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Something Old, Something New, Something Long Overdue - Jigglypuff at 4:08 pm PST 6 Jan 2009
So I've been busy going here and there over the site fixing up little things as I go. It seems a few updates I had made to the Platinum Section somehow got lost, so you'll now find that to be more up-to-date once again.

I've also been going over some of the PicDex and taking care of some missing Platinum sprites. The PsyDex itself has also had a few small bugs pertaining to Learnsets ironed out.

We also have seventeen new Amnesia Attacks for you to check out. These new ones aren't going to be easy; they're all the attacks, by type. You should find them to be quite challenging, I hope.

And finally, I am very happy to announce that after talking things over with the guys at GameSpy, the advertising contract for our hosting has been readjusted. They have removed the full-page ads that used to run on the site. Many of you may remember getting trapped in an infinite loop of these ads in the past; this should no longer be a concern. We once again thank GameSpy and IGN for this change and hope that all our visitors enjoy it as much as we do.

Just a Quiet Note - Jigglypuff at 9:01 pm PST 18 Jan 2009
I've been fiddling around with the site again, changing some stuff on the backend. I've worked out a few more odd little bugs that seemed to have arisen due to the integration of all the Platinum data. I'm pretty sure I got them all this time, though the compromise is a bit silly.

In the DP Walkthrough and World Map, you'll occasionally notice a Wild Pokemon appears twice. This is because sometimes a Pokemon appears more commonly in one version than the other, so this is represented by separating the difference in rarity into two spots; one will list rarity in BOTH games, while the other lists the additional chance to find it in only one. If you are playing the game with the additional chance, add these numbers together. I'll probably rework this soon, but it's a nice simple fix for now.

I've also uploaded yet another Ranger 2 guide, this time for Poke Assists.

Finally, you'll notice I've switched the talkbacks for these updates to a different blog. Should keep things a little tidier. :)

Shaymin Event, Geekdom Celebrations - Jigglypuff at 3:23 pm PST 13 Feb 2009
I just want to remind all of you that this weekend is full of festivities. Happy Valentine's Day, happy Friday the 13th, and let's not forget the US Shaymin event that's finishing up tomorrow at Toys-R-Us stores.

Lastly, at 3:31:30 PST (mere minutes from this post), we reach a milestone in the technological era; your computer will officially know the time as 1234567890. So give your computer a hug this Valentine's Day. And make sure you grab a Shaymin while you still can.

Regigigas in Platinum - Jigglypuff at 12:03 am PST 6 Mar 2009
As you may recall, in Japan a special Regigigas was given out in order to gain access to the other three Regis in Platinum. The time for the US release has come. From March 8th to March 21st, the day before the release of Platinum, bring your DS and a copy of Pearl or Diamond to a participating Toys R Us store to receive the special Regigigas.

Regigigas comes at level 100 in a Cherish Ball. It carries a Custap Berry and knows Iron Head, Rock Slide, Icy Wind, and Crush Grip. It is required to find Regirock, Registeel, and Regice in Platinum; any other Regigigas will not work. More info can be found on the Pokemon Platinum website.

In other site news, as we get closer and closer to the US release of Platinum, I'll be working on tweaks and fixes here and there. Of course, there may also be something else in the works; you'll have to wait until after March 22nd to find out.

*gasp* - Frost at 9:06 pm PST 20 Mar 2009
You might want to keep an eye on the site on Sunday. Something important may or may not be happening! :O

A New Game and a New Site - Jigglypuff at 7:42 pm PST 22 Mar 2009
So, Pokemon Platinum was released in the US today. We'll be adding more content to the Platinum Section in the coming days. Guides will be written, etc. The PsyDex has all the Platinum data already, so feel free to make use of that.

The biggest change to the site, as you can see, is our new layout. This layout has been in the works for months, undergoing a careful series of development and testing runs among the staff. What you see today is not the work of myself, or any one individual. It is the combined effort of not only this site's staff, but also the community who has supported us in getting this far. From all of us who coded it, designed it, tested it, broke it, and fixed it over the last several weeks, I hope that you enjoy the changes we've made.

In addition to the change in the look and feel of the website, there are a few other changes I'd like to point out. Firstly, you'll notice that the site is now set up to have you log into your forum account on a site-wide level. At the moment, this is only used for posting comments on PsyBlog posts, such as the Talkbacks. This design, however, allows us a great deal of flexibility and potential in the future. This new design will allow us to integrate the community into the website like never before. If you haven't already, take a moment to sign up at our Forums and join us.

There are other changes, ones that as of right now, you can't actually see. But, very soon, I think you'll find they'll become quite apparent. And I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed developing them.

