Why is Pokemon a popular game series still?

[Warmsignal]

I don't know if this has been discussed before. But I've always noticed a lot of hardcore gamers and collectors tend to own a lot of Pokemon games. Admittedly I did play Pokemon Red back in the day, but I was also still young and I was totally bought into the whole Pokemon fad that was going on at the time. However, the Pokemon games did not stop coming, even after the fad died out (to my knowledge). Every console generation has seen at least 3 or 4 installments of (Pokemon this color or that color). Once they ran out of colors, they started just picking random objects and naming the after those things (Pokemon Sun, Pokemon Moon, Pokemon Cheese, Pokemon Doorstop).

To me, this stuff is like Assisin's Creed or COD. It's the same thing over and over every year. What is different? The roster of Pokemon on each game? Why do people (primarily the older crowd) still care about Pokemon enough to own all of these installments? Is it just that fun to collect random Pokemon and level them up in random battles that doesn't matter how many times they rehash it? Is it pure nostalgia for the era when Pokemon was cool? Is it OCD? Gotta catch em all? Why so many Pokemon games, and why are they still so relevant 20 years later?

I own zero Pokemon games and have no desire to, although I could probably justify owning one. I don't see the point in owning 4 or so, per console generation. I could only see that if you were super into the Pokemon universe still. Which outside of games (and I never hear anything about the actual games either) it seems like nobody is, over the age of 12. But everybody owns them all. So, what it is?

[Cartagia]

I think a huge contributor is the lack of franchise fatigue.  Mainline Pokémon doesn’t get a new release every year, unlike CoD or AC.  It’s usually years between.  I’m not certain, but there have probably been as many CoD releases in the last decade as there have been Pokémon in the last two (if you consider the dual releases as a single title).

Note that this is just pure speculation on my part as I have never played a Pokémon game, and don’t really get it either.

[sworddude]

there is a new pokemon game every 1 or two years never longer than that as far as the main series go. no long breaks there. longer than 2 years is a nono for pokemon.

also getting a game every year does not give a series fatique.

Last time i checked call of duty mobile had even more downloads than mario kart tour in it's first week. main series is as popular as ever same goes for sports games

a ton of people want more of the same thing some things are just needed and them companies give it to them. why change something if it ain't broke for the majority.

as far as pokemon games go some games are for sure better than others.

emerald, platinum, heartgold soul silver and black & white 2 are the best mainline pokemon games. with good story and great content

however in recent years the games got more child friendly kiddy art style more easy dumb after each release thanks to pokemon go.

Haven't played a new pokemon game since x and Y no desire to really especially with them influences of pokemon go in every new release.

new creatures do not make a great pokemon game it's usually the extra content and characters that make or break the game.

also kinda sad that the mystery dungeon series is gone after going downhill in quality on the 3ds and ofcourse pokemon ranger series and the single pokemon conquest game wich never got a sequel.

[seether]

I love me some shiny Pokemon.

[sworddude]

for the casual crowd it's all about catching them all new creatures

pokemon go is the perfect example crappy game crappy music crappy everyhing only about catching pokemon. what trash game that was.

for me personally

pokemon had great soundtrack newer games not that much. the soundtrack can be absolutely fantastic in some games.
puzzle solving especially in the old era to unlock some pokemon or reading for example braille to unlock the message in what you need to do to capture the regies. back in the day there where so many people speculating about that stuff the puzzles where hard only few people knew what to do. everything in general in them gba and early ds era was kinda tricky storywise for most people.
the world and the people in them games. hidden jokes some nsfw messages mysteries that never get solved in wich you can only guess what might have happened etc etc fun stuff to explore it's not only about catching stuff it's an rpg after all a pretty big one as far as the world goes.
strategies in battle changing in each generation.

in gen 1 for example a weak move such as wrap with only 20 power was better than hyper beam with 150 power only because in gen 1 certain moves where broken. and bind would damage a pokemon every turn and the pokemon in the move could not use a single move. being frozen in gen 1 as also broken. being caught by either one just means being dead. pokemon like dragonite used wrap not hypebeam kinda crazy if you think about it.

or gen 5 with dark void to name one example. an 80 accuracy move that would put multiple pokemon to sleep on a super fast pokemon. fighting against friends with your best team was fun especially if you had pokemon battle revolution for wii to get epic battles wich have better battle animations than even current gen games poemon let's go and pokemon sword & shield giving it actually a console experience. them side games where made by a different company though so that's probably the reason why it was better. pokemon ranger games for example where made by hal labaratory and creatures

creators of kirby and earthbound. totally different creators than for the mainline pokemon games

same goes for pokemon colloseum and xd gale of darkness.

