Pokémon Snap

Pokémon X and Y come out tomorrow! Oh my God oh my God ohmygod ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod! Wait, it's gonna be on the Nintendo 3DS only? Well, that sucks. Kinda. You know what doesn't suck? Fully original ideas! Pokémon has created a good number of spin-offs. We've got the Mystery Dungeon series, we've got Trozei, we've got Pokémon Frontier... You gotta admit that the franchise has found ways to become more diverse, instead of keeping to the “catch 'em all, battle Gym leaders, stop a criminal team, defeat the Elite 4” format.

This dates as far back as the early Game Boy games, too: Have you heard of the Pokémon Trading Card Game video game? It came out on the Game Boy Color, in the early days of the franchise, even before the second generation! We also got two other games before the second generation came around. Those games? Pokémon Stadium... and Pokémon Snap.

Fakemon

I've said many times before that I enjoy fan creativity. From music to movies to art to... well, EVERYTHING people can do related to video game series. And seeing as it's Poké-Month (as if I need to remind everyone of this AGAIN), I gotta admire the creativity of fans when it comes to Pokémon. Drawing Pokémon, drawing humanized versions of Pokémon, drawing anthropomorphic versions of Pokémon... However, what I also enjoy in fan creativity about Pokémon is to see what people come up with... to create new species!

Hell yeah, today's Fun Stuff article is about the Fake Pokémon, also known as Fakemon! This is a very interesting idea in the Pokémon fan community, as it is a concept anyone can go with: Simply create a Pokémon species that doesn't exist, or a new evolution to a Pokémon family that already exists. There, I type "Fakemon" in the DeviantArt search bar, and I get 144,152 results. Of course, not all of them will be great, but it's still nice to se what people can come up with.

Why Do I Dislike Mega Evolutions?

Really, Lucario... Why... so... serious?

So, I opened Poké-Month because of the sixth Generation of Pokémon. Don't get me wrong, I'm hyped. In fact, I've been actively waiting for leaks that I could look at, and judge on whether or not this Generation was gonna be any good. For the moment, a lot of those discoveries were very interesting.

However, one thing I liked less was the arrival of Mega Evolutions. For a while I didn't know what exactly to say about this. However, I think I figured it out.

It also brought more popularity to Pokémon that needed it.

First of all, let's see what aspects I actually like about the Mega Evolutions. To gain access to a Mega Evolution, you need a Pokémon on its final stage of evolution, as well as a special stone that bears that final stage's name. As a result, you can often find a Mega Stone before actually finding the Pokémon and adding it to your collection, just as you can find a final stage Pokémon yet be unable to use its Mega Evolution until much, much later in the game due to the Mega Stone being available much later. What else is goos about the Mega Evolutions? Well, the Mega Pokémon's designs are pretty freaking awesome in many cases. Have you seen Mewtwo's two Mega forms? The two look cool. Heck, some Mega forms were leaked, and most of them are a pleasant surprise. I've rarely been disappointed by a Mega Evolution so far. Last but not least, Pokémon changing type during Mega Evolutions is also a great idea; Charizard can finally become a Dragon-type! Mewtwo can become half-Fairy!

Top 12 Pokémon That Could Get New Evolutions

Well, well... This is October. The perfect time to release our inner beast, watch horror movies until midnight, listen to not-quite-Satanic music and have a little Treehouse of Horror marathon. Well, it's better as you approach the end of October, anyway. However, this year, it's even more special. In case you're following the Nintendo news, you probably noticed that something will happen this month. Yes, guys and gals, I'm speaking of Pokémon X and Y, the SIXTH GENERATION! Oh yeah, Pokémon gets even more complicated now! And since it's such an awesome occasion, I dedicate October to Pokémon!

So, Game Freak revealed once in a while a new Pokémon from Generation 6, starting with the starters (Chespin, Fennekin and Froakie), a new evolution for Eevee, and two legendary Pokémon. And since then, we've had many great news. More new Pokémon, the all-new Fairy type (which I think will add an interesting aspect to the games, I mostly wonder if more Pokémon from Gen 5 and previous will have a change of typing) and the Mega Evolutions (a new strategic aspect that I'm not a big fan of, but I'll explain why later).

Just one of a few examples of new evolutions.

Anyway, if you know the Pokémon Dexes well, you know the even generations had a lot of pre-evolutions and evolutions of Pokémon revealed in the preceding Generations. Gen 2 had baby forms of many Pokémon, as well as a few evolutions or additional forms. Generation 4 did the same, except it had new evolutions for Pokémon from all three preceding gens. Generation 6 will be the same way. I hope. This means only one thing: Many Pokémon will get new forms, might it be an evolution or a pre-evolution. Even if it isn't the case with this Gen, some Pokémon still DESPERATELY need some love from the development team. And for today's article, I list 12 of the preceding Pokémon families that really should get new forms someday or in this new Gen.

Poké-Month!

I mentioned it in many places. I made a big deal about it. Now it happens.

This October, will I talk about very horrible games? Not really. Will I write special reviews of horror films? Not that I think of. Will I have a theme for all my reviews and posts? You betcha!

Also, Pokémon X and Y comes out on October 12th, which is why I'll take a month to discuss Pokémon, Gotta roll with the popular topics.

I thus declare that October 2013 will be Poké-Month on Planned All Along! We'll start with a Top 12 of the Pokémon that could get new evolutions/pre-evolutions on October 4th. The three following weeks will have reviews of Pokémon Snap, Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon Rumble! Pokémon FireRed will also be my first three-parter review!

Last but not least, October always ends with Halloween, and we get to see a lot of Halloween specials on TV around that time. Well, Planned All Along will be no exception, and I promise to release a special little something on October 31st!

(Note that there won't be a review on November 1st.)

Aside from that, the Cool Stuff episodes on Wednesdays will also be about Pokémon, and so will the more serious topics on Mondays.

Have fun with the first (and I guess only) edition of Poké-Month, everyone!