Why was Pokémon so popular
A guide for both old and young
Pokémon is the quintessential “you had to be there” pop culture artifact.
Say you’re a Gen X or Gen Y who was too old to get into it in its heyday and tries to see what the fuss is all about.
You try to play the card game. “It’s okay, nothing special.”
You try to watch the anime. “It’s an okay kid’s show in its best seasons, and mind-numbing slop in its worst ones.”
You try to play the mainline games.
Assuming you’re a seasoned RPG veteran, this will be more or less your reactions.
“The roster size is impressive, but…
1V1 battles? Really?
Dude, even Wizardry back in 1981 had simultaneous 6V6 combat!
Pokémon took TWO fucking generations to add 2V2 combat, and what do they do with it? Relegate it to a few select battles and a couple of underfunded side games!”
And the move variety is false depth!
Who’s gonna use Bide, Focus Energy or Skill Swap when you can just hit hard with a super-effective move, or buff up with Dragon Dance or whatever and OHKO every mon in your way?”
“The balance is terrible!
Not only are some Pokémon incredibly outclassed by others, the quality of the Pokémon has no correlation to their rarity!
Imagine grinding wild battles like crazy to get a 1% encounter Yanma in GSC or Skitty in RSE, only to find out they’re absolutely terrible!
Who’s gonna bother catching them all when 1) the Starter mons are always somewhere between being good and being one of the best mon of their generation, 2) the earlygame bird is a very good pick half the time, 3) the most common water-type in most games, Tentacool/Tentacruel, is one of the best water-types, 4) The game even gifts you some of the best mons available, like Eevee and Lapras! (and don’t even get me started with Gen 6)”
All of those criticisms are, I’m sorry to say, completely true.
But they also miss the forest for the trees.
Pokémania was never fueled by deep RPG mechanics, cutting-edge graphics, or a groundbreaking story.
In order to understand peak Pokémania (1998-2001), you should not compare the games to Elder Scrolls.
You should compare them to Habbo Hotel.
It was the closest equivalent to a social MMO for kids with no access to the Internet or personal computers.
And it was a world everyone would want to live in.
I. The MMO
But how the hell did it replicate the MMO experience… without being an MMO?
Because the games were so popular, you always had a group of people to play with at school. And you knew who play Pokémon, because the games were the only Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games with colored cartridges.
In essence, if you played alone, it was because you wanted to.
Trading, battling, and sharing rumors and secrets with friends was a core part of the experience. Playing Pokémon on your own is almost as lonely as playing an MMO on an empty server. Hell, the fact that games came in pairs with mutually exclusive Pokémon in each version forced kids to go out and socialize, sometimes with strangers, just because they had that one ‘mon they needed to complete the Pokédex.
Do you remember crowds gathering around a battle between the two best Pokémon players at school? If you never experienced it, I am genuinely sorry. Multiplayer capabilies increased over time. In the second generation, you could upload your friends’ teams to your own game; in the third generation, you could also make their secret hideouts appear on your OWN game, and with the fourth generation trading and battling went ONLINE, thanks to the capabilites of the Nintendo DS.
This was HUGE when it came out. I used to breed Pokémon for export. Every new game release would shake the market to its core. It was fucking Wall Street for kids. Even though you didn’t have character customization at first, the fact that you could choose your Pokémon party from a MASSIVE pool of hundreds of ‘mons meant that every playthrough was unique and special, and had the imprint of the person playing it.
II. A world everyone would want to live in
The world of Pokémon is post-scarcity, yet full of uncharted territory.
Technologically advanced, yet full of nature.
Full of magical animals of every kind, from cute to cool to scary to strong, that most everyone can obtain with a little bit of effort and perseverance.
A world where a 10 year old kid can become the very best.
Adventure. Pure adventure, that makes the imaginations of kids soar way beyond the crusty graphics of the Game Boy.
The games were just the setting and the ruleset, like the guidebook of a tabletop RPG; and just like in tabletop RPGs, the real game was played in your imagination.
“This is great and all, Ref, but how am I supposed to relate to that?”
As I said, “you had to be there”. I don’t know of any phenomenon comparable to Pokémania at its peak. It truly was lightning in a bottle.
But if you want to recreate something close to that experience, make it similar to a tabletop RPG.
Gather together a bunch of friends for an afternoon, and play each one of the two versions of a Pokémon game that NOT A SINGLE ONE OF YOU HAVE PLAYED (this is rare, but will make the experience golden)
You don’t even have to spend money in buying 20 year old handhelds; any Android phone emulator can run the first four generations of Pokémon (which just so happen to be the best ones) and many of those emulators have online trading via Bluetooth.
Play together in your tabletop gaming basement, looking at each other’s screens, exchanging experiences and tips, and occasionally trading and battling.
DO NOT LOOK at meta builds on the internet; play with the Pokémon you like, you can beat the game with any team. If a friend beats you, change things around on instinct.
And above all else, immerse yourself in the world of Pokémon, and imagine it beyond the confines of your tiny screen.
Have fun.