Pokemon Through The Years

Pokemon has been around since the the mid 1990s and has become a cult classic in the United States. Originally Pokemon was started in Japan and created by a man named Satoshi Tajiri-Oniwa. He had come up with the idea of Pokemon because of a hobby he had when he was a child. When he was a child he would always collect insects and as he was thinking of the idea of Pokemon the hobby he had as a child was an idea he started out with. Satoshi had joined GameFreak and helped with the development of games such as The Legend of Zelda, Quinty, and a two spin-offs of Mario. Since he had worked on these games and many more for the company they were more willing to let him work on his idea of a new game, which was Pokemon. Many people in the publishing company of Nintendo didn't believe that Satoshi's idea would work at all, but when Pokemon Red and Green were released in Japan it slowly became more and more popular among everyone that lived there.

Pokemon Red and Green had become very popular in Japan that Nintendo released them in North America, Europe, and Australia. These games were released in 1998 and soon became a huge successes in all of the countries. Pokemon Red and Blue had become such a huge hit in these countries that a t.v. show was released in the other countries (the t.v. show had already been released in Japan before it was released in North America, Europe, and Australia). Both Pokemon Red and Blue were about the main character, which was you, starting out on his adventure in the Kanto region to become the Pokemon Master by acquiring one of the three starter Pokemon given to you by Professor Oak. To try and become the Pokemon Master you would challenge Pokemon gyms and collect 8 badges to face the Elite Four. You have a rival who has lived with you for most of your life and always challenges you to see who is a better Pokemon trainer between the two of you. Along the way of becoming a Pokemon master you are faced with an evil team named Team Rocket, whose ideal is to rule the world with Pokemon and steal strong Pokemon from other trainers. Soon in 1999 another version of Pokemon came out called Pokemon Yellow where the storyline of this game followed more of the anime Pokemon series having the player start out with a Pikachu instead of picking a starter Pokemon. A large change in this game is that your Pikachu could walk outside of it's Pokeball with you and you could acquire all of the starter Pokemon Professor Oak usually hands out to trainers

In the year 2000 Pokemon Gold and Silver where released in the United States and Australia. Pokemon Gold and Silver introduced one hundred new Pokemon species and introduced a new storyline as well. Pokemon Red and Blue had been such a big successes in the United States that Gold and Silver was treated just as popularly as the original two games. These games also had the compatibility to trade the original Pokemon from Gold and Silver over to the Red and Blue games that helped complete the Pokedex. A new feature in this game was that you would program the time into the game and it would follow real time in the game. The story in Pokemon in Gold and Silver was that you are a Pokemon trainer starting out in Johto region where you pick your first Pokemon just like in Red and Blue. As you go on your journey to collect 8 gym badges from the gyms in the region you face Team Rocket again, but this time they are broken apart after the main character in Pokemon Red and Blue defeated their leader. The main character in Gold and Silver will face the three executives that try and revive Team Rocket for their boss. In 2001 Pokemon Crystal was made as a "sister" game to Gold an Silver. Crystal had some small changes such as adding new areas, changing sprites of some of the Pokemon, etc.. The one major change to this was that in crystal you could choose to play as a Pokemon trainer, something that hasn't been added before.


In the year 2003 Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire was released to the United States, Europe, and Australia. These games didn't change the overall gameplay of the Pokemon series, but it did add a new batch of Pokemon for more players to catch and raise in this new game. The story of this Pokemon game is that the main character starts out in the Hoenn region where he/she will pick their first Pokemon and try to go out in the world to battle gym leaders to collect gym badges and battle the Elite Four to become the Champion of the region like in the past games. In these games instead of Team Rocket being the main Team that tries to steal Pokemon you have two different teams, but depending on the game you have you will either face Team Magma or Team Aqua. In Pokemon Ruby Team Magma is trying to acquire the power of the legendary Pokemon Groudon and create more landmass in the world so that more Pokemon that live on the land are able to have more places to live. In Pokemon Sapphire Team Aqua is trying to acquire the power of Kyogre and create more ocean for the water Pokemon so they have more room to live in. You will face Team Aqua in Pokemon Sapphire and Team Magma in Pokemon Ruby and the leader of either team will have a cameo appearance when they have found out that their rivals have caused a large disaster to the world. Then in 2004 a remake of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire came out called Pokemon Emerald. Pokemon Emerald didn't have much to change from Ruby and Sapphire except that you would face both Team Magma and Team Aqua. Also while you are on your adventure you would run into a man named Scott who will eventually invite you to the Battle Frontier. The Battle Frontier is a place in the Pokemon world where the best trainers from around the world come together and test their abilities against one another.

