Turning Points in Pokemon History

[Steller the Raichu]

Pokemon has been out for a while, so I thought it would be nice to get opinions about what really changed the way we look at Pokemon. At some points, when I discovered legendaries, it seemed that it was a new religion. I mean, look, Groudon is the guardian of the earth and ground and Dialga is the guardian of time.

Ever since the first Pokemon movie, Pokemon has been one of the most popular norms. However, there are some significant moments in Pokemon's time of existence that had a great impact on its fans.

Pokemon only started out as just a battling game, with Red, Blue and Yellow. When the Nintendo 64 came out, Pokemon Stadium was introduced. Shortly after, a game that would make the fans go wild was introduced, and that game was..."Hey You! Pikachu!". In this game, the player gets to interact with Pikachu using a special microphone that attached to the Nintendo 64 controller. Not long after, when the gamecube was introduced, "Pokemon Channel" was introduced. Again, fans when wild, but it wasn't as crazy as the next turning point.

In the anime, when the episode "Hocus Pokemon" was released, the fans went ballistic, for this was the episode where Ash turned into a Pikachu. Little did the fans know, that this episode would be an idea for an upcoming game...

...And it was. "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon" made the fans jump for joy. In this game, you were a human sent into a pokemon world free of humans. You were transformed into a Pokemon but you did not know why. Two sequels followed this game.

The final turning point as of now, was the PokePark series. Everyone has dreamed of playing as a true Pokemon, not a human transformed into one. The dream had finally come true in 2009/2010. A sequel just came out in 2011. The game featured a sequenced plot and awesome music.

Pokemon has come a long way. What are some other turning points in Pokemon?

 

[Sydian]

When the Nintendo 64 came out, Pokemon Colosseum was introduced.

Stadium, not Colosseum. Colosseum and XD were for the GameCube, which could also be considered a turning point in a sense. They showed that Pokemon could have a dark side and be a more mature game. So...yeah. lol But you're thinking of Pokemon Stadium and Stadium 2 for N64.

Also, I wouldn't say fans went wild over Pokemon Channel or either PokePark games. Channel was relatively boring and gets negative comments a lot, and PokePark was aimed at a pretty low age. Though I don't say that to offend someone older than the target age that enjoyed it. But even still, people weren't really wild about either PokePark games honestly, so I find it a bit odd you consider them turning points. Assuming you just mean playing as a Pokemon is the turning point, then that makes sense. Gamewise though, I don't think it made any huge leaps. But I'm a bit of a cynic with newer spin offs games, lol.

 

[Steller the Raichu]

They showed that Pokemon could have a dark side and be a more mature game.

...Which was a part of the inspiration for Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almnia.

 

[Kenshin5]

I feel there isn't one thing or another that forges a turning point but a series of things. Each generation as something new an innovative it has brought to the table so I feel each generation gives a turning point in pokemon history.

For me the biggest one was Generation III.

With the design concepts of pokemon then seems to more complex and "different" air about them then the first two generations.

In the Anime Ash decides to leave his pokemon at Oak lab instead of taking them like he did when he left for Johto. So he started anew more-so this time then the previous adventure.

With the game it brought things like EVs, Contests, and Battle Frontier. EV's would greatly aid in competitive play, Contests was a major stable for side things to do for two generations, Battle Frontier gave you different things to do again Frontier Brains based on the facility you choose.

It also gave us games like Syd said Colosseum and XD which changed the franchise from goal oriented catch em all, badges, defeat evil team, league. To I've really gotta catch em all and snag them at that cause I am dealing with pokemon who have been altered. And as Syd said it showed them that they could take it a more mature path. For me it was Stadium with story lines and it was great.

 

[XtinaIsMeLuvinWWE]

For me I think the new legends, pokémon was forgotten about for a while here and then TV was plagued with ads for the 5th gen so I think that helped generate more interest :)