Did handheld gaming just die?

[Sean Hollyman]

Speaking of which, I want to start competetive battling but I have no idea where to begin..

When I started competitive battling, the first place I went was Smogon [http://www.smogon.com/]. It is a really good place for learning about the metagames and the general state of competitive battling. It has analyses of almost all the pokemon in the game (outside of the banned pokemon and non-released pokemon such as genesect) and is generally a very helpful site. It has pages detailing EV training, IV breeding, even RNG manipulation.
Other than that, the other site I use frequently is Serebii [http://serebii.net/index2.shtml/], which has pretty much all the raw data on the games, such as pokemon locations, pokedex including all movesets and how to get these moves, maps of all the regions and trainers in them, and so on, as well as a large and informative 'game mechanics' section, which is helpful for people new to EV training and IV breeding. It also does some analyses, but in general they are not as good as the ones that Smogon puts up.
It's quite daunting at first, but when you get into competitve battling it can be really rewarding- I had a hard fought battle with a friend yesterday, which lasted 20 minutes and ended with me winning 4-2 as his mum arrived to take him home. It was very enjoyable.

I've tried Smogon, but I barely understand any of it. Serebii looks like a better choice, thanks

 

[sextus the crazy]

Speaking of which, I want to start competetive battling but I have no idea where to begin..

When I started competitive battling, the first place I went was Smogon [http://www.smogon.com/]. It is a really good place for learning about the metagames and the general state of competitive battling. It has analyses of almost all the pokemon in the game (outside of the banned pokemon and non-released pokemon such as genesect) and is generally a very helpful site. It has pages detailing EV training, IV breeding, even RNG manipulation.
Other than that, the other site I use frequently is Serebii [http://serebii.net/index2.shtml/], which has pretty much all the raw data on the games, such as pokemon locations, pokedex including all movesets and how to get these moves, maps of all the regions and trainers in them, and so on, as well as a large and informative 'game mechanics' section, which is helpful for people new to EV training and IV breeding. It also does some analyses, but in general they are not as good as the ones that Smogon puts up.
It's quite daunting at first, but when you get into competitve battling it can be really rewarding- I had a hard fought battle with a friend yesterday, which lasted 20 minutes and ended with me winning 4-2 as his mum arrived to take him home. It was very enjoyable.

I've tried Smogon, but I barely understand any of it. Serebii looks like a better choice, thanks

In all honesty, serebii isn't a great place to learn competitive. Smogon does now have a few articles that are meant to introduce new players to the game and its terminology. Also, I'd recommend going onto youtube and watching competitive battles on smogon's channel, as the battles there do have commentary.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Speaking of which, I want to start competetive battling but I have no idea where to begin..

When I started competitive battling, the first place I went was Smogon [http://www.smogon.com/]. It is a really good place for learning about the metagames and the general state of competitive battling. It has analyses of almost all the pokemon in the game (outside of the banned pokemon and non-released pokemon such as genesect) and is generally a very helpful site. It has pages detailing EV training, IV breeding, even RNG manipulation.
Other than that, the other site I use frequently is Serebii [http://serebii.net/index2.shtml/], which has pretty much all the raw data on the games, such as pokemon locations, pokedex including all movesets and how to get these moves, maps of all the regions and trainers in them, and so on, as well as a large and informative 'game mechanics' section, which is helpful for people new to EV training and IV breeding. It also does some analyses, but in general they are not as good as the ones that Smogon puts up.
It's quite daunting at first, but when you get into competitve battling it can be really rewarding- I had a hard fought battle with a friend yesterday, which lasted 20 minutes and ended with me winning 4-2 as his mum arrived to take him home. It was very enjoyable.

I've tried Smogon, but I barely understand any of it. Serebii looks like a better choice, thanks

In all honesty, serebii isn't a great place to learn competitive. Smogon does now have a few articles that are meant to introduce new players to the game and its terminology. Also, I'd recommend going onto youtube and watching competitive battles on smogon's channel, as the battles there do have commentary.

Hmm alright then, looks like I have a long and grisly road ahead. I'll try the Battling 101 thing.

Do you have Wifi?

