Welcome to the world of Pokémon! Choose your partner Pokémon out of these three options and set off on an adventure. Beat all eight adversaries and climb your way to the top to become the Pokémon champion!
Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green launched February 1996 for the Game Boy in Japan. In 1998, the games hit North American shelves, branded as Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. The games were followed by the trading card packs and the anime and the movie and the store with marketable merchandise and then about fifty more of all those things.
Having hit its 29th year anniversary, Pokémon still remains a big deal. Publication License Global stated in their Global Licensors Report of 2024, powered by SEGA, that Pokémon’s annual retail sales in 2023 was $10.8B. In November 2024, publication Game Rant stated that the company’s newest main game release, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, sold 25.69 million copies. Since then, the company has also released purchasable downloadable content (DLC) for said games that cost $35 USD.
The games’ main premise has more or less remained the same. The player is set to follow a linear path in defeating trainers and catching Pokémon all while taking down the big bad of the region. However, Pokémon has recently been introducing new gimmicks to their games. Pokémon X and Pokémon Y saw Mega Evolution in 2013, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon saw Z-Moves in 2016, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield saw Gigantamaxing in 2019, and so on so forth.
Now, I have a confession before we go any further. My interest in Pokémon has admittedly been dwindling. I liked the newer games, don’t get me wrong, but it’s been a while since I sat down and consumed my time playing Pokémon and drawing the ones on my team. Every time I visit Japan I still go to a Pokémon Center, the name of their stores, to buy handfuls of merch, but it’s been a while since I had Pokémon plushies lined up on my bed.
Maybe it’s because I’m getting older now. Maybe it’s because it irks me seeing Pokémon slip into a world of consumerism where all anyone talks about is the newest cards to bid on or a DLC I have to pay an extra twenty bucks for. Whatever it was, I was ready to retire Pokémon to the back of my mind.
I don’t believe I’m alone in this. Research by Sung Min Byun (2024) shows through survey that 30% of responding Pokémon fans feel as if their wishes go unheard or are disregarded by the Pokémon Company and developing company Game Freak. 14% disagreed with the statement and the 56% rest either abstained from voting or stated something along the lines of ‘sometimes.’ Feedback expressed that if the Pokémon Company listened to fans the changes are usually geared towards the competitive Pokémon scene. Criticism mostly stemmed from a ‘lack of transparency’ and a ‘lack of product quality.’ This even occurred in the franchise’s most recent games. Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet’s game bugs within the first week of release were an online punching bag amongst Pokémon fans. When a new trailer drops, the first thing that people complain about is the graphics.
Before its release in 2019, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield faced controversy when it came to the announcement that their game, which had been teased as being more exploratory, would have no national Pokédex. Essentially, this meant that not every single Pokémon could be transferred into the game, only those that were already coded into the files could be used, which was limited.
The reasoning for this, stated by game designer Junichi Masuda, had to do with the sheer number of Pokémon that the franchise housed, breaching 900. The company stated that the cut would be made in order to prioritize better graphics since Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield would be the first Pokémon games to be platformed on the Nintendo Switch. However, this only raised more discourse as many believed that the quality of the graphics in the released trailer fell short, or were even straight up copies from sprites and animations in previous games. Overall, it was felt to be lazy and sloppy and didn’t justify the content cut.
So began ‘Dexit’, a play on Brexit as the newest games were to be based on the United Kingdom. Fans created their own sprite animations of Pokémon as a sort of showcase that it wasn’t hard to make quality graphics. Pokémon YouTubers released videos with their stances on the matter. All in all, the entire phenomenon raised the conversation on the decline in love and effort that was being put into the franchise.
“Pokémon makes a lot of money. They can make just about any game and it’ll sell like twenty million copies. And they have all their merch that they release on a time schedule. They have everything timed up with the anime, the anime timed up with the games, the TCG, merch, all on a tight schedule. If they maintain that every three years, it puts a bottleneck in everything,” said president of the University of Washington Pokémon Club, Ethan Kogan.
Pokémon, heartless and soulless. So, why is it that, six years later, Pokémon is still such a widely successful company? It has never once faltered in the past few years in popularity and in some aspects continues to grow. What’s the secret?
In whatever way they might engage with the franchise, people play Pokémon for the Pokémon. Or, well, I guess it could be because the battle system is fun or the euphoria that comes from finding a minted version of a card; however it’s hard to deny that a huge aspect of Pokémon’s allure is the Pokémon themselves. It’s easy to get attached to a lovable face like Pikachu or a cool exterior like Charizard.
