Have you ever been on the outside, looking in on a pop-culture phenomenon?
While the Pokemon games are some of the most popular titles in Nintendo’s stable, I’ve never played a full mainline entry.
I’ve had a weird history with this franchise, and beaten just about everything except the main RPGs: Stadium 1&2, Snap, Colosseum, XD Gale of Darkness, Pokken, a little GO, even Hey You! Pikachu for goodness sake.
I grew up a little bit after the huge wave of Red/Blue/Yellow hype, and have always felt that I missed the bandwagon.
People who have been with the series since its inception are still trading their pocket monsters from game to game, amassing a huge army!
It definitely feels like I would have a hard time just jumping in, although I know they create these games for a younger demographic and take into account franchise newcomers to some extent.
You know what still scares me? It’s all the nuance that’s built up over generations. Developer GameFreak still builds on mechanics that have existed for decades, resulting in an imposing collection of the unknown.
A crossroads approaches. When the Pokemon series debuts on Nintendo Switch, I feel like I’ll have my best shot yet of hopping aboard the speeding train. If I let it pass me by again, I may never catch up.
Scott
Latest posts by Scott (see all)
- TBC 033: Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2 - 08/24/2022
- TBC 032: Pokémon Legends: Arceus - 05/21/2022
- TBC 031: Metroid: Dread - 11/26/2021
I was there for the birth of Pokemon. I remember my peers collecting the cards and playing with them, in the physical card game form. My brother was into it initially but later fell out of it while for me, it never really appealed to me even now.
This article describes my feelings exactly. It feels daunting be think about jumping into the Pokémon games these days… I was there when Red/Blue exploded and was very much a part of it. Same with Gold/Silver. With the 3rd gen, Ruby/Sapphire, I participated but not nearly as much as before. After that, I lost touch with the games. Played Diamond for a while but never completed it, and haven’t touched any of them since. However I’m hopeful the Switch game(s) will be a fresh start of sorts, kind of like BOTW and Odyssey were for Zelda and Mario respectively, and I’ll be able to join in, once again. :]
Somehow the entire Pokemon experience has missed me. I recently noticed that the whole thing started around 1997. That was the same year as my first job. When it was new, I saw it as “kids stuff” and never took any notice of it, until it was huge, then it seemed like a club that I was not a part of. Then before I knew it, I was an adult and there is TONS of it. The whole franchise is bit overwhelming to me.