This week marks 30 years since Pokémon Red and Green were released in Japan. What started as two monster-taming RPGs on the Game Boy three decades ago has since become a multimedia empire of video games, anime, trading cards, apps, toys, and lifestyle merchandise.
When something is as far-reaching and multifaceted as Pokémon, the series ends up meaning something a little different to everyone. There are widely shared touchstones like the experience of catching your favorite monster for the first time, watching the anime after school as a kid, or taking a stroll while playing Pokémon Go back in 2016, but everyone has their own Pokémon story to tell.
As we approach the 30th anniversary, I asked people across the video game industry, whether they be a developer, a member of the media, or a content creator, to reach out and tell me a story about how Pokémon affected their life for the better. I tried to give everyone as few parameters as possible so they could interpret the question in a way that was distinctly them. Here are the responses I got:
These submissions have been lightly edited for clarity, length, and style.
“Pokémon’s woven itself through the fabric of my life at every stage, starting with the day I opened my mailbox to find a VHS tape of A Sneak Peek at Pokémon. It connected me to friends throughout all stages of schooling and well into adulthood. In my 20s, I was diagnosed with GAD and panic disorder. I’d come home from a miserable job and lie awake in bed, my heartbeat echoing in my ears. Unable to sleep, I’d make a blanket fort in my living room and pop in a Pokémon DVD. Peering into that bucolic world through a woolen veil, a Nintendo DS in my hand, my body would loosen at last. Pokémon was the subject of my first conversation with the man I’d marry. His first Pokémon tattoo was Nidoking. Mine was Pikachu. And in my 30s, against titanic odds, I’d land a job at The Pokémon Company International. Working there felt like a dream some days. More often than not, it just felt like a job. But my coworkers? My coworkers were nothing short of inspirational. Decades later, the themes of Pokémon I’d idolized as a child—camaraderie, self-betterment, community—were reflected not in fantasy, but in a handful of profoundly powerful friendships. Though I’ve since moved on and away, those relationships endure. E, D, A, S, et al.—thank you for teaching me that the real Pokémon were the friends we made along the way.” — Derek Heemsbergen, senior editor at Marvelous and XSEED
“Pokémon was probably the first thing that I ever truly obsessed over. How did I catch ’em all? Was it true that the episodes that aired in America weren’t the same as the ones in Japan? Is it THAT tough to get a holographic Charizard card? Is Pikablu real? I could carve off whole days of my life and find that they were solely devoted to Pokémon, from crying over the “Bye Bye Butterfree” episode when the show aired on syndication at 6:00 AM to grinding my Dragonite to level 100 in my dark bedroom that night when I was supposed to be sleeping. So when I wrote my first book Monster Kids: How Pokémon Taught A Generation To Catch Them All, I didn’t want to just recite Pokémon history, but capture what it was like to exist in the midst of “Pokémania.” I’ve never experienced anything quite like it to this day.” — Daniel Dockery, freelance writer and author of Monster Kids: How Pokémon Taught A Generation To Catch Them All
“The first-ever article I ever wrote was for my school paper and concerned the Pokémon TV show. From there, I caught not only the journalism bug but a lifelong desire to write about the art and stories that have meaning to me. The article was centered around disproving the conceit that adults can’t enjoy Pokémon—something people were still arguing back in 2010, if you can believe it! I’m now a games journalist and have been for about five years now—how time flies.” — Cat Bussell, former senior gaming editor at VideoGamer
“My love of Pokémon originally began as an escape. As a young child, I was frequently hospitalized because of my disability. I would regularly bring my Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and eventually Game Boy Advance SP with me to play everything from Silver to FireRed. I have over 50 completions of Pokémon Silver and SoulSilver because I would just replay them every time, allowing me to forget about the daily treatments and general pains of being stuck in the hospital. Even as an adult, I frequently go back to those games when I need some form of emotional comfort. Professionally, I can thank Pokémon for kickstarting my career. My first ever freelance piece in 2018 explored the inaccessibility behind the Let’s Go games. After IGN published it, people within the accessibility space began to follow me and interact with me on socials. A year later, when I joined Can I Play That, I had built a reputation for exploring accessibility when it was still within its infancy, and that is directly because of my first freelance story. Pokémon, despite its ever-present flaws, will always be my comfort series. There will never be a day where I find myself not wanting to explore each region and catch my favorites.” — Grant Stoner, freelance writer
“Some of my fondest childhood memories are playing Pokémon with my sister. We’re 14 months apart, and grew up playing the opposite Pokémon games so we could then trade the game-exclusive Pokémon. She was Silver, I was Gold. She was Ruby, I was Sapphire. To this day we still bond over Pokémon. As a Community Director, I recognize the importance of making a game feel impactful and nostalgic. Providing players with meaningful stories and adventures with characters they’ve bonded with, and offering a space to share that excitement. Pokémon gave me a love for gaming, and that love translates to Warframe and the growing community.” — Megan Everett, community director at Digital Extremes
“My mom isn’t a Gamer™ in any sense (she got me Pokémon Silver and my first Game Boy Color when I was six and regretted it for many years thereafter when “I’m in a battle!” became a common refrain in our house), but since around 2017, she’s found IRL community and friendship through Pokémon Go with like-minded local players, including coordinating gym takedowns in her neighborhood to ensure the maximum daily coins for everyone or scheduling her day around being online at 6 a.m. to do raids in Asia and Europe. Meanwhile she has none of the terminology or cultural knowledge that gaming audiences take for granted (she followed the PoGo meta for years before she knew what “the meta” meant). Industry executives and leads talk a big game about wanting to bring in more players/monetize consumers from all walks of life, but most have no idea how or where to engage with people who aren’t already in gaming spheres (even for mobile gaming!). My mom’s PoGo journey has informed so much of my approach to reaching the elusive “non-gamer” audience, especially re: onboarding and retention. It’s also put my career into perspective for my mom for the first time, now that she has a basis of understanding for things like player safety and influencer management. Honestly, as silly as it can get sometimes (she’s stopped random strangers holding their phones on the street to ask them if they’re playing PoGo), my sisters and I are relieved that she’s doing this instead of getting radicalized in some internet cesspool. I stopped following the franchise around Sun and Moon, but watching my mom have the time of her life in her own Trainer era has been great for my inner kid. And a little bit vindicating.” — Livvy Hall, community director, formerly Xbox Publishing
“I would’ve beaten Pokémon Emerald around the time that I was 8 years old. And while I’d watched plenty of TV shows and movies, and developed a voracious appetite for reading in class, it always feels like the first adventure I embarked on. The first story I told myself. It’s definitely the first game I have ever beaten. The morning I finished Pokémon Emerald was a warm summer Saturday like any other, except I’d unknowingly tackled the game’s final mainline challenge: the Elite Four and their champion, Wallace. It was the greatest test of skill I’d ever been faced with in my relatively short life, and about halfway through my game-winning run against Wallace, my Game Boy blinked, signaling it would imminently die. I jumped out of my bed and moved faster than I’ve ever moved to lock my charger into place just outside my room and plug my device in. I’d salvaged things and continued my grueling slugfest with Hoenn’s champion until I, at last, came out on top. I’d never been the best at anything. I never won first place in my karate tournaments. Despite my efforts, I didn’t win that spelling bee I was coerced into competing in. I wasn’t even the best at whatever card games we played at lunch. But that Saturday morning, I was the better Pokémon trainer. I bested Hoenn’s elite and solidified myself among their upper echelon. I remember my body trembling as I sat slumped against the wall and let the realization set in. I felt invincible. Higher than the clouds in the sky. And though that feeling has dulled on subsequent adventures, victories, and completions, I have never been able to shake that first brush with accomplishment in the face of what seemed to me like impossible odds. I’m grateful for it all these years later and reckon I will be for the rest of my life.” — Moises Taveras, freelance writer
