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Here at jaxon.gg you’ll be able to uncover the latest Pokemon news and dig into the best strategies before heading off to catch ‘em all.
Whether your travels take you to Viridian City or Ula’ula Island, our Pokemon guides will help get you there. You can trust our news team to bring you fully up to speed – just make sure that you don’t share our insight with the folks over at Team Rocket.
Pokemon was supposed to be a fad, but after more than 25 years, the series stands as the most lucrative media property in the world by numerous measures.
The goal for every media company is to have a cross-media IP and Pokemon is arguably the only one to fully realize this concept. Star Wars is massive, but ask someone on the street what it is and they’ll almost certainly say its many films. Similarly, Harry Potter is a book series, Barbie is a line of toys, and so on.
That’s not the case here, though. Some will say that it’s a video game series. Others will say it’s an anime. Then others will first think of the card game. Complementing all this is the massive licensing operation that sees a steady churn of new toys and other merchandise. But how did Pokemon become so popular and where is it headed at this point?
Despite running for over 25 years, Pokemon games have largely similar gameplay to what they started with.
The core concept of the series is about capturing, raising, and battling pocket monsters. The gameplay loop sees players go to a city or location, catch new Pokemon, use them to advance to a new city, and repeat. Along the way, players are tasked with defeating an evil organization and becoming the champion of their region.
The games are turn-based with two sides taking part in battles. During each turn, each side gets to select a move to use. These moves can deal damage, change stats, or have other effects. The games all have a large emphasis on randomness, with moves having varied odds of hitting and a chance-based critical hit mechanic that can change the tide of battle.
While that core combat gameplay has remained the same, the series has still evolved with the times. The old sprites gave way to the 3D graphics with Pokemon X and Y in 2013. The games started dabbling with open-world gameplay in Pokemon Sword and Shield, before fully committing to it in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
The beginning of the Pokemon franchise is confusing for many.
Rebranding things during localization between Japan and the United States was commonplace in the 1990s. But while Street Fighter saw the names of Bison, Vega, and Balrog rotated, the first batch of Pokemon games are technically different from those seen in Japan.
In Japan, the first generation of these games technically consisted of four separate titles; Pokemon Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow. Red and Green were the original releases while Blue was a “special edition” version, with Japan’s version of Blue being retooled to create the Pokemon Red and Blue that were released in other markets. From there, Pokemon Yellow took the gameplay of Red and Blue but added new story elements that harkened to the popular anime series.
That approach of essentially releasing the same game multiple times became a staple for the series moving forward, with Red and Blue being followed by Gold and Silver, which were succeeded by Ruby and Sapphire. An enhanced version like Pokemon Yellow also became the standard, being succeeded by Crystal, Emerald, and more.
Mixed into these are remakes of past-generation games. Starting with Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, most generations have seen overhauled, updated versions of past classics. These games are often regarded by fans as the best in series history.
While Pokemon video games are largely known for the turn-based RPGs, there have been many other franchise games that approach the series in a different way.
This started early on, with Red and Blue being quickly succeeded by games such as Pokemon Puzzle League and Pokemon Pinball. These games divorced themselves from the RPG mechanics of the mainline games but took other concepts from the series and transferred them to new genres.
Other spin-offs had a closer relationship with the main games. Pokemon Stadium for the Nintendo 64 allowed players to play the Game Boy games on their TV with the N64 Transfer Pack peripheral and import their followers to battle with 3D graphics and fully voice-acted commentary. Pokemon Colosseum for the GameCube offered a similar experience to the mainline games but on the console.
The largest and most successful of these games is its mobile spin-off, Pokemon GO. This drops the turn-based battling but lets players collect and raise their little monsters through augmented reality gameplay based on their mobile device’s GPS. Pokemon are assigned to real-life locations, allowing players to walk over and catch them.
At 25 years old, it’s clear that Pokemon is here to stay. Its toyetic creatures and iconic mascot are identifiable to people across all demographics. Despite critical ups and downs, the games also enjoy exceptionally strong sales. Even Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, which were critically panned, rank among the highest-selling games on the Nintendo Switch.
The big issue for Pokemon games moving forward is preserving the back catalog. With the Nintendo 3DS fully decommissioned and its eShop shut down, there aren’t any official means of playing the games outside of finding and acquiring a cartridge for the now-retro handhelds.
Though Nintendo has made select Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games available on the Switch, that doesn’t include any of the primary Pokemon games. As for the Nintendo DS and 3DS games, a re-release or port is extremely unlikely due to the unique hardware of their platforms.
While many fans would lament losing those retro games in full, there’s no sign of this impacting the longevity of the franchise. Pokemon Legends Z-A will be one of the biggest Nintendo game releases of 2025 and from there, the next generation of Nintendo hardware will arrive and will likely welcome the tenth Pokemon generation. Fans can look forward to catching ‘em all again and again for years to come.
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