, right?
[00:09:45] Speaker B: Oh, Nate, fabulous. My is.
I'll be playing it, and I won't feel like looking it up in the phone. And he'll be crossroad. Nate, what's a good Pokemon to go against this one? Oh, you want to use this? That or the other.
[00:09:59] Speaker E: Amazing.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: Just doesn't even bat an eye. I mean, we got him a gaming computer for Christmas. Very kind of starter. One because he wanted to do a lot of more Minecraft. First thing he downloads is a Pokemon randomizer.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: Shoot.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: What's the word I'm looking for? Emulator. Yeah. So his starter was a lapris.
It's way too advanced for me, brother. You go and you enjoy. And he caught a Zapdos and something on route, like three.
[00:10:37] Speaker D: We need to do a sneaky geek randomizer stream. I think at some point.
[00:10:41] Speaker C: Can we please. I would be down.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: There's 100% can I would play that?
[00:10:46] Speaker A: My cousin has played a game. It is a randomizer for items and dungeons between a link to the past and I think Super Metroid. And items for both games are in both worlds. So every time you go through a door, you're going into a random space within one of the two games. And apparently there's like a cooperative version of this where half the items are in one person's game and the other half are in the other person's game. So you have to wait for the other person to find it in order to then trade it with you, et cetera. And I'm wondering if there's anything like that with Pokemon.
[00:11:23] Speaker C: Actually, if I may segue backways, this kind of reminds me of soul link, which is another way you can play, usually like a Nuzlock run. So already we've established Nuzlock, difficult Nuzlock, hard.
Nuzlock makes you sad, right? Randomizer, completely random. Super. Just chaotic. Then you have a soul link, which you usually do, is like a soul link Nuzlock run with a person. And it means that you and the other person play your own separate games, but at the same time, and whatever Pokemon is, your starters are linked. Whatever pokemon you get at route one are linked. Whatever pokemon you get in the second route are linked. And if one of you kills one of the Pokemon, one of them faints, then the other person has to release theirs as well.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: So it's another challenge and rage and blame.
[00:12:22] Speaker C: Yeah, a little bit.
It's like you thought that was bad. Let's make it worse.
[00:12:29] Speaker D: Marriage.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: I'm just kidding, because at some point, Charlote's going to hear this, and I don't want her to think that I am unhappy in our marriage. I love you, sweetie.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: If you can get through a soul link Nuzlock with your dumb mouth, you could probably do anything in life and manage it right. Because you've been through hell and back.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: Like putting together Ikea furniture.
[00:12:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Instead of an extra screw, it's a dead charmander.
[00:13:01] Speaker C: Yeah, I did one of those. I did a Solink Nuzlock randomizer as my first ever Nuzlock. And we lost three times. And at some point, I just had to say, I don't think we're winning because we did it as a race against some other wonderful people. Shout out to Harrison and Hoen and J. Parse on Twitch. But yeah, they know Pokemon. And not like that. So sorry, besties, but we down another Pokemon. So sorry, we got one more, but we could do it.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Yeah, very nice.
[00:13:38] Speaker C: I'm just blatant optimism. If that can get me through a game, then good. But other than that, I don't have much else to provide.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: We were still talking about Pokemon. We've talked about Nuzloth. We've talked about Pokemon Go. We've talked about Pokemon. The video game we haven't talked nearly enough about Pokemon Snap and how much I love Pokemon snap, but I could go on about that for an entire episode. That's a whole nother podcast. But we are going to kind of just briefly go through some of these things going forward. We've got a few other things to talk about. But before we go into the next segment, I have another awkward Pokemon question, and that is, how emotionally damaged are you? Bye bye, butterfree.
[00:14:18] Speaker E: By what?
[00:14:19] Speaker A: Bye bye bye. You know what? Bye bye. I don't remember that one. I don't remember that one.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: So tell it to us in the saddest way possible.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Okay. Ash, very early on, gets a great Pokemon named Caterpie, and he names it Caterpie because Ash is super creative. And Caterpie eventually turns into everyone's favorite hardened Pokemon, metapod. Metapod eventually turns into butterfree.