“Pokémon as a franchise has had a monumental effect on my life. On a personal level, it played a pivotal role in my relationship with my lifelong best friend. As we grew up, both enthralled in everything Pokémon had to offer, we made sure to buy different versions of the game, helping each other complete the Pokédex, while at the same time forging our bond to one another and the franchise with each passing generation. That aspect of what Pokémon means to me cannot be understated. Whether it’s a renewed interest, my autism, or a weird millennial version of a midlife crisis, I started a personal project early last year to watch every episode of the Pokémon anime in chronological order, including the films. It’s all been cataloged on a personal Google Sheet document, and it’s been fun to tackle it at my own pace. I’m coming up on 800 episodes as I finish the final season of Black & White and head into the X & Y era of the show.” — Jerrad Wyche, host of Controlled Interests Gamecast
“In The Before Times, pre-1998, my gaming mostly consisted of World Series Baseball and Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie on Game Gear. Then, for Christmas in 1998, my brother and I each received a Game Boy Pocket and one of the two versions of Pokémon—I got Red, he got Blue. We didn’t know about the games beforehand, so shoutout to my parents for figuring out that this was the hot gift because we were immediately obsessed. The fun part of this story comes from the fact that this was the first RPG I had ever played, and I really had no concept of how games like this worked—including RPG things like leveling up a party, choosing what skills to use…and an underrated little mechanic known as “saving the game.” So over the course of Christmas break, I played up to Pewter City or sometimes Mount Moon dozens of times, turned the Game Boy off when it was time to stop, and started a new game the next time I had a chance to play. This is probably also when we discovered the bottomless well of comedy that is naming your rival “Butt” through all the new games we started. It wasn’t until I got to school on the first day after break and saw that my friends were in parts of the game I’d never seen, with Pokémon levels in the 30’s, that I wondered how they were able to play so long without their parents making them stop or the batteries running out. They kindly pointed me to the big option in the menu that said “SAVE,” and the rest was history. Video games became my favorite hobby, and that love for gaming has endured to this day and directly led to me spending hours per week getting into the nitty-gritty of the games we play on my podcast. It all really started with Pokémon!” — Dave Jackson, host of Tales from the Backlog
“Pokémon GO launched the day before I found out my father died. I got the call while I was out hunting mons. He passed after an intense struggle with mental illness that left him agoraphobic and estranged from our family. I’m still unsure if his end didn’t do more good than bad. That summer, PoGO saved me. I could see the strains of brainsick that devastated his life within myself. But the antidote to that is sunlight and connection: the things that GO brought me in spades that summer.” — Dan Manning, producer at Whisper Forge
“Pokémon helped bridge the gap in my relationships with my family and other people. My family had this anti-gaming mindset as they prioritized education. However, when it came to Pokémon, they welcomed it with open arms, to the point where they’d get me the new console and game for Christmas. It also helped me bond with my cousins as they introduced me to the franchise. This also expands to the Pokémon TCG. My mum would find time after work or during weekly shopping trips to buy me Pokémon cards when I was a kid. Back then, I didn’t know how the game worked, so I just kept them for collecting purposes and made up my own rules with my brother. But I also lived in the Philippines, so there was a high chance that the cards were fake. But I didn’t care cuz I love Pokémon. In 2018, my family revealed that we had a family connection working at Pokémon International in Seattle, so I got to visit the HQ, hug the giant Pikachu at reception, and see where the magic happened. It was great. If it wasn’t for Pokémon, I wouldn’t be exposed to video games growing up due to my family’s strict nature, and I think the franchise somewhat inspired me to pursue entertainment and gaming journalism as it ignited my passion for the hobby and entertainment in general.” — Erielle Sudario, writer and podcast editor for Checkpoint Gaming
“I can’t say I have any one story on Pokémon; Pokémon has just always been a staple in my life. I grew up in the peak of the Pokémon hype of the late 90s/early 2000s–I remember playing Pokémon Yellow on the Game Boy I got for my birthday and not being able to get past the first rock-type gym using my electric-type Pikachu (I still stand by my belief that Pokémon is a pretty difficult game for kids lol). I remember my mom taking me to Books-A-Million to buy booster packs. I still remember how excited I was to pull a holographic Raichu from a Fossil pack; Raichu was my absolute favorite. By high school the nostalgia of Pokémon made me want to seriously start collecting. Now, having been a serious collector since 2010, I have one of the most-well known vintage Pokémon collections online for my extremely curated items. I have been helping other collectors with my knowledge of items as well as sharing the archival work I have done for the community over the years. It has brought me so much joy to share my love of the franchise with others who share that same love.
While I have scaled back in collecting and in my community interactions due to the current demand of Pokémon, I will always love and cherish such a wonderful franchise that has been a part of me for my entire life. Thank you Pokémon.” — Grace “mewisme700” Klich, content creator
“I’m a ’94 baby that’s been a Trainer since the beginning (Crystal and Yellow were my first!) so I’ve got lots of fun stories, but I wanted to focus on the Pokémon fangame scene which, through ROM hacking and RPG Maker XP, helped me turn into the full-fledged game dev I am now, and also the overall multiplayer aspect that came very, very late for me (Generation 8, actually!) and how that sorta kinda changed my life! My late father really encouraged me to like these Pocket Monsters, but only a couple shone through the thousand! Raichu serendipitously shares its number with my birth date and its generation number with my birth month! 1/26? Gen 1, #0026! Cinderace is the other absolute fav that ended up shaping my online brand with “Hopscorch” originating directly from what I nicknamed my first Scorbunny for the generation that helped me socially the most!” — Hopscorch, game developer
“Pokémon is the first in the many dominoes that led to my overall love of video games. I was very close with my cousins growing up, and Pokémon is a major reason why. When we were kids growing up in The Netherlands, We were so obsessed with the show that all of our parents pooled some money and got us a booster box of the Jungle expansion of the trading card game. We had no idea how to play, but we loved looking at the cards and trading them between each other. I still have some of those cards today.
During the second generation of the games, Lays did a campaign where bags of chips would include Pogs (though we called them Flippos) with lenticular pictures of Pokémon that would move or evolve as you moved them. I’ve held on to our collection for decades now, because I cherish those memories of gathering around a bag of chips and being more excited by the Flippo than the chips themselves. While I didn’t own one of the games until Pokémon Sapphire, I would frequently watch my cousins and friends play, fascinated by the strange creatures and attack animations. At least one of my cousins credits the Pokémon games with helping him learn English at a very young age.
