User:Loon Wolf

	This user comes from Brazil.

	This user identifies as male.

Babel

pt	Este usuário é um falante nativo do português.

en-4	This user speaks English at a native level.

es-2	Este usuario puede contribuir con un nivel intermedio de español.

fr-1	Cet utilisateur peut parler français à un niveau élémentaire.

Users by language

	This user likes the original series of the Pokémon animated series.

	This user watches the Pokémon anime on Cartoon Network.

	This user had to send in about a million postcards to win that hat.

	This user is a player of Pokémon Snap.

	This user is a player of Pokémon FireRed Version.

	This user's first partner Pokémon is Charmander.

	This user's first partner Pokémon is Bulbasaur.

	This user is a player of Pokémon Yellow Version.

	This user is a player of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

	This user is a player of New Pokémon Snap.

	This user is a player of Pokémon LeafGreen Version.

	This user is a Champion!

	☆ This user's favorite Pokémon is Jigglypuff. ☆

	☆ This user's favorite Pokémon is Eevee. ☆

	☆ This user's favorite Gym Leader is Sabrina. ☆

	This user plays the Super Mario series.

	This user used to fear putting rare TMs to waste and ended up not using them.

	This user can read Unown writing!

	O RLY?

	These donuts are great. Jelly-filled are my favorite. Nothing beats a jelly-filled donut.

	This user loves ketchup as much as Pikachu.

	This user's favorite color is red.

	This user loves winter.

	This user plays the piano.

	This user is a Libra.

	This user uses Windows Live Messenger.

As a 90's child, Pokémon has been in my life for as long as I remember. By the turn of the millennium, I had a shoebox of minifigures, 8 or so palm-sized figures, some VHS tapes, the soundtrack CD, a complete sticker album (plus a certain bootleg one that was still memorable in its own way), the Pikachu plush that turned into a Poké Ball when you turned it inside out, a voice-recording Pikachu plush, and a Pikachu costume. I even ate the Pokémon cereal a couple times. And the story is only starting.

Showtime! (the animated series)

Though I liked to watch the show on Cartoon Network (it was my first anime, in fact), I didn't really keep up with the series during its original run; I only watched a few stray episodes. The closest I got to following a storyline was thanks to a few VHS tapes I had, cause I rewatched those A LOT. Funny thing, though: I only had volumes 1, 3, and 4. Not 2. So I had Ash catching Caterpie, which evolved into Metapod, then on the next tape it was already a Butterfree. I missed the one in which Ash met Brock, too. I also had the VHSs of the first two movies.

I was always hoping Jigglypuff would show up.

Looking back at the episode list, I might have actually caught more episodes than I remember, because I have quite a lot of specific memories. For example, I remember asking my parents what "pathetic" meant due to Misty's closing line to Brock in The Case of the K-9 Caper!, and pretending that my Car City Carpet was Sabrina's toy box. I suppose that not watching every episode in order just made the experience feel a lot looser.

Something's different

I remember watching things slowly change as time went on. Togepi and Marill had joined the gang, they had that new opening, and there were new faces coming every day. One day, my grandma got me a pack with 6 minifigures (Chinchou, Smeargle, Ampharos... maybe Mareep, I'm not sure anymore) and I was intrigued, because I'd never seen any of them. And speaking of grandma, I'll always remember when I was watching Pikachu's Rescue Adventure with her, and when Elekid showed up, I said "I don't know who that is", and she replied "It must be from another planet".

You guys are cute, but what happened to the old gang?

Anyway, at one point in 2001, Ash had been with Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile for a while. But I swear: the moment that finally made things click was when I was watching a TV commercial for a new Pokémon sticker album, and there was this scene with a couple of girls saying "Look! There's Chikorita!" And that little pointing out was what made me realize: "Wait, Chikorita isn't one of the 150. What happened to Bulbasaur, Charizard, and Squirtle? What is going on?"

So yeah, realizing that the original series had been replaced by this new series was quite saddening to me, because I felt that I had missed out on the full story. I would keep casually watching random episodes every now and then, like Casey singing the Electabuzz song, the rich lady with a Snubbull, Poké Balls growing from trees, that damn Miltank, Mini-Dit, and Brock trying to hug a ghost. (Also, Two Perfect Girls and Song of Jigglypuff were a couple of banger songs.) But always with that bit of sadness about not watching the whole thing.

And things only got worse with the Hoenn League, in 2006. It's funny, actually, because, while I felt more "bitter" with the show going on and on, ironically I ended up watching Advanced Battle more consistently than any previous season. (The mid-afternoon time slot aligned better with my daily life at that age, I suppose.) I believe I missed very few episodes between Solid as a Solrock and The Scheme Team, which for me was an impressive streak. As I like to say, I watched it while turning up my nose, but I did watch it. (And I can't say that ending with a return to Pallet Town didn't feel satisfying.) I think that my favorite novelty of this era was that seeing Jessie find a new purpose in Pokémon Contests as Jessebella (and later Jessilina) was an adorable evolution of her character. When the season was over and they actually did begin a Battle Frontier season immediately afterwards, however, I had had enough: "Enough. Give me Gen 1 or give me death."