So Butterfree finds an entire group of. What are you turning around looking for? I thought I heard Butterfree turns into. Finds an entire group of other butterfree that are doing that kind of monarch butterfly.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Like, you can't believe it's not butterfree.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: I can't believe it's not butterfree, y'all.
That's Paula Dean's favorite Pokemon. So Butterfree finds a group of other butterfree that are going on a migration, and Ash has to let Butterfree go and go be with his kind. And last night, we were watching that episode of Pokemon ultimate missions or whatever, where grooky, like, finds a bunch of thwackies, and it's very clear that he's, like, with his own people, and they're like, oh, man, maybe he needs to go off and be with his own kind. I was like, don't you dare buy by Butterfree me right now. Don't you freaking dare. He stays with him. It's fine. But Butterfree is like, you get into this show very much thinking, like, oh, man, we're friends for life. And then Butterfree's like, yo, deuces, I gotta go hang out with my family, doesn't he? For those of you who don't know about the heartbreak that all of us as, like, 6th graders were watching, being like, wait, he's leaving?
[00:16:08] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: We work so hard.
[00:16:10] Speaker D: I was more emotionally damaged at the Pokemon movie when Ash is turned to stone and, like, almost.
[00:16:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: And all the Pokemon are sadly whacking each other.
[00:16:19] Speaker C: Yeah, that one gets me.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Do you know there's, like, 20 minutes of the original Pokemon movie that were cut for american audiences?
[00:16:27] Speaker C: Really?
[00:16:27] Speaker D: We can't comprehend it because we're dumb.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: No, that was backstory about why mew is how mew feels about people as well. And it kind of explains the conversation a little bit more. And it takes a little bit more time for them to get on Lapras and go to the island or whatever. But there's, like, 20 minutes, and it was too heavy and emotional. Was it ever dubbed? I don't know.
[00:16:54] Speaker E: Is the footage out there?
[00:16:56] Speaker A: I don't know. I haven't seen the CGI version, but I wager if it is a one to one, then they may have put it back in.
[00:17:02] Speaker D: Pokemon is, believe it or not, filled with a lot of sad moments and also, like, really morbid lore just through, like, pokedex.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: Like, when Gary comes up to you and asks you, what happens if a Pokemon dies? Sorry.
[00:17:15] Speaker D: Well, I mean, they do die. I don't know if we clarified that for anyone who is not familiar with this franchise, they can die. And they have ghosts, and there are ghost Pokemon, which are manifestations of dead super dark.
[00:17:29] Speaker E: That's real?
[00:17:30] Speaker D: Yeah, 100%. Yeah. And I think there was, like, a weird episode, too, when Ash was trying to get the psychic badge. There's something weird with Sabrina, too, right?
Didn't she have, like, a sister? Little sister died, and she's just using the corpse as her. Almost like a ventroloquist dummy. I kid you not. This is the literal episode. So, like, sabrina's fighting ash as this little girl, and it's supposedly, like, her sister or some.
Yeah. So Pokemon is very either sad or just, like, really taking some liberties.
[00:18:12] Speaker C: Have you ever read.
[00:18:17] Speaker D: So this is a nice segue.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Cubone's backstory is that he's got a mom's skull on his head.
[00:18:24] Speaker C: All right. Nuzlocks are making more sense. Pokemon fans like sad stuff because Pokemon is inherently.
[00:18:32] Speaker E: Well, I mean, you know, kind of bringing it back to the show. Did anybody watch the last season of Ash or at least the last episode or anything?
[00:18:39] Speaker D: Doesn't butterfree come back?
[00:18:41] Speaker A: No.
[00:18:42] Speaker E: So the new episodes are all about.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: You don't know where Butterfree is.
