Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

July 15, 2008 | 11 Comments

At E3 today Nintendo announced the release date of the new Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia game for the Nintendo DS. Though this game has already been released in Japan it has not been available in the English speaking world and will be released to American audiences on November 10th, 2008. This puts the game out just in time for Christmas.

Looking like its predecessor, this second installment in the Pokémon Ranger series does not bring anything new in regards to game play. You will go through various missions increasing the power of your stylus along the way.

From Nintendo:

KEY INFORMATION
Become a Pokémon Ranger and protect nature, rescue people and help Pokémon in need.

Pokémon Ranger is a unique action-adventure series that features a fun, different way to capture Pokémon with the Nintendo DS stylus, which controls an item called the Capture Styler in the game. Players circle the Pokémon they want to catch by drawing circles around them on the touch screen. When you complete certain Quests, the Ranger Union awards you with power-ups, which add new upgrades and functions to your Capture Styler, allowing you to advance as you work to eventually become a Top Ranger (the most revered Ranger of all).
Now you can partner with a variety of different Pokémon of each type to complete Missions?giving you many options on how to approach different challenges. Every Pokémon is different, and capturing a Pokémon allows you to use its abilities to overcome various obstacles and challenges you will face along the way. The job of a Pokémon Ranger is never done: your duties will include fighting wildfires, rescuing people or even delivering an important package.
Your journey to become a Top Ranger takes you to the new region of Almia. This game has a larger world, more Missions, more adventure and more to do than the previous Pokémon Ranger game. It has a storyline full of adventure and the ability to travel to and explore many exciting new areas in Almia, including oceans, forests, deserts and more with the help of your Partner Pokémon.
This is the first game in the Pokémon Ranger series to feature Pokémon from Pokémon® Diamond and Pokémon® Pearl.

Game storyline: In Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, you once again play as a Pokémon Ranger, working to help people, Pokémon and nature in a new area called the Almia Region. Starting out as a Student Ranger, you quickly earn the title of a full-fledged Pokémon Ranger. As you succeed in more and more missions, you will aspire to become the highest Ranger rank: Top Ranger. Along the way you meet and capture all kinds of different Pokémon.

How to progress through the game: Capture wild Pokémon and create a team to clear obstacles and puzzles encountered along the way. After using a Pokémon?s ability, it will leave your team; however, you will have a Partner Pokémon that will always stay by your side. As you progress through Missions and Quests, your Capture Styler becomes more powerful, giving your Styler more Energy and eventually advancing you to the level of Top Ranger.

Characters: Hundreds of Pokémon. Players can choose to be a boy or girl Pokémon Ranger.

Special powers/weapons/moves/features: Use the Capture Styler to capture wild Pokémon. Once they are captured, wild Pokémon will follow the player around until their powers are used (either in a Poké Assist or a Field Move).

A Poké Assist is when the player uses an already captured Pokémon to help capture another wild Pokémon.
A Field Move is when the player uses a captured Pokémon?s power to clear an obstacle in the way or perform another helpful function.

I have to say that I did enjoy the first game in the series but one thing I did not like is that they made the game in such a way that you can not completely erase the save data and try for another Manaphy egg! I do know that there will be some special Pokémon you can trade over to your Diamond and Pearl games.

Posted by HMTKSteve | Filed Under News

Weekly News!

July 14, 2008 | Comments Off

Welcome to the Pokefarm Farm Event Report! I’ll be giving a quick run down of the upcoming farming events of various farmers. We have two sections, the main site, usually the events you see posted in the “Farming News” section, and Forum Farming Events, these events will require you to visit our forums to claim one of these rare beauties.

Main Site Events:
From Noctem Ridge on Tuesday we’ll have Noctem’s Psycho-Cutting Meditite. They’ll be Jolly and will have the move set: High Jump Kick, Ice Punch, ThunderPunch, and Psycho Cut. They will also have max speed IVs, so check out the article here, or if you don’t think you’re going to make the event in time please post in the leftovers thread here.

Forum Events:
From Fallarbor Farms we have their wonderful Wailmer, their move set is Moveset: Water Spout, Blizzard, Brine, and Earthquake. Come adopt one of these bouncing balls of joy today!

That’s all for the events this week, be sure to join the forum, so that you can keep an eye out for these beastly pokemon! If you have any questions, you can refer to the respective farmers about their events

Posted by Babael | Filed Under News

Pokemon Platinum Details

July 10, 2008 | 11 Comments

The newest issue of CoroCoro is out and fans have plastered scans all over the Internet of its article on Pokemon Platinum. What follows is a break down of the important nuggets of information contained therein.