Edward O. Wilson’s book Biophilia posits the idea that humans harbor an inclination to seek out nature and other lifeforms. Essentially, the hypothesis states that people tend to get attached to non-human organisms. There’s a reason that the one thing that can connect all ages and generations together is a good cat video. The people yearn for a creature.
The entire premise and themeings of any Pokémon product echo this fully. In Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green, the story leads the player to believe the reason why they were able to secure the Pokémon champion title and not the rival is because unlike the rival, the protagonist shows genuine care for their team. This is contrasted by the game’s antagonist villain Giovanni who sees Pokémon as powerful tools to exploit.
Starting from Pokémon’s second generation (1999-2001), Pokémon even introduced the idea of ‘friendship’ where spending time with the Pokémon the player catches, whether it be through battling with them or even just having them in the player’s party, can give them in-game friendship points. Later games, namely those in generations six, seven, and eight, introduce game mechanics that allow for the player to pet, play minigames, and make food for them. Gaining friendship points can add buffs in certain games such as letting Pokémon withstand harsh attacks with lines meant to pull at heartstrings like “Your Pokémon toughed it out so you wouldn’t feel sad.” In fact, some Pokémon evolve solely off of garnering enough friendship points.
This idea of strong bonds between trainer and Pokémon persists in other Pokémon adaptations. In the first Pokémon movie, Pokémon: The First Movie, the friendship of Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum and his partner Pokémon Pikachu is what gives them the strength to overcome the antagonist Pokémon Mewtwo and prove humanity’s worth. In fact, a similar plot structure is even applied to Pokémon’s only live-action adaptation, Detective Pikachu.
“It’s just like, having Pokémon and looking at Pokémon immediately brings an extra element of enjoyment. If you made an identical world to Scarlet and Violet but you replaced all the Pokémon with copyright free creatures that would be infinitely more boring,” said Kogan.
Pokémon, in all iterations, has always been about growing strong connections and gaining strength through the help of those around you. The way in which this is the franchise’s core makes it hard not to feel strongly towards the property. Having a companion to latch onto, grow fond of, and develop strong feelings for is something that most crave or enjoy. Those strong, resonant feelings lure us in and also keep us coming back. It’s not hard to develop a favorite Pokémon or two and once that’s established, well, you’ll want to keep coming back for them or buying more stuff of their face on it.
It was actually the Game Boy’s ingenious implementation of the link cable that was part of the inspiration for the Pokémon franchise. The ability to connect player’s devices together offered ideas of new ways to engage and interact with the game as well as with other players. Thus, the feature of trading your Pokémon is born.
Each mainline release comes with two games: from Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green to Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. This is for many reasons, but one of them is the feature of version exclusive Pokémon. If you can find someone that has Pokémon Green you can trade your Red-exclusive Mankey for a Green-exclusive Bellsprout. Some Pokémon evolve only through trade. If you don’t have a link cable you can kiss your chances at a Gengar goodbye.
Trading is a big enough deal where there have even been instances of trading between trainers in the Pokémon anime itself. Over time, the growth of the internet has allowed for even more ways to trade beyond just locally. Pokémon X and Pokémon Y were the first to explore this in whole with the Player Search System since it was the first game on the Nintendo 3DS and could bank off the 3DS’ StreetPass. Trading persisted through other games such as Pokémon Stadium or Pokémon GO. Even in the physical world, players trade their cards with each other all of the time whether it be on the school playground or at collectors conventions.
Playing Pokémon can be but is oftentimes not a solitary task. The franchise encourages you to trade with others, battle each other, and even in later generations, play co-op. Pokémon is built off of interaction with not just the Pokémon themselves, but others and this in turn builds a community.
February 21-23, 2025 saw the largest Pokémon Video Game Championship (VGC) held, the European International Championship 2025 (EUIC) with 1,257 competitors. For comparison, the last Pokémon World Championships, which is an eSports event held by Play!Pokémon, a sector of the Pokémon Company International, hosted a total of 942 competitors amongst three leveled divisions. The world of competitive Pokémon play in the eSports industry is large and well-known. How can it not be with so many different varieties of competitive play: through the Trading Card Game (TCG), Pokémon VGC, Pokémon GO, and Pokémon Unite which is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, something akin to League of Legends.
Having a sizable group of fans interested and engaged in eSports can foster that sense of community. Pokémon fans knowledgeable on the competitive world of Pokémon can rally around known names like Wolfe Glick, American Youtuber, who recently won EUIC 2025. There exists community forums and subreddits for enthusiasts to talk about the latest meta, what strategies and teams they use. Multiplayers games such as Pokémon Unite can give a space for fans to battle each other in a team setting and that in itself creates a feeling of belonging or fulfillment.
