Pokeball's a shape...

Contrary to my personal intuition and the dusting of snow on my front porch, Spring is apparently upon us. You know what that meeeeeeeaaaaaaaannnnnnnssss!

Time to ditch the sweaters and don the bikinis cause Summer's 'round the bend!

But whats this? Fluffy Winter insulation around the midsection? Curses!

Now, nerds aren't known for their physical prowess or 'shape', and while I'm far from the typical stereotype I've certainly got my share of fluff.

Thankfully Nintendo's got my back. Sold with every (new) copy of Soul Silver and Heart Gold was the Pokewalker, a Pokeball shaped pedometer that could hold a single Pokemon. Walking helped the Pokemon level up, as well as having minigames for items and the ability to catch a Pokemon. Exercise seems a small price to pay to avoid the grind or the daycare.

The only real downside to the Pokewalker was the fact that no matter how many steps you took, no matter how many days you left your Pokemon in there, once retrieved the Pokemon will only have gained one level. Just one. Guess that prevents someone from tossing a level one in there and marathoning it up to 99.

Sadly I'm pretty sure that no Pokegame since has made use of the Pokewalker, which is a damn shame. It's a pretty good pedometer, and frankly everything, especially exercise, is better with minigames.

Grind It, Baby

That's right, kids, lets talk 'bout grinding.

RPG grinding.

Like it or not grinding has become a part of gaming, a tradition going back to many of the earliest RPG's. Be it for levels or loot grinding has almost become ubiquitous in gaming, almost to the point of the grind becoming the gameplay.

Why do we grind? The most common reason is to gain levels. In Pokemon Soul Silver I have reached a point where my Pokemon simply don't cut it anymore. At an average level of 24 they are, for reasons unknown and probably unrelated to my perceived incompetence as a trainer, getting stomped by enemies a couple levels lower than themselves. What's a cat to do? Grind.

I set up camp on route 37, just outside of Ecruteak City. I have spent a couple hours combing the grass, encountering mid-teen level Vulpix, Pidgeys, and Stantlers.

Stantlers are by and far the best experience points in the area, giving more than double that of the other Pokemon. Fighting them, however, can be fairly annoying, particularly if it's my Gyrados Poseidon doing the fighting.

Poseidon's intimidate cuts the wild Stantler's attack!

The wild Stantler's intimidate cuts Poseidon's attack!

The staring contest alone can sometimes take hours

Poseidon's intimidate cuts the wild Stantler's attack!

The wild Stantler's intimidate cuts Poseidon's attack!

Over and over and over again.

Grinding isn't limited to levels or loot: some players feel the need to grind the game. The Living Story in Guild Wars 2 has fallen victim to this practice, with players swarming the severs on the Tuesday updates in order to be the first to see the latest content. These players complete the new content in a matter of hours, then spend the next two to four weeks bitching about the lack of new content and the obvious shortcomings of the present.

We've cleaned up after this flowery bitch for over a year and you guys wanna rush this?

Meanwhile those of us that don't make it to opening update ceremonies or, like me, prefer to play the content quite a bit, are left all alone in an empty arena fighting something that needs half a server to take down.

It's criminal, people.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have another 800 Meowths I need to kill while I wait for the Flowery Bitch's BFF.

P-P-Pokecomic

Dejamon

After two attempts and 40 minutes of pressing the A button as fast as my thumb could bear I was Finally back on track. I had Mr. Pokemon's egg (but sadly no skillet).

The next few hours became a blur. Zephyr Badge, mine. Grind grind grind grind. Level grind in the grass. Level grind through a cave. Level grind all over Team Rocket's face.

It's about this time that I realize just how...off my team is. I've got my evolved starter, Quilava, a Hoot Hoot, an apparently inedible egg, a Magicarp, and a bitch Rattata (my HM dump), who hasn't gained more than two levels since his capture. Be the very best indeed.

Despite the obvious... shortcomings of my team we still manage to win our battles, making friends along the way, a fact I'm beginning to regret.

See, I have a neat little gadget called a Pokegear, which is kind of a smart phone with like 5 apps, and also kinda like a paperweight. It can tune in to the radio, show me a world map, and even make calls. It can also receive calls.

Which is a problem.

Between Youngster Joey and my mother my Pokegear is forever glued to my digital ear, besieged by tales of Rattatas and failed Hoot Hoot capturings.

Couple more blurred hours later and I'm now the indifferent owner of three badges, a Gyrados, a Vulpix, and a Togapi (which admittedly looks far tastier post-hatching).

