Pokemon Contests are my favorite side game, bar none. I fell in love with them the first time I played through Sapphire at 12, and they heavily influenced my list of favorite Pokemon. I became farmer, breeder, trainer, and coordinator all at once. I would catch a Pokemon I thought was interesting, then immediately breed it so I could raise it from hatching and see all its moves. Every time I saw a berry bush I didn't recognize, I would get excited and check the berry tag. I would hatch eggs in my secret base to make the Pokemon that much more personal, and redecorate to the theme of whatever Pokemon I was raising through the ranks. I got really into it, and it gave me a new appreciation for Hoenn's roster of Pokemon. It also helped my battling, what with knowing most Pokemon's movesets and all. I still get all the ribbons every time I play through a Hoenn game. I just can't stay away!
I haven't really delved much on them but I always had the feeling that Gen 5's Pokémon Musicals in Nimbasa City were basically another form of contests too
I didn't know I needed this deepdive, but it was a fascinating watch! I remember thinking that the nicknames for Pokemon in contests *needed* to be as dumb as possible in order to win. So I named a Baltoy Toybal and tried to win a contest with them. It didn't work. xD I kind of wish the appeal round of the contests was more like how it is in the anime. Which might have been difficult to actually implement, but what I enjoyed about the contests in the anime was how creative the coordinators could be with their moves. Like the first thing that comes to mind is Dawn having Pachirisu and Piplup combine like... Bubblebeam and Discharge. And even the battle portion of the contests in the anime were pretty cool! But the games never let you use more than one Pokemon in the contests.
Toybal is so funny! :D Love that idea. And true, the anime HYPED up contests and were always cool to watch, but too bad that wasn't maybe feasible in the games. ;w;
I loved contests as a kid, since Ruby was my first game. I was so obsessed, I even got the glass statue decoration for my secret base. Best part was seeing the portraits in the Lilycove museum. It wasn't until I bought a guidebook to where I learned of move combinations, egg groups, and egg moves. To be the very best coordinator took a lot of breeding! The anime had such a cool concept combining contests with battles, it's a shame there hasn't been a contest battle themed game or a rom hack. Could be complicated in making combo moves look artistic, having a timer and points gauge but fun if done right.
Loved this vid! Contests have always been a favorite of mine, I was HUGE into Gen 3 back when it first released. I kinda sucked at them lmao, but they still dazzled me and gave a nice out from the standard catch and battle formula that the rest of the game is dominated by. Giving you a sub, you more than earned it
I absolutely adore Contests! They were one of my favorite sidequest things in the earlier Pokemon games, and I miss them a lot -- so much so that, after seeing the "Shining Star" Title on a Landorus at the Knoxville VGC Regionals back in January (which is granted by the Contest Star Ribbon), I actually went back to Omega Ruby to try and beat every single Contest with my favorite Pokemon Absol just to get it, haha. Yeah, there were some aspects that didn't really explain themselves well at all (particularly as it pertained to certain move effects), so I do kinda wish that they would give you, like, an optional thing of, "Oh, do you wanna do a practice Contest?" where they'd take you through a scripted Contest where some NPC tells you the basics of how things work and what certain things mean just so new players wouldn't have felt so lost and taken aback by the steep learning curve that you brought up. But even so, once you got the hang of things, Contests were really cool, and I like the idea of being able to just go on a stage and be like, "Hey, look how rad my Pokemon buddy is!". If they do ever implement Contests again, I would just hope that there'd be some customization options for not only the Pokemon itself, like with the Props and stuff, but maybe also a few options for the Trainer's Contest outfit, just for that other little personal touch. Anyway, great video! Always fun to see a deep-dive into a long-absent feature from these games! 😁
Oh the Shining Star title story sounds so cool! I'm glad you got it as well! Things like those are just very fun, and I definitely agree with your points on how to improve on them if they ever brought the idea back! Maybe someday.. :')
Love this vid! I never got into contests but never really thought about why. Looking back they’re actually pretty fun and strategic when you know how it works.
wow I loved ths video! I really like contests, I couldn't really understand well how they worked when I was younger because my english wasn't that good and I just mashed buttons, but now I really like collecting ribbons for my pokemon even more because in SV and SwSh they give your pokemon silly little titles that make the experience so much special.
