Is it just me or is Pokemon like Street Fighter and Smash Bros?

[Zeldapsychology]

It has gotten to the point you can't win unless you EV/IV train I sort of vaguely know what that is but the chore of doing that is daunting. Who has TIME to EV train YET Alone 6 perfect IV's RNG numbers from 0-31 and if some NPC in the game in Kalos says X line it means your Pokemon's IV isn't perfect in Y stat. It's daunting but my UBER Mewtwo gets slaughtered. Darkri sort of held its own but it was eventually killed too. If these Pokemon are so great they are banned and are "UBER" banned in competitive play yet easily beaten. What happen to Pikachu thunderbolt Squirtle I WIN! Since Electric beats Water types? What happen to fire melts ice so Charizard destroys Jynxs? It's all competitive scene now which sucks the fun out of battling online unless you take the daunting task of EV training YET ALONE IV training which involves ALOT of IV breeding to get perfect 31 in what is it 5 out of 6 stats.

It's crazy!!!!

Street Fighter you have to know combos and Smash is Final Destination no items UH! the random items make it the fun part of the battle. Wham! Wacked you with a hammer or HA HA! I got the UBER Smash Ball and obliterated you INSTANT K.O.

Mewtwo is so great yet easily killed.

Also the battle level is took down to lv. 50 (They are actually in game lv. 100.) So does that mean lv. 50 stats or lv. 100 stats on a lv. 50 battling Pokemon. Boost attack boost speed boost special attack all this stuff. Psychic was THE END ALL BE ALL MURDER EVERYTHING MOVE! Those were the days. I'm 108hrs. in just doing the "Gotta Catch Them All" tagline I'm near that goal with 150 or so left.

Is competitive worth it? Is all that training worth it? What are some of your thoughts on the Pokemon gaming scene?

 

[CalamityRobin]

I don't IV breed and very rarely EV train, but the idea of Pokemon being a glorified game of rock-paper-scissors where one type will always beat another has zero appeal to me. Even less so the idea of Mewtwo+Psychic being the only combination you ever need. What would even be the point of raising anything else? My idea of fun is not 'I have a legendary, so I win'.

I believe the point about Ubers being banned (not that I go by tier rules) is that Mewtwo, Darkrai and the rest can be EV-trained as well. If they are, they're still more powerful than an EV-trained regular Pokemon.

 

[Norzan]

I prefer the way the games are now, in the current competitive battling there is much more thought and strategy than the "old days" where it was just spam your strongest attack and win. Mewtwo and Darkrai are Ubers and they are strong but how they are used and how strong they are is affected greatly by the player, you can't expect to win just because you have a Uber like Mewtwo or Darkrai, you need a strategy in order to use them effectively. Also EV training and IV breeding were made really easy this gen, just the other day i bred a perfect Cinccino Jolly Skill Link with 31 IVs in all stats except Special Attack in 30 minutes and in EV training after giving the pokemon Vitamins it takes me 15-20 minutes to EV train the rest and also if you don't like Super Trainiing you can just do Horde encounters wich is just as fast or even faster than Super Training.

 

[Farfetchd the Vigilante]

EV's and IV's aren't the most important thing in a battle. It mostly is decided by the skill and predictions of a trainer.
I kind of see where your coming from, but I definitely agree with Norzan.

Smash Bros has Final Destination w/no items because of the things you said. It makes it so it isn't about the skill of the battler, it's about who gets the gold hammer first,

 

[RainbowSylveon]

I prefer the games the way they are now as well. It isn't an absolute requirement to IV breed and EV train, but as has been previously stated, this gen has made both those things 10x easier to do (and with that, I've even started EV training a bit, because I found it still a little bit too complicated in the past). I don't do much competitive battling, so maybe my opinion's not as valid/well informed as others' might be, but I still find the current form of strategy much more fun and challenging than just spam the strongest attack and hope it wins.

 

[Stratelier]

EV's and IV's aren't the most important thing in a battle. It mostly is decided by the skill and predictions of a trainer.

This. This so much. Trainer skill comes in many forms - flawless IVs (which are much easier to breed now than then), useful Egg moves (again, much easier to breed now than before), and EV training (also much easier ... is there an echo in here?), but ultimately the biggest influence is being able to outthink your opponent and take the right action at the right time. Like blocking a Hi Jump Kick with Protect, for example (you don't need EVs/IVs to do that).

