I live to be shocking, so here's a new article, exploring, recapping and reviewing the very first episode of the Pokémon cartoon series. Special care was taken to put that little squiggly line above the "e" over 200 times in this article, and I hope you appreciate that. The genesis of this one is that I got the first season on DVD and can't believe how well the series still holds up. It's written more or less for people who know nothing about Pokémon, so my apologies to anyone who really didn't need an explanation of what a Pokéball was. But you know what? You'll live.

Seems like as good a time as any to get this out of the way. I know it's old news by now, but it just didn't feel right to not archive the Doritos X-13D Flavor Experiment chips on the site. Basically, it's a wonderful promotion of an unnamed "mystery flavor," in which junk food lovers are supposed to suggest names for a chip that was clearly based on a cheeseburger.

It's pretty unbelievable...they taste just like McDonald's cheeseburgers. While "beef flavoring" is a listed ingredient, what you'll really take home from X-13D chips is the strong flavor of pickles, ketchup and mustard. Knowing that, they're pretty terrible once you take away their fancy clothes. I assume Doritos has no choice but to release the chips with whatever name is decided upon when the promotion ends, but I don't expect them to last much longer than that. They're putrid.

Putrid...like a fox. Twenty years from now, when the Internet comes in special edition colors and is capable of cooking steaks for you, upstart nostalgia websites will likely pay tribute to Doritos X-13D chips. These would've made an incredible impression as me as a child, but even as an adult, I can appreciate eating from a bag that looks like a leftover prop from Back To The Future Part II. Just wish they didn't taste like the asshole of a dead bear.

Posted by Matt on 06/30/2007. E-mail me!