Growing up with Pokémon

February 27th 1996 is an important date to me. It was my fifth birthday, for one. But that's not why. It's important because that's the date on which the first ever Pokémon games, Red and Green, were released in Japan. Of course, we didn't get them here in the UK until 1999, by which time the Pokémon craze was already well underway in the USA, and their sequels Gold and Silver were only six months away in Japan. But who can forget when the craze finally did come to the UK?

“9:25 on a Saturday. Don't be a Jigglypuff...Awww yeah.” How many of you remember that now I say it? Quite a few I'll bet. Saturday mornings meant SMTV, and SMTV meant Pokémon (and Ant and Dec's “interpretations” of Pokémon). Up until Christmas 1999, the games were frankly of no importance to me, but then we got Red version. Like pretty much every other child of similar age, I was hooked. Now I too could be the very best, like no-one ever was. At the time it was amazing just to have an entire world in your pocket. Games had done it before, but none with the social aspect of Pokémon. Creator Satoshi Tajiri stated himself that he wanted a game which encouraged social participation, and trading your Pokémon with friends was one of the great parts of this. We all played these games, and for many they, I'm sure, are a defining part of our childhood.

While we all have fond memories of the first generation of games (Red, Blue and Yellow) many people will remember the sequels of Gold and Silver to have been far superior, adding a hundred new Pokémon, as well as time-based events and a day/night cycle. For me these were the first games I was truly social with; I have fond memories of trading and battling with complete strangers at Eurocamp in France, our mutual love of Pokémon and video games bringing us together. I remember as well a brief, seemingly arbitrary resurgence in their popularity at my school in Year 7, sitting in the back, trading such knowledge as how to manipulate data and clone Pokémon. By this point though, the franchise's popularity was clearly waning.

Many consider the subsequent games, Ruby and Sapphire, to have been somewhat of a let-down, removing many of the features which made the previous games interesting, such as a day/night cycle. As well as this though, we grew up. We were still kids, but these games just didn't seem to interest us as much. Sure, I played them, and a couple of my friends did; I enjoyed them greatly but to most people confessing a love of Pokémon at this time was as bad as saying you watched CBeebies. It was around then, however, that I discovered the Internet. The “metagame” i.e. competitive battling is still a very popular endeavour on the Internet, with more recent games allowing trading and battling, one through which I've met several good friends including some at this University. One guy I know even won a trip to Hawai'i to compete in the Pokémon Video Game World Championships' this year. But these aren't kids we're talking: these are people our age. For many, looking at Pokémon is looking back on their childhoods – but for some, our childhoods never ended.

Add Comment

You must log in to submit a comment.