Search KoopaTV!

Translate

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Meltan Evolves Into Melmetal and Takes A Selfie

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Melmetal takes a selfie while playing Pokémon GO.

A lot has been discovered about the Mythical Pokémon Meltan since my article about it one month ago. It turns out that real Meltan do exist in the present era, and they aren't just trickster Ditto.

We have also now learned that Meltan can evolve into the behemoth Melmetal. While you could compare Meltan to a Ditto, Melmetal is best compared to a metallic Regigigas, which turns out to be different than a Registeel. Replace Braille with hex nuts. Melmetal isn't that interesting — aside from being big and creating metal, it has a special move called Double Iron Bash, which is just the Klink evolutionary family's Gear Grind (physical Steel attack that hits twice), but with a chance to flinch.

The way one gets to possess Melmetal is more interesting than the Pokémon itself, which is disappointing, counterproductive, and convoluted.

One can get a Meltan by having the Mystery Box item in Pokémon GO, which you can get by sending a Pokémon from Pokémon GO to Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! or Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! Once you you open the Mystery Box, Meltan will appear on the field map. Then you can catch it, and the Mystery Box closes. You can re-open it after waiting some period of time and sending another Pokémon to a Let's Go game, and then you can presumably get more Meltan.

Here's where it gets tricky: Meltan can only evolve into Melmetal by accumulating Meltan Candies in Pokémon GO. If you transfer Meltan to Pokémon: Let's Go without evolving it, it seems like it won't be able to evolve in that game. But if you evolve it into Melmetal and then send it over, you won't have Meltan in your Pokédex. Seems like you'll have to do this twice!

By the way, that's not a good way to teach people how evolution is supposed to work in real Pokémon games.

Given that Meltan and Melmetal are inextricably linked to mobile trash, it makes sense that the first thing that the evolutionary family does upon getting non-stubby arms is take a selfie. (It's noted that Melmetal's arms are “flexible”, perfect for selfie-angles like it's the similarly obnoxious Rabbid Peach.) Here's the actual selfie photo in question:

Melmetal selfie smartphone mobile phone Pokémon Let's GO
Maybe this mobile-using hipster can stay away from the main series RPG coming in 2019.
Maybe it'll get hit by tariffs for dumping steel.

I mention the steel-dumping not just to be funny, but I'd like to raise this point: There is normally only one of each Mythical Pokémon a trainer will ever encounter. (Well, normally it's zero.) There are apparently infinite Meltan, and thus infinite Melmetal. Its Mythical status is fraudulent. If Melmetal is Mythical because it hasn't been seen in 3,000 years (and how is one supposed to prove that it hasn't appeared anywhere for that time?), why aren't Pokémon like Aerodactyl and Carracosta considered Mythical? They haven't been seen around for an even longer time!


Ludwig figured that if he wrote an article about Meltan, it makes sense to also write one about Melmetal. If you want some kind of GameFAQs connection to this, Metal Sonic's match is on October 26–27, but Ludwig isn't voting for it. Anyway, what do you think of Melmetal? Should it be considered Mythical? Do you think that it's interesting at all? If it really hasn't been around in 3,000 years, why is it so familiar with selfie culture?

2 comments :

  1. If Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! or Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! were not that appealing already, locking content on a mobile game that no one uses anymore only makes them even less appealing. While the character itself may not be that interesting, it should still be available in the games without any app. Let's hope that the next gen Pokémon title will not follow in these two games' footsteps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. More people probably still play Pokémon GO than will buy Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon, Let's Go, Eevee! put together! (I don't know what that number actually is.)

      Is what they're doing behind locking Meltan and Melmetal behind a smartphone app worse than locking them behind physical retail outlet downloads, which they like to do for other Mythical Pokémon?

      Delete

We embrace your comments.
Expect a reply between 1 minute to 24 hours from your comment. We advise you to receive an e-mail notification for when we do reply.
Also, see our Disclaimers.

Spamming is bad, so don't spam. Spam includes random advertisements and obviously being a robot. Our vendor may subject you to CAPTCHAs.

If you comment on an article that is older than 60 days, you will have to wait for a staffer to approve your comment. It will get approved and replied to, don't worry. Unless you're a spambot.