Yesterday was quite the exciting day for tournaments!  Not only is the 2012 International Challenge ongoing this weekend for the Pokémon Global Battle Union, there was also a local tournament at at store called Play N Trade.  (I’m 0-3 in the International WIFI Challenge, btw.  Wah.)

The local tournament was called Pokémon Battle Thru the Generations, and invited everyone to bring games from any generation and battle them!  I, of course, wussed out and only prepared a team to battle with Black & White.  The only other Pokémon generation that was represented was Gen IV.  Actually, I did bring my copy of FireRed, but luckily nobody else had a game from that generation…  I say luckily b/c my FireRed team was SO not ready!

Since this was my first REAL LIFE tournament (I’d only participated in WIFI tournaments before this) I was definitely nervous.  What if I get my butt kicked by a 9 year old boy??  But I knew I’d have to be brave – if I thought this was bad, just imagine what the PVGC will be like next month in Philly!  At least in the PVGC, they set it up so you only get your ass kicked by people in your own age bracket, so that’s good at least!

Anyway, I actually did a lot better than I thought.  I won my first round, lost the second, won the third, and then lost the fourth.  In the battles I won, I played against a teenage girl and a little boy.  Shut up, at least I didn’t get beat by the little boy!  And of course, in the rounds I lost, I was beat by college age guys who EV train and nerd it up hardcore style, so I didn’t stand a chance.  But it was still fun, and I’m glad I went!

Congratulations to the winner, by the way!

After the tournament, JDubz and I spent the rest of the day playing our newest 3DS game, Kid Icarus: Uprising!  This game is soooo cool!  Despite how I thought Kid Icarus was lame not long ago, I am convinced of his bad-ass-ness with all the weapons and killer moves he has in battle.  Collecting and upgrading weapons is a lot of fun.  The art style of the 3D animation is really well done, I’d say this is one of the best 3D games available right now.  Not only is the story mode packed with action, the multi-player modes are sweet too!  You can do a regular Free-For-All game, or you can play a game called Light Vs. Dark, where you and your friends are split into two teams and must fight for Lightness, or Darkness!  It’s freakin sweet.

My only complaint about KI:U so far is that the AR cards, which are a REALLY cool idea, don’t unlock weapons in your actual game.  You can collect all the cards you want, but they won’t immediately affect the weapons that you find in game.  I had kinda hoped that if I scanned a Tiger Claws AR card, that I’d get the claws in the game.  Alas… that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?  So the AR cards are really just collecting for collecting’s sake (and taking 3D photos), which has it’s merits, but I just wish they’d integrated it more into the actual game play somehow.

A lot of people might be concerned about the awkward controls.  The good news is you can basically customize the controls however you want.  The bad news is, even with the easiest control system you can think of, it’s still kind of awkward to hold the 3DS.  The game comes with a 3DS stand, which is great, but I am rarely playing my 3DS at a desk or table-top, so it’s not that helpful to me.  My solution?  Take breaks as often as needed, no point in giving yourself carpal tunnel!

So if anyone wants to play Kid Icarus, please let me know!  I’d love to battle anyone in WIFI mode!  Just leave a message on the Glux Blog’s Facebook Page, or send a tweet to @Gluxbox!