So I decided to replay Pokemon Emerald recently, and it brought to light a major issue with the series that I had been subconsciously aware of for a while now: The games are full of garbage.

Not that they are garbage, mind you. I played and enjoyed Pearl recently, and might get Platinum later on. But there's just so much unnecessary crap thrown in these games that it pains me.

First and most obviously there's the garbage Pokemon. Honestly I don't need a new Ratatta-equivalent every generation; just give me the same thing, since I'm just going to ignore it anyway. I'm looking at you, Bidoof. I mean, Zubat's fulfilled his role as one of the most obnoxious bastards in gaming for four generations, without having to make a bunch of new identical Pokemon. Stop with the garbage Pokemon.

But my real beef is all this extra crap they throw in. Contests are garbage. PokeBlocks, Poffins, and whatever new thing they most assuredly will add in the next generation, are garbage. On that same token, berries are garbage. The Secret Hideout is garbage.

It's bad enough that crap like this even exists, but when I'm actually required to mess around with stuff like this, it becomes a real problem.

I want my Pokemon games to do two things, and do them damn well: I wanna catch Pokemon, and I wanna fight Pokemon.