Nintenget: Bakeru

Had this one on my radar for a while. 

Currently Playing: Suikoden 2

Fulfilling a desire I had back when Suikoden 2 was brand new. Tried renting it multiple times from various places as a kid, but they either didn't have it or it was always rented out. 

Big Adventures are Coming!

As of February 27th, I am now the driver of a 2008 Honda CRV. Not my dream car, but pretty darn close! 

This gives me the space and peace of mind to finally resume my fishing adventures this year, and to kick that off while waiting for the weather to warm up, I put some new braid on my Daiwa Legalis 2500. 

Nintenget: Resident Evil Generations Collection

ReCollection: Pokemon

 

( art by July )

 “WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF POKEMON”
Those words will be with me for the rest of my life, in one form or another. Hello, and welcome to the first new ReCollection piece of 2026.

So what is a "ReCollection"? It's a blog post that acts as a way for me to relay a collection of memories about a specific topic—in this case, Pokémon—and compile them in one place for preservation. I started writing these years ago when it became painfully clear that Alzheimer's ran deep on both sides of my family; and with my being the nostalgia connoisseur that I am, the idea of these memories being lost forever frightened me, thus the ReCollection series was born.

Without further ado, I'd like to get right onto the subject here: Pokemon. The cultural phenomenon that had its humble beginnings 30 years ago in Japan as of the time of this post. It would later come to America towards the end of 1998, where things would really snowball.

My first exposure to Pokemon was probably similar to many people my age there at the very beginning: via gaming magazine ads! My earliest memory of exposure to the games came in the form of the following ad,

According to my research, this predated the anime being on TV in the states, which I'm also sure acted as a gateway for many. But for me, it was this one particular ad that lit my then nine-year-old brain up! I didn't actively follow video games back then outside of the ads and maybe a preview or two; I honestly just bought magazines to look at the pictures, or if there was a particular preview for a game I KNEW I was excited for, I'd buy it for that.

It was the series' main hook that, surprise-surprise, grabbed my interest and has held onto it ever since. The concept was novel for the time: collect a wide assortment of creatures, train, battle and evolve them into new creatures, then trade them with friends and family! I specifically remember talking to my nephew about it over the phone, encouraging him to ask for the Blue version for Christmas that year because I was all about that red dragon-thing.

 

 

Fast-forward a few months and I still had zero exposure to Pokemon beyond a few magazine ads. I was just in the beginning stages of my Dragon Ball Z era as it had started on Toonami that August, and without ever actually having seen any ads or whatnot for a cartoon tie-in, I had no idea the Pokemon anime even existed despite it having premiered on my birthday that same year.

Christmas 1998 arrived, bringing with it a rare ice storm that grounded any and all family gathering plans for that holiday, but it had been a-okay by me. I was ten years old then, and had received not only Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Harvest Moon GB and the VHS copy of GODZILLA, but also Pokemon Red Version from "Santa", so my time stuck inside the house while ice fell outside was well stocked. My little brother had even received an air hockey table for when video games had run their course for a few hours or so.

So you're probably wondering at this point how my Pokemon journey actually began? Well, if you've read this far, then you already know: I obviously chose Charmander as my starter, naming them GODZILLA (because big fire-breathing lizard, duh). I began my journey as I did all Gameboy games at the time: On my TV, via the Super Gameboy attachment for my SNES. I hadn't owned an actual Gameboy since the mid-90s when I had received the OG Gameboy+Link's Awakening bundle from my grandmother for Christmas in 1994. And no, I have no idea what had happened to it by 1998, but alas.

Since the annual family Christmas gathering had been postponed due to the ice storm, I called my nephew later that night to talk about what we got for Christmas. And as expected, he received Pokemon Blue Version and had chosen Bulbasaur as his starter. We talked for like an hour, then… well, my memory goes blank after that. I remember getting on the shiny new Gateway PC we got earlier that month to play some games—mainly the Microsoft Entertainment Pack, specifically the puzzle collection, to play a few rounds of Jewel Thief before returning to my bedroom for some Ocarina of Time.

 

I recall getting stuck during the portion of the game that required you to finally visit Saffron City and being unable to progress because the guards were thirst. That was funny in that I never made the connection between the drink machines at the top of the department store in Celadon and the guards. Took me buying the third game guide I'd ever owned to figure it out:

 

And what a nice little treat this was. Stickers for all 150 Pokemon so I could track my progress (which I most certainly did NOT use them for, I assure you). It went in my drawer right next to the Final Fantasy VII and Breath of Fire III guides, and would eventually be joined by the Ocarina of Time guide as well.

Fast forward to February 13th, 1999. Kids WB! had been advertising it like mad that month. That's right: I caught my very first episode of the Pokemon anime! Specifically, episode 44:'The Problem with Paras'. I remember the day vividly, or at least the morning of: I watched (and recorded the episode), and then my family took a trip to Hickory, where we visited the mall, Toys 'R Us and Media Play, the latter of which was where I'd found and begged my parents for the VHS tape of the first few episodes of the anime, which I still have in my possession to this day.

 

1999 going into 2000 became an absolute whirlwind of Pokemon and the monster training fad in general, but more on that in a bit. There's more recollecting to do!

*I got my first Pokemon figure in early 1999. The little talking Pikachu that when you pressed the little metal pieces on his feet, would light up and say its name. I displayed that happily next to my SNES for the longest time.

