It's a glitch within Pokemon Soul Silver(it may be in Heart Gold too but I can't confirm it since I don't have that version of the game). Spiky-Ear Pichu is a gift given out to movie-goers who bought tickets to see the Pokemon Arceus movie. But its sprite data, as with other promo Pokemon, is already hidden inside the game. And this glitch lets you see the sprite. Here's what happened. I participated in the Pokethlon Technique course with a regular Pichu, and I won. Pichu gets a Technique medal. In the 'Shinrai' room of the Pokethlon Museum(2nd room), all the medals you earned with the different species of Pokemon are recorded there. Strangely enough, the Pichu sprite in that room was not a regular Pichu, but the Spiky-eared variant. I'll take a picture of it when I get my digital camera. I never owned a spiky-eared Pichu and probably never will, but it's still quite a fun glitch.

Not, I'm not taking pictures of my games, but everything else related to Pokemon. I have a small collection of trading cards, figurines and stuff. Okay, my trading card collection is huge. But I won't be scanning all of them. Been collecting for nearly ten years now, and although I've slowed down, I don't plan to stop yet. The only things I collect now are the occasional booster packs, movie promos and other rare cards(boosters are quite expensive). Most of them I got off eBay for quite a reasonable price.

The two on the left are ancient things, the Southern Islands folder collection with 18 cards and the Pikachu World Collection, with 9 different Pikachu cards in 9 different languages. I keep all my promo cards in that Southern Island folder, actually. Got around 50 of them. The big Pokemon portrait in the middle is what I got from a trip. All the pieces are transparent, which is very cool looking if you hold it up against a window. Plus all the cute Pokemon are in it :) The folder on the right is the 10th Movie Anniversary card collection, with promos of the legendary Pokemon from the Pokemon movies from Mewtwo to Darkrai. Not pictured is the 11th movie card folder.

See that red colored box on the right? That's where I keep all my cards. And the two blue files on top of it? That's all my holographic cards. Last I counted there were about 400.

A select few of my good cards. Six Lv. Xs, some recent promos, and three [your name here] legendary cards from a nine card set. I regret not buying the whole set, but these three are good enough.

And here's my collection of small figurines. They're from my local Toys R Us. I'm sure you guys have got it better than me when it comes to availability of toys like these, but these are the only ones I have. I plan to buy more as they bring new shipments in. The Chikorita is a mini plush doll, and the Pikachu is a sun-powered bobblehead. Quite possibly the cutest one I've seen thus far XD

And finally, my big Manaphy plush doll :) AA battery to scale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8iB4_Hf_5c

Wahahahahaha :twisted:

Full comboed one of the hardest songs in this rhythm game. And yes, my Wii can play imports.

Normally I don't blog about real life, since it isn't as interesting or relevant to this site as blogging about games, but this time I'm making an exception.

That's because tomorrow is my high school's graduation day. It's going to be one of the most memorable days of my life, as it should be for most of you. Spending all those years in school, whether they leave good memories or bad ones in your mind, you can't help but miss those days when the time comes. And now it's that time for me. I like my school, so I don't really regret not doing enough in school/not being more appreciative/not making enough friends/not participating in more activities, because I have. Not as many as most, but pretty much enough in my mind.

I've spent 7 long years in this high school, and finally leaving it feels just, well, sad. But why is this graduation day special to me?

It's my grades.

I don't brag about them, I never feel like they're good enough, but right now I just want to gush out and tell someone about them. Tomorrow, I walk up the stage and claim an award for being number one in the stream. First place. Top of the form. Awesomeness :D Never in my long history of schooling have I ever had this happen to me before. The best I got was 2nd place, and only once before. So this is the first and last time I'll ever claim the top spot for myself. It's really quite a fitting end, lol.

It's a long hard battle against my exams, and finally it all pays off . After graduation day, my performance in the government exam will decide my future. Au revoir, high school!

It's been a while since my last blog. I know, I should be more active and stuff, but school is keeping me away. Like the rest of you, I guess :P. But this is slightly different. 3 weeks from now will be the most important exam of my life, and it'll mark the end of 12th Grade for me. I'll have to start looking for a job or whatever after this.

Team

*same as Day 14*

After this, I'm skipping all the way to the end(I've actually already passed the Johto League, so I'm lagging behind here. Playing the game is definitely less cumbersome than writing about it :P)

Like I said in my previous blog post, there was an extra cave opening to the left of Cianwood City. This wasn't in the old Johto games, so I was pretty excited. New areas to explore in old regions always thrill me, just like the Sevii Islands in FireRed/LeafGreen. Freshest new sights I've ever seen in Kanto.

