Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

[Jordan]

Haha... are you serious? For a Zigzagoon? I don't remember how hard they are to come across in Diamond/Perl, but in Emerald you can find them under every rock right at the start of the game. Linoone is also easy to find later on, which makes breeding one trivial. Does anybody post normal trades online? I haven't actually bothered with that yet.

Let me put it this way: One time I browsed for a shinx and half of the people offering it were demanding a level 100 palkia in return.

Granted, there are some good trades to be had. It is worth checking out just to do those trades (for example: one time I traded a kadabra for a kadabra; ostensibly the person offered this trade generously so that both people would get alakazam, which I did). However, you will undoubtably have to wade through many unreasonable ones to find the few good people who know how to use the gts right.

I love everything about Metagross. I've even got this little plastic Metagross Pokémon (which I fished out of a random machine by spending around $8) on top of my computer (he's kickin' it with Motoko Kusanagi) and a bigger plastic one near the television which speaks when you press down on him. I've also got a little plastic Zigzagoon somewhere. Nearly all of these things are gifts.

I thought about training one (or a rhyperior since rhyperior looked really cool) but changed my mind in favor of snorlax instead. Snorlax is just such a winner pokemon to me. In hindsight metagross might have been a better tank, but oh well... too late to change that now. :/

I've found a few. It isn't too terrible to come across at least one if you learn to do that grass hunting trick with the Pokéradar (or whatever it is called). I didn't expect I would find one which I liked so much, though, and I was especially surprised to find out he came with a cool nature.

The nature thing is even more unbelievably lucky. Modest and Adamant are quite possibly the two best natures in the game, depending on the pokemon. I actually have a lot of tanks on my team though, so I go for things like careful, impish, etc.

Trapinch kind of looks like chain chomp from the mario games.

[Kong Wen]

What is a "shiny" pokémon?

[Ranbir]

The cards are shiny, innit.

[Jordan]

What is a "shiny" pokémon?

There is a very rare chance in every pokemon game from gold/silver onwards that you'll come across a special-colored pokemon. These are called "shiny" pokemon, and there are "shiny" sprites for every single pokemon in the game, including legendaries. People who try to get legendary shinies either hack or have way too much time on their hands, though, as they literally would have to keep restarting until they see it if they want to get a legit one. The same goes for starter pokemon.

I think shinies might have slightly improved stats, but I'm not sure about it. They are overall not worth how rare they are in my opinion, but they are still pretty cool to have (and in James' case, he has a red Gyrados that has a good nature, which makes it even better). You can see the shiny version of any pokemon you want on bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net. Just look up said pokemon. What I don't like about shinies is that most of them are recolors, and many of them are very boring recolors at that. Poliwhirl's shiny, as an example, is essentially just a lighter blue poliwhirl. Granted, some like the aforementioned red gyrados are kinda cool, but many shinies look kind of lame. I think they look slightly neater on Battle Revolution, but I heard that was kinda a weak game, so I've only seen youtube vids of battles on it.

[Kong Wen]

So my green Zubat is "shiny"? And these guys are apparently frustratingly rare? That's one more thing that is actually pretty cool about these games, but that makes me not want to play them.

Does anyone want my green Zubat before I sell the game?

[Jordan]

Yep, that's indeed the shiny version of zubat. You had great luck catching one, especially since crobat, its eventual evolution, is actually one of the more useful poison types. o_0

[James]

Well damn... it would be a shame to let that little Zubat go to waste. I'll be happy to take him off your hands rather than let him suffer the void. I'll have Mr. Kong's Zubat. That's got to count for something? I'll have to pick up my game and figure out how to trade again. I haven't played much lately aside from getting Deoxys at some GameStop event earlier.

And as for the shinies, there's not much point in trying to collect them. They are far too rare. And most of the people who brag about them cheated (Action Replay) to get them anyway. What is even more embarrassing for these kids is that you can usually tell by looking at the Pokemon's information. I saw a kid in a message board trying to explain to everyone that his 31 IV Black Rayquaza was legit, and throwing a tantrum when people called him out on it (he also had a shiny Kyogre, Groudon, blah, blah, blah...).

[Kong Wen]

James, I'll check for other shinies I may have (I think I have a different looking worm-type thing, too). At least you'll get a little boost to your collection from a legit source. I don't know if they're any good (and they're definitely very low level), but they're legit and rare at least.

[James]

Thanks! Gyarados is the only shiny I've ever caught. Judy caught about three or four, though. She had a Zubat too. It doesn't matter to me if it is good or not... it is worth it just because it is Mr. Kong's Zubat. I don't compete with anyone anyway.

[Kong Wen]

Thanks! Gyarados is the only shiny I've ever caught. Judy caught about three or four, though. She had a Zubat too. It doesn't matter to me if it is good or not... it is worth it just because it is Mr. Kong's Zubat. I don't compete with anyone anyway.

That's true, he (or she?) it will be one little piece of SoSZ legend.