Your Opinion on Pokemon Contests

[Our Wasted Years]

So I find Pokemon Contests to be completely useless and a waste of time in regular Pokemon games..sort of makes me wish Gen 3 games were never made. But I also see a few people that love them to death...personally I see nothing rewarding coming from them and they should have been made as a separate game or something. They have also made Pokemon episodes focusing on JUST Pokemon Contests...barely relevant to anything in the main storyline and just a waste of a episode imo. It's like a filler but sometimes it reveals about 10 seconds of little info that might contribute to the actual story..but seeing as the plot in Pokemon anime has been dumb no worries I guess.

/rant

So how do you feel about them?

 

[PlatinumDude]

I did a few Contests back in R/S/E as well as D/P/Pt

R/S/E was a bit easier because you were able to take away your opponent's points.

D/P/Pt was a bit more complicated as you have to rely on prediction in the appeal round (you couldn't take away points), timing in the dance round and fashion sense in the dress-up round.

 

[Dopey]

I think the contests are just a deviation from the main theme of the games, just to add a little extra.

Anyways, I don't give a damn about them, they just don't suit my playin' style.

 

[Cyndaquil]

The idea is good, but they need to have more meaning. I wish they were more like the anime, with the battle rounds too, trying to use powerful but appealing moves would be a good challenge. Or even in the appeal rounds, having control of the pokemon, and using the moves differently like in the anime, so rather than just firing a water gun, do something creative with it.

 

[Iteru]

In the games, I have only entered a contest once. I didn't care for it.

Anime wise I think they are alright.

 

[DCM]

I don't really like them. I'll enter them if I'm bored. Otherwise, no way dood.
I just wish they had battling like in the anime

 

[Vsyoravno]

I liked them in RSE. It was easier to figure out and I got a few Master ribbons relatively easily.

I didn't like them much in DPP, because while I'm actually pretty good at the dress-up and dancing parts, the acting relies too much on luck, so either the game is cheating or I'm just doing something wrong because I'm always behind in that one. I don't have the patience to even attempt past Normal Rank.

I think they're stupid in the anime, but then again there's not much I liked about the anime to begin with.

 

[SalamenceCommander]

They were very boring in the 3rd generation games but in D/P/Pt series they seem much more interesting, although I seldom enter them. I prefer battling instead.

 

[Yamato-san]

they're all right, but I really wish Game Freak would do more with them. For an aspect of gameplay they seem to enjoy hyping to no end, they don't really give a fuck for the most part. They can't make it available in the older game remakes (despite the anime making contests take place in their regions), it can't be played in 3D in some way, shape, or form (whereas a 3D battling game is pretty much standard with every generation), they reduced them to a single area as of Emerald, and correct me if I'm wrong, but they aren't even playable on Wi-Fi, are they?

It also sucks that Game Freak can't give some better incentive for playing Contests, aside from some novelty ribbons. I guess being rewarded with decoration items in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum is okay... you can get battle-centric items through battling, so why not get Contest-centric items through Contests? But they never progress the story in any way, shape, or form.... if people found the sudden shift in gameplay annoying, winning a contest should be involved with a sidequest, at least. Also, it's kinda sad to think that they pretty much made an entire bestiary of berries completely devoted to this type of gameplay (if they didn't, we'd still be stuck with the rather plain selection of berries in Gold/Silver/Crystal... don't expect to be able to lower your Pokemon's EVs until at least Diamond/Pearl, either).

You know what else Contests lack? Individual Pokemon stats. The Pokethlon at least has different maxes (speaking of which, the Pokethlon rewards you with some nice items, including evolution items), but why is it that a Purin and a Rayquaza are both capable of getting the same Cute stat? I'd commend them for making up a new effect for each attack, but they could've put more thought in the Pokemon involved.

 

[thedarkbunnylord]

The idea is great and lovely, but in the games contests are just extreamly boring. I hope they'll figure out something new for the next gen (also in anime, third coordinator newbie is too much) or change the whole gameplay in contests.
I've wished since 3rd gen that they would make a spin-off game about contests, which would be more anime-based. That game could have some regular Pokémon game aspects like catching different kinds of pokémon, but the main goal is still getting five ribbons and entering The Grand Festival. Wii would be a nice console for that: before appeals round you have to brush your pokémons fur or something, you could move your pokémon and its attacks in the appeals and visual rounds, and actually do some nice visual rounds.
But yeah, that's gonna never happen .

 

[Insanish Danish]

To be honest, I preferred them back in Gen III, because back then they were fresh and new and I also loved them in the anime. I dislike Super Contests though, both in the Gen IV games and in the anime.

 

[Soulweaver]

I'm glad they left them out of HGSS. To me contests have always been a boring side story which I have tried to go through only for the sake of game completeness. In RSE it was also a nifty way to get more Luxury Balls, but no, I don't like the contests in any way.