[marvelvscapcom2]

I don't think they are remotely the same games each time. It has the same formula sure but all video games keep the same formula.  The plot, the characters, the setting, the pokemon,  the catching style,  the accesories and UI all change.  The only thing that stays the same is that it's a turn based RPG where you catch pokemon.  They do just about as much leg work as most Turn based RPG franchises do now.  Same as a Mario.  It's the same old formula we know and love but not by any means are the games the exact same.   


Same applies for Call of Duty. I disagree very much with the notion that it's a rehash.  I've heard that statement since 2007 regarding Call of Duty.  The game is over a decade old and still sells more than almost any other game.  And it's because it changes enough to warrant another buy.  Call of Duty changes immensely every year which is why people still come back.  Outside of becoming a tennis game, they do all they can to make it feel fresh. The setting, theme, guns, modes, era, war, costumes, story, plot, side modes, UI.  All change.  The only thing that is the same as the old call of duties is that it's a first person shooter.

Theirs not much else they didn't change over the years.  It changes about as much as Mario Kart does.  But Mario Kart doesn't get the same hate because it's Mario Kart.  Picking up Mario Kart 8, outside of minor nuances,  it's Mario Kart Wii.   But it has new tracks, new power ups, new kart customzing.  It's very much different. 

Last year COD tried the royale thing.  This year they are doing hoarde modes and going full ground war with huge lobbies like battlefield.  They heard for years that every call of duty was the same. So then they changed it to sci fi jet pack crazy stuff with wars in outer space and people got mad.  Saying they wanted the old COD back. So they try to stay more grounded lately with WW2 games and now people are saying they are being boring and predictable again.    I don't envy their dev team.  Balancing on that tight rope must be draining.   



As a whole,  I think it's still popular because it's still a great game.  Same reason you can repackage Tetris a bunch of different ways and still sell copies.  It's a timeless classic that all ages can pick up and enjoy .    And so long as Pikachu exists,  little kids will always want a Nintendo in their hand lol.

[sworddude]

I agree with you marvelvscapcom

it's usually only the hardcore people that play them games allot that spot the differences in each release.
wich usually also include different game mechanics.

from the outside a ton of casual people would say it's the same while it's clearly not

you could say that for call of duty or the brand new fifa games wich come out each year. it's definitely not the same for the people who play those games allot.

Just like with smash ultimate in wich a ton of people say it is the same as smash 4 wich it isn't by a long shot. gameplay has changed by quite allot.

[seether]

Boiling it down to just bare RPG elements, it has the largest casts of party characters of any RPG and arguably the best soundtracks of any RPG.

[Warmsignal]

I don't think they are remotely the same games each time. It has the same formula sure but all video games keep the same formula.  The plot, the characters, the setting, the pokemon,  the catching style,  the accesories and UI all change.  The only thing that stays the same is that it's a turn based RPG where you catch pokemon.  They do just about as much leg work as most Turn based RPG franchises do now.  Same as a Mario.  It's the same old formula we know and love but not by any means are the games the exact same.   


Same applies for Call of Duty. I disagree very much with the notion that it's a rehash.  I've heard that statement since 2007 regarding Call of Duty.  The game is over a decade old and still sells more than almost any other game.  And it's because it changes enough to warrant another buy.  Call of Duty changes immensely every year which is why people still come back.  Outside of becoming a tennis game, they do all they can to make it feel fresh. The setting, theme, guns, modes, era, war, costumes, story, plot, side modes, UI.  All change.  The only thing that is the same as the old call of duties is that it's a first person shooter.

Got to disagree with that. With the mainline Mario or Mario Kart series you get maybe one all-new game per console generation, sometimes two. With Pokemon it's more like four or five, with CoD it's more like six or seven. However with Mario, and even with CoD, you don't get multiple versions of essentially the same release. That's what makes the Pokemon series feel so over-done. Instead of buying just one new game, you have to get two or three every time to get all of the content.

When you saturate the market with very similar games every year or every other year, it's going to get hate from all of the people that last year's game didn't win over. It also feels cheap, like a cash grab. Having technically less than a year to develop a sequel to a game doesn't bode well for the integrity of any series, even if it's multiple companies making the games. It's like, why couldn't that just be an expansion pack? Why couldn't the multiple versions of Pokemon just be a download within one big game with all of the content?

