Me and Pokémon, like any child of my generation, or the previous, go waaaay back. My first real video game that I remember is Pokémon Pearl (which I will forever consider to be the purest, most natural form of Pokémon games). I will never forget the exhilaration of besting the elite four and champion for the first time with the team that I had grown so close to while training. One of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons was Pokémon, and our family even bought the Pokémon DVD movies for us to watch in the car on road trips.

Pokémon has awesome monster with cool attacks, so it appeals to little boys. Pokémon has a good message and doesn’t show explicit violence, so it appeals to parents. Anyone can adore the cutest Pokémon. As a franchise, Pokémon has consistently pulled off the collectible RPG battler so, so well. Any deviations from the formula are met with resistance (Pokémon GO), although some are improvements (the move to 3D).

I always admire how Nintendo and Game freak are able to keep the same core game so fresh by adding new worlds and creatures and people all the time.  There have been a few complaints about the direction the games are heading in (too linear, designs are too cutesy and have deviated from the “realism” of the original entry) but overall I believe Pokémon will stay good. It already is a global force of pop culture, and I hope it will stay that way for generations to come.