Everything Pokémon and Its History

Pokémon is one of the biggest franchises to emerge from Japan. First introduced to the market in 1995, just 10 years after the blockbuster success of Super Mario. Pokémon translates to English as “Pocket Monsters” and captivated children, youth, and adults worldwide shortly after its release.

The founder of Pokémon is Satoshi Tajiri, and it is managed by The Pokémon Company, owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures Inc. Another important figure to mention in the Pokémon franchise is none other than Ken Sugimori, a Japanese game designer and illustrator. Alongside Satoshi, he designed many of our beloved pocket monsters that we now know so well.

The entire Pokémon franchise began with Pokémon Red & Green in Japan but was later named Pokémon Red & Blue when released internationally. Pokémon initially debuted on our beloved Game Boy, and the development of the games was entrusted to the company “Game Freak.” Upon completion, Nintendo was then tasked with publishing Pokémon to the world.

Pokémon History

The entire concept and Satoshi’s inspiration behind Pokémon have roots that extend far back into his childhood, likely beginning with his fascination and hobby of collecting insects. Satoshi’s childhood dream was originally to become an Entomologist, but the area where he grew up became increasingly urbanized. The dream was later transformed into allowing others to experience what he himself had as a child, but through games. The idea was to capture and collect one’s own insects and creatures.

After a long educational journey, which some might argue was not very effective for Satoshi but rather a necessary evil, the creator of Pokémon graduated from the Tokyo National College of Technology with a diploma in electronics and computer science.

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The idea behind Pokémon came to Satoshi around 1990, when the Game Boy was released to the market. He saw the opportunity to link two Game Boys together and envisioned insects that could crawl back and forth through the cable, reminiscent of his childhood where a love for insects was central to his world. Later, he pitched the idea to Nintendo and had the creator of Super Mario as a mentor during the creative process. Shigeru Miyamoto explained in later interviews that he didn’t actually do much for Satoshi but rather guided him in the right direction; the rest Satoshi had full control over during the development of the Pokémon concept.

151 Pokémon

At first, there were only 151, and that was all it took to ignite the excitement in children, youth, and adults of all ages around the world. For many, including myself, Pokémon was a lot about the dream of collecting one’s own small (and sometimes large) creatures. The thrill of guiding your companions into battle against other Pokémon or trainers was, and remains, phenomenally enjoyable. For hours, we sat in the schoolyard after classes just to play Pokémon together, share stories, and trade with each other if someone was fortunate enough to have a “link cable” from their parents.

A significant part of the past for many, and to this day, is dedicated to giving this fantastic fictional universe all the attention it deserves. The highlight of the day for many is collecting TCG (Trading Card Game) cards, drawing Pokémon, or watching various series and movies created around this phenomenon.

Gameplay

Pokémon has evolved into a rather sophisticated type of game, but almost 20 years later, there are still some fundamental features that remain the same. Battle against Pokémon and capture them in a Pokéball, engage in duels with other trainers, overcome all the challenges Gym trainers have for you so that you can defeat the Elite League and become a Pokémon master.

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In later games for the Nintendo Switch, such as Pokémon Let’s Go “Pikachu/Eevee,” you had the opportunity to purchase additional equipment along with the game itself, namely a physical Pokéball. This gadget allowed you to simulate a throw of a Pokéball in front of your screen, which was replicated in the game, as shown in the video below.

Main Characters

The character roster in the popular Pokémon game series has grown a bit larger than it was in 1995 when it started with a small group of children venturing out of the nest to become Pokémon masters, trainers, or other key figures. In the spotlight, we found Ash Ketchum, with his companion Pikachu, who later met Misty and Brock after defeating them in battles for their Pokémon Badges. Professor Oak and his extensive knowledge of Pokémon were also prominent, along with Team Rocket, the main rivals of the children throughout the series.

Since then, the list has multiplied, becoming quite impressive with additions from all variations within the Pokémon series. Below are a couple of lists extracted from Pokémon Fandom’s websites.

