Gamestop to show you their exclusive Pokemans

by Justin McElroy { Jun 18th 2008 at 8:45AM }

What's the best way to celebrate the first day of summer? If you said "Trek down to my local Gamestop and claim an exclusive Pokemon," you're either screwing with us or of a very certain persuasion. If you're among the first group, go eat a biggun, we're just trying to do a job here. If you're among the second, then we've got great news for you!

Visitors to Gamestop stores between June 20 and 22 who bring in their DSs and copies of Pokemon Diamond or Pearl will be able to attain Deoxys, an exclusive "legendary character with transformative powers and an impressive set of battle-ready moves." The critter will also be able from the 27-29 of June, though if there's an event that can take you from the sort of person who wouldn't go to Gamestop to get an exclusive Pokemon to the sort of person that would in the span of a week, we don't know about it.

Tags: deoxys, gamestop, pokemon, pokemon-diamond, pokemon-pearl

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

baby sea tuna @ Jun 18th 2008 8:54AM

Just when I thought that Pokemans picture couldn't get any awesomer...

BlackFreefall @ Jun 18th 2008 9:02AM

You know Nintendo could really make use of the Wii Download Station.

In any case, make sure to wear your armor when going into Gamestop. Those Gamestop employees will constantly bombard you with preorder request.

Drago Dracini @ Jun 18th 2008 11:39AM

will not. ;p

Rocketboy @ Jun 18th 2008 4:51PM

Are you pre-ordering your pre-order request?

...Jan... @ Jun 18th 2008 9:08AM

I bet the other one is Mew. I'd love one, but I'm just not liking how the situation sounds in my mind.
"I'd like to buy Alone in the Dark."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, and I'd like to download those Pokémon."
"...Can I see your ID?"

WannaCub @ Jun 18th 2008 5:36PM

Um, Mew was given out a while back!

I have Mew and like him!

DarthDavid @ Jun 18th 2008 9:16AM

I don't care much for Pokemon....but damn that's a funny photo.......

ScottG13 @ Jun 18th 2008 9:18AM

Pokemon. Woo hoo. If this was 1996, I might care.

mr nimblewick @ Jun 18th 2008 10:21AM

You cared enough to not only read the article, but also comment on it.

ScottG13 @ Jun 18th 2008 10:25AM

I cared enough to see the headline in my RSS feed and then post mockingly for my own bemusement.

Anni @ Jun 18th 2008 10:57AM

Lay off him, Mr Nimblewick. I heard that bashing Pokemon on the Internet gets you laid.

ScottG13 @ Jun 18th 2008 11:10AM

Pokemon don't come from the stork, after all... They come from balls. Red and white balls.

Sora267 @ Jun 18th 2008 11:27AM

Actuay (lol), they come from eggs once you put teh pokemanz in the daycare!

ScottG13 @ Jun 18th 2008 11:34AM

In all honesty, you could be telling the truth and I would have no idea. Its just ridiculous enough to be true.

Joseph @ Jun 18th 2008 9:22AM

That picture is going to give me nightmares.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ Jun 18th 2008 9:38AM

Blood is much more convincing in edits like this if it follows the contours of the surface... just saying.

Eddie @ Jun 18th 2008 9:51AM

First of all, Toys R Us has done this twice in the past year already. They gave away Darkrai like 2 weeks ago. 2nd, you don't have to talk to anyone to get it, it's a mystery gift download so you just need to be within range of their download station.

I don't get all of the negative stigma about people who play pokemon. It's a pretty deep and interesting game once you get past the "kiddie" presentation. It's definitely grown up it's fair share in the past 10+ years, too bad most of the gaming community hasn't grown up with it. It's pretty sad when people aren't willing to give a game a chance because of it's target audience, or general history.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Jun 18th 2008 11:24AM

It is a pretty interesting and(I guess) a deep game. The problem is that when people think of pokemon, they automatically think of the cartoon.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ Jun 18th 2008 11:30AM

I think the biggest issue most people have with Pokemon nowadays is that it NEVER FUCKING CHANGES. There are additional things you can do with the characters but the core gameplay and game flow is identical. This is coming from a guy who collected all 151 in Red and Blue. I took a dive in Diamond after stepping out for ten years and it's very sad to say teh game hasn't changed. I even got to a town and thought to myself "Hmmm, isn't this about where I got the bike in Red?" Sure enough, the Bike was acquired in that town. They make minor changes to the formula to be certain but the game is still very largely unchanged unless you start getting into sidequests stuff like fashion shows or.... stirring.

But the biggest burn to me at least is in the fact the battles still seem extremely lazy. You have static sprites bouncing back and forth for the battles. It's very hard to defend this especially since all Pokemon have animations as they enter battle but once they are in, it's statue time. All birds are especially obnoxious with this. Basically what even Dragon Quest had to give up on the Playstation (ai, lack of animation), Nintendo gets a free pass because it's Pokemon.

