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Pokemon was created in 1996 by Nintendo for their best selling
portable video game system, “Game Boy”. Originally released in
Japan, Pokemon are a class of unique little Pocket Monsters that
battle each other when instructed to do so by their trainer. The
original term for Pokemon was “Poketto Monstaa”, the coined
Japanese term for Pocket Monster. Soon the Japanese shortened the
name to “Pokemon”. A Japanese game designer named Satoshi Tajiri
invented Pokemon based on childhood memories of collecting bugs in
jars and wishing he could make them fight like the monsters in his
favorite science fiction movies. The game was so intricate that it
took Tajiri six years to develop the Pokemon game. Once released,
the rest is history. The overwhelming popularity of the game
prompted the creation of a Japanese Pokemon television series and
a Japanese Pokemon CollectibleTrading Card Game, both of which
also became tremendous successes.
The Pokemon phenomenon began in the U.S. in 1998 with the release
of the original Red and Blue Game Boy games, the debut of the
animated Pokemon television series on Warner Brothers, and the
release of the English version of the Pokemon Trading Cards. The
Pokemon television series immediately catapulted Kids Warner
Brothers to the top of the cable ratings for kids shows. According
to a February 2001 Nintendo press release, the Pokemon television
show continued to be ranked No. 1 among kids 2 to 11, and among
boys 6 to 11. Warner Brothers also released the first three big
screen animated Pokemon feature films in North America: “Pokemon:
The First Movie”, also known as “Pokemon The Movie: Mewtwo Strikes
Back” (released in 1999), “Pokemon The Movie: 2000”, and “Pokemon
3 the Movie (2001)”.
For those of you unfamiliar with Pokemon, they are creatures who
possess unique powers or special abilities. In the Pokemon world,
human beings act as Pokemon trainers and capture as many of the
Pokemon creatures as they can. The captured Pokemon then join the
trainer’s team and help them capture other Pokemon, enabling the
trainers to become “Pokemon Masters”. Pokemon battles have a rigid
code of rules that do not allow dirty tricks or easy ways out.
Also, Pokemon battles never end with a creature’s death. The
successful end to a Pokemon match occurs when one of the battling
monsters faints and is rushed to a Pokemon Center for recovery, or
when it is captured by a trainer and put in a ball called the Poke
Ball. Lastly, the Pokemon storyline encourages cooperation and
teamwork.
Some interesting statistics from Nintendo on Pokemon interactive
video games:
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During Pokemon’s first 24 months of availability in the United
States, Nintendo of America reported a total sales of 20
million Pokemon video games for Game Boy Color and Nintendo
64.
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Six of the industry’s 10 top-selling video games in 2000 were
Pokemon titles.
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Seven Pokemon titles were responsible for 10 percent of all
software units sold in year 2000.
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As of February 2000, there were 12 Pokemon games for both
Nintendo 64 and Game Boy.
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As of February 2000, nearly 27 million Pokemon games had been
sold in the United States and more than 74 million Pokemon
games had been sold worldwide.
Pokemon continues to be an outstanding entertainment and retail
property in today’s international market. Its success can be
attributed to Pokemon’s incredible appeal to children from diverse
cultures and across sex and age barriers. Although originally
designed for adolescent boys, Pokemon’s popularity quickly spread
to include girls, elementary age school children and even
preschoolers. As summarized by Galil Tilden, Nintendo’s Vice
President, “Pokemon is much more than a phenomenon – It’s now a
children’s entertainment staple here in America and globally… From
the video games, to the toys, to the TV series, Pokemon’s staying
power is evident in its multifaceted appeal to its broad fan
base."
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