Pokemon is the world’s second most popular video game series, after Mario (My favorite). However, I don’t know why that’s the case, because unlike other popular video game series, Pokemon has seen nearly no change in gameplay.

The first Pokemon game is simple. You had to catch Pokemon, travel around the land defeating the gyms, stopping the bad guys, and then going and defeating the Pokemon Champion to become the Champion yourself. The graphics were really bad and were black and white. However, the game was on the low-power Game Boy system, so this can be excused.

However, the next Pokemon game, Pokemon Yellow, was basically the same only with these major differences: Pikachu is your starter Pokemon, your rival has different Pokemon, and Jessie and James from the cartoon are able to be fought. I’ll talk about the cartoon later. So, basically the game was just a remake of the first one.

The next games in the series was exactly the same only with some Gym Leader changes and the villains were slightly different. So three games in a row, exactly the same world and concept.

Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire featured a new world and Pokemon finally, but still the same concept: Conquer the gyms and, while you’re at it, defeat the villain and then, when all the gyms are won, you beat the Elite Four and Champion. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl was the same! And it’s graphics were about as high-quality as the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Diamond and Pearl was released in 2009, and A Link to the Past was released in 1991! That just shows how poorly the graphics improved!

Pokemon Black and White had the same concept with barely updated graphics.

The next game released, Black and White 2, was set in exactly the same world, being just a remake of a game released the year before with some story differences and minor changes of the world.

Pokemon X and Y FINALLY updated the graphics, but kept the same concept.

One of the things that bugs me most about Pokemon is the final battle. In games like the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the main villain of the game is Ganondorf and the climax of the game is a fight with Ganondorf in his dark fortress. In Pokemon, the final battle is with a friendly side character, the champion, in some mansion-arena place. Pokemon Black and White Two, oddly, is the only game where the game’s main villain, Ghetsis, is fought as the final boss. Also, lots of Pokemon villains are just misunderstood people that want to help the world but are doing it in the wrong way, while most Mario villains and all Zelda villains are pure evil.

When I was younger and I first watched the Pokemon cartoon, I thought it was awesome. But now I realize that it is just as repetitive as the games. Unlike most shows with a focus on battles, it has no main villain. The “main villains” are Jessie, James, and Meowth, three low-ranking minions of an evil organization, Team Rocket. The boss of Team Rocket, Giovanni, is the natural choice for the main villain but he rarely appears. Some shows, like Lego’s Ninjago cartoon, are all one story arc that leads up to an epic final battle. However, every Pokemon episode is stand-alone, and often nothing really happens. Here’s the basic outline for most pokemon episodes: Ash and his friends are walking on a forest path, when a Pokemon jumps out of the bushes! Soon it’s trainer comes and says he’s having problems taking care of that Pokemon so Ash decides to help him. The Team Rocket Trio sees them and decide to steal that Pokemon and Pikachu. But Ash defeats them and then parts ways with the trainer he helped. Practically every episode is like that. However, the movies are better, as they are like 1 hour long and pit Ash against an extra-evil villain. Most villains of the Pokemon movies are way more evil than the common episode villains and have things like awesome spaceships that usually explode near the climax. They are a lot more epic!

I think the Pokemon games need to have a more large focus on defeating the villain, who should be the final boss. I also think that you should actually be able to move your Pokemon around in the battles. Some turn-based RPGs, like Mario and Luigi: Dream Team, allow you to dodge enemies’ moves and you have the press the buttons with right timing to do damage. The pokemon battle system is just click on the attack you want, and it happens. Then your enemy attacks. A change like that would make the pokemon battles more interesting and to improve the shows, they should make Giovanni the main villain or add a new villain. There should also be an epic plot twist.  For example, where Ash’s dad is revealed to be Giovanni!

So, why is the Pokemon series so popular? What do people see in these repetitive games? Who knows?