Okay, so there's a gate and a huge billboard that says 'Safari Zone Ahead' or something. Anyway it has something to do with the new Safari Zone in Johto, to replace the one that was missing in Fuchsia. Nice. I turn left, walk up a long flight of stairs and going on top of rocks....crap, there's an item where you need to Rock Climb down to get. You don't get that HM until much later. Much, much later.

Going outside the cave, new sights and sounds! This is New Johto(what I like to call the two new routes), Route 47! Immediately after you enter Route 47 you're bombarded with an awesome new music track and a wonderful clifftop route, in front of two waterfalls, and you can see the ocean directly below! You can go down there if you want, and that's what I did. I won't find much use for the ground level of Route 47 till I get the later HMs though.

The theme music for Route 47/48

Only picture of the route is on serebii, and they don't allow hotlinking, so go there to see pictures.

I took my time savoring the beauty and there were a few Trainers along the way to fight, but none of them were too difficult. Making my way to the upper level of Route 47 via a narrow cliffside cave, I see the top of both waterfalls and more Trainers. There's a place where you can Rock Climb here too (cripes). It leads to Groudon/Kyogre, but again, that's for much later.

Route 48 is a small stopgap between 47 and the Safari Zone. It's pretty wide, and there's some grass here, where you can catch a Tauros. The Safari Zone itself is pretty nice, with outdoor stalls that remind me of Slateport City and Two Island. Very festive atmosphere, but the real fun begins once you get in. You're allowed an unlimited amount of time, but a limited number of Safari Balls, to catch whatever you want. Later, you can customize the Safari Zone, which kinds of terrain you want to influence the Pokemon that appear. So far it's all the Johto regular things though. Looks like the National Dex is needed to get the rest.

This is one new area that requires you to backtrack a lot. But it's a whole lot of stunning.

Team

Bayleef Lv32
Pidgeotto Lv31
Furret Lv29
Quagsire Lv30
Ampharos Lv30
Jumpluff Lv28 /Togetic Lv29

Johto League

Falkner--Bugsy--Whitney--Morty--Chuck--Jasmine--Pryce--Claire

I'm going fast, so I'm covering 5 days in a row. On the way to Ecruteak I caught the Sudowoodo and met Sunny of Sunday, who gave me the Magnet(same as usual). Ecruteak itself is largely unchanged, but you don't fight the Kimono Girls right away. Four of them are actually scattered all over Johto, and it's your job to find them(don't worry, nothing too hard, you'll bump into them along the way). So it's off to the Burnt Tower to fight your rival, see off Raikou, Entei and Suicune, and meet Eusine. The tower is annoying though, with Pokemon that inflicts poison. The Tin Tower....I'll give that a miss. I'm not playing Heart Gold, so it'll be a while before I backtrack here.

You get the Dowsing Machine(itemfinder) which is even more intuitive than the one in Platinum. When you use it, the itemfinder appears on the bottom screen and you have to touch and slide across on the screen. The itemfinder will beep when you're nearby and shows you the exact location. You can move and it won't be affected at all. Very nice. Bill is in Ecruteak(I knew it.), so back to Goldenrod to get my Eevee, and then to fight Morty. I got Surf from the guy in the Kimono Girls building too.

Extrasensory on Togepi helps a lot, as the early Ghost types are all Poison hybrids, so I have an extra attacker while Furret is useless here. The Gym loos great, and quite hard to navigate, like in the original. Morty himself was pretty easy, save for the last Pokemon, Gengar. What a pain. With Hypnosis, Shadow Ball and a crazy Speed stat, he's quite a tough one. Dirty tactics saved the day: switch to Pidgeotto, rendering Shadow Ball useless. Sand Attack Gengar until he can't possibly land Hypnosis. Slowly chip away at his HP. Win. Togepi evolved during this battle. I got a Togetic! My secret Elite Four beating plan is nearly complete....now I just need that Dawn Stone.

Moved to Route 38 and then to Olivine, stopping by the Moomoo Farm on the way. Good thing I had Oran Berries planted- I'll come back later to nurse the sick Miltank back to health. I caught one myself, together with a Tauros. There's nothing much in Olivine yet, you can't go to the port to board the S.S. Aqua, the Battle Frontier is closed until you beat the Elite Four, and Jasmine is looking after the lighthouse's Ampharos. The lighthouse has been redesigned a lot though, there aren't any midway holes to fall into. It's rounder, and there's a part where you have to jump out a window and land on another part of the lighthouse (zomg 3D perspective!).

