Cubed Table | Pokémon Retrospective: First Memories, Favourite Pokémon and Looking Forward

What are your first memories of Pokémon?

My friends were already knee deep into both games on the Game Boy, so I had a fair bit of work to do before being battle ready. The day came, and much like a typical animé show it was pelting down with rain and my mum had given the go-ahead to wander off to the local toy shop. After questing through the side of a motorway and through a tunnel as a ten-year old lad, I finally grabbed hold of a brand new portable world.
 
I couldn't put down the game for months on end, until firmly beating the Elite Four and passing on my virtual team to Pokémon Stadium on the Nintendo 64. Many happy nights were had with friends playing through the multiplayer mini-games and heated level 100 battles. Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver ultimately were my favourite memory of the series, bridging Kanto with an exciting new world and in full colour too! I'd spent many months playing butchered fan-translations pre-release and a large chunk of a holiday to Thailand looking for an English version of the games. Finally on the way home, there in the airport shop was the day-one release of Pokémon Silver and the rest is history!
 
Rudy: I remember my first time seeing Pokémon in action. At the time I had only heard of the phenomenon through magazines, of all the rage in Japan so far and only knew it was some sort of RPG for the Game Boy. I was a fan of RPGs myself and the genre wasn't exactly commonplace on the portable, let alone localised ones in general on Nintendo consoles. So I was mildly interested already before it came out in Europe, but I didn't know the kind of massive phenomenon it was going to become. I first saw Pokémon in action through another guy, slightly younger than me, whose parents were loaded with money and bought him all the games he wanted. He was training his Butterfree during a school break, out on the schoolyard. I didn't know him, but asked what he was playing, since I usually brought my Game Boy along too, and it was Pokémon Red.
 

The graphics weren't exactly impressive or anything, but the thought of grinding characters on school breaks, being a big fan of SNES RPGs at the time, made me thrilled at the idea of having that game too! I was still very much hooked to the likes of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, the likes of which could not be found on my new N64. It didn't help that in the subsequent months of 1999; Pretty much all the young people I knew had a Pokémon game! But since I wasn't a rich kid, I didn't get to own my personal copy until late June or early July 2000. As it happens, Pokémon Yellow had just been released too, so I got the most recent version right away, which had some improvements over the Red and Blue versions.
 
In school, you would get laughed at by the socially "cool" people if you were seen playing a "kiddie" game like Pokémon or you would get labelled as a "nerd". So it wasn't all excellent memories either. But all in all I didn't regret getting the game, cause it was a blast to play.

Adam: Harking back to the launch of Pokémon in Japan in the mid-1990s, I followed the birth of this magnificent series from the initial rumblings of "here comes another fad, like Tamagotchi" to the first cartoon series that suddenly took the world by storm, and beyond. It was the first time I had really bothered to sink any real time into a portable game, in all honesty, and it was all thanks to the Super Game Boy that I was able to thoroughly enjoy the adventure. After all, I admittedly was not a big fan of the original Game Boy.
I still recall convincing my younger brother to go and see the first Pokémon movie, just so I had an excuse to watch it (I was around 13 or 14 at the time), and almost shedding a tear when Ash seemed to be dead towards the end, with Pikachu desperately trying to frazzle him back to life with electric shocks! Ah, those were the days...

Suze: I was 11, on holiday in the US; and the first Pokémon animé episode I saw was the Ponyta/Rapidash race, as well as trying the game at a family friend's house. I was utterly hooked on the game, although I had no idea of what I was doing. I had the misfortune to upload his Mewtwo to the PC box, which he then thought I had deleted. That didn't go down well, as you would expect! However, the Mewtwo was retrieved and so did my love for the franchise when I returned home. I eventually picked up Pokémon Blue and the rest is history.

Matt: I have never been a huge fan of the Pokémon series. That's not to say that I have never played the games, because I have spent many a long days and dark nights doing nothing more than helping my little Charizard grow bigger and stronger. There is something special about working with your Pokémon to get better, work to beat gym masters, and then helping your Pokémon evolve to stronger Pokémon.
 
The Pokémon game that I eventually beat was Pokémon Silver, it's also the last Pokemon game that I bought or truly felt like playing. Yet Pokemon X and Pokémon Y have me craving that feeling of going on an adventure again, there is something about watching the gameplay videos that seem to bring back that old feeling.

Which starter would you pick from the new generation and the returning Pokémon from gen one?

When in doubt, I always opt for fire anyway. For generations two and four, I went with a fire starter, so if I was to pick one out in Pokémon X or Pokémon Y, just on a whim, it would be Fennekin. The first gym leader in Pokémon X or Pokémon Y raises bugs so it wouldn't be a too bad strategic choice, and I find Fennekin to have the best visual design of the three too, which plays in its favour.

Adam: Fennekin probably does it for me, mainly because it looks so damn cute - a little fluffy fox! Obviously not the best reasoning, but hey, what can I say?

As for the oldies-but-goldies, I always struggle when trying to choose starter Pokémon in general, but way back in the early days, out of the leaf, fire and water characters, I preferred to opt for Bulbasaur mainly because I felt his cutting techniques were ultimately more powerful than the move sets of Charmander and Squirtle. Clearly I was pretty young at the time, so didn't quite realise there was a whole triangle-attack-strength approach, but hindsight is always 20-20, right? Out of habit now, though, Bulbasaur would still be the character of choice, simply because, well, old habits die hard!

