10 Notorious Video Games That Ask You To Sacrifice Your Social Life

9. Pokémon

Now in its sixth generation of main series games and on Nintendo's 3DS console for the first time, this cuddly children's game is actually one of the most complicated RPGs around. Though you can play it like you first did at age 10 and still have fun overpowering gym leaders by flooding their two well-trained monsters with your six random messes, a competitive mastery of this game requires a commitment to a far more convoluted training process. With the 3DS' connectivity features, online battling is bigger and more accessible than ever in the latest iterations X and Y. With this being the case "being the best" now means much more than simply yelling the words to the TV tie-in's opening credit song. Online battling in Pokémon is seriously competitive and the only way to stand a chance is to have a team of carefully EV trained creatures. To those unfamiliar with EV training, 'EV' stands for 'Effort Value'. What this very basically means is that each enemy Pokémon you battle when training your own has a different EV and this will in turn have a positive impact on the increase of the relevant stat for your Pokémon when it levels up. Careful studying of which Pokémon carry which EV and seeking them out while training your own can actively manipulate your Pokémon's stats how you want them to. With the inclusion of 'Super Training' in Pokémon X and Y this has been made dramatically easier, but it is still hugely involved and time-consuming. It's far easier to just bumble along like Ash Ketchum does in the TV series where his six generation-old Pikachu still loses to a new-region starter Pokémon at the beginning of each series...what the hell, Ash?