5 Nintendo franchises that deserve more love

I'm not as big into video games as I used to be, but I still like to play them when I can, and I try to keep on top of what's new even if I can't afford it. I was raised on Nintendo, and as such have had a massive bias toward their products and properties. Mario, Zelda, Pokemon and others are consistently some of the finest series. Nothing approaches their longevity.

This was the last one really worth playing and you know it, fanboy.

Still, with so many brilliant franchises, there are plenty of more or less equally brilliant games that have been forgotten in Nintendo's 30-year history. Let's finish this introduction and start naming them.

Five animals, etc. that still need to be made into Pokemon

All Pokemon news sources have been reporting that a Fifth Generation of the games is likely on the way. To quote my friend Everyone, "Ugh, really? I don't see how that could work... Really? No." But who cares what that guy thinks? I'm excited. More monsters to collect is a nice thing, even if 90% of them will inevitably suck.

Still, I understand the concern people have over this. With 493 Pokemon already scurrying about PokEarth's various regions, there's not a lot of ground left to cover, is there? Perhaps, but I do think there are a few animals, plants, mineral and whatever left un-Pokefied. Namely, these:

Who's That (Terrible) Pokemon?

A while ago I went on a long ramble about who the greatest Pokemon are. Initially I was going to include monsters from all games, but after the first three were from the same generation, I just said screw it and made it a Gold and Silver list. It got me thinking about the five best Pokemon from the other games, and then on a much more interesting subject. I bring you:

The Five Worst Pokemon from Gold and Silver

5. Politoed

Remember the Poliwag family from Red and Blue? Those were great Pokemon. They're simple, they're adorable, and they've got a unique design. What can go wrong with giant tadpoles with gloves? Enter the Frog Pokemon, Politoed. If, for some reason, you didn't want to evolve your Poliwhirl into a Poliwrath in order to boost stats and gain a type while still having a virtually identical Pokemon, Gold and Silver offered this alternative. Politoed adds nothing in battle, has no discernible advantages over its opposite evolutionary branch, and just looks goofy. It's belly swirl has mutated and it's grown a head and phalanges and other vestigial parts. Screw you, Politoed. Nobody wants a frog. Remember the Power Rangers movie? People greet frogs with disappointment. Everything its predecessors had going for them, Politoed threw away for boring scientific accuracy.

My thoughts on 2009, Part Three

Top 4 Most Disappointing Movies of 2009

4. X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Now, it's not like I ever expected a movie about the least-interesting, yet inexplicably popular X-men to be any good, but I had expected something more than this. This was such an empty, careless effort. The story is "Wolverine walks from fight scene to fight scene as decades pass with no consequence" and you can almost taste the apathy from everyone involved. It's like the writer, director and cast all suddenly realized that they were in a movie about Wolverine.

3. 9 - As my previous movie lists have established, small-budget movies make me drool. I wanted "9" to be good, but it isn't. It isn't bad. It isn't anything memorable or notable. It's a sequence of pretty cool action scenes and occasionally-beautiful animation with terrible dialogue and a story that starts nowhere, goes nowhere, and ends nowhere. I felt like I was watching a video game I couldn't play, but would have liked to.

My thoughts on 2009, Part Two

Okay, let's get back to it.

Top 7 Movies of 2009 I Haven't Seen Yet (I Swear There are Only Two or Three More Movie Ones)

7. Fantastic Mr. Fox - Typically I can't stand Wes Anderson films, but I'll admit that the trailers for this one charmed me. Hearing how little actual directing Anderson did only made me more interested in this one.

6. World's Greatest Dad - I love a good dark comedy, and Robin Williams playing the failed author father of a kid who died of autoerotic asphyxiation and then forging a suicide note for him, which becomes famous, forcing him to forge an entire diary to finally find success as a writer sounds like an absolute winner to me.

5. Dead Snow - As Much as I love zombies, I'll admit that I'm growing tired of them. There are only so many things you can do to them, really. However, "undead frozen Nazis thawed out and angry" is something I haven't seen before and very much want to.

My thoughts on 2009, Part One

Initially I was going to do the cliche thing and make a series of "Top -X- -Ys- of '09" lists for music, movies, video games, and what all else, but there are numerous things going against that. I only purchased two new albums this year, and only played three or four new video games worth discussing, so I couldn't pick a uniform number. Also, even if I could, I just don't care enough too. It's a lot of effort naming and ranking things for a list I doubt anybody will actually take too seriously.

Let's try something else instead, a countdown of lists. This way it's unique and interesting and I don't have to do as much work. So here we go:

Cameron's Top 9 "Top n-1" Lists of 2009, and Note That I am Aware That There are a Lot I Have Not Seen/Listened to/Whatever.

Top 9 Movies of 2009

9. District 9 - Impressive visuals and an excellent sci-fi allegory done cheap and done right. The declarations of this "stealing 'Avatar''s thunder" were hyperbolic but understandable.

8. Adventureland - "Superbad" director Greg Mottola has solidified his place as the new John Hughes with this warm and relatable, if not always laugh-out-loud funny comedy.

7. The Hurt Locker - Very few movies have been made on the War on Terror, but this intense depiction of bomb diffusing in Iraq does a lot to fill that void.

It's 5:40 a.m., do you know who your favorite Pokemon is?

It is late, and I can't sleep because I woke up at 1:30 in the afternoon today, so I'm going to tell you who the best Pokemon are and why. Lucky you.

First, we need to establish when the best Pokemon are. Most anyone who grew up with the games will tell you that Generation 1 (Red, Blue and Yellow versions) and the original 151 monsters are the only ones worth discussing. They are wrong. I have no problem writing Gen 3 off, as most of its additions to the Pokemon World were trying too hard for their own damn good. Despite marked improvement, I can understand disregarding Gen 4 as well for not being part of the nostalgic early days. Still, it's obvious that Pokemon Gold and Silver just plain rocked.

Every bit as much a part of your childhood as Red or Blue.

Gold and Silver came around back when Pokemon was still cool for the first time, before semi-ironic nostalgia and Facebook events made it okay to like them again. The games were better than the first (and still are the best in the series, if you ask me), and the new Pokemon were almost all awesome. So awesome, in fact, that my top five list consists solely of monsters from Generation 2.

5. Ampharos

The Light Pokemon, better known as the Awesome Giraffesheep with a Lightbulb Tail Pokemon. I had one on my very first Gold team, and I remember it fondly. It's a good, reliable electric type with respectable stats and a good movepool, but more importantly it just plain looks cool. Somehow that thing evolves from a blue sheep. I don't even know what animal Ampharos is supposed to be, I just know I want to hug it.