Maybe I could use some of those berries, after all. Anyone got a recipe for a good marinade?

I Can Has Syringe? / Day Eleven

Hope Hospital just got a little bit safer. All thanks to this cat *points both thumbs at own chest*.

Doctor Malpractice...I mean Stiles, finally got the intern smacked back out of him via his new assistant Angela Thompson, the lucky nurse taking over for Dr. Stile's previous babysitter nurse Fulton.

'Mommy' now out of the picture and 'daddy' (the head surgeon) out of town, 'lil Derek decides hes a real doctor now, and just in time for an operation!

Despite nurse Thompson's frequent misgivings about the condition of the patient, Dr. Stiles carries on full boar. After all, he's got a super awesome symposium to go to, with all sorts of important people he just cannot keep waiting in the next town! Ignoring the patient's paperwork, irregular blood results, and every other red alarm going off Stiles sews the chump up and skips off to the big city.

*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*kicks the machine*beep-beep-beep-beep-*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*

As Derek laments his inability to hit the town kindergarten style due to work the next morning, his phone rings. The patient he left half dead on the operating table was now 3/4 dead, and sprinting toward the light. The guy lives, but Derek's lab-coat covered ass is in deep trouble, with Angela informing 'daddy' that Doctor Stiles was incompetent, careless, hopeless, and frankly has no business being a doctor!

His heart torn raggedly in twain, Derek takes a rainy walk down the boardwalk of depression and self doubt...Until a car accident snaps him back to reality.

He rushed back to the hospital to find the patients already in the ER and nurse Thompson in the fetal position, rolling back and forth in a pool of her own tears. She couldn't revive the guy *hyperventilate* but at this rate he's gonna diiiiiiie! But Dr. Derek Stiles is here to saaaaave teh daaaaaaaaaaay, and save it he surprisingly does thanks to what I can only assume are magic time control powers that are beginning to manifest within him.

With the doctor's confidence and resolve renewed and the time space continuum at his disposal (probably) the game can really begin. Chapter two, here I am!

Anime Challenge: THE ELEVENTH DAY:

My favorite mecha anime

I've never really seen the allure of mecha style animes....GUNDAM, Big O, etc. Yes giant robots are cool and all, but it never really did anything for me...except for one.

Zoids. Zoids: New Century, to be exact, following Bit Cloud and his Liger Zero mech. The show follows tournaments based around mechs of all shapes and sizes, from bulls to wolves to pterodactyls, as opposed to the warring of humanoid mechs in other animes.

Zoids was one of the Toonami shows back in the day that cemented my love of anime, and thus will always hold a special place in my heart (specifically the place just above the left ventricle).

Which was your favorite mecha anime?

That's DOCTOR Geeky Cat to you/ Day 10

You don't let a cat perform surgery. You also don't let a cat control a spacey idiot while he performs surgery. Seriously. Don't. People die. 

Today I played a little Nintendo DS title called Trauma Center: UNDER THE KNIFE, which follows the medical malpractice suit-in-the-making of Dr. (giggle) Derek Stiles. A new surgeon fresh from his internship, Derek is a surgeon with something to prove, man, and so far hes managed to prove that he really shouldn't have lives placed in his hands... Or anything sharp, for that matter. 

*beep*beep*BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP* Yup, looks like I'll need that fourth needle after all...*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*

Seriously, this guy is such a hardcore slacker the head nurse considered postponing a move with her husband so she can minimize casualties left in his wake. 

So far The game has been largely characterized by brutally precise gameplay, verbally abusive characters, and forgettable anime-esque sprites. But it's a fun game. Lets see how many lawsuits I can dodge before my body count gets me kicked from the hospital!

Anime Challenge: THE TENTH DAY:

My favorite fighter anime

An argument can be made that most Shonen style animes are 'fighter' types, at least in spirit. I do love me some cartoonishly muscular dudes beating each other over the head with cars and magic beams of death, but I wouldn't call them 'fighter' animes, at least most of them. 

As for favorites, Hajime No Ippo tops my list. With the manga running in the hundreds of chapters (been going since the late 1980's) and the anime gearing up for a new season soon, Hajime No Ippo follows the boxing career of Ippo Makunouchi, a boy who overcame his shyness and bullying once a boxing school discovered he had a helluva right hook. 

The show (and manga) do an amazing job of making the fights just as interesting and, shall I say painful to watch as anything from Dragon Ball Z, without a single super power in sight. 

So how do you like your anime ass kickings? Super-natural or realistic? Whats your favorite fighter anime?