Pokémon Platinum is set for a September 13th 2008 release in Japan
You have to face Team Galactic once more, but it seems their plans and HQ have been stepped up a fair bit
The Battle Frontier returns and takes place in the Fight Area in Sinnoh. There are different areas in the Battle Frontier, their battle quirks are not yet known. However, it does still contain the Battle Tower
The WiFi area has been enhanced with various areas which support up to 20 people at any one time
The Poffin making has taken a step up and has a new feature that involves a Swalot machine. You essentially throw berries into its mouth. This can be done over WiFi in the new WiFi area
The Battle Recorder, an item seen on the Shaymin pictures last week, allows you to record battles that you hold and share them with your friends. This is done at the new & improved GTS in Jubilife City, which has a bigger global terminal
There is also confirmation of the Shaymin form changes and a note about the Giratina ones. It appears that like in the movie, Giratina’s Origin Forme can only be used in the Torn World, and its in its Another Forme elsewhere. It is unknown if there will be an item to use to keep it in its Origin Forme, but the main method will be revealed next month
Shaymin Sky Forme’s ability is Serene Grace. It appears to be more focused in Speed and Special Attack and knows the move Air Slash.
Giratina’s Origin Forme’s ability is Levitate.
The pictures also indicate and confirm new sprites for each Pokémon including Bidoof, Giratina’s Another Forme & Shaymin’s Land Forme
Confirmation of the new characters shown last month, one is a member of Team Galactic, and the other is part of an international police force and is hunting Team Galactic

With a September release date I expect an American release date around March 2009.

The inclusion of a Battle Park (as in Emerald) is going to be great! Couple that with Wi-Fi in the Underground and I expect Platinum to sell very well indeed.

As I get more information I will post it.

via [serebii]

Posted by HMTKSteve | Filed Under News

Weekly News!

July 8, 2008 | Comments Off

Main Site Events:
Today from Backward Seven Ranch, we have Deneve’s Sunny Solrock. All of the little stones have Adamant nature with the move set: Stealth Rock, Earthquake, Rockslide, and Explosion. Be sure to pick one up, they’re real team players. If you can’t make the event be sure to check out the Leftovers thread

Forum Events:

From Noctem Ridge this week we’ll have Noctem’s Meditite. They’ll be Jolly and will have the move set: High Jump Kick, Ice Punch, ThunderPunch, and Psycho Cut.

Posted by Babael | Filed Under News

Weekly News!

June 30, 2008 | Comments Off

Main Site Events:
Today we had Nikola Tesla’s Mystical Ninetails. They were all modest, and had the following move set: Energy Ball, Dark Pulse, Fire Blast, and Hypnosis. If you missed one of these beauties please post in the leftovers thread in the forums.

Forum Events:

On Sunday Narnad, the Farmer on the Dell, had his Soundproof Mr. Mime up for adoption. These clowns have a Calm nature, and the following move set: Thunder Wave, Teeter Dance, Substitute, and Baton Pass. Check out his farm if you’d like to inquire about leftovers.

This week from Noctem Ridge we’ll have Noctem’s Special Bagon. These guys will be of the modest nature and will have the following move set: Dragon Pulse, Hydro Pump, Flamethrower, and Draco Meteor. Supply will be limited to be sure to keep an eye out for these little guys.

Posted by Babael | Filed Under News

Weekly News!

June 22, 2008 | Comments Off

Main Site Events:

This week we have The Tatertot’s Rain Dancing Horsea. Her event starts on Tuesday at 5pm ET. Her Horsea will be of the modest nature, have the ability Swift Swim, as well as the move set: Ice Beam, Rain dance, Surf and Dragon Pulse. As an added bonus these lovely pokemon will be holding a Dragon Scale, so when the time comes to finally evolve them into Kingdra, you won’t have to go out and poach Seadra and Horsea

Forum Events:

This week as WCN’s Farm, we have his Timid Houndour which will be up for adoption this week. These flash fire beauties will have the move set: Sunny Day, Solarbeam, Flamethrower, and Dark pulse.

From Whitdjinn, we will have his amazing tough Rhyhorn. They will all be adamant and have the move set Stone Edge, Earthquake, Swords dance, and Avalanche/Megahorn. These monsters will already be EV trained for you, but be careful, you’ll have to keep your wits about you to answer the trivia questions you’ll have to get right just to adopt these guys.

Next we have Nikola Tesla’s Mystical Ninetails. These foxes will be of the modest nature, and will have the move set: Energy ball, Dark Pulse, Fire Blast, and Hypnosis. As a perk, these guy will arrive holding a Wide Lens, which slightly up the accuracy of Hypnosis. This event will begin June 30th at 11:00 AM EST.

