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4th Gen The Bug Catching Contest

curiousnathan

Starry-eyed
  • 7,753
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    15
    Years
    The Bug Catching Contest is a famous little 'mini-game'/feature that allows us to participate in a little competition between a few trainers to see who can catch the strongest bug type pokemon. What were your thoughts on its return? Were you happy to see it return? Compete in it much? Caught any pokemon that have become invaluable members to your Johto team?

    I loved this contest. It was simple yet so much fun, and surprisingly - for me - quite difficult to win. I'd catch a pretty strong butterfree yet come 2nd to a trainer who's caught a weedle. The prizes were somewhat useful too, especially at the beginning stages of the game on one's first runthrough, and it did provide for some good captures. I captured a scyther and trianed it up to a Scizor on my most recent HG save file, and it's proved to be an incredibly valuable team member, winning several gym badges for me.
     
    I used it a bit in SoulSilver, but only for dex purposes (some Pokémon, iirc, were only available in the National Park during the contest). I don't really use Bug-types, so I just boxed anything I caught.
     
    The only times I recall participating in the Bug Catching Contest was to capture Pokemon I had wanted in my team; Pinsir in one run, Scyther in another. And they both ended up being very helpful members of my team. Apart from capturing Pokemon unavailable elsewhere in the game, I didn't really see too much of a point in it. It was somewhat fun, and I guess evolutionary stones post-National Dex are nice, but there are other ways to get them.
     
    I mainly used the Bug Catching Contest to catch Scyther, who was a pain to catch at that point in the game. After that, I only used it for Dex fillers like Pinsir and Venonat.
     
    I really enjoyed this contest! I was even graced with the luck to find and capture a shiny Wurmple in one! <3
    I think it was a very good way to give access to more "non-available" Pokemon in an environment that made sense, as opposed to just sticking them all in a Safari Zone.
     
    I used it for the dex and tried to use it for the prize's but I never really got anything other than shed skin...

    You mean Shed Shell.

    Every time I participated I never got anything good... I always ended up getting Shed Shells, which is a bit disappointing cos I love some of the higher prizes.

    Ever since I started my transition to 5th Gen, I don't even participate anymore.
     
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    I was never really too keen on Bug-types except for some of the early game ones, which I used until I got stronger replacements. I mainly used the Contest to obtain Pokedex entries and evolutionary stone rewards. In Generation II I felt as though it was a counterpart to the Safari Zone, and didn't really like it over its predecessor because of the smaller variety of Pokemon available. I also enjoyed the music in both G/S/C and HG/SS, a sweet enhancement of Generation I's bicycle theme.
     
    I actually was a regular participant of the BGC back in the Gen II days... but that was when evolutionary stones were a lot rarer and one could only get Scyther/Pinsir through this contest. Now that both of those hurdles were cleared by the time HGSS came around, the contest lost a lot of its appeal. If it had 'better' Bug Pokemon in it, then I might have given it a go, but Volbeat/Illumise... yawn.
     
    I don't think I ever won a contest in Gold or Silver, and I never won one in HGSS. So after awhile, I just quit altogether. I don't care for Bug-Types anyways. Except Shuckle. He's cool.
     
    Caught any pokemon that have become invaluable members to your Johto team?

    I can now answer this part of the question cause I just got SS lol :D

    I caught a Venonat (and won the Contest with it!!) and it's already proven to be an essential part of my team, hopefully as a Venomoth it'll do even more damage lol :)
     
    I never really used any of the Pokemon for the Bug Catching contest as a part of my team (considered using Scyther -> Scizor, but I'm just not a fan of it's 4x weakness to Fire), but I did participate in the contest a few times just for the prizes. I know one time I even came in second by catching a level 30 Caterpie at full health.
     
    I only really used it for the dex.
    Though, at times I'd tried to win first prize to see what stones I could win but, I rarely ever won. xD
     
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