I caught my first HeartGold shiny in the Bug Catching Contest on Tuesday. It was only a level 7 Caterpie, so it failed to place, but it was very nice, just the same. It really brings back the memories, because my first ever shiny was a Weedle, which was also caught in the Bug Catching Contest, back in the original Pokemon Gold.

My biggest gripe was the convenient features they removed to promote the use of the stylus, which is still annoying and unnecessary.

Currently I'm a little stuck though. If I progress much further, I'm going to trigger the stupid roaming Legendaries, which will fix their stats, and I don't want to do that until I know I have a solid way to catch them. I'd hate to play through 90% of the game, finally get them, and get disappointed by the worst possible Natures and IVs these guys can get.

Also, if you have the Power Anklets and other such items, transfer them over! Those items ensure that you get Additional EVs for a particular stat while training, but they have an additional purpose in HG/SS. If you breed a Pokemon holding, for example, the Power Lens, which promotes Special Attack growth, the parent's Special Attack IV is guaranteed to pass to the kid. This means that if you can find a couple parents with high IVs, and give each of them one of those items, passing those uber IVs to their kids just got much, much easier (keep in mind that if you do this with the female, you will lose your chance to pass on the Nature via Everstone).