Reflections on Changes - Jigglypuff at 12:30 pm PST 26 Mar 2009
For the past couple days I've been sitting back and just watching. Our new layout seems to be very well received. On behalf of everyone who worked on this layout, thank you. We're thrilled that the feedback has been so positive.

Over the past few days various bugs have popped up. Hopefully they've all been ironed out. If there are any problems you encounter with the site, please let me know so that I can get them taken care of.

I hope you're all enjoying playing through Pokemon Platinum. For those of you who didn't know, just a reminder that we have our full Platinum Walkthrough available if you're lost as to where to go next, or just looking for a good place to do some leveling.

Next on the list, I originally said that this update was the work of many, and that it is. A huge thank you to Frost for his work in updating various parts of the site.
Firstly, he's rewritten the Anime Introduction to reflect and recap all the recent seasons.
For the Psydex, he's rewritten all of the Abilities to more accurately describe their effects.
The other major change is a complete revamp and updating of our TCG Section and subsequently the DeckDex. With 41 different card sets available, the TCG section has seen significant growth with this update.

There's still much to do around the site. We've got more ideas and plenty more to be working on. Specifically, I'd invite you all to leave a Talkback on this update and let me know: what do you think is the most important thing we should add to the Platinum Section now that the game has been released in the US?

Further Updates in Platinum - Jigglypuff at 1:46 pm PST 31 Mar 2009
We've started incorporating all those changes that have been suggested for the Platinum Section. Of course, there's been quite a few things suggested, so we're just going down a list. Over the next few days, you'll be seeing several things getting updated.

For today, the big announcement that I have for you is that Platinum Dex Entries have been uploaded now that they're in English.

That's all for now, but expect much more over the coming days.

Happy April - Jigglypuff at 11:30 am PST 2 Apr 2009
Welcome to April. I hope you all enjoyed our little prank yesterday. The concerned emails we received made it all the more enjoyable for us.

Today, there's two updates to announce.

First off, one of the most requested bug fixes has been taken care of. Over the last few days, several of you informed us that the Pokemon Comparer was broken. That should be all fixed up and working again. Let me know if you still have any problems with it.

Secondly, by popular demand, you can now view a full Pokemon Platinum Move Tutors Guide over the Platinum Section. Additional guides for Platinum are on the way as well, so keep checking back to see what's next.

If there's anything you're in dire need of a guide for, don't hesitate to leave a comment via the Talkbacks for this or any other recent update. Your feedback helps us know which guides to focus on finishing first.

One Roll Duct Tape, One Can WD-40 - Jigglypuff at 11:18 am PST 7 Apr 2009
Today's update is a little less "brand new" and a little more "new used." For further explanation of why, for the curious, I'll writeup a blog shortly. But onto the news.

Over the past few days I've been focusing on going over error logs and bug reports. There's been several little things to fix all over the place. I've fixed a bunch of links that didn't get changed when pages got moved around. Some pages don't exist anymore, but were still linked to. Other new pages weren't linked to correctly. Some old pages just didn't load right. All of that should be taken care of now... I think.

If you encounter an errors when using the site, it's probably just a glitch; a refresh should fix it. If you get a proper 404 error, or refreshing doesn't fix things, please let me know what page you were on, what you clicked (and where it was supposed to take you), and what you ended up seeing instead. There shouldn't be many such errors left, but just in case.

Which brings me to an important point. Of the recently addressed issues, a handful of them were exclusive to IE users. I'd like to take a moment to remind you that we highly suggest you use Firefox, or any other proper internet browser that renders HTML true to the international standards. Internet Explorer, the browser that comes with your Windows PC is NOT such a browser. It renders HTML in an incorrect manner that can dramatically change your browsing experience. Indeed, on this site, things don't look quite "right" in IE on several pages, because IE isn't rendering the HTML the same way that Firefox and other browsers do. For the most part, we try to design the site in a way that will work even when IE does things wrong, but some things can't be fixed. In order to view this new layout the way we truly designed it, and indeed to view the entire internet the way it was meant to be seen, do yourself a favor and ditch IE in favor or a proper browser. Safari, Opera, and Google's new Chrome are all fine examples too, but this site was designed by Firefox users. It's free, it's easy, and it'll keep all your bookmarks and everything. Plus, it's less taxing on your computer, and it's plenty ahead of IE in terms of technology; every new feature in IE7 was in Firefox first, and the new version of Firefox is even better.

Gears and Cogs - Jigglypuff at 1:25 pm PST 14 Apr 2009
I promised that the next time I made an update there would be new content for you all. I'll make good on that promise shortly.

First, a little disclaimer. The coming weeks mean the end of the semester for me, and I've got loads of papers and projects to do. Regretfully, my time to work on the site will be limited until about the 2nd week of May. I'll work to squeeze a few things in here and there, but the most probable outcome is going to be handful of little updates for a few weeks and then a large update in a month when summer gets underway.

