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Let’s face it:: The
best part of Pokemon is the toys. And I don’t mean merchandising, I mean the strange technology
that humans are inclined to create in a world filled with near-magical monsters. Case in
point: The Pokedex. Sure, it’s a crucial point of one of your earliest fetch quests.
But when you get right down to it, who wouldn’t want a device capable of scanning, cataloguing,
and dispensing information on whatever strange-looking creatures you come upon? There have been imitations
before, but we’ve been waiting a long, long time for the kind of technological marvel
that we were promised back in ‘97. Ladies and gentlemen, the wait is over.
Well, if you’re only concerned with the latest generation, that is. And given that
Nintendo’s current policy for their official Pokemon Championships allows only the Generation
V monsters, It’s the most relevant. Also, you don’t start with all the information;
everything aside from the starting evolutions and a few others requires either receiving
the data from a friend or just waiting for your daily entry to be unlocked. Even with
this application that has no game mechanics whatsoever, you have to wait for unlocks.
But, worst case scenario, a couple months later and you have the full roster. So what
can you do with them?
Well, the most obvious idea is to look at the critters in 3D. And they do look good.
You can even animate them with the push of a button. And just look at all that data.
Egg group, abilities, learned attacks, TMable attacks, egg moves... pretty much everything
you’d get from one of the major websites. Unfortunately, that “pretty much” means
you’re not going to get a complete breakdown of base stats (instead you’ll have to settle
for a more abstract number of bars) or the ability to search by, say, Special Attack.
Speaking of moves, they’re all listed here. All of ‘em. All five hundred fifty some.
Even moves like Conversion2, which aren’t actually used by any fifth-gen Pokemon. Leaving
hope that eventually it will be expanded to include all 600 and whatever number. These
attacks are even sortable by type, base power, or how likely your opponent is to throw his
DS at you when you use it. Don’t hate me, hate X-Scissor.
But the cutest little trick of the Pokedex 3D involves bringing the little critters into
our very own world, by means of black-and-white marker codes that you can print out, load
onto your phone, or if you feel like having some arts and crafts time, draw yourself!
Just fire up the AR camera, take a look at the code, and blam, instant Pokemon. And yes,
this supports the 3D capability of the screen, even if you can’t see it here. The downside
is that keeping optimal viewing distance from the screen as you pan around a code on a table
or something can be a little on the difficult side. But Victini catches fire and flies around!
That has to be worth something.
Sure, I can have my complaints; I’d much prefer this software support the entire history
of Pokemon and not just those from Black and White. Because let’s face it, being able
to look at a Porygon in 3D like this just seems so perfectly in the moment. But the
net result is that the Pokedex 3D is a useful little tool, especially if you need to look
up a move on the fly. And the price can’t be beat: It’s FREE. Gratis. Kostenlos. Zero
dollars. Just obtain it, and enjoy looking forward to receiving a new Pokemon each morning.