Gather a group of Pokémon lushes and form two equal teams (that's equal body weight, not necessarily individuals) for the ultimate test of battle prowess and verbal dexterity.

Each team chooses a trainer who they name either Ash or James; and if from some extremely bizarre twist of fate girls have decided to play the game, trainers can be Misty or Jesse.

Set up twenty shots on a table (the game was inaugurated with Tequila but any bathtub variety gin should do). Preferably, everyone should bring the couple of collectible Pokémon shot glasses that they got from Burger King so as to assemble fifteen. But if any one person actually owns fifteen shot glasses, he is this game's real Pokémon master and obviously more fit to participate in this little test of toxin resistance than anyone else in the room.

Each trainer starts the round by hurling their Pokémon of choice at the field table by shouting out a player's name followed by the affectionate, "I choose you." (players can use their own name, in the case of "Brian, I choose you." Or each player can actually assume a Pokémon name, and insist that the trainer say something to the affect of "Bulbasaur, I choose you." Or, for the particularly disturbed, each Pokémon can make up his own name, such as "Spewasaur," "Upchucker" or "Shoe.")

The chosen players from each team step up to the playing table and start slamming drinks, shouting their name before each one. The first Pokémon to hesitate, forget his name or return his spirit unto the earth loses, at which point his trainer has to drink the remainder of the shots on the table. If no shots remain, the Pokémon who consumes the most wins, at which point his trainer can pour a shot of any kind of liquor (hint: have a bottle of 180 available) for the losing trainer.

Pokémon © 1997, 2000 Nintendo, CREATURES, GAME FREAK, TV Tokyo, ShoPro, JR Kikaku, Pokémon, Pikachu and all other Pokémon character names are tradmarks of Nintendo.