 

[sextus the crazy]

Speaking of which, I want to start competetive battling but I have no idea where to begin..

When I started competitive battling, the first place I went was Smogon [http://www.smogon.com/]. It is a really good place for learning about the metagames and the general state of competitive battling. It has analyses of almost all the pokemon in the game (outside of the banned pokemon and non-released pokemon such as genesect) and is generally a very helpful site. It has pages detailing EV training, IV breeding, even RNG manipulation.
Other than that, the other site I use frequently is Serebii [http://serebii.net/index2.shtml/], which has pretty much all the raw data on the games, such as pokemon locations, pokedex including all movesets and how to get these moves, maps of all the regions and trainers in them, and so on, as well as a large and informative 'game mechanics' section, which is helpful for people new to EV training and IV breeding. It also does some analyses, but in general they are not as good as the ones that Smogon puts up.
It's quite daunting at first, but when you get into competitve battling it can be really rewarding- I had a hard fought battle with a friend yesterday, which lasted 20 minutes and ended with me winning 4-2 as his mum arrived to take him home. It was very enjoyable.

I've tried Smogon, but I barely understand any of it. Serebii looks like a better choice, thanks

In all honesty, serebii isn't a great place to learn competitive. Smogon does now have a few articles that are meant to introduce new players to the game and its terminology. Also, I'd recommend going onto youtube and watching competitive battles on smogon's channel, as the battles there do have commentary.

Hmm alright then, looks like I have a long and grisly road ahead. I'll try the Battling 101 thing.

Do you have Wifi?

I don't. Use pokemon showdown like everyone else. it's smogon's official battling simulator.

 

[The White Hunter]

No.

Why do you think the 3DS XL was released?

Also this in about 2 weeks:

As for sony, they're being dumbasses when it comes to what they release right now. No games = no profit.

How well do you think B/W2 will sell? It's a day 1 buy from me, but I know a lot of people didn't like Gen V.

I know people who hate on Gen 5, I personally loved it, really refreshed the series for me by making me use the new pokemon and shaking up the formula a bit. I like a lot of the newbies, I like the new designs mostly, very few pokemon I really dislike, no pointless evolutions.

Gen 5 was the best generation since 2 in my opinion. Though 4 can bost HG/SS which I adore for being a version of HG I can play ona handheld in bed that doesn't have a dead battery ):

One problem I have though, I wanna use Garbodor, because it's funny looking and I like me some weird pokemon, but it's attack stats seem to be the wrong way around for it's movepool. Also a shit ability.

But the rest were mostly good stuff.

I think G5 was a mixed bag of designs. There were some cool ones like Kyurem, Serperior, Hydreigon and Gigalith, there were some bad ones like Vannilite, Garbodor and Chandelure, and there were some plain WTF ones like Reshiram, Alommola, Frillish, and Klinklang.

I did like Krookodile though, the ONLY other Crocodile Pokemon apart from Feraligatr..

Serperior is a bit poor imo, I found the G5 starters kind of dull really. Fire/fight again? How about some new combos next gen? I'd like some new varieties. I'd like a viable offensive poison type too. Gigalith is a great pokemon it just took too long to get a good stab move imo, Vannilite is okay, great for in game purposes. Garbodor is just a mistake, it's stats don't support it's movepoola t all, Chandelure is devastating in the right hands and kinda cool if you ask me, mine can tear through 90% of the battle subway and what it can't kill Milotic can burn and stall.

Reshiram is awesome, as is frillish. Klinklang is unfortunate imo it's movepool is just so bad xD that said it shifts gear then gear grinds. It does that very well indeed, just lacks coverage.

Never used a Krookodile, might do so in BW2. Really wish you could start BW2 in hard mode though I want something harder than BW.

My faves from gen 5 are probably Conkeldurr, Galvantula, Leavanny, Darmanitan (so, much, power...), those kinds. I'm glad of the movepool shakeups and placement of older pokes in BW2 though, like Zubat is now introduced at a point where it's usable and comes with wing attack ready to go. Koffing comes with clear smog and swift access to venoshock, Elekid and Magby both come early and get good fast. Can't wait for them tbh.

