Tuesday Trainwreck - These Damn Pokemon's Are Ganging Up On Us

I won't lie to you - Pokemon scares me. All those kids with "pocket monsters" - it's just not right. Personally, I thought the whole trend would die long ago, especially when all the knock off versions started to appear (of the hundred or so that were spawned from hell, only Yu-Gi-Oh comes to mind - I guess the alcohol is doing its job). But just like with New Coke, I was wrong, and those Japanese factories are still pumping out Pokemon games by the truckload. And now there's a new one to add to the mix - Pokemon Diamond Version:



Oh, crap - are you telling me there's a second one? F*ck. Apparently these things travel in packs, cause also making it's way out of Japan this week is Pokemon Pearl Version:

So why two games? A couple reasons: Japanese games developers (a) want to make me hang myself, and (b) know how to separate money from a consumer. For some unimaginable reason, Pokemon fans are die hard, and will purchase anything and everything containing those stupid little monsters that they can get their hands on. It must be some kind of mind control or something...

Thankfully, I can report that I've never played a Pokemon game, and with any luck, I never will. So you'll just have to trust me on this trainwreck. I'm sure the games are very amusing, in a totally demented, IQ smaller than your shoe size kind of way, but this is not a path you want to head down. So when you see these things sitting on the shelf at Best Buy, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and grab a copy of Armored Core 4 instead - it's the lesser of two (three?) evils.