Pocket Monsters aka Pokemon turns 20 today. The original Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green launched on February 27th, 1996 in Japan. The series went on to span 6 generations, several spinoffs, 721 Pokemon to trade, collect, and battle with, and an anime with 19 seasons and 19 movies. Here's a link to a list of the generations if you don't know what I mean by Generation. To celebrate this wonderful occasion, Nintendo is rereleasing the Generation 1 games on the Nintendo 3DS today in their original forms with wireless connectivity instead of link cables and Pokemon Bank compatibility. In addition, the 7th generation games, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon versions, will be released later this year for Nintendo 3DS. I was introduced to Pokemon with Ruby version on the Game Boy Advance around 2005 I believe. I didn't like it at first but it eventually grew on me and now it's one of my favorite franchises. After playing through most of the main games (at least two in every gen), I can say that Emerald, Pearl, Platinum, Omega Ruby, FireRed, LeafGreen, and Gold are my favorites. I watched most of the anime and I think we can all agree it has gone downhill fast. I personally believe it was towards the end of the Diamond and Pearl seasons that it started slipping but some might go further back or forward. XY the series sucks imho. Pokemon Heroes remains my favorite of the films. One of my favorite movies in general. Pokemon 2000 and Destiny Deoxys are close though, especially Destiny Deoxys. So what's your experiences with Pokemon? Have you been there since day 1 or did you just jump in?
Pokemon Stadium, is the only one I've ever spent much time playing, which is funny because I own a fair amount of pokemon stuff... Soon to have a Pokemon themed car.
The only Pokemon games I've ever played through to completion are Platinum and Red, and neither were exactly a fun experience. So repetitive with so much grinding, fuck Pokemon dude.
Ah but grinding is the best part Pokemon can get repetitive over time but I find taking long breaks between play sessions helps offset it and make it more enjoyable.
I can't take breaks from grind-centric games because I know that I'll never go back to them. I played Fallout 4 for about 2 hours and then stopped, and Star Wars Battlefront came out the very next day so I ended up playing that instead. I still haven't gone back to Fallout 4 and I doubt that I ever will.
I was first introduced to the cartoons, didn't even know it was a video/card game until much later. Loved the humor: Team Rocket, Jigglypuff, etc. Saw the first movie in the States, think it was the Mew Two one. Also saw the 3rd movie here, the one with the Pichu short before the actual movie. Avoided the movies after that, but after a couple years, even the cartoon just had too many characters for me to keep track of. Pacing was better than Dragon Ball Z, but still felt they dragged it on too much. It's common in Japanese animation, and I enjoy it when there's detail on the screen I can appreciate. Video games were too boring for me. Still catch an episode on YouTube now and then, love the first few seasons. I jump started a few kids younger than me on the bandwagon and some remain faithful till this day. Maybe I was too old when I got into it. I keep finding interesting tidbits here and there. Recently was trying to acquire a DVD of the first few seasons in Mandarin. There's three versions I've found on online streaming sites: Hong Kong Cantonese, Mainland Mandarin, Taiwanese Mandarin -- all of which have a slightly different "translation" of the title Pocket Monsters. Crossing my fingers, might be able to get someone from Taiwan to bring a DVD for me. Oddly, it seems the video games were never officially translated to any Chinese language.
I still have yet to actually play a pokemon game. I like RPGs, so you'd think I would have already. A buddy of mine has dumped countless hours into catching everything. Dedication.
Ironically, I don't like RPGs for the most part (I've never finished an FF game), but I will play the crap out of Pokemon. Even though I have Red, Blue and Yellow, I'll still play the Red and Blue that are on my new New 3DS. (side note, the legalese on the box calls it a New 3DS XL, but I'm pretty sure it's a non XL). I've been playing Pokemon ever since I got Yellow in 99, when it first came out in the States (which is why it turning 20 snuck up on me). I've finished Yellow, Red, Blue, Gold, White 2 and Y, and I don't think I've finished my copy of Sapphire. I stopped playing when I lost my first GBA, then only got back into it 4 or so years ago. Also, does anyone else find it odd that Nintendo went all out on Mario's 30th anniversary (Mario Maker was the anniversary game, to be honest) and is pulling out all the stops for Pokemon's 20th (big event Pokemon distributions, new main series games this fall/winter, etc), but relatively ignored The Legend of Zelda's 30th? Is it because Zelda U is apparently in development hell?
Holy crap, Pokemon is already 20? I started with Pokemon Red, then Yellow, then Gold, then pretty much played nothing until getting Pokemon Y. I don't know, I just didn't think the GBA games were a worthy sequel for some reason. But the memories of Pokemon Red.. Honestly the concept is freakin genius, collect creatures and build up the stats of said creatures to make them stronger and fight other creatures? Sure, repetitive, but it's cool as shit watching something you "caught" grow and evolve and learn new things. If you call it "grinding" then you don't understand the appeal, or maybe the imagination wasn't strong enough. Or maybe you didn't have friends who played it because it was a huge social thing too I seem to remember. Yellow was cool to have everything in (simple) color and the more cartoon inspired story was cool. Gold was amazing, took everything about the first gen and made it better. Like I said, everything after just didn't add anything new and exciting to me.. not until Pokemon Y with the full on 3D everything, for some reason that was the next logical step in the series for me. Although I must admit I love Heart Gold, but it's just a remake of a game I already love, so it's hard not to like it.
I think part of me falling off was being a teen who, as teens are wont to do, decided to hate EVERYTHING I'd ever liked (except Sonic 2, because that game is the best ever). Also, embarrassing story time. When I first got Pokemon Yellow, my friend had I think Blue (maybe Red). He wanted a Dugtrio, and was willing to trade me a really cool Pokemon that you can usually get (maybe a Machamp?) for it if I could get one. Well, stupid me, not realizing that I could just catch a Diglett and train it a bit (1999 internet meant that looking up things like evolutions was not an easily doable thing), decided I HAD to catch a Dugtrio, and the only place to catch one was in Diglett's Cave, where it shows up 5 percent of the time, according to Bulbapedia just now. I think my cart only had it appear .000001%. And the first time I get it it REFUSES to let me catch the damn thing. No matter how many Great or Ultra balls I throw. Eventually I'm as pissed as a socially awkward 10 year old can be, and use my only option. I mean, you get more than one Master Ball in the game, right? That cartridge still works, and I've got a level 100 double team of Pikachu and Vaporeon. Much better than a stupid Machamp.
The cart I own has been finished a few times but not by me, it's the copy I've had since a kid (most of my N64 games are). most of my brothers have finished it..