That said, I'm looking into redesigning some community aspects of the site, mostly to do with feedback and the like, and further integrating it into the new site-wide community system that we have in place. More on that later. You want updates, right?

Firstly, I've written up a nice little Pokemon Platinum Legendaries Guide for all the Platinum players out there. Much of the info is similar, but subtly different from the DP Guide.

Next on the list, we now have a Pokemon Ranger 2: Shadows of Almia Walkthrough posted for everyone playing through Ranger 2. The walkthrough should have everything you need to work through the main story of the game.
For additional info, we've also added a supplementary Pokemon Ranger 2 Quests Guide to be used in conjunction with the walkthrough if you so desire. This guide outlines all the additional quests in the game.

That's all I have for now, but I'll do my best to keep things rolling through the next month, between various papers and projects. Might even make a new Blog Post too.

Winding Down - Jigglypuff at 7:13 pm PST 29 Apr 2009
Alright, as some of you have already noticed, we now have a Frontier Guide for Platinum. Much thanks to Rhapsody for getting that all written up for us. Thanks much!

I'll keep trying to work on various things as I have time, but on a personal note; finals have begun, so I'm gonna be a non-entity for a while. Many apologies for any slow updates for the next two weeks. I'll try to throw up a blog tomorrow, for the interested.

GS Remakes Confirmed - Frost at 7:32 pm PST 7 May 2009
Pokemon Gold and Silver remakes have been confirmed by the Japanese Pokemon site, with titles that roughly translate to "Pokemon Golden Heart" and "Pokemon Silver Soul". This should come as no surprise to anybody who knows how greedy and lazy Nintendo and Gamefreak are and how much they love to rehash Pokemon games within an inch of their lives.

Oh, yeah, and they've been giving us several obvious "hints" during Generation IV, which everybody and their mother has been pointing to as evidence that GS will be remade, such as Jasmine's cameo in DP, "Johto" being a location in the game's internal code, the Pal Park balls being gold and silver (please), DP starting with a report about the Shiny Gyarados and Pichu, Chikorita, Cyndaquil and Totodile being featured in Movie 12.

Err, I mean, GASP I'M SO SHOCKED AND I DID NOT SEE THIS COMING AND THIS GAME IS SO COMPLETELY NECESSARY BECAUSE I'M TOO LAZY TO CHANGE THE BATTERIES IN MY OLD G/S CARTS AND NINTENDO IS AWESOME AND I WILL TOTALLY BUY THIS GAME JUST TO HAVE JOHTO STARTERS/LEGENDARIES/SHINY GYARADOS.

What Frost really meant to say was... - FireStarter at 7:37 pm PST 7 May 2009
...that we are excited to bring you the news about the newest Pokemon games, Heart Gold and Soul Silver, which are, according to the Japanese Pokemon website, slated to be released Fall of 2009 in Japan.

I'm sure that's what he really meant. ¬.¬

New Activity Coming Sunday - Frost at 4:15 pm PST 8 May 2009
Amidst the excitement of the Gold and Silver remakes being confirmed, Psypoke will be starting a new activity this Sunday. So check back then to find out what it is!

Frost.... out. :O

First Look at HeartGold and SoulSilver - Frost at 5:11 pm PST 9 May 2009
These screenshots are from the episode of Pokemon Sunday that aired in Japan today.


The remakes have DPP-style graphics and, for at least a part of the game, it looks like your starter will follow you around. I would assume for the first task where you go to find Mr. Pokemon, although it could be for longer.


Also, it looks like we're finally getting updated Sugimori art of the Generation II Pokemon after they were skipped in FRLG. All three of the starters look adorable.

(Pictures taken from "CactuarJoe" on Photobucket as well as an unknown Livejournal user. Thanks to forum user Jamie for pointing them out.)

Also, be sure to check back tomorrow to find out what our new activity will be!

PsyPoke Idol 2 - Frost at 9:04 pm PST 9 May 2009
The new activity is now up: PsyPoke Idol 2.

We had the first PsyPoke Idol back in 2004, before the fourth generation Pokemon had been revealed (except for Munchlax), and now that the fourth generation has been around for awhile and we still don't have any new Pokemon from the fifth generation, we thought it would be a good time to hold a second competition. In 2004, Mew was our official PsyPoke Idol with Charizard serving as the runner-up. Who will win this year? Vote for each Pokemon on a scale of 1 to 5 and we'll find out by the end of the summer!

Rising Rivals added to DeckDex - Frost at 8:47 am PST 11 May 2009
Well, at least it didn't take 3 years this time. I finished transcribing the new cards in the Rising Rivals TCG set, available May 20th, and added them to the DeckDex.

