Linkstew

In case you didn't figure this one out for yourself, you'll definitely want to wander around with a bunch of Zigzagroons in your party for awhile. Their "pickup" ability will fairly often pick up all kinds of useful items -- in particular, it's pretty much an infinite supply of things like Ultraballs and Rare Candies and PP Ups and Nuggets (which you can sell for a lot of money to buy everything they don't pick up). All they have to do is be in your party, and every few battles you can just skim the items they've picked up.

I'm a little upset by this, because it kind of unbalances the game. In color and metal, you had to ration your money and your pokeballs, so you could only catch so many Pokemon before you ran out of money and had to move forward in the game to find more trainers to fight. But with this change, it's possible to just spin your wheels and keep catching more and more Pokemon and making more and more money without actually advancing in the game at all. At the same time, it's very convenient, and it certainly makes my life easier.

On a slightly unrelated note, I really need to get over this incorrect chain of logic: Birds eat fish, and birds fly, and fish live in the water, therefore water pokemon are weak against flying attacks. Because it's wrong, and I know it's wrong, and yet I keep trying to attack water Pokemon with flying attacks.

I finally picked up Pokemon Ruby today, but while flipping through the instruction manual I was pretty disappointed to see this note (emphasis mine):

In Pokemon Ruby (or Sapphire), you can choose from either a boy or a girl. No matter which one you choose, there is no difference in the story. However, it is recommended that you choose a character with the same gender as yours."

Bah, how is it Nintendo's place to "recommend" gender roles for children? I decided to play a girl (I named her "Drew") just to go against Nintendo's "recommendation."

I was also amused by a literal interpretation of this sentence: "Your gender and name cannot be changed later."

Just skimming the news for the week, here's what catches my eye:

• Crazy Taxi 3 is coming first, and possibly exclusively, to the Xbox. D'oh. But then again, I haven't particularly cared for what I've played of Crazy Taxi 2, so perhaps it's for the best. (See Benjy rationalize away Xbox's every advantage).
• Here are some pictures of Pokemon Advance. While I'm interested in this game, there's absolutely no getting around the fact that the graphics are very disappointing. There better be some rockin' GameCube/Game Boy Advance interaction to make up for the graphics.
• Oh, Mario Tennis (And Mario Golf, but that's less exciting) is coming to the GameCube. Mario Tennis for the N64 was a blast. Now where's Mario Party 4?
• The notoriously harsh Famitsu gave the GameCube exclusive remake of Resident Evil (known as Biohazard in Japan) a 39/40. Wowie. I might have to give this game a try, though I've never played any of the Resident Evil games to date.
• Finally, some Sony guy has some interesting ideas about where he thinks video game consoles will go. Here's my favorite imaginary scenario involving this idea: The PS2 becomes even more popular, to the point that it's considered to have a monopoly on video game hardware. Then, Sony gets in trouble for trying to sell TVs with its Video Game monopoly. Heh, one unlikely scenario amongst hundreds.