A plethora of fan websites and wikipedias exist that house any knowledge from Pokémon TV trivia to statistics, movesets, and other helpful game tips. The early internet had forums and chat rooms for people from across the globe to connect and talk about their favorite games or share their own fanart.
The rise of social media now gives a place for artists to share their work which also creates a following. Art can exist in the form of different Pokémon or different characters in the game. It can also exist in a fan indulging in drawing art of themselves as a Pokémon trainer, or there’s even a sector of fan artists who dedicate their time conceptualizing their own Pokémon, called Fakémon, to share with others.
Fan-made Pokémon also opens the doors to fan-made Pokémon games. There are Pokémon fan creators who spend their time designing, writing, and programming their own games for other fans to play. With a formula easy to follow, there’s a plethora of ways to experiment with the structure of a Pokémon game: reinventing or simply just adding their own twist.
Fans have also created new ways to play Pokémon. Nuzlockes had their start in 2010 with comic creator Nick Franco. The face of the comic, the Pokémon Nuzleaf, was the origin of the genre name ‘Nuzlocke’ as fans would draw Nuzleaf with the face of Lost actor John Locke. A Nuzlocke is essentially an additional set of rules and guidelines to be added on top of the already existing base Pokémon game. The main rules are: a) if a Pokémon faints it’s considered ‘dead’ and is unusable for the rest of the game, b) the player can only catch the first Pokémon on each route, and c) the player must nickname every Pokémon they catch. Although Franco failed his Nuzlocke run it ended up spawning others to do their own playthroughs and express it in art, videos, livestreams, and more.
Pokémon is a widely enjoyed franchise with divets and niches in its community for so many different types of fans to enjoy. The games have paved a way for many to not just get attached to the company behind the games but also to their fellow fans and the work that they create or the memories that they make by simply just playing the game together. You don’t have to be a rallying fan of the mainline games to find joy in talking about Pokémon cards with other people, playing competitively, drawing and sharing fanart, watching Nuzlocke playthroughs, and more.
The appeal of Pokémon also lies in the fact that it simply sparks joy. Media, and media consumption is a pleasurable task. Times of leisure are used to maintain a person’s mood. If Pokémon, the games, the shows, the collectibles, or whatnot, is seen as an enjoyable activity, people are prone to return to it because of the existence of that positive correlation.
And herein lies the ever-powerful existence of nostalgia. Nostalgia leads a person back to whatever incited a positive psychological reaction. In fact, studies such as that done by Morewedge (2013) show that people are more drawn to choosing content that feels nostalgic over content that feels novel or new. It’s safe, it’s enjoyable.
Even games that stray from the main line, such as Pokémon GO, feature experiences that can make a player feel as if they’re reliving a joyful experience of catching and evolving their favorite Pokémon for the first time. When the game first launched on the App Store there were only Pokémon from the first generation, Pokémon that older fans probably grew up with. The commercials for the game featured majority adults, a representation on who the game’s target audience is. Wulf and Baldwin (2020) prove that nostalgia is a prominent impactor of the personal wellbeing and fulfillment that Pokémon GO players feel when playing the game.
The game knowingly utilizes nostalgia to market itself and keep old time players wanting to stick with it. This can be seen through Pokémon GO’s usage of not just familiar names like ‘Team Rocket’ but is also integrated through game design. Music in Pokémon GO follows similar chord progressions or melodies that exist in previous Pokémon games. If a player associated positive memories to those particular songs when playing older games, they’ll hear the same music from those older games and feel those positive emotions towards playing Pokémon GO, an encouragement to continue.
And aware of the power of nostalgia, game developers certainly are. The eighth generation of Pokémon (2019-2022) saw the release of two games that riffed or referenced the 2006 games Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl. One of these was Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl released in 2021 which faced polarizing reception.
“They just are lazily done remakes when they’ve made good remakes before…There’s a change in priorities since they have less time. 3D games are more difficult to make and they still take only two years to make a Pokémon game,” said Kogan
Then 2022 saw the release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a deviation from the usual Pokémon format. The games with their new mechanics and more open-world style gameplay led to many considering it a breath of fresh air and the company’s undertaking in testing the waters of a game with a less linear path. This was due to a large criticism of the recent games being its rigidness, devoid of older Pokémon games’ freedom to let you explore. This is why three years later Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a much more memorable game by fans than Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl. However, that doesn’t mean the games themselves are without their flaws.