[00:18:45] Speaker E: Ash wins, you know, the big old tournament, becomes Pokemon master, whatever. And he's like, you know, I could.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Do some more stuff.
[00:18:51] Speaker E: And he goes off. But during one of the last episodes, it might even be his last episode, a ghost kid follows him around, and then he goes to his parents house. And then later in the episode, you find out, like, the kid's dead, and the kid that's been following was a ghost. It's kind of weird.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Oh, my God. It's like that Jennifer love Hewitt show the ghost whiskey.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Okay, but here's the real question I need answered about that last episode. Did he ever replace Misty's bike?
[00:19:21] Speaker D: Hard hitting.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Give me a few months to power through every episode of Pokemon, and I'll.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: Get you the real cheap ass bastard.
[00:19:32] Speaker D: He had to earn so many winnings across each route, right? With the amount of money you get in game, they don't really touch on that. They don't really touch on that in the show.
That's one thing I do want to just bring up randomly, too.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Be satisfied. He has to be every elite four. Get all those winnings so that he can earn. Just support his mom and her husband, Mr. Mime.
[00:19:50] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:19:51] Speaker D: Game version of Ash, though, is already loaded. Literally anyone you fight in game just gives you money. I wish there was something in real life where any interaction I had with somebody, if I bested somebody in some way, shape, or form. Here's 100 fucking dollars, all right?
[00:20:07] Speaker C: That's called poker, I think.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: Yeah. You know what? I'm going to start bringing the dog around.
[00:20:11] Speaker D: No. In everyday scenario, start bringing up other dogs.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Hey, you owe me $50. My dog is injured. I don't care. You owe me $50. I want the Pokemon bat.
[00:20:22] Speaker C: Well, to be fair, they always run up to you, too, right? Like, most of them, yes. Yeah. They start shit with you, and then when you bat them, you're like.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: That. I've gotten really good at avoiding people.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: That'S not different from you in real life.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: That guy's definitely going to approach me.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: Actually, there's people, all these people out here.
[00:20:51] Speaker D: In fact, I was one of those people who just had the exclamation part when I saw Bryce, and he could not avoid me. And now we're.
[00:21:01] Speaker E: Over at pretty much.
[00:21:06] Speaker D: Brian was minding his own business up in the front desk, and you just see some random guy and they'd be like, hey, I'm Nick. You looked at me.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: I did. That's my job.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Shorts are comfortable and fun to.
[00:21:23] Speaker D: Oh, yes. The writing is so great, too.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: By the way, I have to share this for b rom and shabba. You guys, of course, are aware of my hatred of so all pants.
I'm not going to relitigate the shorts versus pants issue with you again. B rom.
[00:21:44] Speaker E: I don't get it.
[00:21:45] Speaker B: That's a whole nother podcast, but very different. So this morning, when I'm getting ready for this, Charlote's like, so are you going to wear pants this morning? I'm like, no, they're only going to.
[00:21:54] Speaker E: See me from, like, here.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Up.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: She's like, what if you have to get up and go to the bathroom?
[00:21:58] Speaker A: Shit. She knows you.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: She does, in fact. So I wore pants. Well, shorts, but they're still pants.
[00:22:06] Speaker D: Great segue to trading card game.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:09] Speaker C: I'm really happy that we established whether or not you are or are not wearing pants. Yeah.
[00:22:16] Speaker A: Well, this question is asked by a trainer that approaches you, wherein she says, if I'm wearing a bikini, where do I put the pokeballs? Teehee. Woman. Secret.
No way.
Prison wallet.
Prison wallet.
[00:22:32] Speaker D: Wow.
[00:22:33] Speaker C: I will tell you. She puts it in her bra. She puts it in her bra. Okay, get your mind out of the gutter. It's in her bra.
[00:22:41] Speaker D: The air is tasty here.
[00:22:44] Speaker C: Not to give too much of a segue, but have you guys heard the theory that ash gets electrocuted in the very first episode and the entire show is a hallucination? The entire show.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Maybe he's the ghost boy following himself around.