Rising Rivals is the first English TCG set to feature Gym Leaders' Pokemon since Gym Heroes/Gym Challenge, the first English set to feature the Elite Four's Pokemon ever, and the first TCG set in general to feature either since the Japanese-only Pokemon VS. I was actually rather disappointed to see that the cards of the new Rotom forms, a.k.a. the main reason I was waiting for this set, were made into a special rare holos that a lot of sellers will probably confuse for Super Rares, leading to inflated prices. Bummer. Still, many of the cards have nice art and are powerful in duels, so TCG fans don't have much to complain about.

Also, keep voting on PsyPoke Idol 2! Voting for each round is open for a week, so you have until Saturday night to vote for the current batch.

Round 1 Results; Round 2 Now Up - Frost at 9:05 pm PST 16 May 2009
The results for Round 1 of PsyPoke Idol 2 can be found here, and you can start voting for Round 2 at that page too. Voting, again, is open all week. Round 1 had a pretty decent turn-out, with 1775 votes cast altogether.

The top 10 in this round included Charizard, Metagross, Skymin, Cyndaquil, Ninetales, Electivire, Magmortar, Flareon, Heatran and Crobat. Pokemon just missing the top 20 advancement cut-off were Cacturne, Octillery, Wigglytuff (:(!), Cherrim and Hariyama. For complete rankings of every Pokemon, checkout the PsyPoke Idol 2 thread in General Discussion on our forums. Speaking of the forums, also check our cool new forum banner featuring Slowpoke, Slowbro and Slowking. :3

Side Note: the 512 Pokemon in Idol 2 - Frost at 12:25 am PST 18 May 2009
People keep asking where we got 512 Pokemon from. This is the last time I'm going to explain it:

There are 493 Pokemon according to the Pokedex.
494 - Attack Deoxys
495 - Defense Deoxys
496 - Speed Deoxys
497 - Ground Wormadam
498 - Steel Wormadam
499 - Origin Giratina
500 - Sky Shaymin
501 - Fan Rotom
502 - Frost Rotom
503 - Heat Rotom
504 - Mow Rotom
505 - Wash Rotom

All of these extra Pokemon have their own slot in the game's internal code, so they were easy choices to include. The rest were:

506 - Hail Castform
507 - Sun Castform
508 - Rain Castform
509 - Ground Burmy
510 - Steel Burmy
511 - East Shellos
512 - East Gastrodon

These extra Pokemon forms are, other than Unown, the only ones that have distinguished forms/cards in the TCG. As for Unown, the 28 different letters/symbols of Unown aren't that different from each other, plus how many people care about the 28 different Unowns in the first place? Other than that, Overcast Cherrim is pretty much ignored by every aspect of the franchise, so it was expendable. And we certainly weren't including 18 different Arceus that look exactly the same, other than typing and some minor color changes, nor were we including Pokemon with even less important alternate "forms" like Spinda or the Pokemon with gender differences.

So there you go. 512 Pokemon.

PsyPoke Idol 2: Round 2 Results - Frost at 8:57 pm PST 23 May 2009
The results for Round 2 of PsyPoke Idol 2 are live on this page and voting for Round 3 is now live. As usual, voting will last all week. Round 2 didn't get as good of a turn-out as Round 1 did, but hopefully more people will vote in Round 3 so we can rebound!

Round 2's top 10 in this round included Lugia, Articuno, Flygon, Kyogre, Luxray, Snorlax, Meganium, Nidoking, Regice and Wartortle. Pokemon that just missed the top 20 were Houndour, Vespiquen, Dodrio, Prinplup and Misdreavus. For complete rankings of every Pokemon, check out my latest post in the PsyPoke Idol 2 thread on our forums.

Idol Round 3 Results - Frost at 9:04 pm PST 30 May 2009
The results for the last round of PsyPoke Idol 2 are now up here and Round 4 is now underway. Keep voting, it's appreciated!

Round 3's top 10 Pokemon were Dragonite, Origin Giratina, Umbreon, Torterra, Dusknoir, Absol, Jirachi, Houndoom, Rhyperior and Regigigas. The five Pokemon who just missed the cut-off this time were Xatu, Slowbro, Rain Castform, Furret and Slaking. But, most importantly, DEWGONG ADVANCED :D!!! As usual, you can view the full results on the Idol 2 forum topic.

~ Frost ~

Idol Round 4 Results - Frost at 8:54 pm PST 6 Jun 2009
The fourth round of PsyPoke Idol 2 has finished and the results can be found here. The voting dipped this week, but that's okay because the has been up and down due to Gamespy maintenance for the last few days (in case you couldn't figure it out, we have no control over our site staying up when Gamespy, our web host, is up and down for maintenance).

