Twitch Plays Pokémon (TPP) is a series of social experiments in which commands representing buttons on an original Nintendo GameCube (up, down, left, right, A, B, X, Y, Z, L, R, start, and C-stick) are entered into a chat on Twitch, and then translated into a game of Pokémon via an IRC bot. In short, hundreds of people are fighting over a controller. Throughout its life, Twitch Plays Pokémon has spawned hilarious characters, memorable moments, and even a few religions.
Twitch Plays Pokémon Grand Colosseum is the third run of the ninth season, which began on June 11th, 2022 and concluded on June 19th, 2022. The game featured is Pokémon Grand Colosseum, a hack of Pokémon Colosseum that draws inspiration from both Drayano60's hacks and existing Pokémon XD hacks, with an increased difficulty level, revamped types and movesets, Gym-like Colosseum battles, the inclusion of two Alolan forms, and numerous features from later generations such as the addition of the Fairy-type, a Physical/Special split, and reusable TMs. Grand Colosseum also comes in three different versions that determine which set of starters and Legendary trio can be snagged during the course of the game, with this run using the Johto version.
This run followed the adventures of a Host named "U!!!?" and his partner "YUKI", as they undergo the grand task of defeating Team Cipher once again, snagging and purifying every Shadow Pokémon, and, for the first time since TPP first visited the region of Orre, triumphing over all 100 floors of Mt. Battle, both within Story Mode and Battle Mode. And as is tradition, they will also watch the news, many, many times along the way.
See also here
for the archived status of the run.
Twitch Plays Pokémon Grand Colosseum contains examples of:
- Achilles' Heel:
- Water-types were this for the team's Typhlosion, due to this hack giving it a dual Fire/Ground-type, and thus a double weakness to Water-type moves.
- In general, Fairy-types were also this for the team as a whole, which not only had two members that were weak against Fairy-type moves (namely Umbreon and Ampharos, the latter being Electric/Dragon in this hack), but also not a single move that was effective against Fairy-types.
- A Dog Named "Cat": Once purified, Scizor was nicknamed "KLEAVOR", after Scyther's alternate evolution from Generation VIII.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Plusle and Ampharos had this dynamic, usually being sent in battle together to take advantage of their respective Plus and Minus abilities that caused them to boost each other's stats, with Ampharos standing a full meter taller than Plusle.
- Good Bad Bugs:
- When saving, the game will briefly load the previous save into the memory to show the player the data they are about to overwrite. As stream badges for evolved Pokémon were dropped based on when they were added to the in-game Strategy Memo, due to the stream's tracker not being set up to track them, this caused new badges to get dropped every time the save menu was opened for any Pokémon that had been evolved between the previous and current save. Players used this trick to drop two additional sets of Ampharos and Typhlosion badges before the tracker was fixed.
- Players made use of a specific spot in Agate Village where walking continuously into a dead end counted towards emptying the Heart Gauges that indicate when Shadow Pokémon are ready to be purified, with the amusing side-effect of making the screen rumble violently. See it in action here.
- Obvious Rule Patch: Just like in Randomized Colosseum, the "Release" button has been replaced with a "Hug" button lacking any practical purpose, in order to avoid an Unintentionally Unwinnable situation due to the limited amount of Pokémon available.
- Shout-Out: Sunflora was nicknamed "Flowey" after being purified, as a reference to the antagonist from Undertale who happens to be a similar-looking smiling yellow flower.
- Who's on First?: The name of the Host led to the chat making numerous such jokes, especially when it popped up in the game's dialogue, such as the amusingly obvious-sounding "You're U!!!?", or the surprisingly heartwarming "U!!!? hugged Friend".
- Wonder Twin Powers: Plusle and Ampharos respectively possessed the abilities Plus and Minus, thus boosting each other's Special Attack by 50% whenever they were out in battle at the same time, and thus were usually sent out together at the start of most battles.