2007 was the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl in the United States. This game follows the basic plot of the previous Pokemon games, but there were many changes in the gameplay of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl as well. One of the many gameplay changes was that now there was a multiplayer for the games. Using a wifi connection you could connect to other players around the world and either trade different Pokemon with each other or you could battle against one another. This new feature allowed far more interaction with other people around the world and also allows the new feature of competitive battling as well. Also time differences were brought back from to this game that was originally started in Pokemon Gold and Silver. Like in previous games he/she starts out in their town and goes on a Pokemon adventure having their rival be one step ahead of them as well. Along the way the player runs into a team called Team Galactic that is trying to take over the world using the Pokemon Dialga (in Pokemon Diamond) or Palkia (in Pokemon Pearl). These two Pokemon are known to be able to control time and space and the leader of Team Galactic needs either Pokemon to help him change the world so he can become the leader of the world. While the character is collecting gym badges he/she also needs to stop Team Galactic to take over the world. Two years later in 2009 Pokemon Platinum was released with two new areas in the game. One of the new areas is the Battle Frontier that was added so that you could play more after the game and also the distortion world where you were to catch Giratina when Giratina interrupts the leader of Team Galactic from trying to change the world.

In 2011 Pokemon Black and White was released to the United States and is the newest installment in the series. This new Pokemon game has many new features such as a season cycle in the game. The season cycle has the four seasons summer, fall, winter, and spring. Every other month the seasons change in the game and different Pokemon show up each different season. Another new feature in the game is that now there are two new types of battles which are the three on three battles where three Pokemon are against one another and rotational battles where three Pokemon are sent out to battle, but each Pokemon must fight one on one. Some small side features in the gameplay is the new Pokemon Musicals where one of your Pokemon is in a musical and plays in the musical. Besides these new features the graphics in the game had a huge overhaul making it one of the best looking Pokemon games to date. The plot in this game is just a bit different than the Pokemon games of the past where you and your two friends, Cheren and Bianca, are given Pokemon from Professor Juniper. The Professor gives you these Pokemon so the three of you can travel the world and learn what you want to be as you become older. The main character and Cheren decide to take on the gym challenges to take on the Elite Four, while your friend Biance decides to travel the world to find out more about herself. While you are traveling you run into a team called Team Plasma, where their goal is to have the Pokemon that are caught be freed by their trainers. As you run into Team Plasma you meet a Pokemon trainer named N. N believes that Pokemon are to be freed from all the trainers and says he will stop at nothing to free all the Pokemon from their trainers and will use the legendary Pokemon of the region to fulfill his plans. If you are playing Pokemon White then the legendary Pokemon that N uses is Reshiram and if you are playing Pokemon Black N is using Zekrom to try and fulfill his plan. You continue to travel on your journey and find out that N will take the Pokemon challenge and when he becomes the Champion of the region force everyone to free their Pokemon. Your character then goes to challenge N to decide the fate of everyone and their Pokemon.

With all the Pokemon series out what has been done over the years is making remakes of some of the older games. The first remake that was released was Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen. These two games were released in 2004 and were made to remake some of the features that weren't in the old games. The newest feature in this Pokemon game was that after you defeated the the seventh gym in the game you were sent to the Sevii Islands. You would travel to these islands with Bill and he would introduce you to Celio, a man who created a machine that would enable you to trade Pokemon from the Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire games. This game added a back story to Team Rocket and how well they did after you defeated their leader too. Another game that was remade in 2010 that was a remake of Pokemon Gold and Silver called Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver. This game added some new features to the original called such as stunning new graphics, showing how well a game could look on the DS. Another feature that was brought onto HeartGold and SoulSilver was the ability to let your Pokemon out of its Pokeball and walk with you on your journey. This feature was originally in Pokemon Yellow, but in HeartGold and SoulSilver they gave you the ability to let any Pokemon walk with you. A new area was added to the game as well which was the Pokeathlon. The Pokeathlon was like a marathon, but instead you would do the events with your Pokemon.

The Pokemon series has a huge impact on the United States and the gaming world. Each new Pokemon game that has came out always has positive reviews from critics everywhere and the gameplay formula never gets old to anyone. With the Pokemon series being one of the most popular around the world, it is amazing how long the series has been running for these years. Now that Pokemon has made a name for it self in the gaming world it has been able make a place for itself in gaming history as one of the most popular rpgs to date.