Round 4's top 10 Pokemon included Suicune, Milotic, Blaziken, Vaporeon, Latias, Arcanine, Giratina, Palkia, Gardevoir and Quilava. Just missing out were Tropius, Manectric, surprisingly Torchic, Kingler and Tauros. The Idol 2 forum topic has the rest of the results. Unfortunately, the totally awesome Politoed did not advance. :(

Round 5, which includes PsyPoke Idol 1's winner, is now up for voting as well.

Idol Round 5 Results - Frost at 9:01 pm PST 13 Jun 2009
Another round of Psypoke Idol 2 has successfully completed, with Round 5's top 10 being Mew, Latios, Salamence, Raikou, Lucario, Venusaur, Celebi, Empoleon, Arceus and Staraptor. Just missing out were Electabuzz, Toxicroak, Cloyster, Porygon2 and Monferno.

As usual, the forums have the full results. The voting for round 6 is already open, so make sure you and all your friends vote!

Addressing Issues - Jigglypuff at 8:20 pm PST 17 Jun 2009
My sincerest apologies for the site downtime as of late. We're working on getting that taken care of, and we thank you for your patience.

Due to all the downtime, it's been rather difficult to work on the site. It also doesn't help that we all took a nice little vacation this last weekend. However, I have managed to complete a basic FAQ for HeartGold/SoulSilver for the time being.

Hopefully things will be more stable tomorrow and I'll be able to upload more to the HeartGold/SoulSilver section. Thanks for your patience again.

Round 6 Results - Frost at 8:37 pm PST 20 Jun 2009
Another week, another round of Idol results. This week, the top ten advancing Pokemon were Zapdos, Dialga, Alakazam, Glaceon, Kingdra, Deoxys-Speed, Rapidash, Grovyle, Froslass and Marowak. Pokemon just missing out included Phione (for some reason), Porygon, Seviper, Camerupt and Torkoal. And my second favorite Pokemon, Jynx, went ahead and bombed the round and finished at #41 out of 51 to nobody's surprise, really. As usual, full results are up on our forums and the next round is now up here.

Like Jigglypuff, I also apologize for ongoing maintenance. This is Gamespy-wide maintenance and not something we particularly have control over, which is unfortunate, so we're sorry.

Group 7 Results - Frost at 8:37 pm PST 27 Jun 2009
This week in PsyPoke Idol, the top ten advancing Pokemon are Darkrai, Sceptile, Leafeon, Pidgeot, Eevee, Shaymin, Totodile, Ampharos, Pikachu and Mudkip. For reasons unknown to man, Shelgon also came in at #19, which I can't explain. The five Pokemon who just missed out were Miltank, Forretress, Gligar, Ledian and Weezing. (Apparently, a generic cocoon is better than all of these Pokemon because it's Dragon-type and evolves into Salamence or something, I dunno.) Also, Bibarel amazingly did not come in dead-last, unlike Bidoof, but it only beat out Barboach. Full results are up on our forums and the next round is now up here. There are only three more groups left in Round 1 (including Group 8), so pretty soon we'll be done with this part and have our top 200!

Stealing Thunder - Jigglypuff at 9:44 pm PST 27 Jun 2009
Hooray for updating right after Frost does.

For the moment, at least, the server issues we've been suffering from seem to have been resolved. Thanks again to GameSpy for working hard to get that taken care of.

In the mean time, I've gone ahead and updated the HeartGold and SoulSilver FAQ page with some more questions we've been getting, and more new info. There's a few more things I'm going to add to the list shortly once I get some confirmation from some additional credible sources. Similarly, I've got a few additional pages for the section. I'll see about working on those tomorrow.

Finally, to comment on Idol. It is worth noting that a certain Pokemon happens to be in this week's round, and I would be terribly disappointed if it doesn't advance. Just saying. Go VOTE!

Group 8 Results - Frost at 9:01 pm PST 4 Jul 2009
Group 8's top ten is Tyranitar, Lapras, Dragonair, Moltres, Swampert, Entei, Groudon, Deoxys-Attack, Charmeleon and Wailord. Just missing out were Shiftry, Crawdaunt, Kirlia, Floatzel and, unfortunately for Jiggz, Jigglypuff. Luckily for the staff, some of our personal favorite Pokemon (including Dragonair, Wailord, Togekiss, Honchkrow, Slowking, Sneasel and Chansey) managed to advance. With that said, Group 9 is now up here and the full Group 8 results are posted on our forums. Just two more weeks until Round 2 begins!

Picking Up the Pieces - Jigglypuff at 4:50 pm PST 5 Jul 2009
While I am deeply saddened by the results of the most recent round of Psypoke Idol, the show must go on. ;.;

I've once again updated the HeartGold and SoulSilver FAQs Page to reflect some more questions we've been seeing all too often. Remember, everyone, these games are remakes of Gold and Silver; you shouldn't expect anything from those games to be removed for the new versions. That would just be silly.