Route 40 and 41 were tiring, but Togetic, Quagsire, Jumpluff and Ampharos (yes, all in their final forms now) made quick work of the Pokemon there. I arrive in Ecruteak all tired out. Got the SecretPotion and stuff too. I decided to fight Chuck (Norris) while I was here. Chuck (Norris) is training under a makeshift waterfall in is Gym. Well, that's new, but that also means I can't stir him any way. The only way was to make it to the top of the Gym(passing by the Gym Trainers), and turn off that blasted water spouter. Now the bugger stops training and battles me. Pretty easy battle, this. Pidgeotto completely destroyed his first Pokemon, and Poliwrath, well....Bayleef handled that. Trying to Focus Punch me was the mistake he made. Battling him yielded HM Fly (Yes. Finally).

Oh, there's a small cave by the side of Ecruteak. It was closed before I fought Chuck (Norris), but now I can go in. I'll do that on Day 15.

Tomorrow, a trip to New Johto, Route 47!

I haven't changed it for a year now. I need a new one badly. A new banner too, though I'm going to have that hand-drawn when the time comes.

Yay cute Pokemon :)

And I haven't forgotten about the Pokemon Soul Silver updates, it's just that there's so much I want to blog about that I can't really find much time for it. I'll cover it quickly from now on, minus the days where I'm grinding for EXP and slacking off at the Pokethlon.

Today is the release date for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky in the US. Although I have the JP version, I'm still hellbent on getting it. For the love of Pokemon, you might say :)

And then there's A Boy and his Blob, tomorrow! Another game I cannot miss for the world...

Not to mention my backlog, which consists of Metroid Prime Trilogy, Dead Space Extraction and Mario & Luigi 3: Bowser's Inside Story.

Yeah, I'm officially out of dough.

*takes a deep breath*

Okay, you may remember my blog about bashing Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver for not including the Vs. Seeker, which was up to now the most important key item to leveling up Pokemon by means of rebattling Trainers. Turns out, there are two or three ways to get EXP in the two games and not have to grind on wild Pokemon all the time. It doesn't really make up for it, but it lessens the impact.

Thanks to GameFAQs, I found a way to exploit the phone for rematches. If you are lucky enough to get a Trainer to battle you by calling him/her yourself, go to said route and battle the Trainer. Exit the route and call again. The Trainer will want to battle you again. I don't know how long this lasts but I had a good 10 battles from the same person before I decided to stop. At one point I had two, so I was going back and forth from Goldenrod to Mahogany(yes, I have gotten that far already). In the meantime there were 3 other Trainers calling me up for matches of their own. Travelling through Johto in one shot like that was pretty fun. This is probably a glitch that Nintendo hopefully doesn't fix, or is it intentional? I don't know.

Intentional or not, Nintendo intended to make this next method to gain EXP, one that I've ignored since I got the game.

Pokewalker. I haven't touched mine since I started playing, so I didn't know to what extent it could help. Just like Gold/Silver had the Pocket Pikachu, HG/SS has this. Except it's more useful. Way more. You gain one EXP for each step you take with your Pokemon, and you can battle wild Pokemon and collect items while doing so. Just idling around and shaking it would defeat the purpose, so probably I'll take it out for daily walks from now on. This is what Nintendo wants me to do, and wants all Pokemon Trainers to do. The healthier way of training Pokemon that doesn't need the Vs. Seeker. Sure, there's no EVs with this, but you don't have to pay the Breeders to raise your Pokemon, and you don't let them decide what moves to teach to your Pokemon. And the EVs can be found in-game anyway if you look around hard enough.

What's daunting about the Pokewalker is, well, if you play the DS game, standalone, you'll only be getting 3/4 of what the game has to offer. The remaining 1/4 is locked away in that Pokewalker. I am not kidding. Look up Serebii and check the items you can get on the Pokewalker through the itemfinder. Berries are impossible to find in Johto save for a few basic 7 or so. The remaining 40 berries(which includes the Liechi set and the EV-reducing set) can only be obtained through Pokewalker, along with many, many other rare items that you could once get in the Sinnoh Underground or otherwise. The different colored Shards too(you can use them in Johto).

I guess I was worked up about the Vs. Seeker because it advocated what I call 're-enactment gameplay'. You play one awesome part of a game, you fight a really memorable boss, you get past a heart-rending or awe-inspiring cutscene. Surely you want to relive those moments without having to start a new save file? That's 're-enactment gameplay'. Few games have had elements of reenactment(the ones I've played, anyway), beyond BGM galleries and a few boss rematches. And the Vs. Seeker lets you reenact your battles with the Trainers across the land, whether they've got an awesome team that screams EXP monster, or a challenging one that uses rare, highly evolved Pokemon. I'm gonna miss training against them, but for now, I want to enjoy Soul Silver for what it's really worth, both the game, and the Pokewalker.