Suze: I've always had an affinity with the grass Pokémon; Bulbasaur was always my initial pick, even after trying the game over and over with the other starters. Even with Pokémon Yellow, where you have the option of obtaining all three, Bulbasaur was my main choice. Chicorita was my choice for the second generation and so on. However, Fennekin looks lovely and seems the perfect choice from the new generation.

If you could pick a team of six from any generation in reality, what Pokémon would you choose and why?

Rudy: That's a tough question. The thing is I only played the first, second and fourth generations of Pokémon so I'm not too familiar with Pokémon from generations III and V, let alone VI which is only just out on the market. Mewtwo has always been a favourite, just because it kicks ass. Tyranitar has always been a personal favourite too for its stats, so it would go in right away. Dragonite as well, still based on its stats, and also because I like how the Pokémon looks. Zapdos is a good electric choice, although against a rock-ground pokémon, it gets in trouble. Infernape, my evolved starter from Gen IV is an obvious choice as well, just because it's an awesome Pokémon. And my all-time faouvrite Blissey, I can't leave out either. No startegic choice on this one, I'm just a big fan of Chansey and Blissey is its powered-up form. Other great choices I had to leave out for the sake of narrowing it down to just six are Lugia, Scizor, Rhyperior, Suicune, Entei, Jolteon, Gyarados, Crobat and Snorlax.

Suze: I don't particularly like using legendary Pokémon, which usually puts me at a disadvantage. I don't see the pleasure in raising them as they're already meant to demolish the competition. I like the journey you go through with the Pokémon you start with, rather than scouting out these elusive Pokémon once you already have your team. I've probably over-thought this.

My favourites are: Raichu (lovely design and strong), Sandslash (strange, I know, but I've always loved this particular Pokémon), Espeon and Umbreon (strong, beautiful and psychic/dark), Venusaur (see above) and - this is hard - I'd have a look at the new generation and see, it's always good to mix up the team as I seem fairly biased on the old set.

Are there any games in outside the main series that you play, like the trading cards, Pokémon Rumble or PokéPark?

Suze: I was never really sucked into the trading cards side, although I had great fun in the rather different mechanics of Pokemon Rumble; a hack and slash rather than the turn based nature of the handheld games. I loved Pokemon Stadium as well as Pokemon Snap! Wonderful memories from my childhood.

Adam: Personally, my favourites have to be titles such as the recent Pokémon Conquest, which brought the traits of key Pocket Monsters into the world of grid-based war-time battling. Another great classic was definitely Pokémon Pinball, and it's such a crying shame follow-up never materialised.

Sadly, though, there are some spin-offs that are rather woeful, like the painful DS launch game Pokémon Dash or Hey You, Pikachu! on the N64.

Other favourites definitely include the amazing version of Panel de Pon / Tetris Attack; Pokémon Puzzle League - so addictive! Pokémon Link! was also a fun puzzle title on DS from good old Genius Sonority.

Where would you like the Pokémon franchise to go in the future?

I would definitely like to see Pokémon Snap return in some capacity, perhaps bundled with a new Pokémon Stadium or RPG. Being able to battle and explore a world on the home console would be a joy to play, and Nintendo are growing closer to making that dream a reality with Pokémon X and Pokémon Y now being in 3D.

Having a port of the game on Wii U could be the next step, with save data perhaps being exchanged on the fly if Nintendo were able to upload the save files to the cloud or via a wireless connection between the Wii U and 3DS.

Rudy: Pokémon X & Y is already much of the kind of Pokémon game I dreamed of as a younger lad, a portable Pokémon game with fully 3D environments, and finally 3D battles. But it's not quite like what I wished it was, not yet impressive enough to totally "wow" me. Even though the graphics seem to be better in this 3DS game, I preferred the dynamic of the battles in Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Battle Revolution, as the camera travels around the battle field around the Pokémon, and you can see them run at each other and attack in a most epic way. I want to see that in the Pokémon portable games too!
But I know that kind of dynamic doesn't make for a fast way of training your Pokémon as battles are then a bit slower, so it shouldn't be forced on the players.

I'm not even sure yet what Pokémon X & Y hold in themselves, so it's hard for me to say what i want to see in the future, since I'm not even sure what the present has on offer. But for now, I'm holding out for the inevitable Pokémon Z before finally diving back in, after I skipped the two couples of Pokémon Black & White games.

Adam: I always felt that Genius Sonority should be given the chance to do a full-on RPG experience without having to be confined by the Stadium concept. After all, despite some people saying otherwise, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness was a definite step in the right direction. The developer has a great heritage and has shown it still has what it takes to make fun, engaging RPG experiences after two entries in The Denpa Men series.

Suze: It's hard to say this, as the franchise has filled in so many gaps and improved exponentially (even though some of the designs are something to be desired). Mini-games have provided a nice break from the rigmarole from collecting badges, contests have increased variety etc. Online co-op would be great. Pokémon Snap and Stadium would be great to revisit with the Wii U (Game and Wario showed the potential of using the pad as a camera). I also want to see Pokémon use the AR features - my dream is to have an AR Pokémon playground with the Google Glasses. You wouldn't think I was 26, would you?

Matt: I was not sure what would happen to Pokémon after the last installment, but seeing Pokémon X and Pokémon Y gives me hope for the future of the Pokémon world. Will I get this game? Hard to say. But it's been a long time since I looked twice at a Pokémon game.