That fascination led to wanting to play more games in general. My first proper game was Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds on PC, but I could never get Pokémon out of my head. In 2002, I would save up my allowance and do odd jobs and chores to save up to buy my very own GBA with Pokémon Sapphire. It would only continue blossoming from there. As I got older, I would become interested in games as a business and as an art form. I would read reviews and criticism and frequent gaming forums to learn more about them. When I got to university I started blogging about them in the community section of the Screwattack website. I made friends there that I still know to this day. I became a freelance games critic in 2021, and in 2023 I took over hosting a Nintendo-focused podcast named N-Focus. All this came from Pokémon. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that I would be a fundamentally different person without it.” — Hylke Langhout, host at N-Focus
“I’ve always used my immigrant mother’s pop culture awareness to gauge if something is really, really popular. For example, the fact that she knows who Princess Diana and Michael Jackson are means that they are some of the most famous figures in history. Also right up there on that list is a yellow mouse creature named Pikachu.
Like many people growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s, my first exposure to Pokémon was through the trifecta of their video games, trading cards, and anime. It felt like it was everywhere. However, with the increasing costs of getting new consoles, handhelds, and games and the rise of free online Flash games, I stopped keeping up with the franchise after Generation III. Everything past that generation felt so foreign to me and I began to fall into the mentality of “Pokémon stopped being good after the generation that I stopped playing.” Outside of my short stint during the Pokémon Go Summer of 2016 where we almost achieved world peace, I never really thought much about the franchise afterwards. However, one random mobile app would eventually change that: Pokémon Sleep.
In 2019 during my first year as a high school science teacher, I began using an ordinary sleep tracking app so I could develop better sleeping habits. I loved how it would specifically wake me up when I was in a light sleep stage so that I would feel less groggy in the mornings. Coincidentally during that same year, the CEO of the Pokémon Company announced a sleep tracking mobile app called Pokémon Sleep. While many people online were commenting on the ridiculousness of it, I was excited by this news! You mean to tell me I could continue tracking my sleep, except now I can have the fun of catching Pokémon?! The next few years after that, there was an unfortunate radio silence about the game’s release. I thought it might have been cancelled but that didn’t stop me from checking online every now and then for any updates.
My dedication was finally rewarded in Summer 2023 when it was finally available for download on the app store. At the time, I thought it would be a nice, little casual game experience for me. However, it soon became my game of the year for 2023 and my favorite game overall. While Pokémon Sleep is still a sleep tracker at night, by day it’s like Tamogotchi and your Pokémon team finds food for Snorlax so it can grow bigger and stronger which will help attract more Pokémon for you to catch. As I got more into the game and started joining the Pokémon Sleep subreddits and Discord servers, I was surprised by how complex the mechanics could be for a sleep tracker game. There’s whole communities dedicated to helping you learn what optimal stats and nature each Pokémon should have and they’ve even made tons of infographics, spreadsheets, and websites for all different types of game calculations.
Through Pokémon Sleep and its community, I became interested in the franchise again and can confirm that it does stay good after Generation III! Because of Pokémon Sleep, I’ve been getting into other Pokémon games now and I even incorporate Pokémon-based lessons into my classroom. I love this game so much that my students say that I’m obsessed with it; one of them even drew me sleeping next to Snorlax in Pokémon Sleep as a gift! Oh and yes, I did develop better sleep habits because of the game.” — Mashfiq Ahmed, teacher and Minecraft Club lead at John Dewey High School
“I definitively missed the Pokémon craze.
By the time Red and Blue landed in the US, I was 15, and seeing as how the first time I ever heard of Pokémon was when the news warned us all about a Japanese cartoon giving children seizures, Pokémon was clearly a kids thing. I paid it no attention as I focused on adult things like high school, the WWF Attitude Era, and my N64.
Over my nearly 20 years of covering video games professionally, I’ve tried my best to get into Pokémon, but it never took. I roamed SF in 2016 for Pokémon Go, I beat Let’s Go Eevee, and I tinkered with Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet. Something was always missing.
It turns out, it was my son.
Ben was born in 2021, and he was destined to be a video game player like his father and mother. I began by showing him Mario Wonder in 2023, letting him play Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 in 2024, and finally handing him an Xbox controller and letting him loose on the open world of Forza.
As his love of games began, so did the act of watching real cartoons. One morning, my wife put on the show she grew up with—Pokémon. Both Ben and I were engrossed.
It was suddenly clear to me that I had played every game without reading the source material. From the jump, the show gave so much context to what was happening in this strange world where trainers capture pocket monsters that I couldn’t help but want to go back.
I started a new Violet save that night, and I never looked back.
Since then, Ben and I have beaten Violet and its DLC, gone back to Arceus, restarted Shield, recommitted to Go, reviewed Z-A for Kinda Funny Games, and even traveled to Pokémon Worlds. His room is adorned in Pokémon plushies and his bed is decked out in Pokémon sheets. Hawlucha sits atop my bedroom shelves.
We’ll ride to school listening to ‘What Kind of Pokémon Are You?’, we’re in card shops on the weekends, and neither of us can wait to start Pokémon LeafGreen (Mom is taking FireRed) this week.
I love Pokémon, and all it took was seeing it through my child’s eyes.” — Greg Miller, CEO at Kinda Funny
“Pokémon Blue was the first video game I owned myself, figuring out a loophole with my parents’ directive that “consoles would rot my brain” because Game Boys were harder for them to comprehend. I loved the show, the movies, collected all the cards—though foolishly I sold my collection of the first four sets before I went to college—and kept playing throughout the years. Some of my fondest memories were the sleepovers I had with two close friends where we did battle royales over Red & Blue, Yellow, and then Gold & Silver and Crystal (my favorite). In 2019 I also started a podcast called EXP. Share where a friend who had never played the games joined me to record our journey playing through all the main games through Gen 9, plus a bunch of side games. Over the years I missed several releases, so especially as a completionist, it’s very satisfying to be able to say that I’ve played all the core games. Not to mention how great it is to engage with the broader Pokémon community (who even if they don’t share my affinity for my favorite Pokémon, Mewtwo and Octillery, do enjoy the tattoos I have of them).” — Josh Fjelstad, co-host of EXP. Share
“As a Day 1 Pokémon fan who vividly remembers trading base set cards on the playground and transferring my team from Pokémon Yellow into Pokémon Stadium to be able to play in glorious 3D, to say the series has had an impact on my life would be a massive understatement. Today, I’m a full time content creator who plays Pokémon games for a living, and while I’ve been fortunate enough to witness the hype cycle of each new generation in real time with my audience, my Pokémon fandom roots definitely started with the card game. The year is 1999 and the hype for the then-upcoming Fossil set is reaching a fever pitch: my local community college is hosting an official all-ages tournament for the first time and the top prize is a pre-release holographic Aerodactyl from the new set.
