Pokemon Battle Royale: Totilo vs. Frushtick

We'd been building up to it for a week, and finally the day arrived. The ultimate Pokemon battle took place yesterday afternoon, on the roof of Gawker's offices in downtown New York City. The battle pit me against Kotaku's Stephen Totilo in a battle of wits, might and poke-savvy. What happened on that fateful day will never be forgotten. Probably 'cause I'm about to write about it.

As a reminder, Stephen and I challenged one another to train a Pokemon during GDC week using just the PokeWalker (a device which allows you to level up Pokemon by tracking your real-world steps). Both Pokemon started as level 10 Totodiles, and at the end of the week we would challenge one another and see who is the superior poke-trainer.

After a week of training, I had taken 37,588 steps with my Totodile. Stephen, brimming with confidence, had only taken 29,066 steps. But, since a Pokemon stops earning experience once it hits a level cap (you have to transfer it back and forth to a DS before it can start earning experience again), the number of times transferred ended up being much more important. I transferred 7 times, Stephen transferred 5 times. The end result was that my Totodile entered the battle at level 17, while his was level 15...a brutal advantage in the world of Pokemon.

Many thanks to Stephen for participating. If he ever wants a rematch, he knows where to find me.

(And props to Genevieve Futrelle for some brilliant action photography!)

Tags nintendo, Pokemon, pokemon heartgold, pokemon soulsilver