The Rockets

     Team Rocket:





     Team Rocket's goals are to steal and sell rare, strong, and valuable pokemon for profit, and ultimately take over the world using pokemon. They mainly reside in Kanto, with sub locations in the Sevii Islands, as well as residing in Jhoto, Kanto's neighboring region. When you first encounter them in Red, Blue, Yellow, Firered, and Leafgreen, in Mt. Moon, they are searching for fossils found there to sell. They get ready to steal some fossils from someone who found a few until you defeat them.

     Next you encounter them in Cerulean City, where a member breaks into a resident's house to steal his TM. Also, on the Nugget Bridge north of Cerulean City, a grunt of Team Rocket is trying to sway trainers to join Team Rocket, including you, until you reject the offer and beat them.

     As you continue your journey, you hear about Team Rocket infiltrating Saffron City, a large town in the middle of Kanto. Eventually you reach Lavender Town, where Team Rocket is doing quite a bit of harm. They are taking the skulls of cubones that reside in the Pokemon Tower, which lead to the killing of a cubone's mother, Marowak. It also lead to a hostage situation of Mr. Fuji, the town's caretaker of pokemon.

     When you reach Celadon City, you find that Team Rocket runs the the local Game Corner, ironically named the Rocket Corner. This is where rare pokemon, as well as rare items, get sold. After searching about, you find an entrance to Team Rocket's underground base, where you fight Team Rocket, and encounter their boss, Giovanni. Later on, you reach Saffron City, where Team Rocket controls the city now, holding the Silph Co. building, and workers inside, hostage. You, get in and take Team Rocket down, reaching Giovanni again, Giovanni reveals that he is trying to get his hands on the master ball, the pokeball that always catches a pokemon. After a battle with him, with you succeeding, Team Rocket evacuates Saffron City, stopping their plans once again.

     The last you encounter of Team Rocket is in Viridian City, the location of your last gym badge. In an ironic twist, your final gym challenge is against Giovanni, a ground type user. After beating him one last time, earning your last gym badge, he disbands Team Rocket.

     In Firered and Leafgreen alone, you get to venture the Sevii Islands, encountering Team Rocket there too. Their goal is still capturing pokemon, which you find a warehouse of captured and caged pokemon on, as well as seeking a ruby and a sapphire for their own deeds, spanning a few islands. After getting both gems, as well as defeating the admins in the warehouse, only realizing then that Giovanni disbanded Team Rocket.

    Three years past, and the events of Gold, Silver, Crystal, Heartgold, and Soulsilver take place. Team Rocket is reviving yourself through the admins faced in the Sevii Islands. As the new player starting in Jhoto, you face Team Rocket in new locations. In the Slowpoke Well outside of Azalea Town, you'll encounter Team Rocket cutting off slowpoke tails, and selling them on the black market. With help from a pokeball maker named Kurt, you get them out of there, saving the slowpoke.

     Later on, in Ecruteak City, a grunt harasses a kimono girl, to where you stop him. Continuing on, you find Team Rocket's new hideout in Mahogany Town, which is used to admit high frequency sounds to cause the magikarp from the Lake of Rage, north of the town, to forcefully evolve. You travel through, and with the help of Lance, the chapion of the Kanto/Jhoto league at the time, you stop the machine, and stop the sounds.

     With a final attempt to find their leader, Giovanni, since he left and wasn't heard from, Team Rocket seizes the Goldenrod Radio Tower, just to broadcast a message to Giovanni for him to return. However, Giovanni never shows up, and you climb up the Radio Tower to defeat the second-in-command, Archer, and stop Team Rocket once again.

     When you venture through Kanto again after beating the Pokemon League, you find out someone stole parts from the Kanto Power Plant, which doesn't allow the plant to work. After a search, you find a Rocket grunt with the stolen parts, eventually hiding them before you get to face him. One you beat him, he discovers that Team Rocket has been disbanded once again, and that's the final act of Team Rocket.

     But wait, there is one last special event that happen in Heartgold and Soulsilver. If you have the special celebi, it will trigger an event where you travel back in time, and discovering your rival in Jhoto is really Giovanni's son, and find out that Giovanni did hear the broadcast from the Goldenrod Radio Tower. He was going to return, but soon stopped by you, and confirms to keep Team Rocket disbanded, and leaves.

    Isn't Team Rocket horrible?

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

     One moment, you suddenly realize you woke up in a forest, or a beach, and you see a pokemon running up to you, asking if you are ok. You struggle a little bit, feeling a little bit woozy, and you just realized the pokemon can talk in your language out of all of them(You'd think Japanese..)!

     After flinching in reaction to the talking pokemon, you ask them why they can talk, and it leads up to you realizing you are a pokemon yourself, whether by looking at your body, or checking a nearby pool of water to see your reflection. Guess what's next? You don't remember your name. If lucky, you still have your name in those unblocked memory banks, next to your vocabulary.

     Next thing you know, after you become sane again and accept your new pokemon body, that one pokemon that found you when you were hallucinating, is wanting to form a team to beat up pokemon that are more wild than you apparently, rescue random pokemon who got lost, find random bad pokemon above the wild ones you face(since fighting in the wild is not considered illegal, to the point you're knocking each other out, but taking a berry where millions of the same thing are right next to every pokemon's house without permission is punishable to life in jail), and making memories. I think the last one is the reason you form a team, since you lost all the others.

     With that, you have Pokemon Mystery Dungeon! Cue music:

     Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a unique and special spin-off series in the pokemon franchise, because for one: You get to play as the pokemon themselves! Two: I think the first reason is enough. Many of the game mechanics differ from the main series, but in the end it gives it's own taste of an rpg that relates well to the pokemon name, but still gives it's unique attributes.

     One interesting function of PMD is your belly. For once, you can worry about if you are starving yourself, because when you are exploring/rescuing/hunting/guiding in any dungeon/forest/sea/ocean/desert/canyon/tower/waterfall/jungle/plain/cliffside/crater/sky/ect., you want to have enough food to thoroughly complete your mission.

     Another part of the mechanics is how you have a base attack now. It is like a weak form of struggle, but without recoil and you can use it whether or not you have PP left or no PP left for your moves.

     What are the dungeons so conveniently placed in the title of the series? Well, they are like mazes, labyrinths even. All dungeons are between 3-99 floors(ascending or descending), and they take place in each forest, ocean, ect. After getting further and further into the plot line in each respective PMD game, more and more dungeons are available to explore. Dungeons continue to come up after the main plot line is completed, when certain criterias are completed.

    PMD is fun in the fact you get to choose a pokemon to be, only lacking that you get a limited amount to choose from in each game, and even more by gender...but the quiz is fun though! Whether you take it seriously, or joke around, the nature determines the pokemon, literally! What makes it a bit easier is having all starters as a choice in each game, as well as pikachu. So if you had a favorite starter from the main series, you could easily choose it(If you decided to tweak the answers) as the pokemon you get to be, as well as other choices of course. Traveling partners are essential so you get a partner pokemon too! You also get a limited choice, but also limited by not being of the same type as the pokemon you start as.

     Guess I went a bit out of order of things to know first to later on. Oh well, PMD is a bit out of order compared to the main series, but in all it's a fun game. Whether you play first gen. PMD, which is the Rescue Team era with Red and Blue Rescue Team, or the second gen. PMD, being the Explorers era with Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky! In Japan, it has some excluded PMD games, as well with a new one coming out later this month, called, "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate and the Infinite Labyrinth".

 (Look, they are connected!)