Ash finally gets his first real badge that he actually earned without it being given for gratitude and not actually winning a Pokemon battle. Too bad this didn't set a trend of Ash getting the rest of his badges through actual victory.
I think this episode did a great job of adapting the games actually. In the games Surge used Voltorb, Pikachu, and Raichu but the anime distills it to just Raichu to focus on the Pikachu vs its evolved form conflict. Also in the games Raichu can't learn any new electric attacks that it didn't learn as Pikachu but stating that it can only learn all the electric attacks when it evolves makes it seem that much more powerful. Also of note is that Raichu uses six attacks (Thundershock, Thunderbolt, Mega Punch, Mega Kick, Body Slam, Take Down) instead of the normal four making it seem more versatile.
It was pretty neat for Ash to win with an actual strategy even if it was Brock's idea. But, I guess that's not different than a kid using a strategy guide when playing the games.
I think this episode did a great job of adapting the games actually. In the games Surge used Voltorb, Pikachu, and Raichu but the anime distills it to just Raichu to focus on the Pikachu vs its evolved form conflict. Also in the games Raichu can't learn any new electric attacks that it didn't learn as Pikachu but stating that it can only learn all the electric attacks when it evolves makes it seem that much more powerful. Also of note is that Raichu uses six attacks (Thundershock, Thunderbolt, Mega Punch, Mega Kick, Body Slam, Take Down) instead of the normal four making it seem more versatile.
It was pretty neat for Ash to win with an actual strategy even if it was Brock's idea. But, I guess that's not different than a kid using a strategy guide when playing the games.