I do have some more stuff to post, but it will be a bit yet as I have to get my computer back up and running. I just did a massive hardware and software upgrade, so I have to reinstall and reconfigure everything. I'll try to have something more done by Tuesday night, as I'll be leaving for another vacation on Wednesday.

For those of you playing the home game, you should expect that while I'm out of town there will be massive developments in HeartGold and SoulSilver, because that's just how Murphy's Law works. I'm sure everyone else will keep you up to speed in my absence, as they did a wonderful job last time I went on vacation.

Lastly, I hope our American visitors all had an enjoyable Fourth. Explosions in the sky and sunburn on my shoulders; life is good.

Group 9 Results - Frost at 8:42 pm PST 11 Jul 2009
Well, Group 9's results are in, and this week's top ten features Typhlosion, Rayquaza, Ho-oh, Mewtwo, Jolteon, Scizor, Squirtle, Nidoqueen, Machamp and Rotom (Frost). The Pokemon who just missed out in this group were the utterly hideous Cradily, the "Why the hell does it change into Bug/Flying type upon evolution" Masquerain, Butterfree's counterpart Beedrill, the lovely Bellossom, and my "people think it suck even though it's awesome" choice, Lickilicky. As usual, the complete rankings are posted on our forums. With Group 10's voting now up live here, this is will be the last week of the first round of PsyPoke Idol 2. Will we see a game-changing twist as we head into Round 2 at the end of next week? I dunno, maybe. :O

Group 10 Results - Frost at 8:22 pm PST 18 Jul 2009
With voting for the final group of Round 1 completed, this week's top ten is Blastoise, Feraligatr, Espeon, Gengar, Garchomp, Gallade, Infernape, Scyther, Kabutops and Deoxys. Just missing out on the top twenty this week are Drifblim, Heat Rotom, Omastar, Metang and Persian, however, we've decided to advance ten wild cards into the second round.

These ten wild cards are the ten Pokemon with the highest voting average in all of Round 1 who did not advance: Torchic, Tropius, Electabuzz, Manectric, Toxicroak, Cloyster, Drifblim, Heat Rotom, Porygon2 and Omastar. We decided to do this because some of our randomly-generated groups were statistically stronger than others, as far as overall voting averages are concerned, and this was to give a second chance to Pokemon who simply got unlucky and who could have advanced if a placed into a different group.

With that said, Round 2 of PsyPoke Idol 2 is now underway. Round 2 will last for five more weeks of voting, with the top 15 from five groups of 40 (plus now 2 extra wild card Pokemon) moving onto the next round. Vote now here and check out the full results from all Round 1 matches in the PsyPoke Idol2 forum topic!

Round 2 Group 2 Results - Frost at 8:59 pm PST 25 Jul 2009
The Pokemon who advanced in Idol this week are Umbreon, Espeon, Ho-oh, Raikou, Jolteon, Kyogre, Swampert, Flareon, Empoleon, Ninetales, Eevee, Aggron, Giratina, Nidoking and Infernape. Squirtle, Totodile, Staraptor, Deoxys and Altaria just came up short of the cut-off. Group 2's second round is now up here.

ETA: Full results are up in our forum topic.

HeartGold, SoulSilver, and Everything Else - Jigglypuff at 8:57 pm PST 28 Jul 2009
Like I promised last time I posted an update, stuff happened while I was away on vacation. Most notably, Sugimori Art for all the Pokemon was posted. This includes art for those who had not previously received an update in previous releases. Our thanks to Rhapsody for helping us to get those all processed and ready to go last weekend.

Next on the list, I've gone an updated the HeartGold and SoulSilver FAQs again to reflect additional questions we've been getting, and to just word things a little more clearly. As always, feel free to discuss this on the Forums, or send any pressing questions to us directly and I'll add the common ones to that page in the future.

Speaking of getting in touch with us, we've changed our Chat servers. Due to network stability issues, we've gone ahead and switched to a different network that should hopefully serve us much better. Do stop by and say hello, just please be patient if no one answers you in the first two seconds immediately following your arrival; we aren't always looking at that screen.

Only a month and a half left before HeartGold and SoulSilver hit shelves in Japan. In the coming days and weeks we'll be getting the site all ready and providing as much information as we can on the games. Keep checking back often.

Second-Chance Darkrai - Jigglypuff at 2:43 pm PST 31 Jul 2009
Just a small update today. Did you miss out on getting a Darkrai the last time there was a Nintendo Event? You're in luck! Starting August 3rd, and running through September 13th, you'll have another chance to catch Darkrai.

You can get the fully story over at the Official Pokemon Platinum Site. Here's a quick rundown on what you'll need to do.

