That guy's a Maniac...

How do you get a Pikachu on a bus? Well, if it doesn't involve several generations of link cables, Nintendo consoles and laborious busywork arranging pokémon in a database I'm probably not interested. Last week,  Nintendo announced that it was closing down the Wii U and 3DS eShops  surprising nobody perhaps but the announcement did set a number of pokémon-loving hearts a-palpitating as it raised the question, what does this mean for Pokémon Bank ? Bank Job For those who don’t know, Pokémon Bank is a paid for application for the Nintendo 3DS, a spiritual successor to other pokémon hoarding software; Pokemon Box Ruby & Sapphire for the Nintendo Gamecube and My Pokémon Ranch for the Nintendo Wii. Not only did it allow you to store and move Pokémon between the 3DS Pokémon games but crucially a special app that would download with Pokémon Bank , Poké Transporter acted as a bridge between the Nintendo DS pokémon games and the 3DS ones. So, if you had all the prerequisite h...

The World is an incredibly scary and unjust place at the minute and we've certainly found ourselves squandering our privilege by running to pastures digital to escape it all. Pokémon has been a staple franchise for us and arguably at the heart of the relationship of team TGAM and now feels like one of the best times to be a Pokémon player/fan. We're truly spoiled, despite what the very vocal minority has to say about the direction of the franchise. Here's a run down of just the last few months! Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield Despite being less than four months old it's been a whirlwind of events and activities that even daily checking of serebii.net  has meant it's been difficult to keep up. Since launch we've been treated to a whole series of raid den events, we got shiny Magikarp galore to celebrate the new year, a trickle of new gigantamax forms in Snorlax and Toxtricity, crazy weather for the leap day, a steady flow of mystery gifts, two online int...

We've not been this excited for a new game for a while. Yes, there are National Dex (or lack thereof) 'woes' but we can't wait to jump into a new region, on the big screen, we're relatively spoiler free and there seems to be a tonne of quality of life improvements including, finally, thankfully being able to change natures of pokémon (easy mode though?). Will the open fields and valleys actually be open? Will the end game content be more Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby or X/Y ? Will the new additions to the pokédex end up as fan favourites or niche beasts? Has Omastar made it in? Funny how games can sometimes still get us like this.

The community is up in arms, pitchforks have been raised, picket boards have been lovingly crafted with catchy slogans for social media. The mob is revolting. What's This Noise Then? There is no National Dex (terms in bold appear in the glossary at the end) in the upcoming  Pokémon game, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield , it's not #brexit, its #dexit. There is a grumbling controversy fluttering in the forums and the social medias as people are furious that a thing has been 'taken' away from them because not all of the currently available Pokémon will be catchable or transferable in the upcoming games for the first time in the mainline series of the games since last year's Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Pokémon Let's Go Eevee  2002's Pokémon Sapphire and Pokémon Ruby . And as semi-professional contrarians, we straddle that high horse and RP a bit of devils advocate. Is taking the  National Dex away a bad thing? As of the end of Generation ...

Minor content spoilers ahead, major if you've somehow managed to avoid one of the most rereleased games of all time For veterans like us, Pokémon Let's Go is our fifth tour of Kanto starting with  Pokémon Blue and  Pokémon Red in 1999 then returning to a future version of Kanto in 2001's Silver and Gold, then a redux/remix with 2004's Fire Red and Leaf Green and the last visit to the region with 2010's SoulSilver and HeartGold. We've been there, done that. Got the T-shirt, medals, badges, magnets and pokéballs to show for it. So what does  Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Pokémon Let's Go Eevee add to the well worn roads and highways of the game that kicked it all off? Silver lining an all that The answer is strangely, not nearly enough. If like us, you've followed the  Pokémon games for a while, there is something satisfying in seeing the evolution (no pun intended) of ideas across the games. Pay close enough attention and the best elements f...

  Oh boy, Many moons ago we covered Pokémon Go in our regular/not-so-regular bit: Are mobile phone games any good yet ? And our list of gripes beyond not being able to log in included: Does this actually have anything to do with the actual games (is it canon?) Whats the point, beyond collecting them with an annoying catch mechanic How do gyms work, why is no one explaining this? Two years on and even though there is still login problems (particularly trainer club accounts), the question of whether this will ever be compatible with the real games is still being asked, the game has improved! Not massively, it has not arisen like a mighty Ho-oh from the ashed of its former self, but neither has it eeked out like a wet quagsire queef. Niantic have bothered themselves to include a friend system, this allows you to connect with your IRL friends and rival each other, and even help each other out with trades. This only seems like a little thing but it has re-kindled a litt...