[00:22:58] Speaker C: That's trippy, because otherwise why is he ten the entire time and everybody he meets are like caricatures of part of his personality.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: And he only knows one cop and he only knows one nurse. And that's why they're all, yeah, nurse joy and. Whoa, whoa.
There's also theories that Brock is like, his id, I think, and Misty is his ego or something, and slowly starting to mature, which is why Brock is such a pervert. But he's also, like, dealing.
Misty's always so mad. Yeah. We also bring up that he's super mean to Misty. He says some of the meanest Shit to her early on. Very out of pocket.
[00:23:38] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Anyway, Brian, the trading card game, that's where we're at. Welcome to. Yeah, yeah.
[00:23:45] Speaker E: So we kind of touched on it earlier and kind know how we got into all that kind of stuff.
When that trading card game came out, it was part of this huge multi marketing thing with the tv show and the game and now a card game. And then card game got turned into a video game. Just some quick little details on that. So it premiered in Japan in October of 96. Blew up there. They didn't know how well it would do in America, so they came out with, like, they called the game demo pack, basically, and it just had like 24 cards in there in late 98, two years later. Yeah. And so they tested out in America and it seemed to do pretty well. So that's, I think, three, four months later, what am I note to say? Oh, no. Two months later in January. Oh, yeah. Those four months, I can math.
So the actual base game set in the US came out in January of 99 and of course, blew up. And shortly after that, they started putting out just different little sets. So you have the jungle set and my favorite, the fossil set, and each came out with 45 new Pokemon or 20 new Pokemon or kind of redid Pokemon that were in the previous cards but gave them different move sets and all that kind of good stuff. As each different set came out, it just Pokemonia was going on, so everybody kept going for these. And eventually with the new Pokemon games, new Pokemon. That's when they started releasing second gen sets. And then it just started going full steam ahead. They were doing three to four different sets a year, which is impressive, because.
[00:25:28] Speaker A: When you go that many sets a year, that's usually what kills a game, because it's too hard to follow.
[00:25:34] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: The big fear, dragon Ball. Super. Because that particular company has a history of just putting way too much stuff out. Nobody can keep up. And then the game ends up dying because people are tired of not being current anymore, which is really interesting.
[00:25:46] Speaker E: Yeah. And there's always been some downtimes sets will come out or just for some reason, it's just back in the of pop culture.
They even had a really cool tie in set with Pokemon go out in July 2022, and that's kind of what got me sort of back into collecting them, because we've been into Pokemon go since it came out in 2016.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: Yeah, we were driving to Yosemite, and I was like, what team should I join? And Brian was just like, red team, red team, red team.
[00:26:15] Speaker E: I still don't know the names.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: I just.
[00:26:17] Speaker D: Mystic color. It's all about mystic.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: I'm sorry.
[00:26:21] Speaker C: No, I mean valor. Valor. Actually, I don't know what you're talking about.
[00:26:25] Speaker A: When Pokemon go came out, there was this couple that was at the Riverwalk park in Bakersfield where there were hundreds of people, because we were all outside and getting exercise and being happy. And there was this couple that had an ice chest and they're like, water if you're team valor.
[00:26:44] Speaker E: Oh, I remember that.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: And they would yell that out over and over and over. And apparently they sold water bottles for $2 to mystic and instinct players, but valor players could get their water bottles for one dollars.
[00:26:56] Speaker D: Yeah. The card games, that cycle still continues to this day. And I feel like a lot of other games have kind of followed suit in that constant cycle. Like two every quarter.
[00:27:07] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:27:08] Speaker D: Excuse me. Somebody in chat was talking about, like, magic versus Pokemon.
Magic just was getting off, too. When Pokemon. Well, no, it was out a little longer, hence why Pokemon was even created the trading card game because of the hype between the wizards of the coast of what they did. I guess you could say in a way, magic did it first. Right. And so the people who were 91 or 92. Yeah, but they didn't. I mean, they, I was going to say from my understanding they didn't get huge until the traction didn't come until the third series or like in the mid ninety s. And then. Yeah, trading pc with Magic because it.