If you haven't enabled Mystery Gift yet, you have to start with that:
1) Go the producer on the 3rd floor of the TV Station in Jubilife
2) Tell him "Everyone Happy" and "Wi-Fi Connection"

Next, you need the special item, available only over Nintendo WFC. So, make sure your DS is able to connect to a Wi-Fi network, and begin:
1) Save, restart your DS, and select Mystery Gift
2) Select "Receive Gift" and then "Via Nintendo WFC" and say Yes
3) Start your game and go to a Pokemart. Talk to the man in green to get the item, then save your game.

Finally, to use the card to get to Darkrai:
1) Make sure you have the National Dex in your game
2) Visit the boy in Canalave who is having trouble with nightmares
3) Head off to Fullmoon Island and pick up the Lunar Wing that Cresselia leaves behind
4) Head back to Canalave, speak to the boy again, and hop on the ferry
5) Head off to Newmoon Island and catch Darkrai

Idol Results for Group 2 - Frost at 9:06 pm PST 1 Aug 2009
Our top 15 for group 2 are Tyranitar, Blastoise, Lucario, Vaporeon, Arcanine, Latios, Moltres, Groudon, Alakazam, Kingdra, Leafeon, Snorlax, Meganium, Charmander and Ampharos, with Pikachu, Aerodactyl, Crobat, Haunter and Cresselia just missing out.

Keep on voting, there's not too long to go before the end of the second Psypoke Idol!

Round 2, Group 3 Results - FireStarter at 8:19 pm PST 8 Aug 2009
Yeah, I'm not Frost, but you'll have to settle for me this week.

Top 15: Scizor, Zapdos, Gengar, Latias, Entei, Gardevoir, Dialga, Sceptile, Glaceon, Feraligatr, Garchomp, Quilava, Dragonair, Houndoom, Shaymin (Sky)

Group 4 is up, don't forget to vote *coughforseadracough*.

HeartGold and SoulSilver Revamp, Arceus News - Jigglypuff at 8:54 pm PST 13 Aug 2009
Due to new information available, and of course by popular request, I've revamped the HeartGold and SoulSilver FAQs page to better reflect what we currently know about the games due out next month.

In addition to that, I've also uploaded numerous newer Screenshots for HeartGold and SoulSilver as well as some other concept art for the remakes.

Beyond that, since the last update there have been a handful of bug fixes around the site here and there. I've also got a nice list of other things to check into, so there will be additional little fixes here and there around the site in the coming days as we determine what does and does not actually need to be changed.

Finally, it was recently announced over on Pokemon.com that an event would be coming soon to allow players to obtain Arceus in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. There is little information available at this time, but we'll keep you updated as news is confirmed.

Idol Round 59094092 Results - Frost at 9:06 pm PST 15 Aug 2009
Going through this week are Dragonite, Charizard, Suicune, Mewtwo, Flygon, Metagross, Origin Giratina, Venusaur, Pidgeot, Absol, Gallade, Celebi, Arceus, Dusknoir and Wartortle.

The last group of Round 2 is live here, so be a good visitor and vote, mkay?

And Round 3 is underway - Frost at 9:04 pm PST 22 Aug 2009
The final group for Round 2 saw Lugia, Mew, Typhlosion, Rayquaza, Articuno, Lapras, Salamence, Milotic, Blaziken, Darkrai, Torterra, Luxray, Jirachi, Cyndaquil and Kabutops progress into the semi-final round, Round 3.

Once again, voting is open for the first of three groups this round. Keep on voting and making sure your favorite Pokemon get to the finals!

Semifinal Group 1 Results; DeckDex Updated - Frost at 8:34 pm PST 29 Aug 2009
The ten Pokemon advancing into the Finals from the Semifinal round's first group are Tyranitar, Charizard, Typhlosion, Suicune, Ho-oh, Articuno, Zapdos, Origin Giratina, Gengar and Gardevoir. Gardevoir, Alakazam, Swampert and Moltres were deadlocked for most of the week but Gardevoir just pulled through with an average that was 0.01 higher than the rest of that foursome. 14th and 15th place went to Gallade and Empoleon, respectively.

Round 3's second group is now up for voting here. Once again, the ten Pokemon with the highest averages out of the next group of thirty will join Group 1's ten advancing Pokemon in the final round in two weeks.

Additionally, I went ahead and updated the DeckDex with the cards from the Supreme Victors expansion set that was released in North America last Wednesday (the 19th). Supreme Victors features the Platinum Frontier Brains and their Pokemon. The next English TCG expansion, Platinum: Arceus, comes out at the beginning of November and will introduce cards of the final Sinnoh Pokemon, the eponymous Arceus, to the game.