 

[Glaciachan]

I don't care for contests. I liked them a little back in R/S/E, but I disliked them in DPPt. I'm happy they got rid of them in HGSS.

 

[Jesse GS the II]

I've never done a contest. I thought about trying them in my Generation III games, but I don't have any people to berry blend with outside of the game's NPCs. The only thing I've ever used PokéBlocks for was the Safari Zone. As for Generation IV, now it just seems needlessly complicated - you gotta dance, you gotta act, you gotta dress up, and at the end of it, your Pokémon is still the same level it was when you went in. As a player who concerns himself with beating the gym challenge and completing the PokéDex, contests just don't interest me anymore.

Really, I suspect contests were just created as a way to get girls to play Pokémon games. It sounds sexist, but someone at Nintendo probably thought they'd get a better female demographic if there was a part of the game devoted to showing off how cute and cuddly your Pokémon is. It'd certainly explain why the anime keeps making its female protagonists into coordinators.

 

[RudolphMilotic]

Pokémon Contests were one of the features I liked so much back then when Ruby & Sapphire were the only Generation III games; using the Berry Blender with up to 4 people (I had several friends with whom do interact) was fun and made you forget how frustrating things like IV breed or searching for female Pokémon (as FRLG hadn't been released yet, so no Ditto for your breeding purposes) were, and the actual competitions were fresh and interesting. I managed to get the Trainer Card star and the Glass Ornament even before I got the Hoenn Dex-completion one, and remembered how I used to plan combos and disruption tactics. My Sapphire starter -a Lv. 100 Blaziken which has been with me since 2003- was able to get all the Ribbons in each rank of four Contests (Coolness, Beauty, Toughness and Smartness), as well as the sketch-model one and some others. I won a lot of Luxury Balls in-game for the same reasons.

Later on, FRLG and Emerald were released so much of my attention was focused on battles, and although I also got the Trainer Card star for the Contests in Emerald, playing with friends was scarcely done from time to time; it didn't help either that using the Wireless Adapter to connect sent the data slower than the Game Link Cable, despite the new option to set up a Contest with less than 4-players. The Blend Master was useful to make PokéBlocks when friends weren't available.

Finally, Generation IV took the spotlight and introduced Super Contests, which albeit interesting they removed a lot of things I liked from their GIII counterparts. The dance and visual rounds were a welcomed addition, but the acting part was downgraded and took out a lot of strategy, having luck favored instead with the addition of two more judges and forcing the order in which Pokémon make their appeals to depend on the lowest/highest score achieved in the last round. With that, many combos are now too unreliable, and only a few ones are worthwhile using. Moreover, sadly the visual round as well as your Pokémon's primary and secondary condition are now more essential to attain the win than the acting round, so emphasis on getting accesories (and also memorize which ones match a given theme) and cooking Poffins was placed. Besides, you merely need a Master Rank victory to get the Trainer Card star, and they can't be played over the Nintendo WFC. So in my case, I'm only doing them for the sake of getting all the Underground Secret Base decorations.

I guess that if Game Freak makes an overhaul to the Super Contest system in future games, perhaps I'll become attracted by them again. I don't think they need to be part of the main story, though, and the condition value mechanics is fine as it's.

 

[Dark Fire]

I normally just don't bother with contests. In the third gen they were fun I suppose, but the thing I didn't like about them was that it was almost impossible to have a serious competitive team while also being able to compete in contests with them. In Ruby I caught specific pokemon, which I would normally never use for battling to beat the contests. That aspect of it really annoyed me, so I stopped bothering with them.
I've never even tried the fourth gen contests. It seems like even more of a waste of time than the third gen. Do you get anything for beating the Master Rank aside from a ribbon?

 

[NyaChan]

Do you get anything for beating the Master Rank aside from a ribbon?

A trainer star. Which is, to be honest, the only reason I'm thinking about bothering with contests now. Pokethlons > Contests IMO.

They were OK when they came out, but they get boring really fast. =3= By Gen4 it was like "ugh this is lame and stupid" and after seeing the 'new' stuff they put in it was still boring. I think I only bothered in my JP game and after that I didn't bother in my US game since I had already gotten bored of it.

 

[Crosson]

I think they are a waste of time, but some people like contests.

 

[RudolphMilotic]

A trainer star.

You also get a Cup of each color (representing each Condition) from Mr. Goods for your Underground Secret Base when you win a Master Rank, and an accessory for each rank victory overall.

I thought Pokéthlon disciplines were more fun than Super Contests, but after playing a while with my buddy's HeartGold, they aren't any better. I'll stick to Super Contests in any case.

 

[Shadow The Umbreon]

*start rant*i personaly HATE the D/P/PT verions i hate the dress up, i hate the dancing i hate the new appeal system everything realy
in R/S/E i actualy found them a good time killer while at the same time a good challange the new one is just annoying and i think pointless *end rant*