Did I ever mention how my first experience with a Protean Greninja went down? My Linoone (HM+Pickup slave) could easily do 50% damage with Strength, and could've won if Greninja didn't outspeed it. So my Jolteon was on the field next. I anticipated that Greninja's probably not going to use a water move in front of an Electric, so I pick my off-type move, Shadow Ball -- while Greninja picks Extrasensory (turning itself Psychic) and Shadow Ball hits it super effective. If I was faster I would've finished that frog off.

 

[ange]

Competitive Smash is more than "Final Destination with no items". >_>

I wish people would stop bashing competitive gaming so much because it "sucks out all the fun" or whatever. You may not find it fun or entertaining, and that is completely fine, but others do and I just wish more people could respect that.

 

[TerraTF]

Competitive is worth it only if you know what you're doing. Don't just bring in a team that you used in game, its likely terrible. If you don't mind putting in the outside of the game hours, then you should be fine.

 

[HeroOfDarkness]

Pokemon is not like Street Fighter or Smash Bros.

 

[Master Mew]

For the record, pokemon's competitive scene is as old as the series, this isn't a new phenomenon.

As others have said, the game was never meant to be rock/paper/scissors, and luck of the draw (I choose Articuno, you choose Moltres, you win) doesn't sound all that fun to me.

(Aside: Why would the combos be in Street Fighter if they weren't useful? And if they are useful, why wouldn't I use them to help me win?)

 

[Karpi]

You guys may want to give XY competitive battling a try. It's actually improved *a lot* over the B2W2 scene. The current top player on smogon is using Krookodile, nobody else does, and that's fine because so many pokemon are viable. It's seriously like night and day.

 

[Osprey]

For one thing, competitive battling isn't a mandatory feature of Pokemon. And truly I'm fine with the banned legends, and the fact that spamming an OP move won't let you win. It makes you (especially in the case of Triple Battles, my favorite competitive form) have to strategize, and exploit a Pokemon's status-affecting moves, Abilities, and held items rather than raw power. ... Come to think of it, if you do set up a Pokemon right, you can just do the "3-2-1 SPAM!" that you seem enamored with.

Speaking from my experience, your UBER Pokemon probably didn't lose to EV/IV's; they probably lost to superior strategy. I go onto those "free battles" all the time with my 100% UBER-free team, and beat the hell out of all-legendary teams. It's amusing, really. A Dragon-Danced Charizard X with Earthquake is more than a match for any Dialga.

 

[Muur]

Fun is subjective. Some people find it fun, I'm too lazy to do it my self and use Showdown but eh. I did start to EV train a few People this gen though.

 

[Lord Kyuubi]

Fun is subjective. Some people find it fun, I'm too lazy to do it my self and use Showdown but eh. I did start to EV train a few People this gen though.

Seconded. I also do all of my competitive battling on Showdown, rather than in-game, because I don't like endlessly breeding for perfect fighters. More to the point, I don't find it rewarding to go into battle with a team of 'perfectly bred drones' instead of my old friends I've already fought and bled and bonded with.

It depends on what you want to work hard on. If you don't care about battling, you obviously don't need to bother with the competitive scene. If you want a deep and strategic game, then it's available for you, whether you want to spend time in-game breeding and training, or whether you'd rather just use Showdown or another simulator. And I personally very much like competitive battling, and I feel it's improved a lot since the beginning, and even since gen 5, for that matter.

 

[Muur]

Tbf my team Pokemon in game do well because I ev trained most of them. Not fully as fighting random Pokemon messed them up a bit but my Roserade had 252 in spec attack, maybe 230? in speed then the rest random.

My Aegislash has 252 in attack, 200ish in defence

so they're not as strong as they should've been but they won about half the matches I did on X/Y online.

 

[squidsticks]

Well, what you described is basically the difference between casual and competitive play, in any game or sport! And, as ever, people like different things. Some people don't feel the need to get competitive, while some actually get their enjoyment from their sport or game by training and improving and being able to outplay someone. I love playing stupid modes in Smash Bros - 300% damage on everyone with only home run bats and hammers? My brother and I wasted many weekends laughing until our sides hurt like that. And it's the same with Pokemon. I have neither the time nor the patience for all the EV and IV stuff, and if I'm honest, I don't have the inclination either. But Pokemon is such a great game because it has so many facets to it. I'm more of a "completionist", so I have to go back and pick every area clean of its hidden items, make sure I've spoken to every single person, and get every Pokemon I can. I find that fun. But I know some people find that tedious. It's all about personal tastes, really. I have no intention of getting into the competitive battling scene, but that's what some people love about the Pokemon games. And, actually, there's a lot more strategy involved these days, what with Abilities and held items, and the fact you can have multiple Pokemon out at once. I think that's way more interesting than "water always beats fire, fire always beats grass" etc.

Just my 2 cents ^^