Pokemon Turns 25: A Look Back From Red to the Shining Pearl | Currently

They’ve been on the shelves for exactly 25 years: Pokemon Red at Pokemon Green. A humble Japanese release that would become the second most successful game series of all time, right behind it Mario.

Pokémon appears to be linked to Nintendo forever, but the series owes its lives to game makers Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori. Their company, Game Freak, has worked for years on various games for SEGA and Nintendo, among others.

Tajiri and Sugimori brought up the idea for their own Nintendo game several times, based on Tajiri’s childhood. He loved hunting insects at the time. The project was called first Capsule monstersRight after that Pocket monstersBut it was the abbreviation that commented: Pokemon.

In 1990, Nintendo was Thanks MarioFinally, Shigeru maker Miyamoto gets to work and Game Freak gets started.

Pokemon Red at Green color

We know the first in the Netherlands PokemonGames on Game Boy as red at blue, But on February 27, 1996 in Japan, the second half was still called Green color. At first, Game Freak had no idea how successful the game would be, as it hardly got any information.

Meanwhile, the company decided to improve the game and give it an extra layer of blue paint. Pokemon Red at blue It crossed the ocean and reached the United States in 1998 and Europe the following year.

The games were a huge success, selling 31 million copies worldwide.

The magic formula was simple. As a little monsters trainer, she travels all over the country of Kanto. Mission: Capture all 151 creatures in the popular red and white “Pokéball” and defeat all Pokémon Grand Masters in the area.

The trick: In each of the two games, you can only capture a portion of each Pokemon. So you had to connect the Game Boy to another person via the link cable in order to exchange Pokémon.

Image from “Pokemon Red”.

Cartoon cards and series

With the massive success of games, an animated series cannot be put off. In Japan it was already on the tube in 1997, in the Netherlands we had to wait until 1999 for the first episode of the anime series.

The series, which revolves around Pokemon trainer Ash Ketchum and his friends, has been as successful worldwide as games. Ash’s friend Pikachu has become a symbol of the world Pokemon. In Japan, ash is called “satoshi” – as in Satoshi Tajiri.

to Themes Hold on so well that it made its way to the Top 2000 in 2015, playing cards became the biggest childhood publicist of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

To keep the expanding empire more manageable, Nintendo established a separate publishing house: The Pokémon Company. He oversees the global branding of the companies involved – Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures.

New, new Nintendo Pokemon

The new Game Boy Color palette made the color games in 1999 Pokemon Gold at silver Maybe. They flew over the counter 23 million times. Side step, picture game Pokemon Snap, He was less successful, but still likable.

running red at blue Any new Nintendo portable device will be one PokemonGame. The gameplay changed subtly with each new release, but the series never denied its roots.

From Ruby at Sapphire Gameboy Advance has sold sixteen million copies. Nintendo DS games Diamond at Pearl It performed slightly better in 2006.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl has been sold 17 million times.

Remakes and the Internet

he met black at white (2010) and his successors made quantum leaps forward visually and technically. The matches have seen seasonal changes, with the outside world looking different every time. Successors Pokemon X at s (2013) made the leap to fully 3D graphics on the 3DS.

Fans of vintage games continued to be increasingly interested. Nintendo and Game Freak have decided to do remakes for new platforms, starting with Firered at Green leaf In the 2004 movie Game Boy Advance.

He remakes the truck Diamond at Pearl She is planning this year.

Pokemon X&Y was the first 3D games in the series.

Take to the streets with Pokemon GO

The most successful talk Pokemon It didn’t come from Game Freak stable. That honor goes to Niantic’s mobile game maker, with its Walker Pokemon GO (2016).

This augmented reality game places the player in the role of a Pokemon trainer who must hunt creatures in his own environment. With GPS functionality and a smartphone camera, the game puts Pokemon into the world around you.

Within a week, the game had been downloaded ten million times. The whole summer of 2016 was filled with stories from Pokemon GOPlayers took to the streets in droves to catch new Pokemon.

In its first year, Niantic made approximately $ 950 million (about $ 770 million) from the game. Nintendo later took advantage of he goes With simplified Pokemon let’s goGames, where you can use “real” Pokeball.

Future from Pokemon

Since the mobile gaming hype of 2016, there have been two other groups of traditional games PokemonReleased Games: Sun at the moon, at Sword at shield. The latter, a game for the Switch, has reached its first since then Go at silver Limit 20 million copies sold.

Nintendo announced three new cars on Friday PokemonTitles to: New Editions Pokemon Brilliant Diamond at Bright pearl, And an open world game Pokemon Legends Arceus. With the latter, the series appears to go one step further, with a world completely devoid of exploration.

Nintendo and Game Freak celebrate year-round. On Christmas itself, plan a special party: Rapper Post Malone will be throwing a special digital concert for Pokemon at 2.00 AM (NST).

Pokemon Legends Arceus needs to have an open world similar to Zelda.