Pocket Monsters 21st Anniversary

Today is a monumental day for lovers of the Pokémon world. The original Pocket Monsters series was released on February 27th, 1996 in Japan for the Game Boy. Exactly 21 years ago today!

The long running Pokémon series began with the release of Pocket Monsters Red and Green. Though Red and green released in Japan, North America didn’t get a taste of these adorable yet vicious Pocket Monsters until over a year later.

Video & Featured Image Source – RobertNestaTravaglio

Pocket Monsters Green never made it out of Japan. Blue was released later in the year as a special edition. When Pokémon finally hit the United States the games were released as Red and Blue.

The original games introduced the original 151 species of Pokémon, and set the stage for the vast empire it would rapidly become. The first generation of games takes place in the Kanto region, but the name Kanto was not used until the second generation.

Pokémon Red and Blue utilized the Game Boy Game Link Cable, which connected players devices so that they could battle and trade. With our modern wifi tech the Game Link Cable sounds so primitive. In the early days of mobile gaming this was considered cutting edge technology. 21 years goes by fast doesn’t it?

Video Source – BinkTinks

Insect collecting was a childhood hobby of game designer Satoshi Tajiri. The concept of the Pocket Monster stemmed from his past time love of catching bugs. He noticed as human urbanization was on the rise, the insect population was in decline. He also noticed that children now played inside, so he brought his past time passion to the world of video games in the form of Pocket Monsters.

Tajiri isn’t just the father of one of the most beloved game series of all times, hes also a good guy. Video game violence was a touchy subject for Satoshi. This is why the creatures did not bleed or die. Tajiri did’t want to further fill the gaming world with “pointless violence”.

Original they struggled to settle on a name due to trademark conflicts and other difficulties. At first a few of the choices were Capsule Monsters, CapuMon, or KapuMon. After the name dust settled they finally went with Pocket Monsters.

“As of February 2016, more than 279 million Pokémon games have been sold worldwide, more than 200 million of which from the main series. This makes Pokémon the third best-selling video game franchise, behind Nintendo’s own Mario franchise and the Tetris series of block puzzle games.” ~ Wikipedia

Video Source – Jimmy Whetzel

Pokemon has become a vast empire in its 21 years of glory. If your a fan of the series I hope you enjoyed the facts I collected to pay homage to your favorite little monsters. Hopefully it put you in the spirit to dust of your Game Boy’s and relive the adventure all over again.

Happy 21st Anniversary Pocket Monsters Red and Green!!!