*At some point, I had purchased a black cap with a red brim. One, because black and red were "cool" and two, because a Pokemon trainer couldn't be a trainer without a hat. That was a rule that one had to abide by, the same way Superman wasn't able to fly without a cape (as I as a very young child, had argued with my comic book nerd older brother once).

*I specifically remember buying the Pidgey and Pidgeot two-pack from Super K-Mart, then immediately going home and breaking the Pokeball it came with when I threw it while playing around and it smashed on the road. Good times.

 

*Later that summer, the electronic Pokedex came out and immediately shot up to number one on my list of must-have Pokemon toys. It was shown off during a Pokemon merchandise presentation on QVC one night, which I believe can still be viewed on YouTube. I did eventually find the Pokedex at K-Mart and I still have it to this very day. In fact, it's right behind me as I type this!

 

*Pokemon is also to thank for my fondness for redheads, for at that age, I was beginning to really *notice* girls, and Misty came along and ticked a lot of boxes on a list of things that attracted me I didn't even know existed, namely redheads and tomboy personalities.

 

*I had somehow convinced my grandmother to buy Pokemon Snap for me as a grade-passing gift at some point, which I played religiously for like a month straight. Then, again somehow, I came into possession of Pokemon Stadium shortly thereafter, which I also submerged myself in. I recall being blown away seeing my OG Charizard in 3D, then confused why he was so much worse than the rental Charizard.

Now by this point in time, Pokemon The First Movie had come to VHS, and my sister had received it for her birthday, along with one of the Pokemon TCG starter decks that featured Mewtwo on the front. The internet was still relatively regulated for us at the time, so we didn't get to venture too far away from the primary AOL Kids pages too often. Imagine the surprise when Donphan and Snubull appeared. Two entirely brand-new Pokémon that, to ten-year-old Laik's knowledge, were not in Red and Blue.

Then, pile on the random discovery of the Pokemon NEO Gold and Silver TCG set at Babbage's during one trip to the mall, featuring three seemingly brand new starter Pokemon and their evolutions. Bonkers! There had to be something to this, I wondered. And so, defying my parents' guidelines over the internet traversal, I weaseled my way onto whatever search engine was useful at the time and discovered the existence of brand-new Pokémon games.

 

And so here is where my initial experience with Pokemon fizzled out. As far as I had known at the time, Gold and Silver could only be played on the Gameboy Color. They were not compatible with the OG Gameboy, of which I had a red Pocket edition by that point in order to fight and trade with my nephew, but nor were they playable on the Super Gameboy. A fact that, as recently as last year, I had learned was NOT the case, and that I had missed out on two entire generations of Pokemon memories as a result of misinformation at the time.
But yes, I was unaware that some Gameboy Color labeled games could still be played on the original Gameboy, so I just never played the original Gen 2 at release, only experiencing them years later in their DS remakes. I sometimes think back to what things could have been like, what kind of warm memories I would have formed had I continued playing the mainline games through Gen 2 and most of 3.

Even though I wouldn't return to the Pokemon world to stay until Christmas 2004 when I received FireRed for Christmas, I have remained firmly rooted there ever since and I never see myself leaving. Pokemon is very near and dear to my heart.

We are now officially in the initial stages of the next generation of Pokemon games following this morning's announcements of the tenth generation of games for Switch/Switch 2, so there is a lot of exciting things and announcements to come I'm sure.

CrossActs X Pokemon #1

 

 "…Laik."
"…It's time to get up."
"…Laik! Get your furry butt outta bed or you're going to be late!"
The loud, reverberating meeting of door against doorframe snapped the wolf out of his deep slumber. A soft "coo-coo" noise struck his ears next, somewhere off to his left. 
His alarm clock!
Laik turned over in bed, his hair sticking in every which direction. He blinked away the night's sleep, his red eyes focusing on the little digital readout on the clock's face as the bird-like creature popped in and out of its spherical home.
7:24am
"Ah crap!" he shouted, kicking the blankets off him and sending it soaring across the room where it came to a rest in front of his bedroom door. 
His bedroom was steeped in an early morning chill that would be replaced by a comfortable warmth by noontime; his housemates complained about the chill the wolf left his room all the time, sometimes even slipping in to turn it on while he was out. He simply tolerated the cold better than others; that was all it was.
Another rap at the door. "And would you please shut that stupid alarm clock of yours up?!" 
Coo-coo! Coo-coo! Coo-coo!
Laik rolled his eyes and continued getting dressed. Slipping on his second sneaker and tying the laces, he grabbed the cleanest, least-wrinkled t-shirt in his drawer and slipped it on in place of the Pokeball-emblazoned shirt he'd slept in.
Coo-coo! Coo-coo—
With a gloved hand, the wolf tapped the shut-off button on his clock, sending the little bird creature—a Pidgey, the tiny bird Pokémon—back into its shelter. The Pidgey was as common as Rattata and Caterpie in these parts. Especially here in Pallet Town and the surrounding routes, you couldn't take a step in the tall grass without encountering at least one or two of them.
Slipping on his other fingerless glove and then placing his beret between his ears, Laik was finally ready to start the day.

Sonic the Hedgehog X Godzilla

I cannot believe that this is officially happening. 

Pokémon Day is fast approaching

And I am genuinely hyped. While I definitely understand the frustration people have with Game Freak and the franchise direction, I still genuinely love and anticipate every major Pokémon release, and this year is particularly important being the 30th anniversary and all. 

Nintenget: Pokémon FireRed

It's the only problem I am okay being part of. 

Nintenget: Super Mario Galaxy 1+2