As a fresh-faced nine year old with no prior competitive TCG experience, I naively begged my Dad to take me to compete and he happily obliged. With hope in my heart and my “Rain Dance” deck in hand (a water deck centered on the strong base set Blastoise card with the Rain Dance ability), I walked up to the check-in area and was immediately taken aback by all of the adults and teenagers that were prepared and ready to beat me down. At this time, the meta of the card game was new and shifting but a quick damage, easy-to-put-together deck called “Haymaker” was all the rage and this tournament was my first time ever seeing it in action. For the first round, I’m matched up against a 20-something with a “Haymaker” deck and I manage to win by the skin of my teeth. The next round begins, and I’m matched against ANOTHER fully-grown adult with, you guessed it, a variation of “Haymaker.” Once again, I managed to win and after about six more rounds of competitors with “Haymaker” decks, I’m starting to think that victory is within my grasp.
As I enter the finals, I’m prepared to take down one more adult “Haymaker” user but I’m surprised to find that my opponent is a 30-something dad, similar in age to me today, competing for his son with what appears to be the “Rain Maker” deck that I managed to make it all the way here with. At this point, it’s important to note that my favorite Pokémon of all time is Lickitung and the Jungle expansion that released just prior to this tournament introduced a powerful, easy-to-use colorless Lickitung card that can do 10 damage and paralyze opponents with just a single energy and a coin flip. The card was common and widely seen as useful, but people hadn’t fully figured out how to use it to compliment their tried-and-true decks yet and this tournament was hardly the place that people were willing to experiment.
As the final match started, my opponent and I played nearly identically and were slowly building up our “Rain Dance” Blastoises but I had a hidden weapon: LICKITUNG. For this final match, I opted to build up the Blastoise on my bench and instead use Lickitung to paralyze my opponent and keep them from doing anything. After 8 turns in a row of successful coin flips and PlusPower-boosted Tongue Wrap attacks, I managed to take down my opponent’s Blastoise and victory was mine. I have my original “Rain Dance” deck and Pre-Release Holographic Aerodactyl to this day, and Lickitung is still my favorite Pokémon!” — Roger “RogersBase” DiLuigi, content creator
“One of the most interesting things about Pokémon after 30 years is learning someone’s favorite Pokémon. If you grew up with Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue, your favorite could easily be Charizard or Gengar because that’s what you connected with when you first experienced the franchise. Whenever I meet someone my age, I’m never surprised if they pick a Kanto Pokémon as their favorite.
1,000+ Pokémon later, there is something special about a newer Pokémon winning over a long-time fan. The question is: if someone loved Bulbasaur for 30 years, for example, could a newer Pokémon eventually become their new favorite? A couple of years ago, I was in Japan for a Pokémon GO event taking place in Sendai. I knew that if I played more aggressively than normal, I would finally hit the level cap of 50 that weekend. This was a big accomplishment I wanted to celebrate, so I livestreamed it. As I prepared to catch the last Pokémon I needed to reach my goal, something unexpected happened. An egg attached instead, and a Pawmi gave me the final XP push into level 50.
When Pawmi was first revealed in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, I didn’t think too much of it. But now, after grinding to reach level 50, I will always remember that Pawmi was the Pokémon to complete that journey with me. It might sound silly, but that day, Pawmi cemented a top spot as one of my favorite Pokémon. These moments of connection, of creating memories, with Pokémon—both new and old—can tell so much about a person. People’s favorites always reveal the most interesting stories.” — Steve Sarumi, host of It’s Super Effective
“I think it’s a common perspective among Americans to see Pokémon as this inevitable thing, that it would undoubtedly take over the world, because it came to the States prepackaged and ready to dominate after already doing so in Japan. But the original games were far from a sure thing. They were broken; low on funding; built by a small, troubled team for a console that was considered on the outs. But there were clearly some ingredients in the mix that captured the world’s attention. I’m always inspired to learn that something I love and aspire to was built under constraints that feel familiar to me.
As a musician, I see the music of the first games as a microcosm of that narrative. Composer Junichi Masuda had four channels that could each play one note at a time—three for notes, one for white noise rhythmic sounds or textures—and he wrote a large suite of themes that people continue to adore and seek out today. And what’s truly great about that is, like the games themselves, the music has its flaws. The original Pokémon Red and Green OST is an impressive body of lovely, diverse themes written with baroque-style polyphony, and composers wanting to learn how to fulfill all the musical needs of an RPG would be hard-pressed to find better examples than that soundtrack. But it’s far from perfect—which makes it all the more inspiring. It’s a scrappy yet clearly ingenious collection of work that has fueled the imaginations of music lovers and creators for decades. It’s something that seems miraculous on a first listen, then, upon closer inspection, shows its rough edges in a way that makes you think, ‘Maybe I can do that.’” — Joe Palmer-DeClara, composer and sound designer
I was 10 years old when Pokémania hit. It felt like overnight I was issued a pack of trading cards, a new cartoon to watch, and a Game Boy with a red cartridge to rival my brother’s blue one. Adventuring through the world of Pokémon while being steeped in gloriously green pixels unlocked a new part of my imagination, and I’ve since channeled that core experience into my career as a full-time pixel artist and game developer. As the Pokémon franchise celebrates its 30-year anniversary (which also means I must be in my final evolution from that 10-year-old starter kid), there are two things I continue to hold true: (1) I adore that chunky little pixel world; and (2) I will, on occasion, use my frying pan as a “drying” pan. — Brandon James Greer, YouTuber, creative director at Nano Park Studios
“I think my story follows a common beginning that a lot of older Pokémon fans can relate to, but then takes an unusual turn. I’m 34, and Pokémon will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. That is to say, I was the exact demographic that Pokémon was marketed to when it was first released. I was gifted a Game Boy and Pokémon Yellow in elementary school, bought and traded the cards with my friends–treasuring my shiny Charizard and Blastoise– and looked forward to whatever mischief Ash, Misty, and Brock would get up to in the next Pokémon episode.
But as I got older and my interests turned elsewhere, I slowly and then entirely fell away from Pokémon. Fast forward many years and I’m a parent with a wonderful little girl who loves Pokémon. Almost like a tradition that we were creating, my husband and I gifted her the newest Pokémon games, bought her the trading cards, plushies, and a multitude of other merch (there’s so much now!), and sat down to watch the show with her. In the last year specifically, as I watched her enjoy Pokémon arguably more than I ever did, I began to regain and cultivate a newfound appreciation for the series. Eventually we started playing Pokémon GO as a family, going to our local conventions and community events, and my eyes turned toward the newest Pokémon game, Legends: Z-A.
Where I think the twist begins is here, and it honestly feels like so many things fell into place at once! I’m a professional live streamer on Twitch and YouTube, as well as a professional cosplayer. When Z-A was announced the internet was flooded with pictures of a new trainer, Jacinthe. I didn’t know anything about her, but she was depicted as this stunning dark-skinned black woman in the prettiest lilac lace dress, and I immediately decided I wanted to cosplay her. And once I began researching into her design, I also gained the desire to try out the new game. I’d long felt that I was no longer the target audience for Pokémon, but Jacinthe fully changed my mind. So I did both. I crafted her cosplay from scratch and I posted videos and pictures of it online. They blew up. I started streaming Z-A and posting clips of my gameplay online. People came to watch. I hadn’t had an audience for Pokémon before, but both my streaming channels and all my socials started gaining fans rapidly, with people telling me how refreshing it was to see such a “new” and “positive” perspective from someone who still held nostalgia for the series, but hadn’t interacted with it directly since Gen 1 & 2. People told me it was just FUN watching ME have so much FUN and whimsy for the game, and that I was bringing a sort of joy to the community that fans my own age said they felt they’d lost a little.
