The Official Pikachu Song Lyrics Are

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Actually, no. They're like "Pikapikapikapika."

There is an official Pikachu song. It's getting released and everything. The name of the song is "Pikachu no Uta" or "Pikachu's Song." Via the official site for anime Pokémon XY & Z, here are the catchy lyrics:

Piikaa! Pikachu! Pika Pika Pikachu! Pika Pika Pikachu!

Pikkachu Pikkachu Pikkacchu (Pikkachu Pikkachu Pikkacchu)

Pikapika Pikkachu Pikkacchu (Pikapika Pikkachu Pikkacchu)

Pikapikapikapika (Pikapikapikapika)

Pikapika (Pikapika)

Pikapika (Pikapika)

Pika (Pika)

Pika (Pika)

Pikkaa!

Pikkachu Pikkachu Pikapika Pikachu Pikapika

Pikachu Pikapika Pikapika Pikapikachu Pikachu

Pikachu Pika Pika (Pikachu Pika Pika)

Pikapikachu!

Pikachu Pikachu (Pika)

Pikapika Pikachu (Pika)

Pikachu Pikachu (Pika)

Pikapika Pikachu (Pika)

Pikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapika

Pipikachu!

What did you expect? Pikachu has be able to sing it, too, you know.

Surprise Stories at the US Video Game National Championships

The 2016 US Pokémon Video Game National Championships revealed an unexpected depth to the current Championship Series metagame, with more interesting teams and Pokémon than many players and spectators planned for. And despite a narrower selection of winning combinations than their TCG counterparts, the video game competitors put on a rousing display of inventive gameplay. After fifteen rounds of best-of-three play and a 12-player Top Cut in the Masters Division, Chase Lybbert has been crowned the National Champion at the 2016 US Pokémon Video Game Masters Division National Championships. Carson St. Denis and Enzo Reci took home impressive victories in the Senior and Junior Divisions, and Trainers have earned their Travel Awards and invitations to the 2016 World Championships in San Francisco.

With so many rounds of intense Pokémon battles in the books, the puzzle of the 2016 Video Game National Championships is now clearer. We'll break down the teams used at the top tables of the 2016 National Championships and take a look at a Pokémon that proved to be a surprise star in Columbus. Remember that you can check out the teams from the Top Cut in each of the Masters, Senior, andJunior Divisions.

Metagame Musings
Leading into Nationals we'd seen teams based around two pairings of restricted Pokémon having the most success. Teams using Groudon and Xerneas dominated early in the season, and teams using Kyogre and Groudon started breaking away from the pack of other restricted Pokémon pairings during the run of May tournaments. As many players had predicted (including 2015 Champion Toler Webb in our interview), teams doubling up on the power of Primal Reversion were much less common in Columbus than they were at tournaments in the spring. The Groudon and Xerneas teams picked up the slack, not only coming away with a victory in two of the three age divisions, but also boasting the most representation in Masters Division Day 2 play by far.

Trainers in North America have favored Groudon and Xerneas over other pairings more so than any other region all season. That's not to say no other type of team was successful in Columbus. Both of the other popular pairings Trainers have used to try to topple Groudon and Xerneas over the course of the season made it to the semi-finals (Rayquaza with Kyogre, which also won the Senior Division title, and the aforementioned Groudon with Kyogre). But Groudon and Xerneas came out on top against its supposed counters in both of these showdowns, leading to one of the first 2016 Video Game National Championship finals that featured a mirror match between two teams using Groudon and Xerneas.

Tracking Bug In 'Pokémon GO' Is Part Of A Bigger Problem

There’s something tantalizing about the “nearby” tracking system in Pokémon GO. It shows you all the Pokémon near you and dares you to go out and find them. They’re so close, it seems to say. Only three footsteps! And so I’ve been trying it — and trying it — over the past week. Paul Tassi says he’s got it figured out, and I’ve read his and other guides. I’m not so sure, at least with my particular instance of Pokémon GO. I remember thinking about it in the first day or two of the game, because it seemed to be showing me the multiple footprints it was supposed to. Ever since then, however, it’s shown me three footprints for every Pokémon always. Look below: 

And that’s the way it always looks. I’ve been paying more attention to it for the past couple of days, and I’ve yet to see a single one or two footprint Pokémon in that time, or to see a particular Pokémon‘s footprints decrease when walking in any direction. I don’t seem to be alone, at least judging by this reddit thread. It’s impossible to know how many people this is effecting, but it’s clearly a bug. It’s too bad, because as I said, I really like the idea of hunting down specific Pokémon. For now, at least, that doesn’t seem like it will be happening. 

And that’s not the only problem, for those that desire some pontification on the subject. Something happens when you have technical problems like these in a games. On one level, it’s pretty straightforward: if the game crashes, then the game has crashed and it’s annoying. Cut and dry. If that sort of thing starts to happen with regularity, however, the trust you have in a developer starts to erode. And trust is that essential thing that allows a player to work with a game. I believe that if I participate in this game according to the rules the developer has laid down, then I will be rewarded in the ways that the developer has said that I will be. If you don’t believe in that, the whole thing gets wonky. The “nearby” system is a perfect example of that: as a player, I don’t really believe that it works, and so I’m not inclined to figure it out. That mindset begins to apply with other things in the game, as well: the less faith you have, the less real the game becomes. 

Right now, Pokémon GO is fun enough that I don’t care, and obviously that’s true for millions upon millions around the world. But any game like this needs to be built to go the distance. And this, as well as other problems, will lead to player decline as people advance in the game and aren’t sure what’s going on. Keeping people around takes the level of trust that convinces you to put more effort into the game, knowing that it will give back. I’m not sure this is there yet, but it could be soon.