Really nice video! I'm glad I discovered your channel! ORAS kind of bothered me as a young person because I felt so disconnected from the female protagonist's outfit. Previously, the games were very "neutral" about the gender differences between the characters. But, y'know. It is what it is. RSE's system will always be super nostalgic!
Great video! This one especially stands out to me, as I'm going on my own ribbon master journey; where as you said: contests are the biggest source of ribbons around. I initially started with a shiny shroomish in sapphire, but the contests absolutely killed that hope for me. Look at the optimal pokeblock recipes and you'll understand why. I need 4 gameboys; 4 gen 3 games; a big enough GBA link cable; a gamecube or e-reader; pokemon colloseum/XD or the e-reader nutpea card; the patience to grind in the GC game of choice or patience to load the nutpea over and over; a GBA-GC link cable (if going GC route), and the fingers to do it all; (I have 2, 1, 1/2, 1 or 0, 0, 0, 1, 10/~40 respectively) all to make my little guy do the best it can in just the *visual* aspect. Another thing to consider is that snore isn't possible to get in sapphire; thus making combos impossible for my little shroom. Revisiting gen 4 recently made me start again with a shiny weavile I found radar chaining, and that brought to me the realization that contests are so much more accessible in platinum. You can simply buy good poffins for cheap in veilstone, as I believe you brought up in the video (p.s. there's a cool reddit guide online for anyone in a similar situation which details the optimal bought poffins). That's all they needed to do to let my weasel get 30+ ribbons. To answer the title with my own experience: the crazy hurdles in place to stand a chance in the higher rank contests; the reliance on combos that may not be possible on your `mon of choice (gen 3 exclusively); the lack of focus on it in the series compared to battles, and battling just being more fun to more people are what caused contests to fall flat.
Oh gosh good luck on the ribbon journey! I've always wanted to try getting all ribbons on one Pokemon, but for reasons you mentioned it is indeed a tall order -- I'll settle with what I can. :') It's not impossible, but yes the ribbons can be really difficult to get in some games. I'm glad you got your Weavile stacked with ribbons! And thanks for mentioning a few other tidbits, I forgot to go into the store bought poffins and have seen the guide for even that -- feeding the Pokemon the poffins! But yeah, all in all, super interesting that contests are out but ribbons still remain very strong.
honestly, no matter what, Sinnoh's Super Contests were the best for me. I love dressing up my Pokemon and doing a rhythm game in along with the standard contest formula.
I just now learned of contests. You see I'm soon getting Pokemon Platinum and I was really curious about extra activities you could do with your Pokemon. My first Pokemon Game was Pokemon X and I enjoyed playing around in PokeAime and increasing the bonds between me and my Pokemon. And I also enjoy Picniking with my Pokemon in Paldea as well. I know Sun and Moon has Refresh and Sworld and Shield has Camping. So I was curious about Pre Gen 6 Offerings.
First of all I loved the video and its perspective on contests and their depths. I didn’t know move combos went that deep. Anyways I did wanna throw my two cents in on why they failed. I think you touch on it a bit but they don’t give you anything of value or use. I remember doing contests in Omega Ruby and I mean it was alright but it only gave one single mega stone. Lucarioite. The mega stone you get, you know, for free in Kalos. It would be faster to play a Kalos game to get one than to finish contests. Contests don’t give you access to rare Pokémon, useful items, or even money. They’re a system to closed off for anyone to want to interact with save for its own sake. It’s a lot of investment for no return. So the vast majority of players go “OK why bother?” Simple. They won’t. It’s a shame cause I did have fun doing contests when I did but without any reward they were doomed from the start. They can give luxury balls in Emerald I think which is great for collectors but you’re not gonna find that out unless you’re already way deep into contests so that doesn’t help either.