The response has been immense, and the community has been so welcoming. In all honesty, I don’t think anyone is as surprised as I am, because I didn’t think I’d fall back in love with Pokémon as quickly and easily as I did, after years of convincing myself that passing that torch down to my daughter meant I couldn’t hold it too. The biggest benefit by far though, is now my daughter and I can bond even more. Not just via my nostalgia for childhood, but together, side-by-side, as we both enjoy Pokémon today.” — Jahara Jayde, streamer, cosplayer, content creator
“I remember spending my summer days playing Pokémon Platinum when it made its wave through my circle. It was the game we all obsessed over. One particularly fond memory I have is discovering the voice chat feature with one of my friends. We spent the night just chatting on our DSes. Even though we had Skype at the time, it was cooler to hang out in Sinnoh for a while.” — Danny Guo, technical director at Nano Park Studios
“When Red and Green were released, I had just started learning 3D modeling. I was so drawn to the designs that I ended up creating 3D versions of Pokémon and using them in my job-hunting portfolio. I spent a lot of time with Gold and Silver as well. I was amazed by how perfectly balanced the collecting and training elements were—appealing to both casual players and dedicated fans. The hidden Effort Values system was also a memorable surprise. I feel that many creators of my generation have Pokémon embedded somewhere in their creative DNA.” — Kazuhisa Wada, director at P-Studio
“I’ve been a fan of Pokémon for as long as I remember, and in many ways I still don’t know how I really got into it. A friend of one of my siblings lent said sibling their copy of the original Pokémon Blue back sometime in the late 90s or early 2000s and then I somehow managed to get my hands on it. I remember playing the game on family vacation, sitting outside and being mesmerized by the mechanics. I had a Game Boy Color and a few games but had never really experienced an RPG or game similar to Pokémon at that point as a young kid. It was truly formative to my gaming experience growing up, and I am still somehow the person in possession of that game cartridge to this day.
My desire to celebrate and play Pokémon never left. I remember attempting to use the Amazon online ordering system in its much earlier days to get my copy of Pokémon Pearl, which arrived late, and I had to wait to play. I remember driving to the store early in the morning before work on October 12, 2013 to go pick up a copy of Pokémon X, which went on to become my favorite mainline title in the franchise.
Fast forward to 2020 and the initial rollout of shutdowns experienced globally. I had been playing these games my whole life and was still a big fan of the franchise, but it was only at that time I really started meeting other people who actually cared about Pokémon and who loved it as much as I did. Somehow, in all of that, I started making content about gaming, but I was still so drawn to showcasing Pokémon. With shutdowns happening, I could no longer actively participate in my work overseas as an archaeologist excavating the ancient site I had been contributing to for several years, but my years of academic and practical experience were really what prepared me to start finding a way to make unique content specifically about Pokémon. I began a series talking about how real-world archaeology/history and Pokémon intersect and it was my first moment of ‘success’ in content.
I’ve been making content now for five years and I’ve gotten the opportunity to bring worlds that I love together in such a unique way while sharing the experience with other people who love Pokémon and even these other topics just as much as I do. I’ve gotten the chance to be invited to events and opportunities by Pokémon and Nintendo and I’ve met so many amazing people as I continue to make this my full time job. Pokémon is a beautiful franchise full of amazing and complex worldbuilding, experiences, characters and designs and I’m so glad that I get to catalogue my own experience with it every day while also helping others learn a little something more about things like history when they join me for the journey.” — Mallory “archaeomal” Ray, content creator, archaeologist, and historian
“While Pokémon has had a huge impact on my life and content creation in a multitude of ways, I think my strongest association with the franchise is linked to how it defines community and friendship for me. When I first got my copy of Pokémon Yellow (which I still have), I would just sit in the living room of my childhood home with a few other friends and just quietly hang out while playing together for hours on end. A tradition that came back around playing Pokémon Legends: Arceus in a Discord call with close friends as they traded Pokémon with me to help me complete the Pokédex so I could see the true ending of the game. Some of my fondest gaming memories are tied to my 30 years with this franchise and I look forward to making more every time there is a new game to play. “ — Matt Storm, co-host of “Fun” & Games Podcast
“So true story, my wife and I played Red & Blue in college before we were even married. I’ve played every Pokémon game since and still can’t believe what the team pulled off here at Stern with the official Pokémon pinball table…This game is pure joy! It only seemed fitting to be working on this game with the incredible team at Stern Pinball alongside the amazing Pokémon Company with my oldest daughter, Hailey, the biggest Pokémon fan I know! This one is special and I promise it will make you smile.” — Jeremy Packer, art director at Stern Pinball
“Growing up I had Pokémon Yellow and watched the show. I even read some books that were simple novelizations of some of the earlier episodes. One time when I was 4 or 5 I was talking to my mom about my ‘it-em-finder,’ mispronouncing ‘item’ in a way that totally confused her. I spelled it out and she helped me with the correct pronunciation so it’s safe to say I learned to read by playing and watching Pokémon. There was an episode of the old show where it was only Pokémon talking to one another, but it had English subtitles. Apparently I would always read the subtitles out loud when that episode was on! Needless to say, Pokémon was definitely part of my formative years!” — Andrew Wilkening, software engineer at Stern Pinball
“My relationship with the franchise is like many millennials’ relationship with it, I imagine. Obsessed with it as a kid (I was exposed to Red/Blue via friends but Yellow was my first game; I got it and the special Pikachu/Togepi/Jigglypuff Game Boy Color for my ninth birthday—selling that Game Boy to a fellow enthusiast a couple years later remains one of my biggest regrets ever) and continue to be infected with it as a 35-year-old adult with a mortgage, wife and 2-year-old son who, literally this morning, picked out a Gengar T-shirt to wear on his own.
One of the most vivid memories I have is from when I was 14. I’d saved some cash to buy Emerald, for which I was insanely excited. Up until the Switch games, Sapphire was the Pokémon game I’d spent the most hours playing; clocked close to 300 in it. (Gen 3 rules.) I went to Walmart with my dad—an unsavory guy who, to this day, is still frequently in and out of jail for various offenses, usually drug related—and insisted on buying the game that day despite him urging me to use the money, my money, on anything else.
I started tearing open the packaging as soon as we returned to his beat-up truck, waxing poetic about how cool it was gonna be. He looks at me and says, ‘When are you gonna grow out of this shit?’ and started going on again about how much of a waste of money it was. In that moment, I was fighting harder to hold back tears than I ever would fight in the Battle Frontier.
It wasn’t the first or last time my dad would say or do something that hurt or deeply embedded itself into me, but I think about it the most because it’s the one that I think defines our relationship (or rather, lack thereof).
