Pokémon Crash Course

Alan: I think I need a crash course in Pokemon. I entirely missed the whole thing 😬

Satoshi Tahiri used to collect bugs when he was a kid in Japan. He first came up with the idea for Pokémon when the Game Boy was released because of the Link cable: it allows you to link two Game Boy systems to exchange data. He imagined a bug going through the cable from one Game Boy to another.

The first two games were released in 1996: Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green (Red and Blue outside Japan). In the game, you are a Pokémon trainer and need to choose between three Pokémon to start your adventure: Charmander (fire), Bulbasaur (grass) and Squirtle (water).

There's 2 goals in the game: Become the Pokémon Champion and complete your Pokédex. The Pokédex is a portable device with information on Pokémon you catch. The first generation had 150 Pokémon in game and a special Pokémon called "Mew" which could be acquired via events or via a glitch. To complete your Pokédex you need to catch all 150 Pokémon. The fun in having 2 games is you can catch certain Pokémon in your game, and you needed to trade Pokémon via the Link Cable with someone who had the other game. Gameplay and story in both games is identical.

To catch Pokémon, you need to battle them with your own Pokémon and throw a Poké Ball at them when they're weak. You can catch as many Pokémon as you like but you can only carry 6 Pokémon with you at a time (the rest are kept in storage). When you battle, your Pokémon gain experience, increase their level and learn new moves. You battle wild Pokémon to catch them, and you battle other trainers.

There's a "type" system where each Pokémon has one or two types (fire, water, grass, electric, bug, poison, ghost, rock, ground, fighting, normal, psychic, flying, ice and dragon in the first generation, more were added later). Some attack types are more or less effective against other types. Eg: fire is super effective against grass, water is super effective against fire, electric is super effective against water, etc. There's a lot of strategy and a bit of luck in Pokémon battles and that makes them really fun. You can battle your friends on the Game Boy via the Link Cable.

To become the Pokémon regional Champion, you need to beat the Elite Four. To be allowed to battle the Elite Four, you need to beat 8 gym leaders. They are Pokémon Masters who have their own gym with a specific type of Pokémon. Once you beat them, you get a badge, and the 8 badges allow you to battle the Elite Four.

That's the gist of it. New generations have added new features like breeding Pokémon. There's also now more than 800 known Pokémon, and new Pokémon will no doubt show up in Sword and Shield. But the developers have said not every known Pokémon will be in the game (which I think is great, I can barely remember the original 150 anymore).

I'd assume Sword and Shield would be a good place to start since most instances are beginner friendly. They know each Pokémon game is someone's first Pokémon game. It's a fun RPG/adventure/collecting game and just by typing all of this I've become extremely hyped to get Sword/Shield 😝

This is a "Pokémon Crash Course" I originally posted in a chat when a friend asked about it. It's from memory, so don't take this as accurate data.