I'm Addicted To Pokemon Again

I have to say that I owned a copy of Pokemon Red way back when it came out for the first time and I played the heck out of it.  Of course Red and Blue were released in the United States in 1998 which would have made me 16.  Yes, I was playing Pokemon in high school.  Problem?  I didn't do much research on stat pools or who was better than what because Alakazam raeps your shit.  Massive speed + One shot Psychic = no strategy required.  But when they released Gold and Silver I bought Silver and hated it so bad.  The day/night cycles were pointless and the pokemon I loved were replaced by weird looking shit that I didn't want.  So I stopped playing.
Then I got into the Trading Card Game, bad.  Me and my three friends Tim, David and Jason created our own rule set for four player rotating battles.  You were attacked by the person on your right and you attacked the person on your left.  You could play trainer cards on anybody but if anyone got all their prize cards they won so in some cases you could be beat by the person across the table from you who didn't attack you or get attacked by you once.  But building our decks for that kind of combat meant that we were worthless in head to head.  I played a tournament once and my deck was so slow I think I only won once.  I'm sure what I used had a name but basically it revolved around either getting Venusaur out and dumping energy onto Charizard to nuke all their pokemon or filling the bench with junk and continuously doing 60 damage every turn with Wigglytuff.  But after the Fossil expansion I got bored and stopped playing.
I didn't touch anything Pokemon related until just recently.  I bought a used DS and they accidentally left Pokemon Diamond in it.  So I played it.  It was kind of cool, but still too much stuff going on and Pokemon that I couldn't relate to at all.  It reminded me of all the reasons I hated Silver.  But it intrigued me enough to buy Pokemon Black and oh boy...  I LOVE POKEMON BLACK!  I could play it all day long and not get bored.  The fact that they essentially lock out every other Pokemon except the new ones from the fifth generation until after you beat the game the first time makes it play like the original game, except much better looking.  You can still see how the game is basically a rehash of Pokemon Red in some ways: Patrat is obviously Rattata, Pidove is Pidgey, Sewaddle is Caterpie and so on, but the game has a lot of charm.  The best part is that there are multiple rivals that you battle.  Cheren is the typical "rival" in that he picks the starter that yours is weak against, Bianca is a rival that is made for you to beat on (typical Japanese) and then there's a creepy guy called N that talks really fast.  Then there's team Plasma which is some creepy Pokemon cult that wants everyone to release their Pokemon or something.  Anyways, you beat them all up and there's a half dozen or more legendary pokemon to catch and what-not.  Then you beat the game and magically a bunch of pokemon from the other games show up!  And they're all level 60!  FUCK!  And the Elite Four have pokemon at like level 80!  DOUBLE FUCK!  Cursing is cool when you're talking about something made for children.  I hope this comes up when a kid is searching for how to evolve his Oshawott.  Fucking is what Daddy did to Mommy to make you!  Go say it to them now!  Also say shit and damnit!
But the thing I miss the most is the strategy.  It doesn't take long to realize that status moves are a waste of a move slot.  Most battles will be one or two exchanges at best unless one side or the other abuses items.  It's the equivalent of fighting with sledgehammers.  Either you or your enemy gets one-shotted.  With that strategy in mind, my second time through the game is going much easier.  I started with Tepig instead of Snivy even though the Snivy has more character because Tepig's evolved form Emboar is Fire/Fighting, so basically epic damage.  Then I got an Excadrill because massive attack + Earthquake, epic damage.  Then there's Seismatoad which is Water/Ground so Surf and Earthquake, epic damage.  Oh, you are having Psychic pokemon?  Scrafty is fighting/dark plus Hi Jump Kick, oops, epic damage.  Oh, you noticed I am having lots of ground and fighting so you are having flying?  Zebstrika has Spark, oops, epic damage.  Excadrill also has rock slide and is steel type so he will also be having of the fuck with your flying.  So basically just build a set of Pokemon that raep everything and play.  Most every gym leader dies without even getting an attack off and I'm not even levelling up that much.  I think the only type I am really weak against is fighting but I usually just use Seismatoad against those because of their low special defense.  Wow, epic Pokemon rant, see, I am addicted again.
But I haven't even gotten to the best part of all.  The complex team building, stat pumping and type comparisons keep me interested but it is also simple enough for my daughter to enjoy.  While I trade her Pokemon so that she doesn't have to level grind too much, she has managed to get three gym badges on her own so far.  And that's cool, because she likes to play and the games are social which makes it doubly fun for both of us.

But I am not starting that card game again, too much crap.