In 2007, I finally got my wish and Cartoon Network started rerunning the first season. I did my best to watch it every night this time (though disgruntled for missing the Wednesday episodes due to reasons beyond my control). I did finally watch many episodes that I had never seen as a child, especially in the earlier part of the series, so that was quite fulfilling.

Other than that, I've also watched some of the movies and specials that were broadcast by Cartoon Network, even if only in parts. The Entei movie, mostly overheard the one with Raikou, one with the Pichu Posse fighting, at least the ending bit of the one with Ritchie traveling through time, overheard some pieces of the one with the talking Lucario, and watched some pieces of the one with a guy that turns into a Lickilicky.

Game on (videogames)

Snap

I don't know if many people can relate, but my first Pokémon game was actually Pokémon Snap. People don't talk about that one enough, in my opinion. I've always thought it was cool that the game was not about battling and competing, just watching Pokémon in various environments and taking photos.

I couldn't even read yet, at the age I played it. It did teach me a few words in English, like "beach" and "tunnel", though. I'm not sure how often I managed to clear Valley, though, because I remember that I didn't know you had to align the Squirtle with Mankey, so I depended on a lucky shot. I say "how often" because, even if my cousin or other relatives helped me clear all levels, little me liked to choose the "New Game" option. Not only because I liked going for a fresh start; mostly because I liked the funny sound and exclamation points that warned you about deleting saved data. (Again, I couldn't read; I had no idea what that said. But it was all good for me.)

I remember that I always took some photos of the flowerbeds on the Beach, thinking "This one is for mom", even though I knew Professor Oak wouldn't take those. I remember the Album music being the most soothing thing in the world. I remember seeing a Gyarados picture that my cousin had taken, but misidentifying the waterfall as the waterfall in the beginning of the Cave, so I spent a lot of time throwing Pester Balls there to no avail. I also remember that an older relative knew that I loved Jigglypuff (for real, whenever I saw Jigglypuff in the Cave I would take photos until I ran out of film, on purpose), so he kept throwing Pester Balls at Jigglypuff just to piss me off.

By 2002, when I no longer had my cartridge, I would read the manual for old times' sake. Then I found out you could take your cartridge to Pokémon Snap Stations and print stickers of photos you took (in USA only, surely), and felt robbed.

Gold

"Vai, Theo!"

Technically, this was my first contact with the core game series, thanks to my computer class at school in 2001 or so. Our teacher had us play it in class one day, and it was in Portuguese, surprisingly. All I remember is that I chose "Gold" as my character's name (I remember the NPC girl saying "Gold, volte aqui! Não vai pegar seu Pokémon com o Professor Elm?" Over and over, because I didn't know how to do it.); and I chose Chikorita as my starter. I didn't know what to name it, so my teacher suggested I should name it after my newly-born brother. That's about it for this entry, though, because you can only get so far in a single class period.

FireRed

My real introduction to the core game series happened in 2006. A friend at school showed me he had been playing Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire (I remember him showing he had just caught either Solrock or Lunatone, which was a nice bit of synchronicity, because I had just watched Solid as a Solrock on Cartoon Network like that same week). I commented that I'd like to play too, "but a game with Pokémon from the first generation". So he suggested I should play FireRed.

At his house, he taught me about emulators. He showed me how to download Emule, and then how to use Emule to download emulators and ROMs. A very valuable lesson indeed. He even taught me to download a program called Pokédex to help me with everything I needed to know about attacks and so (and completely in Portuguese). He also had the Brazilian edition of The Official Pokémon Handbook (Deluxe Collector's Edition), which I found wonderful. I learned basically everything about Generation 1 with it. In fact, I thought it was such a treasure that I asked to borrow it so I could type a copy on my computer. I think I gave up before I got to the Pikachu page, mostly because finding the right official artworks on Google was impossible back then, but also because of the daunting quantity of text. Thankfully, he decided to let me keep it later. A real treasure.

Anyway, back to the game. My first starter was Charmander. I think I went as far as Brock, but since I was still learning how to save and load games on VBA, I had to start again, and picked Bulbasaur this time.

In hindsight, I've concluded that maybe we shouldn't be so harsh on Ash for being such a poor trainer. Because I was exactly the same age as him, and this first run of mine was honestly horrible. No idea of how to balance a team's levels; no regard for type advantage; capturing every species I found without even knowing about the PC boxes until later; skipping text so much I lost good attacks without even noticing (I remember becoming annoyed when my Ivysaur "lost" its iconic Razor Leaf to the stupid, do-nothing Sweet Scent. I also remember I thought that was Petal Dance, which I'd heard from May in the anime around that time, but I digress). In short, no strategy at all.

I did eventually get to Elite Four (though not without deciding to follow a walkthrough, after struggling to get Cut, and bruteforcing my way through Rock Tunnel without Flash). But as you'd expect, my team was far from ready for it. And trying to cheese it by using level-50 Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno, and dozens of Revives didn't cut it (Lance was as far as I'd get). Of course, I wasn't patient enough to level up my team any further, so I ended up just giving up.

