The Pokemon franchise logo for anywhere outside of Japan.
The Pokémon Series or Pokemon Series (Japanese: ポケットモンスター Pocket Monsters, or ポケモン Pokémon for short) is a series of video games and an entire franchise created by Nintnendo. The main objective or purpose of Pokemon is catching and training many creatures or monsters known as pokémon. With 493 pokémon total, the Pokémon franchise has come a long from its original 151 Pokémon. The term Pokémon may refer to trading cards, the television show, video games, Pokemon creatures, or Pokemon Manga.
Concept[]
The origin of Pokémon is reminiscent of insect collecting, which Satoshi Tajiri enjoyed doing as a child.
Pokémon are based off of primarily animals and even plants, Pokémon is also based on yōkai, a Japanese pop culture.
Etymology[]
Pokémon is known as "Pocket Monsters" in Japan. This would have been the appropriate name when transferred to North America, but "Pocket Monsters" would've caused trademarking problems with Monster in My Pocket, so Nintendo decided to use the shortened version of the name which is also used in Japan, with the Poké coming from pocket and the Mon being derived from Monsters.
Due to the accent on the name, Pokémon has a specific pronunciation — Poh-Kay-Mon. The emphasis on the e comes from the accent appearing above it. Common mispronunciations include Poke-Ay-Mon, Poke-ee-man, Poke-ee-mon, Poke-ay-man and Pock-uh-mon.
Collectivity[]
Pokémon appear in almost everywhere imaginable on Earth. Seas, forest, deserts, caves, underground, huge cities, and more. In the wild Pokémon appear at a certain percentage rate when walking in grass, fishing in water, surfing in water, smashing rocks, or walking in caves. Pokemon can be battled by other pokémon for recreation, food, training, or defense. Though, in the Anime, pokémon may sometimes harm humans when untamed. Pokémon are mortal, like humans, though many new players have a misunderstanding that pokemon only faint. They believe this hence the fact that when battled to their loss of energy, they faint. It is proven false that Pokémon are not immortal because of the anime, sometimes it clames that pokémon can and will die.
Species and Types[]
Pokemon have many different species. A species can consist of a certain pokemon with a certain type. There are 18 types in Pokémon. those 18 types can be broken into three groups, physical, special, and an unnamed group. The Physical group contains Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ground, Rock, Bug, Ghost, and Steel. The Special Group contains Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Ice, Dragon, and Dark. The Unnamed group contains only one type known as ???. This type appears on no pokemon but only appears on one move, Curse. Here is an example of two pokemon including their types: Bulbasaur (a Poison/Grass type) and an Unown (a Psychic type). These are only two pokemon out of 493.
In the anime, most pokémon speak portions of their name. Such as Pikachu, being able to say pi, pika, pikachu, ka, or chu. Some pokemon, like Salamence or Flygon, have the ability to roar or growl in the anime. Small amounts of pokemon have the ability to talk in the anime, such as Jessy's and James's Meowth. Though most pokemon that have the ability to talk are legendary, and talk telepathically. Like Lucario, Mewtwo, or Shaymin. Pokémon in the video games primarily have roars known as cries. They do this when they come out to battle, or when you view their pokedex information. The only times when you can see a pokemon say its name or partly say it is by viewing one in the overworld.
Originally, when the Generation I games (Pokemon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow) were released, there were 151 species of Pokémon (from Bulbasaur to Mew). This number then became 251 with the release of Pokemon Gold,Silver, and Crystal of Generation II a few years later, adding an additional 100 species (Chikorita to Celebi). Generation III brought another 135 species (Treecko to Deoxys) to the Pokémon world with the release of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, bringing the total to 386. The most recent additions, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, the beginning of Generation IV introduced 107 new species (Turtwig to Arceus), bringing the overall total to 493.
Several games, especially the Red and Blue versions, have featured various hidden in-game Glitch Pokémon, most notably Missingno. and 'M. There have also been glitches found that are unrelated to individual Pokémon, such as Glitch City. Another appearence would be in Generation III games, where a ? can appear or a Bad Egg. The ? pokémon is the same as the image appearing when you have not seen a certain pokémon in your Pokédex. The ? is found by going into the tall grass while not having any pokemon. It is only possible to do this with a cheat device or by hacking.
Design Theme[]
The Design Theme for many pokemon games is basically the same, except for the fact that graphics get a boost. All graphics in the overworld are mainly walking across several squares. Your character equals one square. You get a view from an angle above, rather than looking in the first person view or behind your character. In Generation I, The graphics were simple and not very new. A plain pokémon game with some good graphic boosts like battling pokémon. Generation II has better graphics than Generation I, with more colorful art and less random colors in random places. Better art on legendaries, and the pixels are smaller. Generation III takes a big leap up in pokémon graphics. More artistic and contrast within pokémon. A larger world to explore and extremely good graphics on legendaries. Generation IV was pokémon's first game in the third dimension. It contains the same graphics from previous pokémon games except for the fact that they have more of a realistic feal. Some parts are rather over emphasized and shouldn't be 3d, but overall the best graphics so far.
Shiny Pokémon[]
A Shiny Pokémon appears any time at random from Generation II up. It is the exact same thing as a normal pokemon, with the same stats. Except that the colors on it are colored differently. For example, a Charizard is red, but a shiny Charizard is black. A shiny pokémon can appear at any given time anywhere where wild pokémon appear, though they only have a chance of being seen. Some shiny pokémon barely even have alternative colors, such as Pikach. Its color is yellow, but a shiny Pikachu's colors are a bit more dark. Another way of telling if a pokémon is shiny is by checking when it comes into battle if sparks fly off them, as Shiny Pokémon do this when they begin battle.