Last year COD tried the royale thing.  This year they are doing hoarde modes and going full ground war with huge lobbies like battlefield.  They heard for years that every call of duty was the same. So then they changed it to sci fi jet pack crazy stuff with wars in outer space and people got mad.  Saying they wanted the old COD back. So they try to stay more grounded lately with WW2 games and now people are saying they are being boring and predictable again.    I don't envy their dev team.  Balancing on that tight rope must be draining.   

What they need to do is stop putting out a CoD every single year, or even every other year but Activision says give me MOAR. Risks? Fresh IPs? Different genres? What's that? To hell with that, give the masses CoMFD and get me PAID! Back to the dungeon at once code monkeys! And so we get another CoD this year.

As a whole,  I think it's still popular because it's still a great game.  Same reason you can repackage Tetris a bunch of different ways and still sell copies.  It's a timeless classic that all ages can pick up and enjoy .    And so long as Pikachu exists,  little kids will always want a Nintendo in their hand lol.

The only reason to re-package Tetris is to make it more accessible on modern consoles. It's always the same game BUT, at least it's not Tetris 19' with Tetris 20' already in the works. It's also not Tetris Red, along with Tetris Blue and Tetris Green.

[dharmajones93]

I gave up after the sprite-based games. I've bought X and Sun, but haven't finished either. It's taking every ounce of my strength just to not buy Let's Go and Sword/Shield. I'll probably still get them... I think it's just nostalgia. I still play through red/yellow every once in awhile (last time for the 20th anniversary when yellow was on 3ds). They're just good little RPGs.

But, they've totally lost me in terms of the actual games. Just waaay too much fluff and the stories just got weird and goofy. I mean, the old stories were a bit goofy too, but limited by 8 bit hardware. I'm not in to the competitive/meta game. I tried to do the collect them all thin when pokemon bank was a just starting out. Played through all the games and loaded them in there. Then forgot to change my credit card info and lapsed the account and lost them all... that pretty much marked the end of that goal.

[kamikazekeeg]

That whole "Catch 'Em All" aspect is something that keeps appealing to folks.  Every gen offers up a bunch of new and quirky Pokemon to collect and battle with and it's generally a pretty easy game so kids will always like it and there's the long term fans who've kept up with due to that aspect and the deeper elements the series has always had.

I personally didn't keep up with the series after Yellow because it was a portable only series, so I didn't get burnt out on it like some did, so Let's Go Pikachu was a nice time, though basic, but the nostalgia got me good (Even if capturing Pokemon kinda sucked) and I'm looking forward to Pokemon Sword and Shield.

[sworddude]

What they need to do is stop putting out a CoD every single year, or even every other year but Activision says give me MOAR. Risks? Fresh IPs? Different genres? What's that? To hell with that, give the masses CoMFD and get me PAID! Back to the dungeon at once code monkeys! And so we get another CoD this year.

you clearly have a biased opinion about the cod series.

You don't need to like the game but cmon why wouldn't they bring out a new call of duty game each year? it prints money your argument is so flawed it always is one of the best selling series it's the reason why many people buy a console in the first place. a ton of hardcore gamers only play this game series or at least for the majority of their game time.

Heck even my dad who doesnt like games plays call of duty once in a while there something about most men WWII and weapons playing as realistic soldiers that is appealing as far as the more casual crowd goes who normally arent into games. same goes for especially modern sports games.

also as far as hardcore players of these series go there are differences that affect gameplay new modes etc so it's not the same stuff every year. it's pretty easy to critize a series if your not really into it. for a ton of people this series is a day 1 buy every year. And heck why shouldn't they be excited if it's the one game they play the most when they play on pc or console.

As a whole,  I think it's still popular because it's still a great game.  Same reason you can repackage Tetris a bunch of different ways and still sell copies.  It's a timeless classic that all ages can pick up and enjoy .    And so long as Pikachu exists,  little kids will always want a Nintendo in their hand lol.

The only reason to re-package Tetris is to make it more accessible on modern consoles. It's always the same game BUT, at least it's not Tetris 19' with Tetris 20' already in the works. It's also not Tetris Red, along with Tetris Blue and Tetris Green.

first of all your not supposed to buy both pokemon red and blue your supposed to trade with other players. the game are basicly the same and should be treated as a single release your just missing a few pokemon some things are a bit different. sure there are some hardcore fans crazy enough to buy both but that's not really what one should do. you clearly lack the knowledge if you think your missing out on a ton by not buying both versions not to mention that with trades friends and from the ds era onwards online you could easily get the other pokemon by online trade. always some noob who would trade a legendary for trash. also in them gameboy releases before online trade all the exclusive pokemon could be bred and where normal non legendary pokemon you could easily trade them with others they could be gotten unlimited times on a single file. but even withouth that your not missing anything of value honestly.

