Alright, here's my basic deconstruction of that "article:"
1)The game itself is very cheap, even for a game boy game. The graphics,animation and sound are all very uninspiried. Their is no plot besides a weak plot to beat your rival, aparently they throught the level building (or as they call it "training") would be enough. Of course they where wrong. I hear how great the game is, I used to own pokemon red, I beat the weak *** plot in 3 weeks of that time, then I sold it.
Ah, I see, so games that allow the player an incredible amount of choice and customization suddenly have weak plots? Granted, Pokemon never had a strong one, but it diddn't need it. The game itself, and the thrill of battle, of earning a new badge could keep people gong for a good while. And really, does this person have any idea of what your average Gameboy RPG looks like? Really, weak graphics and music? It appears that they've done nothing more than look at a couple screenshots, played it a bit and made a mistaken final judgement. And don't you just love the sweeping generalization of "level building would be enough. Of course, they were wrong." Good God, how many of you can remember the first Pokemon you raised to level 100 all on your own, with no rare candies. I know I can. I still remember the exact date, time, number of hours clocked on my game, and exact location. It's a euphoria I've rarely felt since.
2)the TV show, this is used to premote pokemon to people to further optomize their profit. The show itself is very poorly done, at first it was okay, but it's been going down so much new pokemon and new characters are popping up every episode. It's going down pretty sadly if you ask me.
Well, yes, they have a somewhat valid point here, the show is a marketing tool designed to make more money for Nintendo. I assume that Marvel still produces X-Men comics so that fanboys/girls can enjoy them? Now really, all corporations are out to make money and Nintendo is no different. They saw they had a phenom here and pounced at the oppourtunity. Yes, the animation quality in the early episodes is poor, but that never really mattered to most of us, I'd wager. We loved seeing the battles and such, most of us hated Gary for being such a jerk to a good trainer, and we wanted to see Ash and Misty's relationship go somewhere. Most of us were 10-12 at the time, what would you expect? Pokemon was never meant to be a thought-provoking drama or anything, it was meant to be something to enjoy for a quick 30 minutes on a Saturday morning. And of course they're going to introduce new Pokemon and spend time on that, as stated above, it's a marketing tool.
3)People and pokemon, somehow the game and show combined have an acute side effect on people. After watching the show and playing the video game the fans seem to lose the fragile grip on reality, half convinced that pokemon is real. Pokemon has brainwashed people, turning them into weirdeos that entertain a conversation without mentioning their prescious game cartrage or TV show, If you disagree with you in an way they will blow up and go completely beserk.
Hmmm, I never lost my grip on reality until a brief stage where I stopped likeing Pokemon. Where did this person get the "information" that Pokemon causes loss of a firmn grip on reality? And I personally never went beserk on the people wwho insulted Pkemon straight to my face, I'd say that it was a matter of opinion, walk away, and continue playing Yellow in peace.
4) the card game. Do I even have to talk aganst this? The cards are like drugs, produced for maybe 25 cents a sheet and sold at 4-5 dollars. The cards are little more than another way to leech money out of people by applying the cute little creatures to cards and selling them. It worked well, pokemon cards raked in money. As for the buyers, they have fought amonst themselves, school yards have banned them and parents should consider it before buying them.
Again, of course it's a marketing tool. But furthermore, I found the card game fun. Did this person ever consider that people do things because they find them fun? Fuirthermore, I never payed $5 for an individual card that wasn't well worth putting in my deck. I'd also like to see the source they used for this information, it would really help credulity.
5) The creatures. The pokemon themselves are just a scam to get the public eye. Looking at them, notice all of them are either cute and cuddly or are powerful looking and big. The pokemon are just puppets to "aww" the brainless masses into buying this junk.
Really? The first time I ever saw Squritle, widely regarded as one of the "cute" Pokemon, on my Gameboy, I thought he was butt-ugly. And again, of course they're going to design them to appeal to people, of course they need something that will market well. Otherwise it wouldn't really sell, would it now? It's for the same basic reason that all the female characters from X-Men wear skintight outfits for the most part.
6)The N64 games. I mean how bad can It get? using a system you think you'd get better results right? Pokemon stadium brang us even less, I personally was disapointed with the animations feeling they could have put more effort into it, but more the point this game delivers even less than the pokemon game boy game did. It's the same thing, all you do is fight, now you don't have anything to do BUT fight.
And it's called "Stadium" for that reason, you battle your Pokemon in a stadium. Furthermore, there are the mini-games to keep you occupied when you've had a battle overload. To be honest, I never expected much out of the Stadium games, I saw them as something fun to play while you needed to kill some time, not as a long, hardcore, Final Fantasy-type endeavor.
7)Now about pokemon snap. The whole game ruined a good idea, I myself would like to see other companies make a nature safari game using the same gaming engine. But the game is not only short and brief, it's incredibly pointless.
Snap never really appealed to me, but it did to some because it was fun. Furthermore, they say they'd like to see other "safari" type games, but at the end say it's "pointless." They appear to be basing the entire fact that it seems pointless to them on the inclusion of Pokemon.
8)The movie, It was not nearly as good as some other anime movies. I also found the plot to be very hohum, an evil pokemon comes and you have to defeat it. If thats not old I don't know what is.
Now really, did the author pay any attention to the movie? Did they even see it? It was an indictment of human arrogance. Furthermore, Mewtwo was never defeated, he saw that human's aren't all bad and decided to leave them in peace. Ash died in the movie for Christ's sakes, to save the Pokemon, both clone and natural. Doesn't sound like the kind of thing that someone trying to defeat an evil Poke-clone would do, no? Of course the end of the dub developed into a bunch of pretentious, moral BS, but I didn't really expect anything else, seeing as how it was targeted at a younger audience.
9)The merchindice. I talked about pokemon cards, but this goes far beyond that. The pokemon merchindice is fanatical, their are pokemon canned foods,candies,stickers,toys,books,posters,t-shirts and just about everything imaginable. The limit to how far it streches is mind boggling
And most of this merchandise disgusted he real fans of Pokemon. I know it did me. But American companies wanted a piece of the pie too, so the got a lisencing deal with Nintendo, slapped a Pikachu sticker on a cheap backpack, and viola! It's instant money!
10)The whole pokemon thing is just trying to start over again by adding more pokemon and new characters to the show, It seems to be working as the pokemon fans are eating it right up. It may not end soon enough but hopefully pokemon will be ended soon.
Again, corporations want money. Nintendo saw they still had a market and so they jumped at the chance to continue it. How would that be done? By making an entirely new game, moving the TV seires into that game's world, and adding new Pokemon. As long as Pokemon has a sufficient fanbase, Nintendo will continue the series.
