Game Review: Pokémon – How to Distinguish Yourself During the Reign of Mario

Oh boy I get to write about Pokémon. The original Pokemon games were first released by Game Freak in Japan in 1996 as Pocket Monsters: Red and Pocket Monsters: Green, with the special edition Pocket Monsters: Blue being released later in the year. They were then released as Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue in the U.S. in 1998. While I never played the original Red or Blue, I did play the remake, Pokémon FireRed, which came out in 2004, as well as Pokémon Sapphire, which came out in 2003, on a Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP. I then proceeded to play Pokémon Diamond (2007) to exhaustion on the Nintendo DS, occasionally playing with friends’ versions of Soul Silver (2010) and Platinum (2009), and then even as a college freshman I played Pokémon White (2011) on an emulator with my suitemate (and of course I had a stint on Pokémon Go but as something of a purist I don’t count it). I also collected and traded Pokémon cards in high school. I would always come back to the Pokémon games whenever I felt I had some spare time or was in between main games, and have been engaging with Pokémon content through games, shows, or youtube playthroughs for 10-15 years. Let’s take a look at some numbers to contextualise the success of the Pokémon games.

The sales numbers for the Gameboy Advance show that the first THREE games are Pokémon games. This was at a time when it had heavy competition with the Mario games (4-7) as well as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (11). An anime adaption was released in Japan in 1997, and then in U.S. in 1999, becoming the year’s top-rated children’s television show with more than 5 million viewers per episode. In the early 2000s Pokémon was in a league of its own.

It’s also noteworthy that, while the Pokémon reign wasn’t quite as staggering as the Gameboy era, even in the Nintendo DS era of the late 2000s its popularity did not abate much; an era which featured powerhouses such as New Super Mario Bros. (1), Mario Kart (3), and Animal Crossing: Wild World (9). The games placed at 5, 6, 8, 12, and 13 in sales, totalling to over 60 million copies sold (double that of New Super Mario Bros.) Even after the DS faded out, Pokémon was brought onto the Nintendo Switch and also managed to obtain a whole new mobile audience through Pokémon Go. So what is it about the Pokémon games that allowed them to completely dominate the game scene in the 2000s? First, let’s discuss what they are.

The Pokémon games are role-playing games (but differ substantially from classic RPGs in ways I discuss later). You play as a young boy (or girl in all the games after the original Red and Blue) and are briefly told that the world is inhabited by Pokémon, which function as sort of battle-pets, and are offered one of three starter Pokémon. The world is overrun by these Pokémon, which take the place of animals; they are wild but can be domesticated fairly easily, and have a skillset that a trainer (the player) can order a Pokémon to perform in combat situations (and occasionally against certain terrain). There is heavy cooperation between Pokémon and people (either as companions or for battle), and most Pokémon seem to be fairly intelligent, able to understand player commands, communicate among themselves, etc. The Pokémon have a special feature which allows them to evolve after reaching a certain level, which can be raised by winning battles against other Pokémon. The (purported) goal of the game is to beat Gym Leaders and obtain their respective gym badges, upon which one can challenge the Elite Four and the Champion, after which the player is deemed the greatest trainer in the region. Additionally the player has to thwart the plans of some evil organisation in order to progress (Team Rocket in Red). Each game has its own region, with its own gym leaders, types of Pokémon, evil organisation, and so on.

Pokémon differed from every other game at the time by combining the role-playing aspect with a collecting mechanic. I do not mean just collecting some form of game currency to obtain a higher score, or to buy something with, but collecting in and of itself, as the ends, not the means. The collecting mechanic was unique at the time, replicated henceforth by many games such as Digimon, but they never took off like the original. Collecting allowed players to adapt the entire meaning of the game. Finding every Pokémon became a matter of pride among the community, strategies were spread, and the desire of filling out the Pokédex (an Encyclopedia of Pokémon that fills out as you obtain them) got to the point of mania. I, myself, spent countless hours trying to catch Cresselia in Diamond, a Pokémon that flees as soon as the player enters into battle with it and can escape to any area in the region, making it extremely difficult to catch. With this added dimension, players at any level of engagement could enjoy the game. It was simultaneously a cosy game, an action game, an open world game, a collecting game, and so on. The collecting mechanic has remained an essential part of every later iteration of the main games.

Pokémon also had a catchy slogan “Gotta catch ’em all”. Players were encouraged to explore, capture, and utilise Pokémon to the point of obsessiveness. Catching them all became the main goal for many people and broadened the game’s audience in conjunction with the anime release, as people wanted to obtain the Pokémon they saw in the show. The appeal of the game was universal – the game design had relatively simple mechanics, was as fast or slow paced as one wanted it to be (battles are turn based), and Pokémon were concurrently adorable pets and instruments of battle.

One cannot talk about Pokémon without talking about Pikachu, who plays a very minor role in the games (other than Yellow) but is ever-present in the anime. Pikachu is a large mouse-looking creature, bright yellow with red cheeks and a lightning-arc for a tale (hinting at its electricity-based abilities). A rare Pokémon in the original games, Pikachu became a mascot for the game, as much as Mario or Sonic were for their respective franchises (so much so that a live-action adaptation came out purely for Pikachu, voiced by Ryan Reynolds, called Pokémon Detective Pikachu). The presence of a mascot seemed to be a necessity for the heavyweights at the time, and the cuddly Pikachu provided this in boatloads.

Pokémon came at the perfect time, both enjoying and encouraging the explosive use of the Gameboy Advance and later the D.S.. Its high marketability due to a popular show, a highly likeable mascot, and entertaining gameplay available at any level allowed the game to skyrocket its sales. The developers also stayed true to the feel of the games that people loved (for the first 4-5 generations at least), meaning that people who loved the old games would love the new games which provided new campaigns and Pokémon, and new players could pick the newer games up and fit right in. While I think Pokémon is long past its heyday, it indelibly stamped its mark on the gaming world and its legacy will far outlive its playing. I personally hope for some revitilisation, although I don’t know exactly how one would achieve this; perhaps a new popular Netflix show, or an innovative new game.