Operation Finish All The Games: March 2016

I have a confession to make: I didn't finish a game before the end of March. Now, I've certainly had some squeakers in the past. I've spent plenty of nights grinding through games just to wrap them up before midnight. And, there was at least one title where I ran a bit over but still counted it in my monthly tally. But, since I just finished up Pokémon Yellow last night, I can't in good conscience pretend I got it done in time. But at least it's done.

For those of you just joining us, these are the basic rules of the challenge:

• I must finish one game every month. That means completing the basic story mode and prompting a credits scroll.

• I don't need to play side- and post-story content to "finish" a game. I'll go back and do those only if I want to.

• More than one game can be played and finished every month, but will not count for future months' quotas.

• A game does not have to be started and finished in the same month.

• I am not required to play through my entire backlog, or play them in any specific order.

• Single installments of a multi-episode game do not count as "finishing" a game.

• If I buy a new game I have to finish an additional game that month.

Back in February I received a code for Pokémon Yellow from Nintendo. Since I didn't actually purchase the title, I treated it just like Fire Emblem Fates: I was not required to finish an additional game in March.

Despite my long history with the Pokémon franchise I had never actually played any of the original Game Boy titles. Oh, I played Pokémon LeafGreen back when it came out for the Game Boy Advance, but I had never touched Red andBlue on an OG Game Boy. I chose to play Yellow because I knew there were some changes made to tie in with the show, and figured this would add a little variety to my playthrough.

Those changes would prove to bite me in the ass a bit. You see, I don't really like to spend a lot of time training up a diverse team of Pokémon. Instead, I just like to level up my starter plus a few other Pokémon for HM purposes. I've plowed through many a Pokémon game rather quickly in this manner. (I'm not proud, just lazy.)

Pikachu, an electric-type, is your starter in Yellow. The first gym is Pewter Gym, a rock-type gym. Let's just say it didn't go well.

Despite these occasional stumbles when facing a rock- or ground-type, I pushed through the game as well as I could. However, I was not fast enough to finish by the end of March. I got my last two badges Thursday night, but only wrapped up Victory Road yesterday afternoon. I was up until 2am last night fighting the Elite Four and the Champion. How sweet it was to wipe that smug look off Gary's face.

After that harrowing ordeal, I'd like to say I'm going to take a break from Pokémon games for a while. However, last month I also got my grubby little paws on Pokkén Tournament. It's a lot of fun to play, but I think what I enjoy most are the fighting stages themselves. The backgrounds are incredibly detailed, with lots of people and Pokémon wandering around environments such as busy intersections and amusement parks. It's a nice change of place from the OG Pokémon games, where a "city" might have six buildings in it if you're lucky. I can only hope that Pokémon Sun and Moon will have that sense of place that I crave so much.

Games finished: 1*
Badges earned: 8
Gary Oaks humiliated: 1
Beatdowns issued: So, so many

[Images credit: Nintendo]