Out of the ones you mentioned, I only really like Zubat

Starts of shitty, but when it evolves into Crobat shit really hits the fan.

There are a lot of others too, with changed up sets and such. But I stopped paying much attention around when people were talking bout the second gym and tehe LPer's got there cuz I didn't want many spoilers for it.

Crobat is pretty great. Top tier speed, good defenses, good offenses, good movepool.

Plus if you use a combination of Fly+Toxic, you can avoid damage for one turn.. during which the poison worsens ;D

I've tried my best to avoid all plot details of B/W2 and I've done a good job so far, save a few minor reveals. Not long now.

Use Sky Drop, then they can't do anything or a turn either =D. I personally prefer power to 2-turn moves, flying gem acrobatics is nasty from Crobat. CRoss poison/Poison fang are good options over toxic in game. Roost is great for it too competitively. Crobat is one of the most potentially tedious and annoying things in the game imo.

Same I know bugger all of it, I'm gonna try use only pokemon I've not used before too, as always, to try diversify my options.

 

[The White Hunter]

Speaking of which, I want to start competetive battling but I have no idea where to begin..

When I started competitive battling, the first place I went was Smogon [http://www.smogon.com/]. It is a really good place for learning about the metagames and the general state of competitive battling. It has analyses of almost all the pokemon in the game (outside of the banned pokemon and non-released pokemon such as genesect) and is generally a very helpful site. It has pages detailing EV training, IV breeding, even RNG manipulation.
Other than that, the other site I use frequently is Serebii [http://serebii.net/index2.shtml/], which has pretty much all the raw data on the games, such as pokemon locations, pokedex including all movesets and how to get these moves, maps of all the regions and trainers in them, and so on, as well as a large and informative 'game mechanics' section, which is helpful for people new to EV training and IV breeding. It also does some analyses, but in general they are not as good as the ones that Smogon puts up.
It's quite daunting at first, but when you get into competitve battling it can be really rewarding- I had a hard fought battle with a friend yesterday, which lasted 20 minutes and ended with me winning 4-2 as his mum arrived to take him home. It was very enjoyable.

I've tried Smogon, but I barely understand any of it. Serebii looks like a better choice, thanks

In all honesty, serebii isn't a great place to learn competitive. Smogon does now have a few articles that are meant to introduce new players to the game and its terminology. Also, I'd recommend going onto youtube and watching competitive battles on smogon's channel, as the battles there do have commentary.

Hmm alright then, looks like I have a long and grisly road ahead. I'll try the Battling 101 thing.

Do you have Wifi?

Smogon is a good place to get an idea of what you're doing, if I may interject, but I personally prefer not to confine myself to their communities rules and restrictions. Why can't I put multiple things to sleep? Why can't I use minimize? Why can't I smashpass? Why restrict my team by tier, it's much more fun (and challenging) to have no rules beyond banishing legendaries.

 

[clippen05]

For me, handheld gaming is being replaced by mobile gaming. I rather use my smartphone and some ridiculous controller attachment or something like the Experia Play to play my games than having a device dedicated solely to gaming. The hardware just needs to improve a bit moar and developers need to jump aboard to make some AAA games.

 

[GAunderrated]

For me, handheld gaming is being replaced by mobile gaming. I rather use my smartphone and some ridiculous controller attachment or something like the Experia Play to play my games than having a device dedicated solely to gaming. The hardware just needs to improve a bit moar and developers need to jump aboard to make some AAA games.

I own both the 3DS and the Vita and sadly I play more games that last 20-60 hours on my ipad for free, 1/40th of the price of handheld games, or at the most 1/4th the price of handheld games.

With that said, now that BW2 will be hitting shelves soon i'll get some use out of my DSi but my 3DS is still sitting in the cold next to my vita. I want to find reasons to play them but nintendo is doing a poor job and sony is outright sleeping on the job.

I personally think Nintendo and Sony arn't even trying to compete with this generation of handhelds, they are just going half assed and expecting the $$$$ to rake it. Nintendo at least had the common sense to drop the price and get a few good 3rd party titles so they arn't as rough of shape as Sony.