I wasn’t equipped at 14 to understand his point of view and why he might be acting so belligerently to his son about something he enjoyed, and I can’t say at 35 that I know why he was doing it. He could’ve been high as a kite, for all I know, and not even known how he was acting (this, sadly, is probably the most accurate take). But we never shared a single interest while I was growing up, in part because I don’t know that my dad, by the time I could really know who he was, had any interests outside of survival. In my youth he was a coal-truck driver and a mechanic, and most of his “hobbies” revolved around his labor related to those things. Other things that thrilled him—gambling, drinking beer—were things that wouldn’t captivate me nearly as much, and not for a very long time, obviously.
I never grew out of what he called ‘shit.’ So much of what I loved as a 9-year-old kid and a 14-year-old teenager are the same things I love as a 35-year-old man. I love and think about them differently, but the thought of not having a relationship with Pokémon or Power Rangers or comic books or any number of things my dad had zero interest in hearing me talk about is unfathomable.
And it’s unfathomable for me to think I would ever treat my own son’s interests like my dad treated mine. I have little doubt that our little guy will have a fondness for so many things that I don’t understand and perhaps detest, but I’m so fucking excited to help him explore whatever his passions are. I want him to know that, no matter what he’s into, as long as it isn’t hurting other people then it’s valid and something worth spending time with and (responsibly) spending money on.” — Joshua Moore, journalist
“I owe my thanks to Pokémon for playing a big role in my childhood, but it has also influenced my adult life, and even helped kickstart my career. In 2015 Pokémon held an illustration contest to tie in with the game Pokémon Art Academy, for which fans were asked to illustrate a Pokémon card in the game that could possibly be printed as a real card. One of the categories was “your favorite Pokémon,” and my submission (Chespin) was one of the 6 North American winners.
The compliments from the judges and fans I received afterward made me want to start posting more Pokémon fan art online, through which I got to know many more fellow artists and Pokémon fans. Then in 2021, when I was out of art school and looking for a job in animation, a storyboard artist on the Disney TV Animation series Big City Greens asked me if I’d be interested in working on her show. She was being promoted to director at the time, which means there was now an open storyboard artist position. We knew each other through our shared love of making Pokémon art, and she still jokes to this day that she wanted a Pokémon fan to take her place. I said I’d love to, and so I was recommended and applied right away.
Five years later, I’m still working on that project, and I was even given the opportunity to write, design and storyboard an episode about the excitement of collecting Pokémon cards with friends (complete with lots of “fakemon” and references to Pokémon fan culture). It’s definitely one of the highlights of my career, and I’m forever grateful to the Pokémon series for inspiring me to pursue my goals by doing what I love.” — Gabi Rodea, storyboard artist at Disney
“I grew up in a home that was unsafe. Day to day you never knew what kind of mood our parents would be in. Would there be screaming echoing off the walls? Would the sound of slammed doors reverberate through my chest? Would I have a fist in my face threatening physical harm if I didn’t shut my mouth? This was what I experienced all the time from the time I was 8 until I was finally able to set out on my own at 18. While it was difficult to wake up unsure of what each day may bring, there was one form of comfort that remained constant. That was what Pokémon was for me.
I received my first Game Boy Color (the see-through purple model which remains the best to this day) when I was 6 years old with a copy of Pokémon Blue. I remember first being presented with a question that would help define the remainder of my life. Which Pokémon do you choose? I went with Charmander for my first playthrough; however, I would ultimately settle on Bulbasaur being my favorite starter. As I continued to explore the world of Kanto, I found comfort in the variety of ‘mons I could find and how I could maximize my team to become the very best like no one ever was.
Pokémon made the days bearable. Whenever life at home would pick up and become hostile, I would be able to escape under the covers with my Game Boy light and hang out with my Pokémon and take out the villains of Team Rocket. It showed me that there was good in the world. Up until now, I had assumed that everyone was dealing with what I was going through within the walls of my home. Pokémon showed me that I could be a kid that took down those that were harming others, and I could do so partnered with my Pokémon team.
This trend would continue as I grew up. I would save up as much money as I could to get Pokémon Gold when it launched. I was excited to explore a new region and find even more Pokémon that existed. I found myself continuing to play throughout the night due to the fear I experienced of being awoken by plates breaking or adults shouting. I ended up finding out there was a Pokémon that I could evolve at night time to get a special evolution. This Pokémon was Umbreon. Umbreon became my favorite Pokémon of the generation. I believed that with Umbreon by my side, I could defend myself from anything that happened to come my way once the sun set.
Pokémon has always provided a sense of comfort. I am 34 now and whenever times get tough, I’ll open the latest Pokémon game and get lost in the safe space I’ve been able to make for myself. I even celebrate the nights of protection and comfort that Pokémon provided me by hosting Pokémon Sleepovers on Twitch whenever a new Pokémon drops, where anyone can join to play along with the new game, catch new Pokémon, and have a space to safely escape throughout the night.
I never see myself slowing down with Pokémon. In fact, I share my passion for it with “the youth” in my life any chance I get. If Pokémon was able to provide me with the safety I needed when no one knew what I was going through, I believe it can do that for anyone that needs it.” — Djacob “djacobok” Young, content creator
“Back in 2014, I got the opportunity to attend both my very first Pokémon event, which was Pokémon Worlds in Washington D.C, and Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions! Pokémon music has been a very important pillar in my life, so getting the opportunity to actually hear my favorite video game music in an orchestra was incredible! I attended Worlds again in Boston in 2015, and they brought back Symphonic Evolutions, but this time for whatever reason, they allowed me to conduct the opening theme for one of the rehearsals! Hearing some of the best overworld and battle themes in an orchestra gave me a new perspective on music, and my favorite arrangement from the program has got to be Route 113 from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. I cried every time I heard it.” — GlitchxCity, music producer and content creator
“An important Pokémon moment in my life was when I got proposed to! At the time I was traveling in Japan with my now-wife and one of my goals there was to capture the elusive Shiny Mew in Pokémon GO around a significant landmark! Courtney (or GlitchxCity online) planned a whole day where we went shopping. I got a new outfit together, and wore said outfit during our tour of the Tokyo Tower. At the observatory floor, I decided that was the moment to catch Shiny Mew in my game. And after I completed the research in Pokémon GO we took a photo, which quickly turned to Courtney going down on one knee! The ‘case’ for the ring was a Master Ball with the ring being held by my favorite Pokémon, Fuecoco! That moment is such a core memory, and I will always look at my Shiny Mew and think back to that day. I’ve played Pokémon my entire life but nothing will beat that moment for me!” — AjentVee, content creator and shiny hunter
“As a kid, I wasn’t immune to the power of Pokémania. I would watch episodes of the anime on VHS on the little CRT I had in my closet growing up. Late at night, I had to sit about a foot from the screen so I could plug my headphones in and watch when I was most definitely supposed to be sleeping. My parents were super fond of the idea of me playing the games, though. On one miraculous morning in 2000, my mother decided to take my sister and I to Toys R Us. To this day I don’t know what came over her, but she bought us a Funtastic Fire Orange Nintendo 64 with copies of Mario Kart 64, Super Mario 64, Pokémon Stadium, and Pokémon Snap. What a delight!