[00:27:42] Speaker E: Had some stipulations, oh, is this devil, is this Satan's card game? All that kind of stuff.
[00:27:49] Speaker D: Because America, I mean, it's dungeons and Dragons in the 90s, basically.
[00:27:55] Speaker E: And it wasn't as easily accessible as nice, easy, friendly Pokemon was.
[00:27:59] Speaker D: I think the trading card Pokemon owes a lot to the trading card game. Keeping it as relevant too.
Obviously the game's anime at this point. It's a transmedia property and it's in various different forms. And people consume Pokemon in many different ways. I know people who do trading cards solely versus mainline games and they're just into the characters that way and the art styles. But I feel a lot of the Pokemonia.
What I'm trying to say is the cards extended that Pokemonia and kind of helped keep it alive heading into gen two and then gen three too.
[00:28:37] Speaker E: And then even coming out with foil cards and the first editions and all that kind of stuff that helped us like the hype machine go just extra crazy.
[00:28:47] Speaker D: 100%. It keeps the competitive nature too. It's fun to watch the card game and the people who are building really hardcore decks.
What's so cool about it is that there is various different strategies involved from a board game lens, right? But it also transitions very. I mean, it almost not transitions. It creates a very nice bridge to the games themselves because the strategy and competitive Pokemon play online and what you see in the tournaments and stuff is very data driven too. And how you're rearranging your six Pokemon versus how you'rearranging your decks. There's a nice connection to both, which I think a lot of card game iterations of certain video games or properties, they don't really have that seamless thread right between the two. But I think trading card game does so well with its, I guess, parent in the mainline digital games.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: And I think that's something that's testament to this entire franchise in general in that you can have so many iterations that are all feeding each other's newest version of it. And no one's super concerned with Canon, no one is super concerned with how this fits into the greater Pokemon story, like Detective Pikachu, I think people were hoping there might be some reference to Ash, and I think there is in his room. Like posters.
[00:30:18] Speaker E: There's quite a few references to the.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: Show, but direct references to that storyline aren't really there. And everyone still loved it. Like, Detective Pikachu was great. One of the very few dvds that I've bought in the last few years. But I was like, no, I need this physical so that I always have this because I loved it so much, and I saw it twice in theaters, which I don't do a whole lot anymore anyway. But things like Detective Pikachu, the card game, the video game, Pokemon Puzzle League, mystery Dungeon snap, the anime itself, all of these things. Pokemon concierge, which just dropped on adorable little. What the hell is that? Oh, my gosh.
[00:31:00] Speaker C: It's claymation.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: It's stop motion animation.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: So freaking cute. It's like four episodes long, but it's about a woman who, after a very, very awful, stressful week, takes a job at a resort that caters to Pokemon, and her job is to make Pokemon happy. And it's very much a relaxing sort of show. It kind of feeds into this very japanese idea of calming media, which that's a whole nother podcast. But all of these different shows and all of these different iterations of the show and iterations of this franchise have all managed to stay current to each other fairly well and incorporate new things very well without necessarily breaking anything. Whereas if you want to add new things to Star wars, it's like, but how does this fit into the rest of the saga? If you want to add a new thing into Star Trek, it's like, right, but where was such and such ship at this time? Because it's so small scale most of the time, it doesn't really have a major impact on anything else to just add more, aside from occasionally being like, but I don't understand why I've never seen that Pokemon before.
Yeah, okay. Isn't that more a function of the.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: Respective fan bases, though?
[00:32:24] Speaker A: That's fair. Absolutely. But I think the fan base in Star wars has been trained by the franchise itself to go, what comes next affects the main idea of the whole existing universe, whereas Pokemon from the get go, it's like red and blue. Already you have two versions of the same story, and it's like, yeah, sure, fine.