One day I may get into it again but several things have to change.

-Party System. Why is the "brand new 2 on 2" battles used so rarely it's barely worth mentioning. You have a team of Pokemon, so where is the team?

-DECENT... FUCKING... STORY... If I have to spent 40+ hours collecting these things, can we at LEAST get a different story? Team Rocket was cut when they were announced along with the Rival system and doing the deed for Oaks. But considering you're facing the exact same story elements in Pokemon Diamond, that's ridiculous. The Pokemon gameplay is fun but I hate grinding away on a 40 hour story that's barely passable as a script to an episode of YuGiOh. I wouldn't mind seeing a Pokemon reboot with an entirely different collection concept behind the story.

-Put some effort back into the character designs. The original 151 were fun and unique. Now we get creatures like Balloons with Jellyfish Tendrils underneath. In the rush to bulk a roster, majority of the new designs are, well, ass.

-Animation. It's 2008 and you have BIG storage capacity on that system. Let's see some animation.

Eddie @ Jun 18th 2008 11:44AM

that's just the base storyline though. Pokemon has always had an emphasis on playing with your friends, and now thanks to WFC there's a whole new community aspect to it. Try getting into battling and actually training. The training/breeding/etc. system in diamond and pearl is crazy, and if you know how to work it, you can come up with some pretty impressive teams to battle with. That's where the lasting power of the series comes anymore. I agree that there are some changes that need to be made to the story and base gameplay itself, but at it's core, pokemon has taken strides in the training/collecting/multiplayer aspect and that's where it really shines.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ Jun 18th 2008 12:09PM

But here's the thing, have those changes really been made or simply moved to the global arena? Since you HAVE to spend time in the single player to get stuff for the multiplayer, that is a HUGE downfall to the game.

I mean, let's put it this way to another unplayable/wasted opportunity. Custom Robo Arena. You HAVE to play the single player to get equipment needed for the multiplayer. But the single player is SOOOOOOOO awful, I couldn't finish it. So I never went to the multiplayer.

I have no problems with RPGs switching to a multiplayer focus. In fact, I encorage it. However, they need to excel at both or just give up that idea. I hate to use WOW as an example but both the single player and multiplayer aspect of that game are equally balanced in refinement. Not so much on the the console RPGs. Same holds true for Neverwinter Nights, etc.

In Pokemon, I feel like it's a test of patience to get to the meat.

LordKelvin @ Jun 18th 2008 1:00PM

In all honesty, there's actually a pretty huge leap when you go from Generation III (Ruby/Sapphire and the Red/Green remakes) to Generation IV (Diamond/Pearl).

Having collected all 150 in Blue (never got a Mew since those Nintendo events were always somewhere I wasn't, and I didn't have my own transportation at the time), and played through to the championship in Ruby, I have to say, when you compare Ruby/Sapphire to Diamond/Pearl, the differences are pretty amazing.

Besides, it's also the small things that make it awesome; like the clown that says "A winner is you!" or the trainer that says "My Pokemon is fight!"

Knoxximus @ Jun 19th 2008 8:48PM

Sweet. As small as Gamestops usually are, I shall stand outside and get my Deoxys. :)

ApolloIV @ Jun 18th 2008 11:10AM

How many fucking Pokemon are there now? No there are not over 9000s Pokemon...screw off.

Donald @ Jun 18th 2008 11:28AM

493, which last I checked is well under 9000.

Jhongerkong @ Jun 18th 2008 12:05PM

Hopefully they release Seakings.

FUCK YEAH!

Saria the Cat @ Jun 18th 2008 12:49PM

Aww, I love Joystiq. AND you can be sure I will be the latter group and totally celebrate my summer with a trip to my local EB Games to download some pokemanz!

SaraAB87 @ Jun 18th 2008 12:06PM

I love pokemon to death and really, its the only Nintendo franchise that I actually play and follow. The series does have some problems though, but even with that diamond and pearl are near perfect games (for the hardcore pokemon fanbase) IMO.

I can see why people wouldn't like them though, D/P ARE very boring in the beginning of the game, you basically have to slug through the beginning to get to the good stuff. I really think they should expand the number of pokemon available in the beginning of the game, its just stupid to have to deal with bidoof, shinx and starly for the whole beginning. Since most people like to raise a team they start with the pokemon that are at the beginning of the game, and forgo raising better pokemon that become available as the game progresses, the problem with this is that everyone who plays the game ends up with the same team at the very end!!! Which doesn't make for much fun in the multiplayer unless your extremely hardcore about the game and are into raising monsters even after you beat the game. Pokemon D/P is basically a game for the hardcore pokemon fanbase, unless you like slugging through a very boring RPG.