by Jeannie Sather

Created on: July 25, 2009

When you first look at Pokemon, it seems really easy: catch a cute pokemon, train it battle it, and level up. It can be a really addicting game with the goal gotta catch them all. Of course, more pokemon keep being created making that goal harder than it seems. Let's take a closer look at the Pokemon phenomenon and see how easy it really is.

Each Pokemon has different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. They are also placed into classes: water, air, fire, etc. Each Pokemon has certain advantages and disadvantages when fighting against each other, depending on class and skill level. The different environments also play a role as the different Pokemon can have a heightened advantages or disadvantages with each environment. For example, a fire or electric Pokemon is at a disadvantage in a water environment. This requires the players to have some sort of strategy that can help them win each battle and to know everything about each of their pokemon to determine the best way to use each in battle.

Each Pokemon can also evolve into a more powerful and mature version of itself. It does this after so many battles and experiences. The players will also move up, becoming more professional trainers as their Pokemon advances and evolves. It stands to reason that every Pokemon has two versions of itself, the younger and older ones; this allows the game to grow with the players.

Pokemon encourages players to trade their Pokemon with other players. This allows each player to form their own team of Pokemon to their own personal liking. It also helps with the goal of catching them all. In fact, a large part of Pokemon game play is interaction among players, which encourages players to get their friends involved in playing too. This indirectly teaches the players valuable social skills, as they have to work together to beat other players or trade pokemon for better training.

The marketing for Pokemon was ingenious. You have something for just about everyone: card games, video games, anime series, movies, collectables, and even cosplay opportunities. In its heyday, everyone liked it and when the older kids went on to other games, younger kids took over. This has enabled the game to survive.

Pokemon stresses teamwork and practices to get to the goal of being the best. It is not really violent or has anything bad in it. This makes it a great game for kids while still entertaining for adults. Parents, aunts or uncles can all play Pokemon with kids and easily pick up on the rules if they have never done it before or teach young kids the basics. All versions of the card game work basically the same, so using cards from different sets is allowed.

So while it's easy to dismiss Pokemon as a silly kids game, you can not lose sight of the fact that it still survives to be recognized by millions with a E rating. It will most likely be around a while with new Pokemon being added.

Learn more about this author, Jeannie Sather.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.