Because this is basically Baby's first rpg for a lot of people. This is a really good way to train people that this story is kind of fluid. And I think all of the iterations of this franchise have done that really well.
[00:33:05] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:33:06] Speaker C: If you think about it, even from its core basis, Pokemon has kept true to its concept, which is the only thing you really need to make it Pokemon. You have Pocket monsters. You have all these pocket monsters, but they've retold the same story multiple times. Even they had this show. And I'm sure one of you knows better than me what it's called. But the main character was red instead of ash. It was like Pokemon Legends or Pokemon. It was like a YouTube special show.
[00:33:34] Speaker B: It was more like the manga.
[00:33:38] Speaker C: Yes. So the manga came first before the show, too, and the main characters were red, blue, green. And it retold a story that later Ash was the main character for and changed up. But in the basis of the story, you have Pocket monsters, you have maybe an enemy, whether it be Team Rocket or whether it be like in the games, you have different types of teams, you've got some of the same themes, and you've got Pokemon. And all that does is make you feel like it's another part of the whole world, even if it's the same story being retold in a different way.
[00:34:13] Speaker D: I would say collecting. Right. That's pretty much the nature of the property in collecting. There's the ability to sprinkle your individuality in terms of what you're collecting. Right. There's so many. I mean, Dave's trying to get all the shinies. I prefer a team full of water ice Pokemon. And the gym leaders, too, have their preference of, I think, again, and this is a good, I think Bo to wrap up of why Satashi came up with the game and why he was so into collecting in the first place of bugs is like it was his own personal enjoyment. And I think that is basically what makes everybody love Pokemon Overall and why the franchise has such longevity.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: Definitely. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that is an excellent way to wrap this whole thing up. And I would love to have all of you guys on again at some point in the future. I would also love to maybe at some point do an episode specific to Pokemon go or specific to pal World. I'm sorry we didn't get here today. Yes. I do feel like that's worth talking about because basically Pokemon but with guns is quite an interesting concept.
[00:35:26] Speaker C: And cannibalism, I heard.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm still very unfamiliar with.
[00:35:30] Speaker E: I got to do some research.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: I do have one point I'd like to make about Pokemon Go.
[00:35:36] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:35:37] Speaker B: So with go, they've been really diligent about introducing all the starters before the community day events and all that, except for gen eight. Justice for Galar. Justice for the galar starters.
[00:35:50] Speaker D: We need galar starters.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: Please and thank you to this new one.
[00:35:56] Speaker B: They jumped from seven right into nine.
[00:36:01] Speaker C: Really?
[00:36:02] Speaker A: They've introduced some of the gen eight.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Pokemon, but none of the starters, which is really kind of blown my mind, maybe they got, Niantic does not have a plan. I want to say Niantic has a lot of things going for them. A plan is not on that list.
[00:36:19] Speaker D: I want to say sword and shield kind of just was like a stopgap, to be honest. I feel like it feels that way with the hate that some people had on it. And two trading cards kind of came and went too, for sword and shield. And they kind of dipped out of that series pretty quickly too.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: Which strikes me as so weird, given that.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: Really the first main series game for the switch. But also they bring in so many quality of life improvements to the game in gen eight.
And frankly, no matter what the property is, there's always a segment of the fan base that's going to hate anything new. You guys can test. What's the saying? Nobody hates Star wars. Like Star wars fans.
[00:37:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:37:15] Speaker D: Gatekeeping. Hey, welcome to sneaky.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: We're okay with it. We're not here to. Yuck yum.
[00:37:23] Speaker D: So justice for Gaylar. I'm all in on that too, so keeping that rolling.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: Very excited to actually have our first live episode. Thank you for everybody who tuned in and actually stuck it through all the way to the end. I know this has been a very long one. We weren't a good one being so long, but it was a good discussion.
[00:37:39] Speaker B: How did you not anticipate it being.
[00:37:42] Speaker C: A long episode with all of us.
