He thought if he mastered more battles, he might be able to reach the top someday. Much like Glick, Otsubo also found success by finishing second place at a local tournament. The channel I have on YouTube is called the Naminori Channel (Surf Channel), which is named after Lapras.” I really liked the Pokémon called Lapras. It was my first time playing a game, and I remember being overjoyed when I defeated a strong gym leader. “The first time I played was the Pikachu version ( Pokémon Yellow). I contacted the 2017 VGC World Champion Ryota Otsubo to hear his thoughts on Pokémon’s influence (and did my best to accurately translate his Japanese). Moon.īut don’t take my word alone for it. I say this as someone who has lived in Japan for the last eight years – Pokémon is as common here as a Zubat is in Mt. Many major cities have a Pokémon Centre selling everything from stuffed toys to Pokémon cards. McDonald’s puts out Pikachu-flavoured McFlurries. As popular as it is in the West, every single child in Japan knows what a Pokémon is and the majority have likely played a Pokémon game. And when it comes to the battles themselves, the removal of random factors – such as a 10% chance to freeze – creates a more balanced and fair experience that rewards careful play rather than luck.īut Pokémon players in Canada, America, and Spain can’t hold a Litwick to how Pokémon moulded the cultural zeitgeist of Japan from 1996 onward.
Seeing other players in the overworld – Temtem, after all, is coined as a massively multiplayer creature collecting adventure – trading or battling with them directly, and having an auction house, are all ways Crema looks to improve the monster-battling formula. Temtem came about because Andrades and his team had lost interest in Pokémon as it pushed to reach a broader and broader audienceĪndrades emphasises Temtem’s social elements as something they’ve looked to innovate upon. Crema wanted to see how the formula Game Freak perfected would adapt to a more difficult and competitive approach. When asked about Pokémon’s influence on Temtem, Andrades says that Temtem came about because he and his team had lost interest in Pokémon as it pushed to reach a broader and broader audience. In fact, he’s on his way to the 2022 World Championships in London this August.įor Andrades and his team at Spanish developer Crema, recent Pokémon games inspired them to challenge Pokémon’s conventions rather than mimic them. He now produces both informative and humorous Pokémon-related videos for his YouTube channel with over 500k subscribers, along with a valiant effort to help ease new players into the scene with VGCGuide – all while still competing. The following year he placed 2nd at Worlds and knew he had to keep competing.įew people have managed to turn competitive Pokémon into a career, but Glick has done just that. The tournament was in a format he’d never played before – VGC’s double battles – but Glick still managed to learn the format, win the event, and secure a ticket to the US Nationals – which he also won, granting him access to the World Championships where he placed 6th. When searching for strangers online to battle over wifi at 12 years old, Glick discovered an in-person tournament about 40 minutes from where he lived. However, few people have had Pokémon change the course of their life the way developer Game Freak’s monster-collector has for Glick. Pokémon International’s VGC – which stands for the obliquely named Video Game Championships – gathers dozens of skilled players from around the world every year to compete in double battles for prizes and glory. 2004’s FireRed began Glick’s journey to becoming the VGC World Champion in 2016 and one of the most recognizable competitive trainers. “My first Pokémon game was FireRed,” Wolfe Glick told me in an email interview. I asked my friend why the Pokémon sparkled and he said it meant it was holding a Master Ball "I didn’t know what shiny Pokémon were at the time. Somehow, Pokémon developer Game Freak continues to capture cultural touchstone after cultural touchstone as if it were as easy as catching a Caterpie. Up until this year’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus, every mainline Pokémon game is a classic for another generation of kids the world over. Yet the special thing about Pokémon is this phenomenon which isn’t exclusive to those of us in Canada or born around 1990. By ‘quintessential’ I mean Pokémon games stand out as some of the most memorable and influential gaming experiences ever made. Many people can relate similar anecdotes about playing the quintessentially classic Red and Blue.