Of course I enjoyed the Mario games, but Pokémon was what I really wanted. I played the hell out of Stadium and Snap. Still, they weren’t the mainline games. A year later, I got the translucent Glacier Game Boy Advance with a copy of Pokémon Crystal. I was STOKED. Finally my very own Pokémon game where I could actually train my own team! Against my parents’ advice, I took the GBA to school with me to show off to my 1st grade class. Now, I was 6 years old; I could hardly read. So a game like Pokémon Crystal wasn’t exactly the easiest thing for me to figure out. I needed some help figuring out what to do in the game, so I went up to some older kids at recess to ask for help.
They had their Game Boys out, so I had high hopes! Unfortunately, I was met with jeers and laughs of “Stupid kid can’t read” and “Wow, what an idiot.” Little Nico was devastated. I immediately started crying and ran off, out into the school field. I only lived a few blocks from school, so I ran home, tears in my eyes, and finally collapsed on my driveway where my mom was doing some yard work. She asked me what was wrong, and I didn’t know how to properly share my feelings, so in a fit of rage, I threw the translucent Glacier Game Boy Advance onto the ground, and it shattered into pieces. My mom came over and consoled me, took care of the plastic bits on the driveway, and walked me back to school. So there it was. I had been bullied out of playing Pokémon at just 6 years old.
I avoided playing Pokémon my entire life after that experience. There was always a bit of jealousy in my heart for those that got to enjoy it. Two decades later, I started streaming on Twitch, and with the encouragement of my wonderful community, I decided to give my very first mainline Pokémon game a go: Pokémon Sword. With Sobble by my side, and my first catch Nickit on the team, I trained up my little monsters and beat my very first game. It was an incredibly emotional moment for me. I remember summing up the whole experience with one phrase as I watched the credits: “I have been missing out on this my entire life?!” That moment helped me realize I could finally jump into the world of Pokémon head-on. And I went hard! I started shiny hunting, and am now working towards a National Living Shiny Dex, meaning a shiny of every single Pokémon in the national dex at the same time, kept in Pokémon Home. I currently have 955/1025, putting me at a 93.17 percent completion!
I really did a full 180 as far as Pokémon goes, but truly I couldn’t be happier with where I stand with the franchise now. — Nico “nicotendo64” Silvian, streamer
“The first Pokémon game I played was Gold back when I was 7 at my cousin’s house. After just a few hours of exploring the Johto region, I left wanting nothing else but to be able to collect them all on my own. Unfortunately, due to my family’s financial struggles, this would never come to fruition, so I spent my whole childhood and teenage years playing every game I could on emulators, collecting and trading any card I could put my hands on, or just reading dedicated websites, anxiously absorbing every piece of information I could get about the series.
Then, almost 14 years ago, when I was old enough to have a job and buy my first console (a black Nintendo 3DS), I hurried up to the closest store and bought my first official copy of Pokémon White. Once I got home, I immediately started playing and excitedly chose the familiar orange-and-black starter Tepig; to my amazement, a yellow one jumped into battle instead. I named this shiny little dude Meteor and started playing what is today my favorite entry in the series. And just like Pokémon has accompanied me throughout my life so far, Meteor still accompanies me to newer regions from time to time, to stretch his legs for a bit.” — Santi Leguiza, Gaming Journalist & Shiny Hunter
“For me, the best part of Pokémon has always been the community. There’s the in-person aspect of course—I’ve been making friends through Pokémon since second grade, when I’d print out fan art of fake Eeveelutions to show the other kids in class—but I also love the way it’s built into the games.
In Black & White, you could visit someone else’s game, so my brother and I spent weekends doing missions together and playing in-game hide-and-seek. Then X & Y introduced Wonder Trade, which I loved. There was just something about the idea that I could send a Pokémon to anyone in the world that stuck in my brain.
I’d spend the days leading up to Christmas and Easter just breeding starters so I could wonder trade them off, hoping I made someone’s day. (By the way, if you received a Torchic named “Happy Easter” in 2015, I’m sorry, I was 14 and didn’t know you couldn’t change the nicknames). Sometimes the implementation is rough (raids are still the jankiest part of Scarlet & Violet), but Pokémon has just always been very good at building in ways for you to do something nice for someone you’ve never even met, and that’s stuck with me.” — Sinéad McDevitt, freelance games journalist
“I’m 34 years old, and Pokémon has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. But what’s wild isn’t just that the franchise is still here 30 years later.. It’s that it has somehow managed to grow up with us and stay perfectly in step with new generations of kids who are discovering it for the very first time!
One of my earliest gaming memories is playing Pokémon Yellow on the way to elementary school. I remember standing at the bus stop one morning, deep in the Seafoam Islands, when I finally caught Articuno after what seemed like hundreds of failed attempts and restarts. My school bus pulled up the exact moment that the Poké Ball finally snapped shut…I didn’t have time to save! I had to turn the Game Boy off and get on the bus. By the time I got to school, Articuno was gone, and I was absolutely crushed. When I got home that night, I ran straight to my Game Boy and caught it again! I still remember that mix of determination, frustration, and triumph like it happened yesterday.
Fast forward three decades, and now I’m watching that same sense of wonder play out all over again, but this time through the eyes of my 4-year-old son. He’s fully into his Pokémon phase. Pikachu everything. He had a Pokémon-themed 4th birthday party last year, dressed as Pikachu for Halloween, and lights up every time the theme song comes on. Seeing him explore this world for the first time has been genuinely emotional in a way I never expected. It feels like I’m getting to experience Pokémon all over again, but with fresh eyes.
That’s what makes Pokémon special to me. It isn’t just nostalgia, it’s continuity. A franchise that has quietly connected parents and kids, siblings, friends, and entire families for generations. It keeps evolving without leaving anyone behind. At 34, I still care deeply about Pokémon, and now I get to share it with my son.
Thirty years in, that kind of staying power doesn’t feel accidental. It feels like magic.” — Matthew Ray, brand manager at Saber Interactive
“As I’m sure tons of people have said – Pokémon is one of the major reasons they even got into games and that rings true for me too. But it’s slightly more than that; I have some issues when it comes to reading and writing (thanks Dyslexic Brain) and especially as a kid my eyes would glaze over when I had to read. They already made me read in school, why are they making me do it in games too?
Pokémon Red and Blue incentivized me to read. It told the story, taught mechanics, and explained moves in small, digestible chunks, and helped me train myself to read more and really appreciate the game.
The Pokédex entries alone created entire entities in my imagination with the tiniest details, which funny enough were so short due to technical limitations, but just long enough to keep me reading and help me appreciate this world and the world of so many games in the future.
I am on team ‘Pokémon Needs Voice Acting’ (at least for some cutscenes), but I’m also so happy that it is what pushed me to read more and was one of the major catalysts that helped me truly appreciate games and the worlds they create.” — Tony Rivera, PR director, Sandbox Strategies
Welcome to Exp. Share, Kotaku ’s Pokémon column in which we dive deep to explore notable characters, urban legends, communities, and just plain weird quirks from throughout the Pokémon franchise.