My primary issue with contest was always that there’s no actual strategy to the whole thing and just doing a side mini game to earn ribbons which ultimately don’t go anywhere other than into the hardest contest available and not a Leauge of any notable repute…kinda makes the whole mode feel like an after thought. If it was something more akin to the anime where you gain points from stylish maneuvers and use of skills (sort of akin to how Sonic’s trick system works), it would go so much further In establishing contest as an alternative source of fun.
i really liked the contests in emerald, once i earned the gamecube berries, learned the mechanics, the move effects, move combos and natures... you definitely have to do some research and the game is awful at teaching you these. how people prior to the internet understood contests i have no idea
Ah, I remember the first time I bothered with contests, and the incredible journey I went on. It went like this: Lisia: "I'm sure you can win next time! Don't give up!" Me: (Looking up a strategy guide)" So...my reward is berries and water?" Thus concludes my journey into contests. I hope she's not still waiting for me to try again.
I think the biggest thing holding contests back is the lack of any tangible rewards. I think people would care about them a lot more if useful items or large sums of money were rewarded for contest wins, that could at least get people to engage as an alternative way to grind money for things you need to buy.
The issue with contests is you don't really need them to complete the game. Since the only way to finish the game is by going to the Pokémon League there is no incentive for players to try contests. Even if you win all of them the game doesn't considered you have pass the game until you defeat every Gym. The obscurity of its mechanics didn't help either.
The manga did a better job on equality, in anime and game only the gays and gals are coordinator. In the manga is the male protagonist who's the coordinator not the girl like in the animes
I love pokemon contest but it never feel like the anime and it not base on you skil and style and move combo national like using to move together and batting combo national pear move like a poke idol or a performance I don't like the dances and the the idol star don't do a thing no toy 🪀🧸 you can 🎉 use in contact to give the player something to use in the contest show case
Pokemon Contests are my favorite side game, bar none. I fell in love with them the first time I played through Sapphire at 12, and they heavily influenced my list of favorite Pokemon. I became farmer, breeder, trainer, and coordinator all at once. I would catch a Pokemon I thought was interesting, then immediately breed it so I could raise it from hatching and see all its moves. Every time I saw a berry bush I didn't recognize, I would get excited and check the berry tag. I would hatch eggs in my secret base to make the Pokemon that much more personal, and redecorate to the theme of whatever Pokemon I was raising through the ranks. I got really into it, and it gave me a new appreciation for Hoenn's roster of Pokemon. It also helped my battling, what with knowing most Pokemon's movesets and all.
I still get all the ribbons every time I play through a Hoenn game. I just can't stay away!
That's awesome! :D Thanks for sharing the experience, you put it all nicely!
I haven't really delved much on them but I always had the feeling that Gen 5's Pokémon Musicals in Nimbasa City were basically another form of contests too
I didn't know I needed this deepdive, but it was a fascinating watch! I remember thinking that the nicknames for Pokemon in contests *needed* to be as dumb as possible in order to win. So I named a Baltoy Toybal and tried to win a contest with them. It didn't work. xD
I kind of wish the appeal round of the contests was more like how it is in the anime. Which might have been difficult to actually implement, but what I enjoyed about the contests in the anime was how creative the coordinators could be with their moves. Like the first thing that comes to mind is Dawn having Pachirisu and Piplup combine like... Bubblebeam and Discharge. And even the battle portion of the contests in the anime were pretty cool! But the games never let you use more than one Pokemon in the contests.
Toybal is so funny! :D Love that idea. And true, the anime HYPED up contests and were always cool to watch, but too bad that wasn't maybe feasible in the games. ;w;
They need to make them more like the anime
I loved contests as a kid, since Ruby was my first game. I was so obsessed, I even got the glass statue decoration for my secret base. Best part was seeing the portraits in the Lilycove museum.
It wasn't until I bought a guidebook to where I learned of move combinations, egg groups, and egg moves. To be the very best coordinator took a lot of breeding!
The anime had such a cool concept combining contests with battles, it's a shame there hasn't been a contest battle themed game or a rom hack. Could be complicated in making combo moves look artistic, having a timer and points gauge but fun if done right.
Loved this vid! Contests have always been a favorite of mine, I was HUGE into Gen 3 back when it first released. I kinda sucked at them lmao, but they still dazzled me and gave a nice out from the standard catch and battle formula that the rest of the game is dominated by.
Giving you a sub, you more than earned it
I absolutely adore Contests! They were one of my favorite sidequest things in the earlier Pokemon games, and I miss them a lot -- so much so that, after seeing the "Shining Star" Title on a Landorus at the Knoxville VGC Regionals back in January (which is granted by the Contest Star Ribbon), I actually went back to Omega Ruby to try and beat every single Contest with my favorite Pokemon Absol just to get it, haha.
