Pokémon (series)

Pokémon is a multi-billion dollar media franchise controlled by video game giant Nintendo, and created by Satoshi Tajiri at least by 1995 (it celebrated its tenth anniversary on February 27, 2006, although the franchise was copyrighted in the USA as Pokémon by 1995). The original Game Boy video games have since been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books and other media. The game’s catchphrase and slogan, in the English language versions of the franchise, used to be "Gotta catch ’em all!", although it is now no longer officially used (except by Hasbro and in the title sequence to Pokémon Chronicles).

Pokémon is also the collective name for all of the fictional species within the Pokémon universe. To date, the franchise has a grand total of unique species that lie at the heart of the series, a figure which has grown substantially from the 150 monsters in the original Pokémon Red and Blue games. The word Pokémon remains unchanged whether referring to the singular or plural (as is the case with deer or sheep), and the same applies to each species name.

Apparently, Pokémon appears to be more popular than Nintendo itself.

The Video Games
The Pokémon games have always been released in couples, then followed by some kind of follow up. Each time the series upgraded to a new platform and new Pokémon were introduced, it was considered a new "generation" of Pokémon.The regions the generations took place was Kanto, Johto, Heonn, Sinnoh, and Unova. Some of the games were Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow, Ruby, Shappire, Emerald, Firered, and Leafgreen versions. On April 27th, 2007 the new fourth generation games have been made for the Nintendo DS. On the 1st November 2008 (Japan) and Summer 2009(Europe/America) a new 4th Generation game was be made called Pokémon Platinum which has already become one of the best selling games in Japan. In the first two days of selling, it pulled in just under 1 million dollars! Later that year Nintendo and Game Freak announced remakes of Pokémon Gold and Silver, Pokémon Heart Gold and Pokémon Soul Silver. In 2010/2011, Nintendo released its 5th Generation of Pokemon still on the DS; Pokemon Black and White. The world certainly has not had enough of its Pokémon yet! On 2012, it has been anounced that there will be two new games called Pokemon Black and White 2, a sequel to the previous Black & White versions. There will be many characters that were in the previous generations, and there will be over 300 pokemon listed in the first pokedex. On October 24 2011, Nintendo launched the first Nintendo 3DS Pokemon game called Pokemon Rumble Blast. It is the sequel to the game Pokemon Rumble and unlike the previous game, the sequel has a storyline and there are more things and places than just Battle Royales. There are also spin-off games, games that have a different storyline than the main story, that have been released. Some of the side games are the Pokemon Tronzei, the Ranger series, the Pinball series, the Rumble series, the Mystery Dungeon series, the Puzzle series, the TCG series, the Super Smash Bros. Series, the Pikachu series, and the Play It! series. On June 18, 2012, there will be a new spin-off series called Pokemon Conquest. It is a game that has a mixture of the classic game Nobunaga's Ambition and the Pokemon series.

The Trading Card Game


The Pokémon Trading Card Game is a collectible card game based on the Pokémon video game series, first introduced in Japan, then North America in 1999. It was published by Wizards of the Coast, the company which publishes Magic: The Gathering. Sets continue to be published, although not by Wizards of the Coast.

Pokémon Anime

 * (under construction!)

Pokémon anime was created in 1998 for both the United States and Japan. It originally aired on Kids WB but now it airs on Cartoon Network.

Pokémon Manga

 * (under construction!)

Pokémon controversies
The Pokémon series has been subject to controversy since its creation. Various religious (Christian, Jewish, Muslim) and activist (animal rights) groups have expressed concerns over the franchise due to prominent themes found in the games. These controversies have even caused the series to be banned in some countries.


 * The Pokémon Jynx was highly controversial due to its resemblance to characters from The Little Black Sambo, critics insisting that the species enforced a negative stereotype against African Americans. Due to this, Nintendo later altered the design of Jynx to be purple instead of pitch black.
 * One episode was removed from television after it caused seizures to many children, some of which had no history of seizures. This episode is one of the prime reasons why Nintendo changed the name Pocket Monsters to Pokémon once it reached Western territories due to the widespread media coverage of the event. Another episode was aired once and then removed because it showed a character pointing a pistol at Ash Ketchum.
 * All products related to Pokémon have been banned from Saudi Arabia due to supposedly supporting other religons, which is strictly against Muslim doctrine.

History
Pokémon was introduced in Japan in 1996. Two years later, Nintendo of America brought the series over to America. Pokémon's first stop in the country was Topeka, Kansas. The city changed the name of the city to ToPikachu in celebration of the popular species of Pokémon. In March of 2010, Topeka, Kansas mayor Bill Bunten proclaimed that they city's name would be changed to Google, Kansas for that month in hopes that Google would experiment their fiber optics experiment there. Local TV station WIBW Jim Ogle stated that "if Topeka could change its name for a small doll that sounds like I sneezed, it could certainly do the same for Google."

Pokémon-Related Articles

 * List of Pokémon

Pokémon

Trivia

 * The first Pokémon designed and created was Rhydon.