But overall compared to some of the great games I enjoy on my ipad (mostly RPG's though) they are slowly losing my business by not competing in a competitive market. As of right now in the portable market, apple is the only one really competing, nintendo is starting to pick up pace realizing there is a race, and Sony is still at the starting line waiting for the gun shot because he thought the first one was a warm up and doesn't believe he needs to go just yet.

 

[kortin]

People actually 'game' on smartphones? I've always seen it as a "play for a minute then delete the app because all of the games designed on smartphones are shit".

But yeah, REAL handheld gaming is far from dead. Pokemon Black and White 2 are coming out, Kingdom Hearts 3D is AMAZING, and the Nintendo store on the 3DS is large enough. It's still early, rumors have been buzzing around about nintendo making Majora's Mask 3D, and all that.

I spend more time playing on my iPhone than I do on my PC and xbox combined at the moment.
I don't always have an hour or 3 to set aside to get engrossed in a big triple A, or a match of HoN. But I've always got time for a 5 min round of asynchronous, tile based, turn based strategy on my phone.

I don't always have time to get into a trainer battle on my DS, but I can pause jetpack joyride on my phone and ignore it for a week and pick up mid flight.

I have more iOS games than DS games and I have gotten more out of Hero Academy (a $2.00 purchase) than I have from all of the pokemon games on DS combined.

There's actually a huge range of great phone games but there's so much (because much of it is indie) that you really do have to sift through.

While I understand the desire to play on dedicated handhelds, there's no reason to imagine/pretend/believe that the alternative is bad. They can both be good.

All of the games I've played on iOS have lacked substance in all degrees of the word. I don't feel like I'm playing a handheld game, I feel like I'm playing a shitty flash game on newgrounds (before it became porn). I play on my 3DS and it feels like I'm playing a game. Even games that were on the gameboy before being ported to iOS feel like complete crap (FF3, for example).

Angry Birds is a simple bowling simulator (don't lie to yourself), Fruit Ninja is just...I can't understand its popularity, Cut The Rope is the exact same puzzle flash game we've been playing since we were kids, and all of the actual decent games (Plants vs Zombies, Minecraft: PE, etc) were all on PC first.

There is only one iOS game that I actually feel like I didn't waste my money buying was Pocket God. I don't play it often (read: almost ever), but when I do, I don't think "why the hell did I waste my money on this".

iOS is not the direction handheld gaming needs to go. Not now. As it looks currently, if handheld gaming were to go to iOS alone, the entire meta-genre as we know it will devolve into a mess of shitty flash game remakes, horrible ports, and utter nonsense. Maybe if the iOS developers weren't trying to throw half-assed games on the market to make a quick buck and actually put time and effort into their games, I wouldn't feel that way.

 

[mikecoulter]

I think the main power behind handheld gaming is mobile devices. Look how many great games there are on Apple App Store or Google Play. The only thing we need a good advancement in now is battery life!

 

[viranimus]

o0BN4txob1c

Handheld gaming is bigger than ever. It just looks different. All of the cool shit is happening on phones bro.

Come to the other side. We have touch screens.

I don't like phones as game consoles. Uses too much battery and you get calls while playing and a touch screen can never replace a d pad and real buttons. In 5 years I'm guessing it will be a lot better though.

5 years... today... whatever, same difference.




and many many more.

Plus, unless you purposely add a 3g/4g dongle, you wont be getting bothered with phone calls.

 

[yeti585]

I think handheld gaming died around the time when new titles died. Companies are less likely to take risk with anything new (Cue giant list of games with "3" attached on the end). So all we get is the barrage of phones that all look alike and have similar features, tablets that are much of the same, and reboots of old systems. I could probably never tell the difference from a PSP, the slim PSP, and the PS vita from ten paces (as apple pleads patent infringement). I end up asking more than not what kind of DS a person is playing. At least Sony innovates with every update to it's "beloved" handheld. Nintendo uses the three or four same tricks it's used since it released it's first handheld; Make it smaller, bigger, brighten the screen. What have we gotten new? 3D and touch screen? I'm sorry Nintendo, my phone has those features and it doesn't make me want to play games on it anymore than a glass of water makes me want to eat glass.

