In 1998, my Canadian elementary school banned everything Pokémon related. Games, trading cards, and anime discussions – all to the brim as Pocket Monster craze swept through North America like a swarm of Rattata, distracting us from our classroom reading about Anne of Green Gables. That didn’t stop me and my classmates from passing notes on whether or not there really was Mew underneath the truck parked nearby. SS Anne when Mrs. Hubbard turned her back. It also doesn’t stop us from mourning the poor souls whose parents wouldn’t buy them a Game Boy, let alone a copy of Pokémon Red or Blue. For us, it was a step removed from child abuse.
Many people can recount similar anecdotes about playing classic Red and Blue quintessentially. I mean the Pokémon game stands out as one of the most memorable and influential gaming experiences ever created. What’s special about Pokémon, however, is that the phenomenon isn’t exclusive to those of us in Canada or born around 1990. Until this year Pokémon Legend: Arceus, each major Pokémon game is a classic for another generation of children around the world. Somehow, Pokémon Game developer Freak continues to capture culture carving after culture quartzite as easily as catching a caterpillar.
“I didn’t know what a shiny Pokémon was at the time. I asked my friend why the Pokémon was sparkling and he said it meant it was holding the Master Ball.
“My first Pokémon game was FireRed,” Wolfe Glick told me in an email interview. The 2004 FireRed began Glick’s journey to becoming a VGC World Champion in 2016 and is one of the most popular competitive coaches. Pokémon International’s VGC – short for the Named Video Game Championships – brings together dozens of skilled players from around the world each year to compete in doubles battles for prizes and glory.
“I was probably around eight years old when I got it,” Glick explains further. “I have many fond memories of playing with my brother and neighbors on the Game Boy Advance. I remember having a hard time seeing the screen when it was really bright, and I came across a shiny Dodrio in the Safari Zone. I didn’t know what shiny Pokémon were at the time. I asked my friend why the Pokémon was sparkling and he said it meant it was holding the Master Ball. I came across the Dodrio and was upset it had no items to keep, then forgot about it for six or seven years when I suddenly remembered and went back to find my shiny first one.”
Could Glick’s experience be any of our Pokémon stories – who hasn’t gotten a bogus PokéAdvice from a friend before? Anyone who has played a Pokémon game can relate it as easily as they can remember their first time. For Glick and I, it was Charmander, however, the gap of more than five years eliminated our choices.
However, very few people have let Pokémon change their lives the way Game Freak developer Glick did. When he was 12 years old looking for strangers online to play over wifi, Glick discovered a live tournament about 40 minutes from where he lived. The tournament was in a format he had never played before – VGC doubles – but Glick still managed to learn the format, winning the event and earning a ticket to the US Nationals – tournament he also won, granting him access to the World Championship where he finished 6th. The following year, he finished 2nd at Worlds and knew he had to keep playing.
Few people have made competitive Pokémon a career, but Glick has done it. Now, he produces both informative and humorous videos related to Pokémon for Youtube Channel with over 500k subscribers, along with brave efforts to make it easy for new players to join VGCGuide – all while remaining competitive. In fact, he is on his way to the 2022 World Championships in London this August.
Pokémon’s influence isn’t limited to journalists like me and pros like Glick. Guillermo Andrades, Creature Fighter Game Director Coming Soon Temtem, also shared with me memories of his first Pokémon. Unlike Glick and I, he chose Squirtle.
“I started playing Pokémon from the very beginning with Pokémon Blue. I was so obsessed with the game that I consumed all sorts of Pokémon,” Andrades told me. “I started playing Pokémon TCG because of it, and my fondest Pokémon-related memories are spending weekends playing tournaments in my local store and meeting every other kid there.”
For Andrades and his team at Spanish developer Crema, recent Pokémon games have inspired them to challenge the conventions of Pokémon rather than imitate them. When asked about Pokémon’s influence on Temtem, Andrades said that Temtem came about because he and his team had lost interest in Pokémon as it pushed to reach a wider and wider audience. Crema wanted to see how the mature Game Freak formula would adapt to a more challenging and competitive approach. Thus Temtem was born.
Temtem came about because Andrades and his team had lost interest in Pokémon as it pushed to reach a wider and wider audience.
Andrades emphasized the social elements of Temtem as something they sought to innovate. Seeing other players in the underworld – Temtem is, after all, considered a multiplayer creature that collects adventures – trade or fight them directly, and have an auction house, are all ways Crema has improved the monster fighting formula. And when it comes to battles, removing the element of randomness – such as the 10% chance of being frozen – creates a more balanced and fair experience that rewards careful players rather than luck.
But Pokémon players in Canada, USA and Spain can’t organize Litwick about how Pokémon has molded Japan’s cultural fervor from 1996 onward. It’s as popular as it is in the West, every kid in Japan knows what a Pokémon is and most likely has played a Pokémon game. Have Pokémon Cafe. Donut shop for sale Pokémon themed donuts. McDonald’s offers McFlurries Pikachu flavor. Many large cities have Pokémon Centers that sell everything from stuffed toys to Pokémon cards. I say this as someone who has lived in Japan for the past eight years – Pokémon here are as popular as Zubat in Japan. MT. Moon.
But don’t take my word for it alone. I’ve reached out to 2017 VGC World Champion Ryota Otsubo to hear his thoughts on Pokémon’s influence (and have done my best to accurately translate his Japanese).
“The first time I played was the Pikachu version (Yellow Pokémon). It was my first time playing a game, and I remember being overjoyed when I beat a strong gym leader. I really like a Pokémon called Lapras. The channel I have on YouTube is called Naminori channel (The Surfing Channel), named after Lapras. ”
Like Glick, Otsubo also achieved success by finishing second in a local tournament. He thought if he mastered more battles, he might reach the top one day. 10 years later Otsubo did it, becoming the 2017 VGC World Champion.
“I think [Pokémon is so influential] because of the characters and attractive combat system. It is made not only for children but also for adults, so people all over Japan and the world can enjoy playing Pokémon. ”
Indeed, I have spent a lot of time in Japan teaching, and although we have little in common with my students, we can always discuss Pokémon no matter what age group they are in. When Shining Diamonds and Shining Pearls was announced, many of my high school students can’t wait to relive their first Pokémon adventure. A recent trend is that many of them put rare Pokémon trading cards in their clear smartphone cases, which surprises me, since doing so in mine high school would be like using Follow me against every bully in the student body. When Pokémon Legends: Arceus released in January, I had junior high students tell me every week then which shiny Pokémon they found at the weekend, and the assignments they submitted often featured their favorite Pokémon. I painted on it in a desperate attempt to get more credit.
Red and Blue may have started it all, but the entire series continues to make Pokémon a permanent classic. It’s possible to capitalize on a lot of criticism at Game Freak about how the little Pokémon’s formula has evolved over the years, and at least visually, Pokémon has yet to live up to modern expectations. The signs are that the next major entries will shake things up more than ever, but there’s absolutely no doubt that for many young gamers, 2022. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will have the same profound impact Red and Blue had on Andrades and me, FireRed had on Glick, and Yellow had on Otsubo. Based on past evidence, it will almost certainly become the quintessential classic for another generation of coaches.
