In the past I did multiple playthroughs as well (action replay made choosing a team in the beginning a hell of a lot easier xD ) but I don't really do that anymore (mostly because most codes appear to be flawed in some way because of security measures, like not being able to breed things you hacked into the game). I can make backups, but haven't done it yet. I'm also a bit opposed to basically getting rid of all those event pok?mon by restarting (even though I can hack them in, it just feels weird) Plus I'm pretty sure you can't send your hacked pok?mon to another game (btw, when I say hacked, I purely mean having a wild encounter with something hacked, I stay away from codes to get their IVs up and other such things)
I know. Combine that with one of his special items (that ups his speed) and the Hp disadvantage (well, that's what it usually is) becomes less of an issue too. Not to mention you can just use items to heal in regular play anyway. I always liked the idea behind Ditto, but it was badly executed. I'm pretty sure that if they had abilities in Gen I, he would've had auto-transform from the get go.
I had 4 in total too, but not at the same time (that would be 3). In the first year I had my DSi, it broke too. During the summer it started to have start up problems. When turning it on the screen would flash white for a split second and immediately shut off. But it was still in warranty, so I got a new one. Just sad I lost the two or three dsi-ware games I had. :/
It's pretty good, but I don't have many games since I'm largely saving up my money now for a trip I'm taking. Gonna try to buy Kid Icarus though. The only real issue I have isn't even hardware related, it's that Nintendo still hasn't released e-shop cards where I live (in freakin' Europe! all countries surrounding mine DO have them). There are some games I want really badly. :/ (some for nostalgia, others because I never got to play them in the past)
Triple and rotational battles weren't implemented enough imo. It hardly ever happened (it's also weird how you can have wild doubles but never triples, what's up with that?)
I'm thinking a lot of people played Yellow with an anime inspired team, whether they realised it or not. ^^
I luv dragons, but that's because I luv dragons in general. I especially liked how, in the first 2 gens, you had quite some pok?mon that were dragon inspired but not the type. Made for some variety if you wanted a dragon team. (not that we had much choice, there being only 4 dragons back then with three linked by evolution)