Round 3-Group 2 Result - Frost at 8:26 pm PST 5 Sep 2009
The ten Pokemon from Group 2 heading into the finals are Dragonite, Lucario, Arcanine, Scizor, Milotic, Flygon, Raikou, Feraligatr, Entei and Absol. Kyogre, Vaporeon, Dialga, Eevee and Venusaur came up just short of the top ten, particularly Kyogre and Vaporeon whose averages were only 0.01-0.02 points lower than Entei's. And I hope all of you people who give 1s to Legendary Pokemon just for being Legendary Pokemon are satisfied because Jirachi, one of the site's mascots, did way worse in this round than previous ones. >:(

Anyway, the third and last group of the semifinals is now up for voting. After this week, the top thirty will compete in the final round and the winner of PsyPoke Idol 2 will be determined at the end of September 19th.

KEEP VOTING!!!

Heart Gold Introduction Video - Jigglypuff at 10:54 am PST 10 Sep 2009
I've been rather quiet as of late. I'm sorry; I've been quite busy. Today, I hope to make amends for that. I present to you the following presentation of the Pokemon Heart Gold introduction video. Please, enjoy. I've swapped the original HQ file out for a longer, but smaller YouTube file for your convenience.

Heart Gold/Soul Silver Moveset Changes - Jigglypuff at 4:04 pm PST 11 Sep 2009
Following the video below, we've made some more updates to the site. We've added in all the Level-Up and Egg Moves for the new games to the Psydex. For those of you interested in just what's changed, look no further than the Moveset Changes guide.

Keep watching for more updates!

Edit: The rosters for the Johto Gym Leaders, Kanto Gym Leaders and the Elite 4/Champion have been posted, as well as their second encounters. Thanks to Eevee of veekun for the trainer sprites!

Idol Semifinals COMPLETE; FINAL ROUND NOW UP! - Frost at 8:44 pm PST 12 Sep 2009
Well, voting has closed on the third and last group of the semifinals. The last batch of ten Pokemon that are making it to the finals are Lugia, Mew, Umbreon, Blastoise, Mewtwo, Rayquaza, Blaziken, Espeon, Metagross and Salamence. Latios caught a particularly unlucky break and missed out on the top ten by having an average only 0.005 points lower than Salamence's. The other Pokemon that just missed out were Lapras, Latias, Darkrai and Jolteon.

This means the VOTING IS NOW OPEN for the final round of PsyPoke Idol!!! We have thirty finalists and the Pokemon with the highest average at the end of the week will be declared the winner. Who are the finalists? Well, let's take a look at them!

To break down the Pokemon by the region, the finalists clearly represent a nostalgia-fest...
-Kanto (9): Charizard, Blastoise, Arcanine, Gengar, Articuno, Zapdos, Dragonite, Mewtwo, Mew
-Johto (11): Typhlosion, Feraligatr, Espeon, Umbreon, Scizor, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Tyranitar, Lugia, Ho-oh
-Hoenn (8): Blaziken, Gardevoir, Flygon, Milotic, Absol, Salamence, Metagross, Rayquaza
-Sinnoh (2): Lucario, Origin Giratina

To breakdown the finalists by types, we get...
-Flying (9): Charizard, Articuno, Zapdos, Dragonite, Lugia, Ho-oh, Salamence, Rayquaza.
-Fire (6): Charizard, Arcanine, Typhlosion, Entei, Ho-oh, Blaziken.
-Psychic (6): Mewtwo, Mew, Espeon, Lugia, Gardevoir, Metagross.
-Dragon (5): Dragonite, Flygon, Salamence, Rayquaza, Origin Giratina.
-Water (4): Blastoise, Feraligatr, Suicune, Milotic.
-Dark (3): Umbreon, Tyranitar, Absol.
-Steel (3): Scizor, Metagross, Lucario.
-Ghost (2): Gengar, Origin Giratina.
-Fighting (2): Blaziken, Lucario.
-Electric (2): Zapdos, Raikou.
-Rock, Poison, Bug, Ground, Ice (1): Tyranitar, Gengar, Scizor, Flygon, Articuno respectively.
-Grass, Normal (0)!

Or, you might attempt to find meaning through arbitrary titles that Nintendo and fans have slapped onto the Pokemon (please don't):
-"Legendary" (11): Articuno, Zapdos, Mewtwo, Mew, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Lugia, Ho-oh, Rayquaza, Origin Giratina
-"Starter" (5): Charizard, Blastoise, Typhlosion, Feraligatr, Blaziken
-"Pseudo Legendary" (5): Dragonite, Tyranitar, Salamence, Metagross, Arcanine
-"Eeveelutions" (2): Espeon, Umbreon
-"Other" (7): Gengar, Scizor, Gardevoir, Flygon, Milotic, Absol, Lucario
-("Uber" (6): Mewtwo, Mew, Lugia, Ho-oh, Rayquaza, Origin Giratina)

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITES! PSYPOKE IDOL ENDS AT 12:00 AM ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20TH!