Pokemon Contests are my favorite side game, bar none. I fell in love with them the first time I played through Sapphire at 12, and they heavily influenced my list of favorite Pokemon. I became farmer, breeder, trainer, and coordinator all at once. I would catch a Pokemon I thought was interesting, then immediately breed it so I could raise it from hatching and see all its moves. Every time I saw a berry bush I didn't recognize, I would get excited and check the berry tag. I would hatch eggs in my secret base to make the Pokemon that much more personal, and redecorate to the theme of whatever Pokemon I was raising through the ranks. I got really into it, and it gave me a new appreciation for Hoenn's roster of Pokemon. It also helped my battling, what with knowing most Pokemon's movesets and all. I still get all the ribbons every time I play through a Hoenn game. I just can't stay away!
I didn't know I needed this deepdive, but it was a fascinating watch! I remember thinking that the nicknames for Pokemon in contests *needed* to be as dumb as possible in order to win. So I named a Baltoy Toybal and tried to win a contest with them. It didn't work. xD I kind of wish the appeal round of the contests was more like how it is in the anime. Which might have been difficult to actually implement, but what I enjoyed about the contests in the anime was how creative the coordinators could be with their moves. Like the first thing that comes to mind is Dawn having Pachirisu and Piplup combine like... Bubblebeam and Discharge. And even the battle portion of the contests in the anime were pretty cool! But the games never let you use more than one Pokemon in the contests.
Toybal is so funny! :D Love that idea. And true, the anime HYPED up contests and were always cool to watch, but too bad that wasn't maybe feasible in the games. ;w;
I loved contests as a kid, since Ruby was my first game. I was so obsessed, I even got the glass statue decoration for my secret base. Best part was seeing the portraits in the Lilycove museum. It wasn't until I bought a guidebook to where I learned of move combinations, egg groups, and egg moves. To be the very best coordinator took a lot of breeding! The anime had such a cool concept combining contests with battles, it's a shame there hasn't been a contest battle themed game or a rom hack. Could be complicated in making combo moves look artistic, having a timer and points gauge but fun if done right.
And then people found out that a Claydol with cosmic power,ancient power, secret power and self-destruct/explosion paired with good contest stats would make all opponents cry 🤣
Really nice video! I'm glad I discovered your channel! ORAS kind of bothered me as a young person because I felt so disconnected from the female protagonist's outfit. Previously, the games were very "neutral" about the gender differences between the characters. But, y'know. It is what it is. RSE's system will always be super nostalgic!
I haven't really delved much on them but I always had the feeling that Gen 5's Pokémon Musicals in Nimbasa City were basically another form of contests too
Great video! This one especially stands out to me, as I'm going on my own ribbon master journey; where as you said: contests are the biggest source of ribbons around. I initially started with a shiny shroomish in sapphire, but the contests absolutely killed that hope for me. Look at the optimal pokeblock recipes and you'll understand why. I need 4 gameboys; 4 gen 3 games; a big enough GBA link cable; a gamecube or e-reader; pokemon colloseum/XD or the e-reader nutpea card; the patience to grind in the GC game of choice or patience to load the nutpea over and over; a GBA-GC link cable (if going GC route), and the fingers to do it all; (I have 2, 1, 1/2, 1 or 0, 0, 0, 1, 10/~40 respectively) all to make my little guy do the best it can in just the *visual* aspect. Another thing to consider is that snore isn't possible to get in sapphire; thus making combos impossible for my little shroom. Revisiting gen 4 recently made me start again with a shiny weavile I found radar chaining, and that brought to me the realization that contests are so much more accessible in platinum. You can simply buy good poffins for cheap in veilstone, as I believe you brought up in the video (p.s. there's a cool reddit guide online for anyone in a similar situation which details the optimal bought poffins). That's all they needed to do to let my weasel get 30+ ribbons. To answer the title with my own experience: the crazy hurdles in place to stand a chance in the higher rank contests; the reliance on combos that may not be possible on your `mon of choice (gen 3 exclusively); the lack of focus on it in the series compared to battles, and battling just being more fun to more people are what caused contests to fall flat.
Oh gosh good luck on the ribbon journey! I've always wanted to try getting all ribbons on one Pokemon, but for reasons you mentioned it is indeed a tall order -- I'll settle with what I can. :') It's not impossible, but yes the ribbons can be really difficult to get in some games. I'm glad you got your Weavile stacked with ribbons! And thanks for mentioning a few other tidbits, I forgot to go into the store bought poffins and have seen the guide for even that -- feeding the Pokemon the poffins! But yeah, all in all, super interesting that contests are out but ribbons still remain very strong.
wow I loved ths video! I really like contests, I couldn't really understand well how they worked when I was younger because my english wasn't that good and I just mashed buttons, but now I really like collecting ribbons for my pokemon even more because in SV and SwSh they give your pokemon silly little titles that make the experience so much special.