Yeah, there were some aspects that didn't really explain themselves well at all (particularly as it pertained to certain move effects), so I do kinda wish that they would give you, like, an optional thing of, "Oh, do you wanna do a practice Contest?" where they'd take you through a scripted Contest where some NPC tells you the basics of how things work and what certain things mean just so new players wouldn't have felt so lost and taken aback by the steep learning curve that you brought up. But even so, once you got the hang of things, Contests were really cool, and I like the idea of being able to just go on a stage and be like, "Hey, look how rad my Pokemon buddy is!". If they do ever implement Contests again, I would just hope that there'd be some customization options for not only the Pokemon itself, like with the Props and stuff, but maybe also a few options for the Trainer's Contest outfit, just for that other little personal touch.
Anyway, great video! Always fun to see a deep-dive into a long-absent feature from these games! 😁
Oh the Shining Star title story sounds so cool! I'm glad you got it as well! Things like those are just very fun, and I definitely agree with your points on how to improve on them if they ever brought the idea back! Maybe someday.. :')
I love contests. Thank you for this video, I've subscribed!
Thanks so much! :D
Love this vid! I never got into contests but never really thought about why. Looking back they’re actually pretty fun and strategic when you know how it works.
True! And thank you! :D Yeah, I'm much more appreciative and fascinated with the details when they are more known!
wow I loved ths video! I really like contests, I couldn't really understand well how they worked when I was younger because my english wasn't that good and I just mashed buttons, but now I really like collecting ribbons for my pokemon even more because in SV and SwSh they give your pokemon silly little titles that make the experience so much special.
That's awesome! It's a great thing to collect and I wish you luck with the collection!!
Really nice video! I'm glad I discovered your channel! ORAS kind of bothered me as a young person because I felt so disconnected from the female protagonist's outfit. Previously, the games were very "neutral" about the gender differences between the characters. But, y'know. It is what it is. RSE's system will always be super nostalgic!
The hyper-girly vibes turned me off of it too 😵 i mostly ignored contests in the remakes, the first time around.
Great video! This one especially stands out to me, as I'm going on my own ribbon master journey; where as you said: contests are the biggest source of ribbons around.
I initially started with a shiny shroomish in sapphire, but the contests absolutely killed that hope for me. Look at the optimal pokeblock recipes and you'll understand why. I need 4 gameboys; 4 gen 3 games; a big enough GBA link cable; a gamecube or e-reader; pokemon colloseum/XD or the e-reader nutpea card; the patience to grind in the GC game of choice or patience to load the nutpea over and over; a GBA-GC link cable (if going GC route), and the fingers to do it all; (I have 2, 1, 1/2, 1 or 0, 0, 0, 1, 10/~40 respectively) all to make my little guy do the best it can in just the *visual* aspect. Another thing to consider is that snore isn't possible to get in sapphire; thus making combos impossible for my little shroom.
Revisiting gen 4 recently made me start again with a shiny weavile I found radar chaining, and that brought to me the realization that contests are so much more accessible in platinum. You can simply buy good poffins for cheap in veilstone, as I believe you brought up in the video (p.s. there's a cool reddit guide online for anyone in a similar situation which details the optimal bought poffins). That's all they needed to do to let my weasel get 30+ ribbons.
To answer the title with my own experience: the crazy hurdles in place to stand a chance in the higher rank contests; the reliance on combos that may not be possible on your `mon of choice (gen 3 exclusively); the lack of focus on it in the series compared to battles, and battling just being more fun to more people are what caused contests to fall flat.
Oh gosh good luck on the ribbon journey! I've always wanted to try getting all ribbons on one Pokemon, but for reasons you mentioned it is indeed a tall order -- I'll settle with what I can. :') It's not impossible, but yes the ribbons can be really difficult to get in some games. I'm glad you got your Weavile stacked with ribbons! And thanks for mentioning a few other tidbits, I forgot to go into the store bought poffins and have seen the guide for even that -- feeding the Pokemon the poffins! But yeah, all in all, super interesting that contests are out but ribbons still remain very strong.