Pokémon Games

There are perhaps more games in the Pokémon series than one might be aware of, and according to official and unofficial sources, there are currently a total of 122 different Pokémon games. The list can be broken down into smaller segments, such as the generation they belong to, the year of release, the series, and the console they are on. We will rely on the list of Pokémon games documented by Bulbapedia. Feel free to review this list, as we don’t have space to cover everything here.

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However, we can highlight some of the games that we feel are most important for the development of the series. It is a given that the first ones should be mentioned, such as Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow on Game Boy. These are the games that started the massive wave of Pokémon that we now know. Even though the original Green never crossed the borders of Japan, it must also be mentioned, as it played a significant role in the series.

Many of the games in the series eventually became available for newer generation consoles, such as the Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo made sure that one of their biggest franchises, Pokémon, was well accessible on all Nintendo platforms, including Game Boy, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, Switch, and more.

Pokémon Multiplayer

At the release of Pokémon games, there was a form of multiplayer where you could link Game Boys together with one of your friends. This allowed for the transfer of Pokémon for the sake of evolution, trading Pokémon, or battling each other. And over the years, Nintendo has always provided us with the opportunity for multiplayer, whether it’s local or online with others over the internet. Out of this feature, various types of Pokémon games have emerged where multiplayer capabilities have been the main focus, such as Pokkén Tournament and Pokkén Tournament DX.

Speedrunning

Like many other popular games, Pokémon also has its own categories for speedrunning. This phenomenon itself means that a player must complete the game as quickly as possible, and there are many different categories for doing so, such as Any%, Any% Glitchless, Catch ‘Em All, and many more. You can read more about them on speedrun.com’s website. As shown below, these speedrunning attempts can take a considerable amount of time before completion, and if a mistake is made, the entire process must start again from the beginning.

Movies, Series, and Books

Pocket Monsters, from (1997-2002), is a well-known and beloved start to Ash Ketchum’s fantastic adventures, where we meet all the familiar faces in the franchise. However, the fun doesn’t stop there, as this series is still ongoing, now simply called Pokémon (1997-2023). The series has reached 25 seasons with 1250 episodes. This is likely to take a few hours to watch in one sitting.

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Pokémon also has a plethora of independent films, with the first one, Mewtwo vs Mew, released in 1998. Scientists attempt to create a new Pokémon through genetics, but it all ends in disaster. The list of Pokémon movies is quite extensive, spanning 23 animated films, along with a live-action film titled Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.

Reception

Game Boy owes its unnaturally long life cycle to Pokémon, as in the first five months, the Pokémon franchise sold almost 3 million copies. The Nintendo franchise has been awarded numerous records and titles by Guinness World Records, such as one of the world’s best games in history, including World’s Most Successful RPG, ever. According to Wikipedia, as of March 2022, Nintendo had sold a total of 440 million copies of its flagship game series.

Alongside the comics, movies, and Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG), this concept of our beloved pocket monsters quickly became a series that will be remembered and written about for many years to come.

Criticism

It’s not always the case that we refer to Pokémon as all sunshine and rainbows; quite the opposite. Nintendo has some issues in this franchise, where they have actively chosen to skip over many things that were done badly, things that deserved to be done a little better.

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Bugs and glitches, every game is full of them, and we’re not talking about different Pokémon, but rather errors in the code of the games. All games have them, but some could have been avoided if resource allocation had been a bit more generous. Instead of releasing an unfinished game (which seems to be the trend these days), they could have dedicated more time and resources to a finished and polished game, cough Pokémon Scarlet/Violet. We know Nintendo has enough manpower to fix the game if they just put in the effort.

There is much discussion among fans about the choices made by the creators regarding various Pokémon designs. Fans feel they could have been categorized differently and done better, and there are different areas and places where more time and detail should have been invested. But again, this is likely just a matter of taste and personal preference, adding fuel to the fire that keeps the series alive.

Gotta Catch ‘Em All!

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