The games don't help either. There isn't anything very bad about the PS vita's games, other than you know, it doesn't except physical copies of games. The DS lineup tries too hard to incorporate the DS's gimmicks into it's games that it's painful.

 

[Epona]

I think consoles are dying. They are too expensive, games are too expensive to make and take too long to release.

WiiU will sell pretty good I think but I am not so sure about the Nextbox/PS4. If those two do sell well, it may be for reasons other than games (like a cablebox). I don't think there will be a 9th generation for consoles.

Handhelds are the future but sadly I don't think that means dedicated gaming handhelds, I think it means phones that play games or tablets. I think I am done at that point because I don't enjoy gaming on touch screens.

 

[Nadia Castle]

I don't think it's dead but certainly not well. Both Nintendo and Sony seem to have completely dropped the ball with this generation. The PS Vita is simply all the worst parts of the PSP concentrated to a dangerous level (No internal storage, lack of killer apps, frustrating install times and barely able to do a fraction of the things its obviously capable of). The 3DS seems to just be an attempt to throw everything nintendo could at the DS and seeing what sticks.

The PSP is still the system I play the most but it has nothing to do with Sonys efforts. Thanks to third party accessories and some fantastic developers I can carry round over 100 fantastic games without a single game cartridge. I even boot up my old DS for a game of project rub or elite beat agents when I'm bored but haven't seen a single quirky game like those on the 3DS yet thus missing half the point of a gaming system that can do unique things.

 

[aguspal]

I dont have a clue.


But I was never really interested in handheld gaming, so thats why it died, maybe.


(Except for Ace Attorney, if only because I would have had no other way to play it)

 

[Something Witty]

Until children start consuming smartphones en masse there will be a market for dedicated handhelds.

That said if you are an adult and you carry a Nintendo DS around with you so you can play Pokemon...well just reread that sentence.

 

[artanis_neravar]

So both Sony and Nintendo have had their handhelds out on the market for around a year now, but I still struggle to find any good games or features on both systems.

All I see are a couple of good exclusive titles, the rest being ports of yearly sports games, overpriced phone games and shovelware with next to no announcements of anything worthwhile.

Am I missing something here or did Sony and Nintendo really gave up on this?

Little Big Planet - Exclusive
Assassins Creed III Liberation - Exclusive
Uncharted Golden Abyss - Exclusive
Mortal Kombat
Persona 4 Golden - Extended
Gravity Rush - Exclusive
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Declassified - Exclusive
Ragnarok Odyssey - Exclusive
Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale - Cross Play
Rayman Origins
Disgaea 3 - Extended
Touch My Katamari - Exclusive

If you can't find a good game on the Vita then it's your tastes not their library

 

[artanis_neravar]

I think consoles are dying. They are too expensive, games are too expensive to make and take too long to release.

WiiU will sell pretty good I think but I am not so sure about the Nextbox/PS4. If those two do sell well, it may be for reasons other than games (like a cablebox). I don't think there will be a 9th generation for consoles.

Handhelds are the future but sadly I don't think that means dedicated gaming handhelds, I think it means phones that play games or tablets. I think I am done at that point because I don't enjoy gaming on touch screens.

Well Graphics have their limit, you can't look better than real life, so I also believe their will be not 9th gen. Also I hope that next-gen doesn't act as a cable box, I already have one of those I don't need 3 in the same room.

 

[AndrewF022]

The cost is killing it for me.

When I'm expected to throw down $60 for a handheld game that's where I draw the line. There's just so much on offer on smartphones, that are actually games I would want to play on the go, that I can get for $1. Not to mention on a device I already have paid for so I don't need to add the extra $250 for the device itself, so it saves me space since I generally don't carry a bag with me when I am on the move.

Not to mention the much wider selection of games, I really want to get a Vita, but at the moment I can't justify the cost of the system with the games it has on offer (just yet anyway).

 

[Reaper195]

Sony don't seem to know how to make good games for handhelds, and tend to make weird ass ports of games on the PS2/PS3. As for Nintendo...they're still putting the same shit out as they always have, but people still seem to be buying the fuck out of it all.