“One thing they’ve done with Scarlet and Violet and with Legends: Arceus is they basically make one fun mechanic and then they try to make the whole game reliant on that, and they don’t have time to flesh out the rest of the game and make it run well.” said Kogan.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus undoubtedly channeled Pokémon fans’ nostalgia through new covers and instrumentations of classic 2006 Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl songs but with traditional Japanese instruments this time around. The story of the game even suggests that some of the characters within Pokémon Legends: Arceus are distant relatives of familiar faces from the 2006 games. Fans hold onto that point of relation and find intrigue in it. Arguably, whether it’s a beat-by-beat copy of an older game with less charm or a venture into a new game format with several callbacks, Pokémon knows that if they integrate all that feels familiar it’ll at least pique interest.
“Because it’s already permeated so much. A lot of people have started Pokémon at a young age and they’re going to grow up and they’re going to be nostalgic for the games for a long time. I guess for me, most of me is Pokémon nostalgia. It’s like ingrained into what I enjoy; if I see a Pokémon I’m going to enjoy it a few more times than if it wasn’t there,” said Kogan.
People long for times where life is simpler – where they were a kid playing Pokémon instead of an adult job searching on Indeed. And when Pokémon still permeates every aspect of life through games and cards on shelves, animated shorts, shows, movies alike, mobile apps even those that monitor your sleep, plushies in stores, Macy’s Day Parade balloons, plates and utensils with Pikachu’s face, and more, it’s hard to escape. Why would you anyway when it just feels so charming and safe?
My earliest memory of Pokémon comes from when I was 7, although when asked my dad would say that my uncle has been buying Pokémon stuff for me since I was 4 or 5. I remember being in the living room with my dad as he’s looking for something to play on Netflix for us to watch together. We settle on Pokémon, the first ever episode of the first ever anime. It’s the one where Ash Ketchum wakes up late and lands himself with a grumpy Pikachu who keeps electrocuting him. He steals a bike from a girl named Misty and is chased by Spearow. You know the one, it’s iconic. Or at least for me it was because I was instantly hooked.
The same year, my dad buys me my first ever Pokémon games for Christmas. Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, Pokémon Art Academy, and the star of the show, Pokémon X all for a blue 3DS with Percy Jackson and Dan and Phil stickers on it that’s now broken. Oh, Pokémon X. Where do I even begin? I spent hour after hour sitting on the couch playing that game. The first Pokémon I ever truly fell in love with? Helioptile and Lucario. My first starter? Fennekin. I still have the Fennekin hat I bought at my local comic con to prove it.
I was newly turned 8 and oblivious to people raging online about how incredibly easy the games felt with the EXP share and the trainer battles that were too elementary and a story that wasn’t well crafted. In fact, it wasn’t until 3 years later when I dropped the game that I returned to finally complete it because I actually did find it too hard. I was 8, how was I supposed to know that type combinations and status effect moves actually meant something?
I watched movies and YouTube videos; I was particularly fond of TheAuraGuardian growing up. I collected cards and stuffed animals that I refused to throw away not knowing they could actually go for prices in the hundreds now. I begged my parents a few Christmases later for Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon and then again for Pokémon Sun. By that point my brother, 4 years old, had enough awareness and consciousness to at least enjoy Pokémon or whatever he heard from me and so that was a good enough excuse for him to get Pokémon Moon so he could get me game-exclusive Pokémon.
Sequels, yes. It’s funny because Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, the games near and dear to me, never received a sequel despite many expecting a Pokémon Z to drop in the way Pokémon Emerald exists to Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire or Pokémon Platinum exists to Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl. But the Kalos region, where the 2013 games took place, never saw a drop of content. Have a memorable anime season and a banger opening song. That’s it. Time for the next region.
Until, a fateful February 27, 2024 where the prospect of Pokémon Legends: ZA was teased, the supposed sequel to Pokemon X and Pokemon Y. Then, boom. Radio silence from The Pokémon Company International. But hold on, February 27 was sure to come back around. It’s Pokémon’s anniversary date and they always announce something. So sure enough, February 27, 2025 brought with it the second teaser trailer for the game, this time with gameplay and announcements of starter Pokémon that sent fans into a frenzy.
Now, that Pokémon Legends: ZA, huh? Okay, I’m sorry, I can’t help it. After the trailer had dropped I was immediately back in the Pokémon trenches. I ended up walking to class listening to only Project Voltage songs (the collaboration Pokémon did with other Japanese pop culture sensation Hatsune Miku). I ended up gleefully showing my friends and roommates all of the starters and the new characters and the old ones too that had gotten glam-ups. I ended up scrolling nonstop through my social media feed to see people drawing the protagonist and the rival in their own style, watching YouTube videos of old Pokétubers I used to watch, wearing my Pokémon jacket I got in Tokyo when I was 11 to commemorate Pokémon’s anniversary. Just like that, I fell in love with the franchise again. It was Kalos, how could I not? They were my first games and the most special ones to me. Nostalgia, you win this time.
