Pokémemories

Ah, the nostalgia! Those were the good old days; where you could solve the problem of boredom by simply whipping out your Game Boy (or Game Boy Color), shoving a copy of Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow into it, and then playing with it until your heart was content. Pokémon always gave you the satisfaction you wanted so much; differing greatly from a childish twiddling of your thumbs all day long.

Oh ho ho! But Pokémon did not stop there! No, sirree! Pokémon continued to capture the curiosity of many more youngsters for years after its first release. To this very day, a total of 11 official hand-held games in the series (with an upcoming 12 having been announced) have circulated what has become one of the most lucrative video game-based market in the world, second only to Mario – this includes all available Pokémon merchandise in any form.

It’s hard to believe that Red and Blue first materialised in Japan some 12 years ago. The frenzy that ensued from the production of these two specific games was unprecedented. Joined with Yellow, they were a huge success; in the United States alone, Pokémon Red and Blue have shifted nearly 10 million copies.

Surely, when you get a craze on these sorts of levels, you’d expect it to fizzle out within a couple of years or so? Nothing could be further from the truth. More and more people began queuing up to jump on the Pokémon bandwagon. It seemed that everyone wanted a slice of Poké-heaven. The trading card game, the home console releases, the cheesy TV series (and of course, the unforgettably cheesier films that were commissioned, resulting from the television success), the clothing, the toys; there wasn’t a corner of the world those crazy little critters hadn’t conquered.

Fine! Point out my discrepancy, why don’t you?! No, they haven't made it big in Antarctica! The thought of a polar bear wailing in delight at having levelled up his Charmeleon enough to have it evolve into a Charizard is quite sickening…

But that’s the general feeling most normal people get when they look back at Pokémon. All the time they “wasted” on it: they cringe, they wince, they grimace. You shouldn’t allow yourself to do such a thing! Pokémon – whether you liked it or not – was an integral part of your childhood (if you’re around the same age as me. And male). And if that wasn’t the case, it is highly implausible to think that it didn’t affect you in some way or another. Perhaps your younger brother wouldn’t stop pestering you to buy him a copy for his birthday. Or that fun-loving uncle everyone’s sure isn’t “all there” bought a copy, and bragged to you about having beaten the Elite Four in just under a week. Maybe your next door neighbour ran out into their garden once, half-dressed, screaming “YES! I finally caught Articuno after 48 attempts!” Should they have been around the age of 12 – and again, especially if they were male – that sentence probably would have been preceded by a cacophony of grunts, snarls and expletives for the duration of the early afternoon. In fact, if they were male and any age above 12, you were bound to have heard that general sort of thing from the comfort of your own home.

Nonetheless, Pokémon was as fulfilling as it was infuriating. Thinking back, I can only picture my greatest achievements: beating my primary school friend Craig in our weekly “link-cable battles” with my level 100 Pikachu (I had the Yellow version), navigating my way through the maze that was Silph Co after endless hours of frustration to find Giovanni, and consequently hand his posterior to him on a platter, and completing Gold in little over a week and a half (Gold being one of the later produced games). Oh, and I had a shiny Blaine’s Arcanine that rocked from the trading cards!

Those were the days.

Nowadays, to alleviate boredom, you have to do something like this!