By: Jason Whitman
Pikachu. The most popular "monster" of them all!
My favorite is Charmander, no doubt. Then again, I like Pikachu a lot too.
That pudgy body looks fuzzy and soft, maybe even squishy, and is just too cute to dislike. But what's even better is Pikachu's tough side, which his animators represent simply by transforming the pocket monster's normally circular mouth into a caret (the ^ symbol) to illustrate his competitiveness. And you even might doubt his abilities until Pikachu whoops the more powerful and experienced electric Pokemon Raichu by literally running circles around him, the bigger monster's defeat illustrated by spirals in place of his normally confident eyes.
I have only one thing to say after seeing that battle sequence. PI-KA-CHU!
Because as much as Americans have "poked" fun at the Pokemon animated series and video games, the entire collection possesses many of the elements modern video gamers crave: building up a character for battle then taking him or her into that very battle only to enhance those abilities even further. And beyond that classic role-playing foundation are the cute, graphically unique characters that have made many a platform game successful (Kirby and Sonic the Hedgehog, for example). There's no denying that not all 150 Pokemons are interesting or cool, but many of them are very much so. And using the classic rock-paper-scissors battle format for their waging of war, as well as for their abilities, is simple yet utterly effective.
And
Nintendo took the "training, enhancing, fighting and enhancing some more"
formula one step further with the Pokemon games. The ability to link up with
other players using the Game Boy Game Link cable for trading and battling
trained pocket monsters adds a level of interactivity rarely pursued outside
of PC gaming. And while the multiple-cartridge (red and blue in the United
States to start) format may have come under fire among Nintendo critics as
another attempt by the company to rule the technological world like its Redmond,
Washington neighbor Microsoft, I like the idea and think it only adds to
the whole "collective" nature of the Pokemon series.
Initial sales of the blue and red versions of the game showed that other game players caught Pokemon fever as well. Gamers (not just kids, mind you) quickly bought up more than 200,000 red and blue units after the game's September 1998 release, making it the fastest-selling portable game title of all time. I know, it's no huge honor considering Nintendo
has ruled the portable game arena since its inception, but the numbers are
significant when you consider that the two
Pokemon
games beat out major PlayStation and Nintendo 64 titles in terms of sales
shortly after their release. Pokemon has that mix of character development,
intrigue and fun that few games attain these days when so many titles are
reworkings of their classic ancestors or rehashes of their modern competitors.
Parappa the Rapper has it on the PlayStation, as do titles like Space Station:
Silicon Valley on the Nintendo 64. Yet such games rarely get the credit or
sales figures they deserve, so it's nice to see Pokemon doing well in the
United States when many thought the pocket monster fever that hit the Japanese
so hard would never affect Americans. It's disappointing that the games probably
only will appear on the Game Boy, an admittedly dated gaming platform, unless
Nintendo rides out the series' success and takes a chance with Pocket Monster
Stadium for the N64 in the United States. In either case, Pokemon on the
Game Boy, in any color you please, is as cute, fun and interactive as can
be. PI-KA!
