Happy Birthday to the game that made us ALL believe there were hidden creatures amongst us growing up, Pokemon! The Pokemon show took our childhoods by storm following ten year old Ash Ketchum as he leaves his home at an absolutely ridiculous young age to pursue his goal of being a Pokemon Master!
It’s insane to have that type of hype put in front of child at a young age. “Mom, can I go outside and play? No? I have to do chores? Well Ash literally said Peace and went on a monster hunt…Oh, I’m not Ash? Sick.”
Aside from crying because Pokemon wasn’t real, this game took over our lifes. From the first generation video games in Red and Blue to the newest renditions of Sword and Shield.
Nothing was better than that iconic loading screen from Red and Blue. I remember having no battery left in my Gameboy but I wouldn’t start the game until one of my favorite Pokemon popped up on the screen.
Pokemon’s games were revolutionary, the perfect mix of story line and open world. We compared, traded and even battled our friends with our own Pokemon. To this day, I don’t know if I ever actually traded a Pokemon outside of the need for evolution or not being able to get that Pokemon in the other edition of the game. My Pokemon were just that, mine, and the loyalty between a trainer and their Pokemon was beat into our heads every day by Ash and his Pikachu.
Pokemon movies might have been a bigger draw than the game itself. Everyone remembers the first movie, watching Ash’s loved Pokemon battle cloned editions of themselves with the heart pounding music in the background. Ahh, that first movie…the perfect understanding of what Pokemon meant to us all.
The second movie was arguably my favorite though. It not only added in the second generation of Pokemon which I think I might have liked more than gen one outside of nostalgic reasons, but it added more into the universe and how Pokemon are essentially Gods. I had a level 100 Lugia, no big deal.
Pokemon recently ranked their top 10 pokemon of the year as well! If you haven’t been on the Pocket Monsters train lately I’m sure there will be some unfamiliar names on the list.
Then, there’s the card game. A holographic Charizard is still the coolest card of them all to this day. I broke out the trapperkeeper on an episode of The Idiot Hour and man….did I murder that draft.
So redownload Pokemon Go, text your trainer buddies and be a kid again. Happy National Pokemon Day!
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