For Weinberg freshman Paul Marino, the choice is clear: Charmander.
“Charizard is such a badass,” he said. “Charizard gets the Fire Blast, and he can use Dig. Blastoise is a badass too. Venausaur just sucks. Solarbeam takes two moves to use. It’s his best move and it’s not that good.”
Marino is, of course, discussing the choice in companion every Pokémon trainer makes before he or she embarks on the journey to “catch ‘em all.” Players of all ages have been taking their pick since the 1998 release of Pokémon Red and Blue, the first generation of Pokémon video games that have collectively sold around 9 million copies in the U.S.
While some students likely abandoned the games by the time their age hit double digits, Marino had no problems picking it back up again in college.
“It was a rediscovery,” Marino said. “I found it at the bottom of a chest of random assorted things and couldn’t put it down.”
Nintendo is currently prepping the March 14 release of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, remakes of 2000’s Pokémon Gold and Silver versions for the Nintendo DS. But some students are just fine with good old Red and Blue.
“I liked the newer ones, like Gold version,” Marino said. “I played it and I liked it, but it got a little too complicated. I wanted to just go back to the good old days when I could understand it.”
Complicated is right — the original 150 monsters that make up one of Sporcle’s most popular quizzes are now a minority. With last month’s unveiling of two new Pokémon, Zorua and Zoroark, the complete list of Pokémon comes in at 495.
The video games themselves have ramped up in complexity, too. New and confusing gameplay elements are some of the reasons that kept McCormick freshman Eric Cross from continuing with the franchise.
“I like the fact that, when I play, I’m very good at it and I’m very knowledgeable of all the levels, all the areas, all the Pokémon,” he said. “I would never play SoulSilver because I don’t know what I’m doing. And the fact is, the new ones they’re making are just repeating the old ones.”
There’s also the time factor.
“Pokémon is a time consuming concept,” Cross said. “At this point in our life, for most of us, we don’t have time to memorize hundreds more and hundreds of new moves. When you’re 8 years old, you don’t have much going on.”
Regardless, HeartGold and SoulSilver are shaping up to be a treat for Pokéfans willing to pay the $40 price tag (that said, brand new boxes of Pokémon Red can reach $129 on Amazon). In addition to an upgraded world map, expanded plot and new sidequests, the game now allows for any Pokémon (493 of them, at least) to follow the trainer around like Pikachu did in Pokémon Yellow. Even more appealing is the game’s complete aesthetic overhaul. The Nintendo DS’s improved graphics provide a much-needed revamping without sacrificing the low-tech charm fans remember.
For those who never stopped playing after the first generation, there’s little cause for concern. Carrying around a Pokémon-loaded Game Boy doesn’t seem to carry any stigma.
“Most people here at Northwestern were pretty into it,” Marino said. “They thought it was a cool thing. But then a couple people were like, ‘Dude, you’re carrying Game Boy around and you’re in college, get over it.’ I don’t see what’s wrong with it.”
If there were something wrong it, it’s certainly eluded the rest of the gaming world. The 2009 Gamers’ Edition of the Guinness World Records identified the Red and Blue versions as the best-selling role-playing game of all time, and the Pokémon brand as a whole was named the best selling RPG franchise of all time.
That success stayed strong into the new millennium as well — the three bestselling games for the Game Boy Advance were, in order, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire versions, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (the 2004 remakes of Red and Blue) and Pokémon Emerald. Although the original Red and Blue versions are considered the most iconic, their remakes actually sold more, moving over a million copies within a month of their release.
The rest of the brand is still kicking, too — a new line of HeartGold and SoulSilver trading cards are already out and new episodes of the anime are still airing. Overall sales for the franchise have amassed over $20 billion dollars over the years, half of which is from Japan alone.
While younger generations of gamers and new Pokémon fans are likely a large part of the success, the continued prominence of the video game series in best-of lists shows that collecting badges and filling a Pokédex will always be timeless activities.
“It’s fun to beat the game and then there’s the overarching goal of ‘catch them all,’” Marino said. “It’s just such an incredible goal that you can play it over and over and never get bored of it.”