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GAMING FEATURE

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After several years of development, and with Game Freak skating frighteningly close to bankruptcy, the first ever Pocket Monsters game was completed, and released early in 1996 in the now familiar two flavours, in this case Pocket Monsters: Red , and Pocket Monsters: Green , for the Game Boy. Together they included 151 creatures to catch, train and trade with friends – using that Game Boy Game Link cable - in order for the player to become a Pokémon master. After the game’s popularity exploded, a special edition Blue version, featuring improved graphics and sound, plus a bunch of gameplay and glitch tweaks, was released.

Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue

It wasn’t until 1998 that the rest of planet Earth had their opportunity to get in on the Pokémon craze, when Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue , based on the upgraded Japanese Blue release, released worldwide. Remaining a Nintendo exclusive for its major releases – there have been dalliances with mobiles, online, Mac, and Windows - Pokémon games have come thick and fast ever since. The core franchise kept things handheld, graduating from Game Boy to Game Boy Color and then Game Boy Advance, and onwards through Nintendo’s DS, 3DS and later, of course, the Switch. Home consoles didn’t miss out on the fun, with side series games releasing first on the Nintendo 64, then through the GameCube and Wii generations. The Wii U didn’t miss out entirely, with some classic games releasing on its Virtual Console. Meanwhile, spinoff games have come thick and fast, from stadium battles to pinball, action adventures to trading card simulators, and myriad different puzzle challenges to a drawing game. Then there was Detective Pikachu which, of course, spawned a movie starring Ryan Reynolds as the lead character’s voice. The Pokémon people certainly haven’t been shy about trying new things. There have been crossovers with super popular fighting game series Tekken, introducing us to “Pokken” in two Pokken Tournament games, and even a Pokémon Tetris ! Of course, we haven’t yet mentioned the myriad television episodes, movies, trading cards… At the time of writing there have been 124 different Pokémon video games released – some of them upgrades of previous releases – and a grand total

Back in February 1996, the RPG phenomenon that we now know as Pokémon first launched in its homeland of Japan.With Pokémon Scarlet and PokémonViolet now out and about, we catch up quickly with the story of how we got from there to here. Words Amy Flower

I t may be a world-conquering phenomenon now, but the origins of Pokémon lie in a self published magazine entitled Game Freak , created by Satoshi Tajiri, back in 1983. Tajiri soon teamed with illustrator Ken Sugimori. The huge fans of video games decided to take a next step in 1989, teaming with multitalented programmer Junichi Masuda to form a game development company, which they also called Game Freak. They developed games for the Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Famicom/ Super Nintendo, Game Boy and SEGA’s Mega Drive, while fostering a close relationship with Nintendo. They were even entrusted with making games starring the top game company’s mascots Yoshi, Mario, and his nemesis Wario. Tajiri was fascinated with the portable Game Boy during this time, and how two units could

be connected via a Game Link cable. This led to memories of his childhood, and his fascination with collecting insects. When combined with a love of the Ultraman series that featured big monsters squished into teensy capsules, this kernel grew into the idea for Capsule Monsters, which later became Pocket Monsters. Nintendo were

As with the new Scarlet and Violet releases, colours have always played a big part in the Pokémon series, SWATCH IT!

DID YOU KNOW? Clefairy was the original Pokémon mascot, before Pikachu took over the reins due to his apparent broader appeal.

covering most stops on the rainbow and beyond – even black and white.

pitched the idea, but they rejected it – several times. Proving that it’s worth persevering with an idea that you truly believe in, when the Game Freak crew became closer with

• Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet

Nintendo’s game guru Shigeru Miyamoto, they finally convinced the Big N that the idea was a solid one. Little did anybody involved know at the time just how seriously big it would become!

are out now

of 925 Pokémon in the ever expanding Pokédex. If you’ve gotta catch ‘em all then you certainly have quite some work ahead of you!

DECEMBER 2022

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