Most in-depth and entertaining video I've seen about this system. Thank you so much!
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!!
love your pokemon videos so much! keep up the great work
Thanks so much!! :D
You're quickly becoming one of my favorite poketubers. Nice job!
Thanks so much! I'm glad to hear that! :D
honestly, no matter what, Sinnoh's Super Contests were the best for me. I love dressing up my Pokemon and doing a rhythm game in along with the standard contest formula.
I just now learned of contests. You see I'm soon getting Pokemon Platinum and I was really curious about extra activities you could do with your Pokemon. My first Pokemon Game was Pokemon X and I enjoyed playing around in PokeAime and increasing the bonds between me and my Pokemon.
And I also enjoy Picniking with my Pokemon in Paldea as well. I know Sun and Moon has Refresh and Sworld and Shield has Camping.
So I was curious about Pre Gen 6 Offerings.
That's cool! Awesome you get to experience it soon, and playing Platinum should also be super fun!
this video definitely appealed to me. I'm gonna have to subscribe.
First of all I loved the video and its perspective on contests and their depths. I didn’t know move combos went that deep. Anyways I did wanna throw my two cents in on why they failed.
I think you touch on it a bit but they don’t give you anything of value or use. I remember doing contests in Omega Ruby and I mean it was alright but it only gave one single mega stone. Lucarioite. The mega stone you get, you know, for free in Kalos. It would be faster to play a Kalos game to get one than to finish contests. Contests don’t give you access to rare Pokémon, useful items, or even money. They’re a system to closed off for anyone to want to interact with save for its own sake. It’s a lot of investment for no return. So the vast majority of players go “OK why bother?” Simple. They won’t. It’s a shame cause I did have fun doing contests when I did but without any reward they were doomed from the start.
They can give luxury balls in Emerald I think which is great for collectors but you’re not gonna find that out unless you’re already way deep into contests so that doesn’t help either.
I used castform a lot when I was a kid because of weather set up and westher ball. Easy combo ❄
That's true! Castform can shine even brighter in the contests :D
I only did the contest for the ribbon, even when the contest felt soul numbing .
I love contests, so I'm seated for this video
My primary issue with contest was always that there’s no actual strategy to the whole thing and just doing a side mini game to earn ribbons which ultimately don’t go anywhere other than into the hardest contest available and not a Leauge of any notable repute…kinda makes the whole mode feel like an after thought.
If it was something more akin to the anime where you gain points from stylish maneuvers and use of skills (sort of akin to how Sonic’s trick system works), it would go so much further In establishing contest as an alternative source of fun.
i really liked the contests in emerald, once i earned the gamecube berries, learned the mechanics, the move effects, move combos and natures... you definitely have to do some research and the game is awful at teaching you these. how people prior to the internet understood contests i have no idea
So funny you uploaded this video a few hours ago because…. A few hours ago I loaded up a save of Platinum literally just to play a contest
Ah, I remember the first time I bothered with contests, and the incredible journey I went on. It went like this:
Lisia: "I'm sure you can win next time! Don't give up!"
Me: (Looking up a strategy guide)" So...my reward is berries and water?"
Thus concludes my journey into contests. I hope she's not still waiting for me to try again.
I think the biggest thing holding contests back is the lack of any tangible rewards. I think people would care about them a lot more if useful items or large sums of money were rewarded for contest wins, that could at least get people to engage as an alternative way to grind money for things you need to buy.
The issue with contests is you don't really need them to complete the game. Since the only way to finish the game is by going to the Pokémon League there is no incentive for players to try contests.
Even if you win all of them the game doesn't considered you have pass the game until you defeat every Gym.
The obscurity of its mechanics didn't help either.
It never got the spotlight since it's too "girly" and we all know most of the fans of pokemon are middle aged men
The manga did a better job on equality, in anime and game only the gays and gals are coordinator. In the manga is the male protagonist who's the coordinator not the girl like in the animes
I love pokemon contest but it never feel like the anime and it not base on you skil and style and move combo national like using to move together and batting combo national pear move like a poke idol or a performance I don't like the dances and the the idol star don't do a thing no toy 🪀🧸 you can 🎉 use in contact to give the player something to use in the contest show case