And finally from Narnad, the Farmer on the Dell, we have his Soundproof Mr. Mime up for adoption. These clowns will have a Calm nature, and the following move set: Thunder Wave, Teeter Dance, Substitute, and Baton Pass. They’re going to be real team players.

Posted by Babael | Filed Under News

Early thoughts on Pokemon Ranch

June 9, 2008 | 19 Comments

Steve asked me to post a few of my thoughts on the New WiiWare title Pokemon Ranch.

Read on for a quick tour around the newest WiiWare tile and the answer to all our overstuffed boxes!

After an initial step by step setup of the game you are sent to the Farm. When the game starts Hayley, the owner of the ranch brings 5 Pokémon with her to “get the farm started” and shows you around the farm and the game controls. Hayley indicates she will bring one more Pokémon every day but encourages you to bring as many of your Pokemon as you can to fill up her farm.

Naturally, I immediately fired up the transfer program. The rumors about a Pokémon per day limit are correct. There is a 20 Pokémon/Day limit, but it is actually a lot tighter than that. The initial batch of Pokemon that Haley brought also count against the limit. I was able to transfer 15 more from my game. so I’m guessing in the future I’ll be able to send 19 a day.

I have a lot of legends sitting around not doing anything, so they were among the first that I sent over. I ended up with something like this:

In a very nice touch, my shiny Goldeen retained her shiny colors when she appeared in the Ranch.

After that, I’m afraid there wasn’t much active to do. This is not entirely unsurprising as the game was billed as a storage system first and foremost. Haley hinted that there were more toys and features to come as her farm grew (read: as you deposit more Pokémon)

Still, my wife and I had a great time watching the goings on:

The Pokémon that I deposited wandered around the farmyard interacting with my Mii, my Wife’s Mii, Haley, and each other.

Pikachu gave piggyback rides, various Pokémon fell asleep, scooted around, and every few minutes everyone got together to do a trick:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my MewTwo was a bit of a Jerk. He kept going around shooting confuse rays at the other Pokémon until my Marrowak Casey had enough and hit him (and my Mii, and several other Pokémon) with an Earthquake.

Darkrai particularly loved snatching me up and carrying my around:

All in all, this was very cute. The camera controls were limited but the instructions described a “free camera” mode I couldn’t access. I’m guessing that is probably one of the upgrades that will become available after I deposit a few dozen more Pokémon. There were also instructions on how to use the toys, which I didn’t’ start with. I’m therefore guessing that there will be more and more content as time goes on.

As a storage system, the Pokémon per Day limit kind of hurts, but as a little gadget to spend 10 min with every time you fire up you Wii Pokefarm is Brilliant. I suspect I’ll be leaving it on in the background while I’m working on something else. My wife described it as “like watching a Fish tank, but with Lighting Bolts”

And here are a few more screen shots. For those wondering how to get these out of the game, the player can take pictures with a “camera” in the game. If you go into the album within the game it give you the option to save it to a SD card. From there I just popped the SD card into my laptop and uploaded the images to my image sharing app.

(I was having a Pokémon Parade, in case you are wondering about the confetti):

Editor’s Notes

The Pokémon per day limit increases as your ranch increases in size.
You only have one ranch even though up to eight Diamond/Pearl games can connect with it.
When you bring Pokémon into the ranch you assign a Mii to take care of them.
You can only withdraw Pokémon back onto the cartridge that deposited them.
Free Mode opens up on the second day.
You can use the “Time Travel” trick to unlock everything in one day.

Posted by jhamin | Filed Under News

Pokemon Ranch Comes to WiiWare!

June 9, 2008 | 5 Comments

The day you have been waiting for has arrived, Pokemon Ranch is now on the Wii via WiiWare!

My Pokémon Ranch (Nintendo, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone—Comic Mischief, 1,000 Wii Points, 123 blocks): The Pokémon phenomenon debuts on WiiWare with My Pokémon Ranch, a game that lets you watch as Pokémon and Miis interact with each other for the first time. Enjoy the relaxing ranch life by viewing your ranch and its Pokémon, taking pictures and sending those pictures to your friends via the Wii Message Board. The more Pokémon and Miis you bring to your ranch, the more fun it becomes. My Pokémon Ranch can be linked with the Nintendo DS™ Pokémon® Diamond and Pokémon® Pearl Game Cards to deposit the Pokémon you’ve caught in these games in your ranch. You can deposit a maximum of 1,000 Pokémon from up to eight different game cards. Make your ranch livelier by playing with your friends and family.

Many of us have been looking for something to replace Pokemon Box for the GameCube. That wonderful title allowed you to store massive amounts of Pokemon from your GBA games and arrange them. It’s sorting capabilities are a bit lacking but when your box is full in your GBA game you need someplace to store those extra Pokemon!

