Pokemon: A Retrospective

I was going to do a review of Pokemon X and Y, but I realized that Pokemon games are enormously difficult to review. The contents of the review have to change dramatically depending on who the audience is, because many of the improvements from game to game, and most of my favorite new features, are only significant to hardcore or long time players. Even major updates to the game could be seen as revolutionary, or obvious, depending on an individual’s connection to the series. I can talk about how the graphics are now full 3D for the first time ever, and the camera and battle sequences take a cue from the Pokemon Stadium games, and that will sound amazing from one perspective, and trivial from another. Conversely, if I tell you that Destiny Knot can now pass down 5 IVs from parents, significantly improving the yield for IV breeding, half of you will give me blank stares while the other half jumps up and down with glee.

So that’s why I’m going to be writing sort of a retrospective of the Pokemon series, or the main games at least. Pokemon has always been a game that has offered a ton of hidden complexity, under a cute, kid friendly shell. Contrary to popular internet complaining, Pokemon has always had hidden stats and tedious training in one form or another, but it wasn't until comparatively recently that these factors have been well documented and critically considered. It’s these elements of simplicity and complexity that, when held in perfect balance, enthrall so many people and generate record breaking sales.

These elements of complexity and simplicity, combined with a “minute to learn, lifetime to master” mentality, are what make Pokemon so successful and long lasting, especially in the face of competitors. Since Pokemon’s explosive burst on to the scene in the 90s, a number of copycat, monster collecting series have come and gone, in an attempt to capitalize on the Pokemon frenzy. Nearly all of them, however, have fallen by the wayside, usually as a result of elements which made their unique universes too complex for their audience to handle. The two most famous Pokemon “knock offs” are Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon, and while they both survive in one form or another today, neither of them even come close to the sales or brand power of Pokemon. This is primarily because in an attempt to be ahead of the curve, both series resorted to creating a multitude of new mechanics and monsters much faster than their player base could keep up with, and as a result their players gave up out of frustration.

Pokemon is a paragon of self-control, in this sense, as they tend to make lots of little changes gradually, so no generation of games feels dramatically different from the previous one, and the core mechanics of the game barely change at all. A number of critics penalize the Pokemon franchise for “releasing the same game every year”, but unlike other series such as Call of Duty, where worthy competition comes out at the same rate and yet they do the bare minimum to get by and coast on their brand recognition, Pokemon was the original big “monster collection” game, and is still the most popular one today. Pokemon manages to outperform the competition every time, not only because of their brand name power, but also because of the level of quality that dwarfs every major competitor. Nintendo knows what they’re doing when it comes to handheld games, it’s sort of their thing.

Anyway, short version is: Pokemon is great, the new game is great, if you want a cute RPG where you can force your monsters into a pit fight with your friend’s monsters then go buy it!