However, I don’t think it’s just nostalgia. It’s a huge factor, that’s to be sure. Yet, I’ve gotten hooked onto old pieces of media I used to love before and I think from that I see it more as falling in love with something again. It’s rewatching an old show and remembering why it had such a special place in your heart to begin with and in playing an old game and remembering why you had spent hours in this virtual world.
Yes, like many of our beloved childhood franchises it’s impossible to deny that Pokémon has gone corporate and maybe by contracting Pokémon fever once more I’ve fallen for the trap that Game Freak left out for me. But in every marketing scheme, I look at it and see so many others who share my enthusiasm and find a community there, and I look at it and see a game filled with digital creatures who have been around all my life. Why still play Pokémon, all these years later? Well, while the games may have stilled the heart, I find it to be the experiences created that can get it to beat again.
Work Cited
“2024 Pokémon World Championships Event Results.” Pokémon.com, www.Pokémon.com/us/play-Pokémon/worlds/2024/event-results#Pokémon-vgc.
Baldwin, Matthew, et al. “Remembering the Real Me: Nostalgia Offers a Window to the Intrinsic Self.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 108, no. 1, Oct. 2014, pp. 128–47. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038033.
Bonthuys, Darryn, et al. “Nintendo Promises to &Quot;Seriously&Quot; Address Pokémon Scarlet and Violet'S Performance Issues.” GameSpot, 1 Dec. 2022, www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-promises-to-seriously-address-Pokémon-scarlet-and-violets-performance-issues/1100-6509601/#:~:text=%22We%20are%20aware%20that%20players,we%20apologize%20for%20the%20inconvenience.
coffee-mugger. “[Pokémon] Dexit (or; the Pokémon are removed from Pokémon).” Reddit, 2019, https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/c9to6e/Pokémon_dexit_or_the_Pokémon_are_removed_from/
Ferguson, Liam. “Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Sales Put a Ton of Pressure on Gen 10.” Game Rant, 22 Nov. 2024, gamerant.com/Pokémon-scarlet-violet-sales-record-gen-10-expectations.
Intreglia, Courtney Mifsud. “How Pokémon Conquered America.” TIME, 26 Feb. 2024, time.com/6796536/history-origins-Pokémon.
Kahn, Peter H. “Developmental Psychology and the Biophilia Hypothesis: Children’s Affiliation With Nature.” Developmental Review, vol. 17, no. 1, Mar. 1997, pp. 1–61. https://doi.org/10.1006/drev.1996.0430.
Keefer, Corinne. PLAYING ON THE EDGE OF REALITY: THE SECOND NINTENDO GENERATION, CONSUMERISM, AND NOSTALGIA IN VIDEOGAME MUSIC. University of Miami, 2023.
Laato, Samuli, and Sampsa Rauti. “Central Themes of the Pokémon Franchise and Why They Appeal to Humans.” Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Jan. 2021, https://doi.org/10.24251/hicss.2021.344.
License Global. “The Top Global Licensors Report 2024.” License Global, 24 July 2024, www.licenseglobal.com/rankings-lists/top-150-leading-licensors.
Miu Byun, Sung. The Evolution of the Pokémon Fan - The Changing Role of Consumers Through Fan Content -. Seoul National University, 2024.
Morewedge, Carey K. “It Was a Most Unusual Time: How Memory Bias Engenders Nostalgic Preferences.” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, vol. 26, no. 4, July 2012, pp. 319–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.1767.
Richman, Olivia. “Wolfe Glick Wins Biggest Pokémon VGC Tournament in History.” Esports Insider, 24 Feb. 2025, esportsinsider.com/2025/02/wolfe-glick-wins-biggest-Pokémon-vgc-tournament.
Wulf, Tim, and Matthew Baldwin. “Being a Kid Again: Playing Pokémon Go Contributes to Wellbeing Through Nostalgia.” Studies in Communication and Media, vol. 9, no. 2, Jan. 2020, pp. 241–63. https://doi.org/10.5771/2192-4007-2020-2-241.
Vorderer, Peter, et al. “Enjoyment: At the Heart of Media Entertainment.” Communication Theory, vol. 14, no. 4, Nov. 2004, pp. 388–408. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2004.tb00321.x.