My Pokemon Ranch is not a straight up clone of the original Pokemon Box, which is a good thing. One of the problems with Pokemon Box is that you had to have 100 Pokemon in your Pokedex before you could move Pokemon out of Box and onto your GBA. My Pokemon Ranch uses a different mechanic where you can only send so many Pokemon a day into the ranch. This game uses a level system that increases the size of your ranch as you deposit more Pokemon inside.

NOTE: The storage is tied directly to the cartridge you use. If you restart the game you can never get those Pokemon back!

Posted by HMTKSteve | Filed Under News

Arrival of the Gemini Gym

June 9, 2008 | 3 Comments

Ever since the concept of two-on-two battles were brought into the franchise in the Gameboy Advance era the Doubles Battle has been fully supported part of the competitive battle experience. With the arrival of Diamond and Pearl we even have the ability to conduce WiFi battles in single or double mode. But somehow Double Battles always remained the redheaded stepchild of the competitive battling scene. The “real” battlers are all about singles matches. Read any strategy article or Pokémon move set and it doesn’t even bear mentioning that the advice is for the Singles Battle Environment.

I have long wondered why this is so. I think the reason ultimately boils down to the unpredictability of the doubles environment. When your opponent only has one Pokémon on the field you can make some guesses about it. You can guess what attacks it has and how well it will weather the attack your single Pokémon is about to unleash. You can decide if you need to attack or if you need to switch out your current Pokémon for another on your bench. When there are two Pokémon on the field everything suddenly gets more complicated. Is he going to launch an attack? If so which of my Pokémon is he going after? Or does he have a move that will hit both? Or is he going to do something crazy like boost his partner before his partner attacks me? There are more variables, and a lot of strange moves that are designed to work only in the Doubles environment. It is a whole new world.

The concept behind this gym is to bring the “other half” of Pokémon Battling to Pokefarm. This has long been a private wish of mine. When I was awarded the Forest Gym a few months ago one of the first things I did was ask about the possibility of transforming it into a Doubles Gym. At the time the Pokémon League judges thought that might be a bit too off the beaten path. A challenger working his way through the League needed a few things he could count on in his battles with the Gym Leaders and only facing one Poke at a time was deemed one of them.

Imagine my delight when the concept of “expansion gyms” was brought up in that seedy smoke-filled room we Gym Leaders meet in to plan the fate of the Pokémon League. It was decided that the time had come for a shakeup in the Gym system. It was time for two new Gyms. Buzz was awarded his Bug Gym in the culmination of his long running ambition. And then someone remembered that I had lobbied for a Doubles Forest Gym. That wasn’t the way they wanted to go, but maybe a doubles gym all by itself was a good idea. And so I was awarded what came to be known as the Gemini Gym.

Thus I am thrilled to announce the arrival of the latest new gym to Pokefarm! The Gemini gym is not a formal part of the Pokefarm League, and will live in the Battle Tower alongside the Chrysalis gym. Winners in the gym will receive a badge, but defeating the Gemini Gym will not be required to become a Pokefarm League champion. I also will not have any “types” associated with my gym like Grass is associated with the Forest Gym or Bug is associated with the Chrysalis gym. Gemini is all about doubles battling and it was decided that it doesn’t need any other theme than that. My goal is not to be invincible, but to be a challenge. A challenge that is different from what people have seen in the Gyms so far. So teach your Pokémon Discharge instead of Thunderbolt, or Heat wave instead of Flame Thrower, and enter a new arena. I look forward to seeing you.

(And because many will ask, I am not stepping down as Forest Gym Leader. After all, who better to lead the Doubles Gym than a leader with two gyms?)

The Gemini gym awaits.

Posted by jhamin | Filed Under News

Deoxys at GameStop June 2008

June 8, 2008 | 20 Comments

Rumors are flowing all over the Internet about a Deoxys giveway at GameStop. I have received confirmation about the event and the particulars are as follows:

Event is GameStop only.
First Chance: June 20th-22nd.
Second Chance: 27th-29th.

Hold Item: Nevermelt Ice

Deoxys is one of the harder Hoenn rare Pokemon to get. Unlike Jirachi (GameCube Bonus Disk) the odds of finding someone willing to trade you a legit Deoxys are quite low. Deoxys was given out during the “Pokemon Rocks America” tours but those have been over for a while.

No word if the event will be carried over at the Nintendo World Store in New York City.

Special thanks to MissingNo. from the forums!

Posted by HMTKSteve | Filed Under News

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Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

Weekly News!

Pokemon Platinum Details

Weekly News!

Weekly News!

Weekly News!

Early thoughts on Pokemon Ranch

Pokemon Ranch Comes to WiiWare!

Arrival of the Gemini Gym

Deoxys at GameStop June 2008

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