LogFAQs > #967819406

Porygon - Pokemon Blue

And ONLY Pokemon Blue of the Gen 1 games. Needing to get 9999 coins in red version? The guy is pitifully inaccessible. Anyway, for an in-game playthrough, Gen 4 is probably the best appearance of Porygon - Platinum makes the weird duck actually accessible, and Porygon-Z was still a really fun novelty at the time to strive for with its ridiculous special attack plus the physical/special split giving it funny STAB Hyper Beam. However, I have a real soft spot for oddball competitive Pokemon, and Gen 1 Porygons more recent emergence as a rogue pick is hilarious to me. Porygon is bad but its perfectly built to counter Snorlax. Porygon is slow, but is juuuust slightly less slow than Snorlax. Porygon doesnt have much health, but it has juuuuust enough to be able to take less than 50% from a Snorlax Body Slam, meaning that it can recover the damage off and pp stall Snorlax into defeat. It learns Thunder Wave, which can occasionally give it free turns to whittle Snorlax away or read the switch and paralyze something like Tauros. And its Normal type, making it immune to being paralyzed by Body Slam. Porygon is good against absolutely no other Pokemon with a remote competitive niche, but it does exactly enough correctly to beat one of the Top 3 non-Mewtwo or Mew Pokemon in the game. And I love that story, its great. Cute little section of Poke Floats, too, I miss the Porygon2 pokeball where it just kills you unreactably.

Mario Baseball Profile - Bowser

Weve been talking in a lot of except Bowser, on the Bowser Team, behind Bowser, with the Bowser match-up, supports Bowser. And there is a very, very good reason for that. Bowser is not just the best character in Mario Superstar Baseball, he warps the entire game around his presence, and is so integral to the teambuilding process, his removal would cause endless repercussions. To put it simply, if Bowser is at the plate, he is getting either on-base or an RBI 80% of the time. Bowser has, bar none, the best bat in the game; it has the longest reach of any bat in the game, it has the most power of any bat in the game, his homers have an insanely high trajectory that even characters with Wall Jump cannot grab, and hes a pull hitter, meaning that he naturally drags the ball toward his side of proper handedness, which just so happens to give him an easy, intuitive window to smack it over the fence; no complicated timing or thought needed, just hit the ball and watch it fly. If Bowser can make contact - and it is very easy for Bowser to make contact - its usually gonna go over the fence, and in the worst cases, hell hit it foul far enough that Magikoopa and the super jumpers cant snipe him because he hit it too damn hard for them to react. Because of this, Bowser is almost always an automatic walk; there are VERY few situations that would make you want to pitch to Bowser. And due to this, teambuilding completely warps around him. A power hitter like Bowser would normally be in the 4 slot so he has Grand Slam potential, but youll often see Bowser in the 2 or 3 spot as a guaranteed single, likely after someone like Bones he has chemistry with or Toadsworth who will also reliably get on base. If Hammer Bro follows Bowser, though - Bowsers giving a chem boost to that boy, putting the opposing team in a no-win situation where a grand slam can EASILY happen. And while Bro is optimal chemistry, any power hitter can serve Bros role, made even worse if theres a conga line of power right after the Koopa King. And on top of that, he has Laser Beam, making Bowser a great corner baseman because where else are you gonna stick him; hes not OPTIMAL, but he denies homers and theres no way in Hell youre passing up on BOWSER. And on top of that, he also has Cursed Ball pitching like Dry Bones. Hes not as good at it because he has no curve, just fastballs, but its an option! Bowser does nothing else but he can win games on his own in a way that no other character comes remotely close to, even if hes merely getting beaned to set up someone else. Bowser is so ridiculous that he has to be nerfed; if Bowser is on your team, he HAS to be your captain, as his star hit (which turns the ball into a Bullet Bill thats always a line drive but pushes you back really far if you catch it) is never worth going for because I mean its Bowser, you could get whats essentially a guaranteed sac fly run-in or you could just win the game. And winning the game is EASIER! This puts greater value on all the characters with good chemistry with Bowser, as team stars are far more valuable when the Bowser Team has to spend two on Birdo, or DK, or Mario, or whoever else. Does this entirely combat Bowsers overwhelming power? No, nothing else could, but it at least keeps him from running away with games by just sticking him on the Birdo team, and gives more value to characters like Bones and Koopa who would otherwise be harder picks. Bowser is what makes Mario Baseball such a volatile, potentially high-scoring game, and is one of the tentpoles that really makes it something special. As the old adage goes: Bowser Wins Games.