Love this vid! I never got into contests but never really thought about why. Looking back they’re actually pretty fun and strategic when you know how it works.
i really liked the contests in emerald, once i earned the gamecube berries, learned the mechanics, the move effects, move combos and natures... you definitely have to do some research and the game is awful at teaching you these. how people prior to the internet understood contests i have no idea
Ah, I remember the first time I bothered with contests, and the incredible journey I went on. It went like this: Lisia: "I'm sure you can win next time! Don't give up!" Me: (Looking up a strategy guide)" So...my reward is berries and water?" Thus concludes my journey into contests. I hope she's not still waiting for me to try again.
I just now learned of contests. You see I'm soon getting Pokemon Platinum and I was really curious about extra activities you could do with your Pokemon. My first Pokemon Game was Pokemon X and I enjoyed playing around in PokeAime and increasing the bonds between me and my Pokemon. And I also enjoy Picniking with my Pokemon in Paldea as well. I know Sun and Moon has Refresh and Sworld and Shield has Camping. So I was curious about Pre Gen 6 Offerings.
I love pokemon contest but it never feel like the anime and it not base on you skil and style and move combo national like using to move together and batting combo national pear move like a poke idol or a performance I don't like the dances and the the idol star don't do a thing no toy 🪀🧸 you can 🎉 use in contact to give the player something to use in the contest show case
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Pokemon Contests are my favorite side game, bar none. I fell in love with them the first time I played through Sapphire at 12, and they heavily influenced my list of favorite Pokemon. I became farmer, breeder, trainer, and coordinator all at once. I would catch a Pokemon I thought was interesting, then immediately breed it so I could raise it from hatching and see all its moves. Every time I saw a berry bush I didn't recognize, I would get excited and check the berry tag. I would hatch eggs in my secret base to make the Pokemon that much more personal, and redecorate to the theme of whatever Pokemon I was raising through the ranks. I got really into it, and it gave me a new appreciation for Hoenn's roster of Pokemon. It also helped my battling, what with knowing most Pokemon's movesets and all.
I still get all the ribbons every time I play through a Hoenn game. I just can't stay away!
That's awesome! :D Thanks for sharing the experience, you put it all nicely!
I didn't know I needed this deepdive, but it was a fascinating watch! I remember thinking that the nicknames for Pokemon in contests *needed* to be as dumb as possible in order to win. So I named a Baltoy Toybal and tried to win a contest with them. It didn't work. xD
I kind of wish the appeal round of the contests was more like how it is in the anime. Which might have been difficult to actually implement, but what I enjoyed about the contests in the anime was how creative the coordinators could be with their moves. Like the first thing that comes to mind is Dawn having Pachirisu and Piplup combine like... Bubblebeam and Discharge. And even the battle portion of the contests in the anime were pretty cool! But the games never let you use more than one Pokemon in the contests.
Toybal is so funny! :D Love that idea. And true, the anime HYPED up contests and were always cool to watch, but too bad that wasn't maybe feasible in the games. ;w;
I loved contests as a kid, since Ruby was my first game. I was so obsessed, I even got the glass statue decoration for my secret base. Best part was seeing the portraits in the Lilycove museum.
It wasn't until I bought a guidebook to where I learned of move combinations, egg groups, and egg moves. To be the very best coordinator took a lot of breeding!
The anime had such a cool concept combining contests with battles, it's a shame there hasn't been a contest battle themed game or a rom hack. Could be complicated in making combo moves look artistic, having a timer and points gauge but fun if done right.
They need to make them more like the anime
And then people found out that a Claydol with cosmic power,ancient power, secret power and self-destruct/explosion paired with good contest stats would make all opponents cry 🤣
Really nice video! I'm glad I discovered your channel! ORAS kind of bothered me as a young person because I felt so disconnected from the female protagonist's outfit. Previously, the games were very "neutral" about the gender differences between the characters. But, y'know. It is what it is. RSE's system will always be super nostalgic!
I haven't really delved much on them but I always had the feeling that Gen 5's Pokémon Musicals in Nimbasa City were basically another form of contests too
Great video! This one especially stands out to me, as I'm going on my own ribbon master journey; where as you said: contests are the biggest source of ribbons around.