[00:37:44] Speaker D: Awesome people here planning this time?
[00:37:48] Speaker A: I thought for sure planning would slow things or speed things up, but it turns out thrilling.
[00:37:54] Speaker D: It wouldn't be a podcast without the tangents and the fun and the conversations.
I really want to do more live ones. This was fun.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: This was fun to be with you all.
[00:38:08] Speaker D: Happy 50th.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:09] Speaker D: Congratulations, Brian and Bryce. Give it a round of applause. Brian and Bryce, you made it to. That's awesome, man.
[00:38:18] Speaker A: Yeah. We wouldn't have gotten there without, especially you three.
[00:38:22] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: Shannon was episode.
[00:38:24] Speaker C: Yeah. Hey, guys, don't wait 50 episodes to have me back on. I'll come at any point. Just let them know I'll pretend I know stuff I don't.
[00:38:33] Speaker D: Yeah, this episode was 50% off, in case anyone else wanted to know that too.
[00:38:41] Speaker A: All right, everybody. Thank you again for coming. We absolutely cannot thank you guys enough.
Be sure to subscribe on Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts. We will try to get this up onto YouTube sometime in the near future if you want to be able to show people or anything like that. Definitely appreciate the follows on all the socials. You can find us at sneaky Geek podcast on pretty much everything except for Twitter, which you can find us at sneaky geek pod. But Twitter is dead, so who cares?
X anyway, we don't need to say that anyway. So find us at Sneaky Geek podcast. You can find me at Bryce Rankins. Brian, where can we find you on socials?
Is it at Brom?
[00:39:23] Speaker E: Yeah, it's b rom 1371.
[00:39:25] Speaker A: Sometimes like the THX. Nick, where can we find. You're on Twitch.
[00:39:28] Speaker D: I am on Twitch. It is Twitch TV.
Sorry, no ice five. You catch me doing a bunch of different video game streams, mainly speed running and retro is like my forte. And then also I am on Instagram at njfrato 33 and also on the formerly known as Twitter now x no ice underscore five five at there as well for all things gaming and any updates on my Twitch stream.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: Heck yeah. Heck yeah. How about you, Dave?
[00:40:08] Speaker B: I don't have any of those things.
We love old man Ziggler is old Manning with all this fancy stuff. Seriously, it was like a herculean effort for you guys to get me into this thing today. Thank you for that.
Into the discord and into all that jazz.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: Now you're in our geek discord, which anybody can come and access. So you can be on there. Yeah, you can find it by just looking up. Sneaky geek in discord. Sneaky geek. Sneaky Geek podcast.
[00:40:45] Speaker E: We'll post all this on the show notes.
[00:40:47] Speaker C: Can you find it in discord or do you have to have the invite for it?
[00:40:51] Speaker A: I think we're public, but we'll find out. Then shoot me a message on any of the other socials we've mentioned. And then, of course, Shannon, where can we find you on the.
[00:41:01] Speaker C: If you want to see me beat my second ever Pokemon game and my first ever shiny hunt of ever, one of these days you can find me at Twitch TV, Shan shenanigans, and Twitter at the same because somebody took my f. But other than that, that's where you can find me. Yeah.
[00:41:28] Speaker A: All right, everybody, thank you so much for coming to the stream. Nick, you can close us out, teach Pokemon to understand the power, the power that inside.
[00:41:46] Speaker C: So true.
Our courage will fall through.
Yes. Awesome.
[00:42:06] Speaker F: You it sneaky Geek is hosted by Bryce Rankins and Brian Romero. This episode was edited by Bryce Rankins. Our logo and website were designed by Ali Nimmins. Our theme song was written and produced by Skyler Johnson. Our Twitch stream for this episode was produced by Nick Frotto. Music for today's episode was from Poke and Chill by Michael, used with permission by Gamechops, based on music by Janice Masota. Michael's album Poke and chill can be
[email protected] pokeandchill. Copyright 2024 Sneaky Geek Media all right.