In January 2007, during a trip to USA, I bought myself a Game Boy Advance SP, and a proper (used) FireRed cartridge. This time, I once again picked Charmander, because I wanted to do an "Ash" run (you know it, trying to play with the same Pokémon as Ash. And Charizard was his only evolved starter). Yes, I went for the rare Pikachu encounter in Viridian Forest. But knowing myself, Safari Zone was probably as far as I got, because catching even a single Tauros without the emulator's save states would be a nightmare.

Yellow

If you read above about my attempt on FireRed to mimic Ash's team, then you can guess why this one appealed to me. A game that follows the anime's story was a masterstroke by the creators, let's hand it to them. The simple fact that you could have Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle all without having to choose is enough to make this the perfect game. It's always been so unfair that Ash could have all starters, while we had to choose only one.

I'm pretty sure I played a Brazilian fan translation, because I recall details such as Slam being adapted as "Pou!", and Copycat being called Duplica. (I guess this means I played it during the 2007 rerun of the anime's first season, cause I also recall I had recently watched Duplica's episode.) I also remember that the Mario & Wario reference in her room ("A game with Mario wearing a bucket on his head") was changed into "It's a Mario game. He's smashing a Goomba." It may be generic, but honestly it was more effective at making me guffaw.

I'm not sure how far I got in this one. I didn't beat the Elite Four, but this game earned a place in my heart.

Honorable mentions

I know at some point I tried to play Pokémon Red. If nothing else, just so I could try to do the Mew glitch (which was mentioned as not working in the walkthrough for FireRed that I was using). It might be a bit of "genwunner hypocrisy", but trying Red after FireRed gave me quite a bit of appreciation for the technical improvements of Gen III, at least. I also tried Pokémon Green once, but it was in Japanese, you see.

After I learned how to use emulators, my best friend shared a huge folder of GBA ROMs with me. It had every Pokémon game up to Gen III. He also suggested that I tried Pokémon Ruby (it might be a favorite of his. I know he used "Exploud" as part of his gamertag at one point). I did try it, I think even twice, but I never got too far in this one. I don't even remember which starter I chose (I believe Treecko, inspired by the cool demeanor of Ash's Grovyle, but Torchic also wouldn't be unlikely). I just remember catching a Wurmple that evolved into Cascoon despite me wanting a Beautifly, and trying to plant my first Berry. (I wanted to make some Pokéblocks at least, like I'd seen May do in the anime, but alas.)

I also remember seeing my brothers play a bit of Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire, with that folder. It was cute to see Pokémon interecting with the table, Gulpins piling up, and such.

In June 2013, a nice classmate taught me I could emulate on my smartphone (with My Boy), and convinced me to try Pokémon Emerald. My starter was a Torchic named Phoenix. While I played at least a little longer than my previous attempt with Ruby, I didn't get too far, either. I'm not sure how far I got, but I do remember I got the bike, and caught a Taillow (named Passarinha), a Trapinch, and a Nincada that proceeded to evolve into Ninjask and Shedinja (I nicknamed one of those "Ninja Joe", for whatever reason. Perhaps subconscious influence by Lego's Ninjago). What ultimately killed my run, though, was the fact that my cellphone (a Samsung Galaxy Mini) suddenly just bricked, later that year.

New Snap

This one has a funny story to it. Since the original Snap was so special to me, I've long wished for a sequel or something. Then in May 2020, I saw a tweet talking about "fans of dead franchises", and replied "I believe in Pokémon Snap 2". Then almost one month later, New Pokémon Snap was announced. My faith was rewarded.

It took me a while to actually play it, because new games tend to be pricey. For a while I hoped to find a friend who'd own it and let me play, but I eventually installed it in 2024. I have yet to finish it, but it's a beautiful game. I do think that only being able to pick one photo among various "star categories" can be frustrating, though.

LeafGreen

In 2023, I decided to try another run, with proper strategy this time. I was going to go for FireRed again, but I remembered Staryu and Vulpix were LeafGreen exclusives, so I decided to try LeafGreen this time. I even found a VBA emulator with a link cable function, so I could trade with myself. I would, for the first time, have access to trade evolutions. I could even have a team with all three starters. Ah, but that would take the fun away of strategizing. So let's just try to complete the dex, while still forming a team of its own merit.

Of course, the game itself is easy to play. What kept me for the most part, was me being fussy about how to manage trades among 3 different runs, so that at least the main 2 had a chance to complete the dex while avoiding repeated catches as much as possible. I even went into a years-long hiatus.

But, on January 15^th, 2026, a whopping 20 years after I discovered the game, I finally became the Indigo League Champion. No using save states during the league battles, either, for honor.

My Dream Team

Leaf

Indigo Plateau

LeafGreen

Reward:
$0

Venusaur♂ Lv.60

Types:

Grass

Poison

Ability:

Overgrow

Held item:

None

Showtime! (the animated series)

Something's different

Game on (videogames)

Snap

Gold

FireRed

Yellow

Honorable mentions

New Snap

LeafGreen

My Dream Team

Trivia