“Ever since Pokémon first arrived in the UK in 1999, this franchise has been close to my heart, giving me many happy memories. One of my most cherished is attending the Ruby & Sapphire Eon Ticket event in 2004 at my local Gamestation store to obtain a Latias. After making sure I met the prerequisites to obtain the ticket, I linked my console with the one being used by a representative of Nintendo. This allowed me to visit Southern Island and capture Latias. It was really cool to explore an area of the Hoenn map and obtain something quite special that few others had. I also received a goodie bag filled with Pokémon figures, temporary tattoos, and other assorted items especially for this distribution.
I stayed at the event for a few hours and took the chance to speak to the Nintendo representative for a while. I even got involved with the event, helping attendees set up their copies of Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire so they could obtain the ticket themselves. While doing this, I met a guy named Gavin, who had come to the store to receive a Latias too. We got along really well and exchanged contact details so we could keep in touch. Once the event was over, the Nintendo representative gave me an extra goodie bag for all the help I had given!
Twenty-two years have now passed since that event, and Gavin and I are still friends to this day! We bought Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen at launch together and tested the distance of the wireless adapter in the local shopping mall. We spent lots of time battling, trading, and bonding over our shared love of Pokémon. I am fortunate to know him, and will always look back fondly on that day.
My appreciation for Pokémon inspired me to create a newsletter in 2023 called Johto Times, which aims to document and preserve the early history of Pokémon and its fan communities by collecting interviews, opinion pieces, and memories like the one I’ve shared here.” — Darren, Johto Times
“I have so many stories, many of which I have shared ad nauseum, but as we’re approaching the 30th, I figured I’d go with a rather seldom-mentioned one; the pivotal moment of Pokémon in my life I’m going to share isn’t one from my site or from meeting the community at a big event but rather one of the first moments that I felt true community while playing the game. Through my site I met many people but this was the first time that I met anyone through it. I had developed a small group of friends in Serebii’s mod team and one day in 2003 the four of us decided to head to London. We did lots of tourist stuff but the key moment was when we went to St. James Park in London and just sat on the grass. We had all brought our Game Boy Advance consoles and a copy of Pokémon Ruby or Sapphire and we decided to play some Multi Battles. It was just such a good time, and while I can’t remember who won and I haven’t kept in the best contact with those friends, it is a memory that I will cherish forever.
This was the first time that I felt a sense of community with Pokémon and truly saw how awesome the Pokémon community could be, and since then it has snowballed and I see it at every event I attend. The Pokémon community is truly fantastic and that is a big part of why I still engage and do what I do.” — Joe Merrick, webmaster at Serebii
“In my youth, while the Pokémon anime was blowing up with my classmates, I was 100 percent a Dragon Ball Z kid. I thought Pokémon was super lame and for babies. That was, until my cousin gave me his Blue Version cartridge. I didn’t even know there was a game before then. And I got hopelessly hooked. I read everything about it after that. I discovered my favorite Pokémon was Primeape, only to find out that tragically, you couldn’t get them in Blue. By then all my classmates had moved on to Dragon Ball Z and thought Pokémon was a lame game for babies. So I was too embarrassed to admit I was still playing it and needed someone with a Red cartridge to trade with me.
Eventually I met someone from a different school who traded with me. I couldn’t name the Primeape since they were traded, but in my head I called them Goku. They were the first Pokémon I got to level 100. A very special one to me.
I think what lingers most in my memory was just how much love I felt for those janky little pixels in my Game Boy. Choosing my own monsters, and training them up myself, made me deeply care about them in a way I hadn’t ever gotten from passing views of the anime. It taught me a lot about what makes games special.” — Greg Lobanov, director of Beastieball
“Pokémon was something that existed as a constant in my life. My older siblings had copies of Gold, Silver, Ruby, Sapphire, all while I was still too young to process it. My mom would use Pokémon cards as flash cards to help me learn to read, and by the time I had gotten my own GBA and copy of LeafGreen it felt only natural. I bought every new entry, scrounging up pennies and birthday money, getting gifted Pokémon-related items from relatives, battling and trading with my friends, and even using my hand-me-down GBAs from my siblings to trade with myself. There was never any replacement, no idea of the series faltering or any end in sight, and every year of my life was passively accompanied by something Pokémon-related.
But it wasn’t the “online chat-room battling and trading” of the early 2010s that stood out, or even the way that I could memorize every Pokémon name, shiny, fun facts, and other information, but a realization I had in my early 20s that made the culmination of now two and a half decades of Pokémon playing really hit home. Pokémon allowed me to have the confidence to try new things. It sounds silly when saying it aloud, but at every aspect of my life, the 12-year-old kid learning what it means to make a ROM hack and how exciting making a game can be, the 15-year-old kid battling strangers on my 3DS at PAX, overcoming his crippling social anxiety, the 18-year-old rediscovering pixel art and sprite edits he made on MS Paint, turning it into a full-time career, every single new stage in my life I had Pokémon to thank for being the reason I dived head first into a topic I would otherwise have been terrified to approach. Pokémon became so fundamental to my thinking that I never processed how from personal life, to hobbies, to career, it was the backbone of every decision, subtle in its influence. Even now, as I sit at my desk, surrounded by Pokémon merch, drawing pixel art of Pokémon as commissions, I always felt lucky that I had such a fun interest to use as a guiding light, but I never thought about how it gave me the comfort I needed, as a kid, a teen, and as an adult, to find familiarity in the unknown, or have the confidence to be the person who aimed so high, and ended up even higher.
Without Pokémon, I may not have had an interest in game-dev or pixel art, or maybe not as strongly, but I absolutely would not have had the confidence or strength to overcome all the challenges of becoming who I am today, and for that I am forever thankful to Pokémon.” — JDZombi, professional pixel artist
“Pokémon Yellow was the first game I ever owned new. I borrowed it from a friend initially because we couldn’t afford for me to have my own copy, but when my parents saw how much I loved it, somehow, I ended up with enough pocket money. I still have the cartridge, with the box and the Trainer’s Guide (complete with my own notes about how to get past Brock with a Butterfree). It was also the only game I owned for a long time, so I played it constantly, immediately restarting it as soon as I finished. Growlithe was always my favorite Pokémon, and I worked out a strategy so that every playthrough I would get to Cinnabar Island as quickly as possible, catch my Growlithe, and play the rest of the game with him on my team. Growlithe is usually a version exclusive, so I always made sure to buy whichever version of the latest game included my Growlithe buddy.
In my late 20s, after an awful relationship ended, I had the opportunity to get my first ever dog. He’s an orange German Spitz, who I of course called Growlithe. He is exactly what I imagined having a real Growlithe companion would be like for all those years I spent playing Pokémon Yellow. He has travelled with me across Australia, and in 2020, moved with me from Australia to England. I now make video games with him sitting on my lap, which is a lovely reminder of how far we’ve come.” — Nikky Armstrong, the lead programmer at Perfect Garbage on Grave Seasons.
