Five Things I Learned Playing Pokemon Crystal

1. I will never underestimate Wigglytuff again. I had a deal with myself that I would keep whatever hatched out of the Odd Egg in my team (because I couldn't decide what else to pick) and was slightly disappointed when it was Igglybuff. But it turns out that its evolved forms have an amazing movepool, even if their sub-par defences make them less durable than that HP stat would suggest. It turns out having a Wigglytuff with Ice Punch is very useful if you want to fight Dragons.

2. Speaking of which: Lance is a scrub and the worst League Champion in the whole series. (I didn't realise that playing SoulSilver because I'd never played a Pokemon game before.) I have no idea why Gamefreak made him the Champion in the first place. Was he really popular after his Elite Four appearance in Red and Blue or something? In any case, anyone who has that many illegal Dragonite in his team and spams Hyper Beam that much deserves to be stomped into the ground by a ten-year-old. At least Red is one of the best battles in the whole series, which sort of makes up for it.

(I'm not saying Hyper Beam doesn't have a valuable place in the game. It's just that place is on the Pokemon of nine-year-olds who don't know any better yet and haven't realised that giving up your next turn is almost always a bad idea. Oh, and it's good on Mega Pidgeot! But even then I'd be damn careful choosing it over Hurricane or Fire Blast during a match.)

3. Crystal is very satisfying in terms of scope and gameplay, but I think the story is the weakest of all the games I've played. (Again, something I didn't notice about SoulSilver because it was all new to me.) I'm glad they realised they couldn't keep bringing back Team Rocket and needed to keep invented more evil teams. There is just no reason for them to be in this game other than the player needing someone bad to fight. (I mean, Team Skull don't know what they're doing either, but at least they're hilarious.)

4. The people who say that Pokemon games have become easier are both right and wrong depending on how you look at it. On the one hand, a lot of the grindier elements have been toned way down in subsequent entires, and you get a lot more opportunities to change you mind about things. I am glad we're no longer in the era of TMs you could only use once. The more recent games also expect you to keep fewer things in your head or a game guide. On the other, the core of the game has actually become more complicated over time, with elements like Abilities and Natures and Mega-Evolution and Z-Moves to consider, not to mention just hundreds and hundreds more Pokemon and moves to consider. Honestly, though, anyone who thinks the games are too easy now should either battle other players or go to the Battle Tree. Those things have definitely not become any easier. (I know because an Araquanid stalled my perfectly trained team to death today.)

5. It turns out that the perfect thing to put on the TV while doing boring things in a Pokemon game ... is Pokemon. Yes, I'm embarrassed it took me ten games to figure this out, too. I made it through the whole of the Indigo League! It's been literally decades since I saw any of it, so it was fun revisiting and actually watching every episode and in order. (And I do mean every episode. It's OK, I did not look at the seizure-inducing part, because I bet it's also migraine-inducing and who needs that? Poor Porygon, doomed to never appear in anything again even though it has nothing to do with the flashing lights.)

Anyway, I got my Bold Marvelscale Lugia imported into the Pokebank after less than fifty hours invested, so I'd say that it was worth it.