Top Spin

Weak, I know, but I've given up on little monsters for a bit. Too frustrating.

Instead, Kieron's been persuading me to play Top Spin a little more. I got it ages and ages ago (when Woolies was doing it for £13 instead of the then-RRP of £40) and thought it was OK, but not as good as Virtua Tennis.

I know think it's pretty good, but not as good as Virtua Tennis. There's quite a lot of control given to you over where the ball should go, and how you hit it, but often it's just a case of getting to where the ball's going to be and pressing A, because the computer's hit a blinder of a shot even though by rights, due to the smash you sent over to them they should have been hitting it backwards over their head while holding the raquet with their left foot.

But it's not bad at all, and I'll be playing some games online in the near future. Bet I lose.

Pokémon LeafGreen: just ... one ... more ... attack

But oh no. The third of the Elite Four is so nearly crushed, on their last pokémon, with a red energy bar. I launch an attack ... but it misses. And then I watch as every pokémon I wheel out gets killed in one hit without a chance to attack.

The game cartridge is currently stuck under my sofa.

Pokémon LeafGreen: over a ton

Over a hundred pokémon collected now, and Raichu is levelled up a fair bit, and I can get up to the third of the Elite Four with ease. And then all my pokémon get wiped out in a row. Even ones which shouldn't. Gah.

In Memoriam

I don't have that much money left in Pokémon LeafGreen, but I do now have 98 pokémon. Still haven't beaten the Elite Four, but I've not actually tried - I've been travelling around trying to level up my Raichu, and wondering where I can get another moonstone from to evolve Clefairy.

A game that I've got back into is In Memoriam, on the PC. The main reason for my reinterest was that I put together an entry for it on GamerWiki, and in doing so I remembered how interesting the story was. I'm quite a way through the disc now, I think, but my brain started hurting with the moving circles, so I've stopped again.

Erm, that's it.

Pokémon LeafGreen: boss boss boss boss

Don't you hate it when videogames roll out that old tired cliche of numerous boss battles one after the other which you must complete all of before being able to progress anywhere? A bit like that sentence, it just runs on and on and on.

And I've met the Elite Four in Pokémon LeafGreen, who are exactly this: four bosses you must complete all at once, although you can use potions and revives and so on after defeating each one. No going back to the pokémon centre to get healed for free, though - oh no. Basically, you have to spend your way through the bosses. Rather pointless.

Luckily I've got lots of money.

Pokémon LeafGreen: Zapdos, er, zapped and dossed

On the tube home, I got some quite odd looks when I finally caught Zapdos and couldn't really contain my excitement.

It's only a game, Tim.

Pokémon LeafGreen: back to Kanto

I think it's called Kanto, anyway. No doubt I'll have enraged thousands of Pokémon fans with my inadequate knowledge, but never mind.

As I said before, I'd played Pokémon Yellow a fair bit when it was released, but I only got up to just after the Safari Zone, I think. I'm further than that in LeafGreen now, which pleases me. And the game's actually gripped me properly, in that I'm playing it in preference to everything else at the moment. I'm up to 71 pokémon owned, which is depressingly not even half way - but I don't think you can get all 150 with just LeafGreen anyway. I must convince either John or Kieron to get FireRed.

I've just been to the Seafoam Islands and managed to catch the Articuno after restarting around ten times. The artwork for that bird when it's on my team is crap. And it's rather limited in terms of attacks. But it's mighty, and I've put it on my list of six to carry around everwhere.

I've beaten the fire trainer at Cinnibar gym - hardly difficult, given that my Charizard is now level 45, I've got a level 44 Dugtrio, and Nidorina and Lapras and Articuno - and have gone north to find Pallet Town again. I've never seen a charmeleon in the wild.

Someone said something about a firey or an electrical bird somewhere, but I've not found it. I've forgotton what the hint was now as well. But there's a power station which I've never been able to get to, so I'll have to have an explore around there, since that's the obvious place for anything electrical to be. Including maybe a Pikachu, which I've not found otherwise.

I've got further in this game than I did in Yellow, and am off soon to try and find the eighth badge. I've not seen my rival David for a while, so I have a horrible feeling he's going to turn up shortly and fight me. I didn't catch much in the safari zone, so I might go back there at some point soon to see what else is around.

But for now, it's nice to see my mum again. Except because it's a US English translation, she's called "mom". Stupid.