It’s always fascinating to see how differently the Pokémon series has presented itself over the years. The 30-year-old franchise has lived through multiple handheld and console generations, decades of anime, and its trading cards going from potentially being “worth something someday” to being a treasure trove preyed upon by scalpers. But before Pokémania became a worldwide phenomenon in the ‘90s, it had to get packaged and pitched to an audience outside of Japan. A video of the original E3 1998 showcase reel for Pokémon has been archived by the Video Game History Foundation, and this time capsule offers a wild look back on both Pokémon as a series, and also E3 and video game trade shows of the era.
While E3 is no more, the show was once the cornerstone of video game marketing every summer, with folks tuning in to watch press conferences where the execs of PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox, and other companies showed trailers and demos for their upcoming games. Though many likely remember E3 for these press conferences replete with flashy stages and celebrity appearances, at one point the show was much more subdued and directed more at retailers and businesses than anything else. In 1998, Pokémon had already blown up in Japan and was on its way to English-speaking territories, so Nintendo brought a video showcasing the video games, anime, card game, and merchandise to the show.
The presentation is a bit jarring because it’s so clinical. It spouts off sales and anime viewership numbers, which were definitely impressive at the time considering the series was still only in Japan. Still, hearing suits talk about how “Pokeymon” is a “phenomenal product” as they try to pitch retailers on how big of a hit they have on their hands offers a pretty clear demonstration of how E3 shifted over the years. Though the show obviously remained useful as a place where companies could pitch their games and hardware to retailers, the messaging became much more player-focused over the years, with developers showing off games and trying to sell their games to an audience, rather than specifically to people who needed reassurance that a particular game would be worth putting on their shelves. You’ll find little mention of Pokémon’s belief in the power of friendship here, just a lot of numbers and statistics, and a disembodied voice saying they’re getting “reports” of known features of the Pokémon games instead of just saying “you’ll have to trade Pokémon with other players to complete the Pokédex.”
It kinda gives me the ick, but one interesting thing in all this corporate speak is that you can hear an earlier version of the Pokémon anime theme song that included a different tagline than the one the show eventually settled on. While most people know the phrase “Gotta catch ‘em all!” from the theme song, the version we hear in this video had different lyrics: “Catch ‘em if you can!” This E3 took place in May 1998, a little under four months before the series would make its proper United States debut in September, so at some point the show re-recorded the theme song featuring Jason Paige that most folks know today.
Nowadays, Pokémon needs no introduction, nor does it need to tout sales numbers so Walmart will stock Red and Blue, but it is interesting to look back at relics of the ‘90s before Pikachu became a household name.