I initially started with a shiny shroomish in sapphire, but the contests absolutely killed that hope for me. Look at the optimal pokeblock recipes and you'll understand why. I need 4 gameboys; 4 gen 3 games; a big enough GBA link cable; a gamecube or e-reader; pokemon colloseum/XD or the e-reader nutpea card; the patience to grind in the GC game of choice or patience to load the nutpea over and over; a GBA-GC link cable (if going GC route), and the fingers to do it all; (I have 2, 1, 1/2, 1 or 0, 0, 0, 1, 10/~40 respectively) all to make my little guy do the best it can in just the *visual* aspect. Another thing to consider is that snore isn't possible to get in sapphire; thus making combos impossible for my little shroom.
Revisiting gen 4 recently made me start again with a shiny weavile I found radar chaining, and that brought to me the realization that contests are so much more accessible in platinum. You can simply buy good poffins for cheap in veilstone, as I believe you brought up in the video (p.s. there's a cool reddit guide online for anyone in a similar situation which details the optimal bought poffins). That's all they needed to do to let my weasel get 30+ ribbons.
To answer the title with my own experience: the crazy hurdles in place to stand a chance in the higher rank contests; the reliance on combos that may not be possible on your `mon of choice (gen 3 exclusively); the lack of focus on it in the series compared to battles, and battling just being more fun to more people are what caused contests to fall flat.
Oh gosh good luck on the ribbon journey! I've always wanted to try getting all ribbons on one Pokemon, but for reasons you mentioned it is indeed a tall order -- I'll settle with what I can. :') It's not impossible, but yes the ribbons can be really difficult to get in some games. I'm glad you got your Weavile stacked with ribbons! And thanks for mentioning a few other tidbits, I forgot to go into the store bought poffins and have seen the guide for even that -- feeding the Pokemon the poffins! But yeah, all in all, super interesting that contests are out but ribbons still remain very strong.
wow I loved ths video! I really like contests, I couldn't really understand well how they worked when I was younger because my english wasn't that good and I just mashed buttons, but now I really like collecting ribbons for my pokemon even more because in SV and SwSh they give your pokemon silly little titles that make the experience so much special.
That's awesome! It's a great thing to collect and I wish you luck with the collection!!
I love contests. Thank you for this video, I've subscribed!
Thanks so much! :D
Love this vid! I never got into contests but never really thought about why. Looking back they’re actually pretty fun and strategic when you know how it works.
True! And thank you! :D Yeah, I'm much more appreciative and fascinated with the details when they are more known!
You're quickly becoming one of my favorite poketubers. Nice job!
Thanks so much! I'm glad to hear that! :D
love your pokemon videos so much! keep up the great work
Thanks so much!! :D
this video definitely appealed to me. I'm gonna have to subscribe.
So funny you uploaded this video a few hours ago because…. A few hours ago I loaded up a save of Platinum literally just to play a contest
i really liked the contests in emerald, once i earned the gamecube berries, learned the mechanics, the move effects, move combos and natures... you definitely have to do some research and the game is awful at teaching you these. how people prior to the internet understood contests i have no idea
I used castform a lot when I was a kid because of weather set up and westher ball. Easy combo ❄
That's true! Castform can shine even brighter in the contests :D
I love contests, so I'm seated for this video
Ah, I remember the first time I bothered with contests, and the incredible journey I went on. It went like this:
Lisia: "I'm sure you can win next time! Don't give up!"
Me: (Looking up a strategy guide)" So...my reward is berries and water?"
Thus concludes my journey into contests. I hope she's not still waiting for me to try again.
I just now learned of contests. You see I'm soon getting Pokemon Platinum and I was really curious about extra activities you could do with your Pokemon. My first Pokemon Game was Pokemon X and I enjoyed playing around in PokeAime and increasing the bonds between me and my Pokemon.
And I also enjoy Picniking with my Pokemon in Paldea as well. I know Sun and Moon has Refresh and Sworld and Shield has Camping.
So I was curious about Pre Gen 6 Offerings.
That's cool! Awesome you get to experience it soon, and playing Platinum should also be super fun!
It never got the spotlight since it's too "girly" and we all know most of the fans of pokemon are middle aged men
I love pokemon contest but it never feel like the anime and it not base on you skil and style and move combo national like using to move together and batting combo national pear move like a poke idol or a performance I don't like the dances and the the idol star don't do a thing no toy 🪀🧸 you can 🎉 use in contact to give the player something to use in the contest show case