HELP! Introducing girl to Pokemon...where do I start?

[bwburke94]

I'd say Platinum, since some characters reappear in HG/SS and B/W.

 

[ZetaZaku]

I have the same problem. My advice is not to nag too much. My girlfriend has a friend who's also into Pokemon, and that guy is just nagging and nagging and she avoids Pokemon because of that. I nearly got her to start White, but she changed her mind while I was creating a back up for my save (troll). She's currently into Elesa (BW2 version) so I'll try with that game when it comes out.

You should avoid Kanto and Johto games. Johto is more interesting to people who played Kanto, and Kanto lacks story telling. Give her a game with a story, you want her to stay interested and complete it. If she just goes from one town to another and grinds for hours, she'll lose interest. Hoenn and Unova games would be the best choice (depending on which you have). Both are more focused on story telling and feature a cool female character. If you give her to play a Hoenn game, you could also show her the Advanced series. You can easily explain Ash's situation to her so she'll get into it quickly. If you give her a Unova game, then Best Wishes. I think that would be the best option as the show would be more interesting to her after playing the game (like seeing some characters animated, gym leaders, favorite Pokemon from that region). I wouldn't recommend giving her to play Unova and giving her to watch the first season. She'll be confused.

If you can't really decide, show her some pictures of the Rivals and Gym Leaders, and show her some cool Pokemon from those regions. You could also trade her some Pokemon after she starts playing. The main objective is for her to have fun, and playing with your favorite Pokemon is more fun than with some random ones.

You should also let her play it on an actual GBA or a DS (or an emulator for those phones or PSP), since it's portable and she can relax while playing it.

 

[LinooneFriend]

As a female fan, I can say that the thing that first caught my eye was how cute a lot of the characters were. You would have to be pretty heartless to resist something cute. As you show them to her, work your way up from cute to ugly-cute to interesting to epic. Like, start with little ones and end with legendaries. You don't have to show her them all, just the good ones. Then you can choose a game based on what Pokemon are in it and which ones she liked best. If she likes the cute ones best, I recommend HG/SS because I thought it was really cute and very fundamental to the meaning of pokemon. Then again, HG is one of the few games I've ever played, other than platinum and black. But I do know a bit about the old games and I'm learning more.

(edit)
After seeing some stuff other people wrote, I want to contradict what I said before. Don't get her HG, it requires more experience with Pokemon than other games. Platinum was my first game, and it was the best thing I had ever seen. When I played HG, it took me forever to beat the elite four, and I only beat them when I lost my copy of platinum. I beat the sinnoh league easy and i was soo proud of myself. Platinum! Pick Platinum! It's awesome! :D

 

[rayan.b]

i think starting to introduce her to pokemon designs and and their stories before starting the game is better ( she's your gf you should know which pokemon she would like better than any of us but jirachi is my fav ) intruding her to the pokemon themselves would let here feel connected to the pokemon world and she would look for the pokemon she liked which will add to the experience of enjoying the game

 

[Ammako]

Yes, Platinum would be, IMO, the best choice.

It has a good amount of Pokémon, the region is pretty nice (Battle Island is, IMO, the best post-game out of any other Pokémon game.)
It has the Underground + Secret Bases, which is pretty nice and fun.
The game engine is much better than Diamond/Pearl's game engine. It also has the Battle Frontier, which is pretty nice (Though battling isn't really my thing.)
It also has contests.

Plus, the PokéRadar if you like hunting for shinies.

 

[Polizard]

I experienced this problem before with recent ex Girlfriend, she was the exact same she never watched, played or even payed any attention to Pokemon. Do Not Harass her and Bombard her with Pokemon, It will annoy her and she will leave you.

I brought up the topic with her a few times and waited for her to express an interest. When i knew i had sparked her interest I left Pokemon on the Tv, Manga volumes on the desks and tables. Eventually she started watching the TV while we cleaned, reading the Manga while she was bored. I then gave her my old Game Boy and a copy of Emerald and she loved it. In my opinion ease her into it if you force it on her she will reject it and find it annoying, just let her come to it and if she does not like it don't push it she does not need to like everything you like.

 

[ArtsyPokemon]

I started off with playing Pearl, it was my brothers. I always saw him playing it and i wanted to join the fun :D
So I would suggest the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum and then pretty much give her the basics. Rowan gives a little background on what Pokemon was and the controls. I thought it was easy enough to be able to play and hard enough to want to beat it!
Also if she has any questions you must answer them as easy as possible.

Thats just my opinion. :3 Hope I help! :D

 

[DigitalDame]

When I was much younger the one that got me into the digital game was actually Pokemon snap more than anything. Namely because my brother horded the GameBoy so only one of us could play at a time but still to this day if I'm in a yucky mood I pull that game out and I feel better. So if you're lucky enough to still have a N64 laying around perhaps playing that might be a good launching pad.

 

[m3s0aws0m3]

Give her the ruby and sapphire game and maybe the emerald game so she knows what it's like back then with no running inside a building or anything like that.
:s

 

[Leviathan-666]

I experienced this problem before with recent ex Girlfriend, she was the exact same she never watched, played or even payed any attention to Pokemon. Do Not Harass her and Bombard her with Pokemon, It will annoy her and she will leave you.

I brought up the topic with her a few times and waited for her to express an interest. When i knew i had sparked her interest I left Pokemon on the Tv, Manga volumes on the desks and tables. Eventually she started watching the TV while we cleaned, reading the Manga while she was bored. I then gave her my old Game Boy and a copy of Emerald and she loved it. In my opinion ease her into it if you force it on her she will reject it and find it annoying, just let her come to it and if she does not like it don't push it she does not need to like everything you like.

Polizard, I agree with you 100%.

 

[Blues-Music]

Its all in the pokemon.
If you tell her to play the game first she won't know whats so great about it.Show her pokemon you think she would like.If she likes cute show her jigglypuff.If she likes cool show her snivy.Get something to real her in before you press A , or else you would have leered in to late.