Pokemon yellow on the other hand and platinum and emerald the series that where released after the dual release have a ton of extra content usually a different story different music etc etc. especially for the people who are into these kinds of games there is tons of new content  especially post game.

saying that every pokemon game with each passing generation being the same that's just not true. Some are worse some are excellent and the newer ones being super kiddy but definitely not the same.

[Warmsignal]

you clearly have a biased opinion about the cod series.

You don't need to like the game but cmon why wouldn't they bring out a new call of duty game each year? it prints money your argument is so flawed it always is one of the best selling series it's the reason why many people buy a console in the first place. a ton of people only play this game series.

I basically said that yes, it prints money. That's good if you're Activision, bad for the integrity of the franchise and probably video games at large. If CoD is the reason systems sell, then I'm out of touch and I feel for the dying art of video games as I once knew them.

Heck even my dad who doesnt like games plays call of duty once in a while there something about most men WWII and weapons that is appealing as far as the more casual crowd goes who normally arent into games. same goes for especially modern sports games.

also as far as hardcore players of these series go there are differences that affect gameplay new modes etc so it's not the same stuff every year. it's pretty easy to critize a series if your not really into it.

Yes of course, I love to complain about games I've never played on a message board! Except, I have played one of them. Wasn't impressed enough to ever consider buying another one. But in all honesty, I wouldn't wish the one installment per year scheduled on any of my favorite series. That would effectively kill them.

first of all your not supposed to buy both pokemon red and blue your supposed to trade with other players. the game are basicly the same and should be treated as a single release your just missing a few pokemon some things are a bit different. sure there are some hardcore fans crazy enough to buy both but that's not really what one should do. you clearly lack the knowledge if you think your missing out on a ton by not buying both versions not to mention that with trades friends and from the ds era onwards online you could easily get the other pokemon by online trade. always some noob who would trade a legendary for trash.

Pokemon yellow on the other hand and platinum and emerald the series that where released after the dual release have a ton of extra content usually a different story different music etc etc. especially for the people who are into these kinds of games there is tons of new content.

saying that every pokemon game with each passing generation being the same that's just not true. Some are worse some are excellent and the newer ones being super kiddy but definitely not the same.

I still feel like that's some kind of marketing genius to sell more games. The content, even if it's just characters shouldn't be split apart.

[sworddude]

it is a marketing scam. it's like an early collectors edition/ or dlc. your getting double value from one person. the content difference is minimal you can basicly treat red/blue diamon/pearl etc etc as a single entry in the series.

even to this day the dual release sells since hardcore collectors who need every biggest release of a game buy it and pokemon will profit from it and why shouldn't they profit from ocd people who want all content no matter how small it's not like other games aren't guilty with especially micro transactions wich is even worse.. some people have the ocd to need it all it affects some people but for the majority just get your favourite part and move on your not missing out on not getting the 2nd release.

they absolutely went all out this time to make a collectors edition that contains both games since they know there are a ton of ocd collectors who need both.

https://www.vooks.net/img/2019/06/steelbook-dual-1000x560.jpg



if the catch em all mentality was really that big of a deal you could easily trade with others to complete the dex. and with the early ds era it was even more easy to get everything withouth getting both releases.

also it's not like them games are the biggest offenders to be honest 2 or 1 games per year man. that's like only 50 to 100$ a year.

ever seen pokemon card collectors?

2 to 4 sets are released every single year. obviously you won;t get all card even if you spend hundreds. now that's a money sink. pokemon cards or any card game to be honest.

that's like 500 to 1500$ a year and you probably won't have em all unless your buying them seperately on ebay from resellers.

hardcore pokemon fans spend a ton of money it's insane the pokemon games people who buy both releases that's just like a small puddle in an ocean for them

[hoshichiri]

I'm not up enough on the Pokémon to really comment on its staying power, but I must correct one thing.

The games are not named after random objects- they're named after random SETS of objects! Pokémon cheese & Pokémon doorstop? Never happen. But Pokémon cheese & Pokémon cracker? Now we're talking! And the third release can be Pokémon salami!