#17

Pokemon (Originally released in 1998 on the Game Boy.)

Gotta Catch 'em all!

I tell you what. Try as I could, back in the day I could not stop hearing abut this Pokemon phenomenon. I was not one of the first people to play Pokemon. As soon as I started hearing about this game, I instantly hated it. I don't know why, but I did. Me and my brother would constantly bash the game openly. On the Internet, (which was just introduced to us around that time.) we would find chat rooms and talk smack to the people that were talking about all the Pokemon they caught or how awesome of a game it was. I was not buying into the hype. The game seemed intended for little kids. The show was horrible. (Though it did have a catchy song.) I was a teenager. I liked mature games. Pokemon was beneath me.

It was my freshmen year at Leto High School when my life was changed forever. I was in my American History class and this kid was playing on his Game Boy. Ah, high school. We could get away with playing video games while the teacher was lecturing about whatever. The kid was playing Pokemon. I was instantly turned off. He was a Pokemaniac, and I wanted no part of him. Thing was, he sat right in front of me so I had a front seat to this game.

Truth be told I was hating on pure blind passion. I had never seen much about the game. All I knew was the game was like a cancer from Japan and it was starting to spread like wildfire over in the states. So I take a look at the game for the first time, and what do I find....a role playing game! Pokemon was a RPG.

That did not bode well for me. I had no idea Pokemon, the game I hated without knowing anything about it was my kryptonite. I was, and still am, a sucker for any kind of rpg. This was a first for me. You didn't have people fight for you, you collected monsters around the world and had them fight other monsters. The first game had 151 Pokemon. Each was a little different then the other in either appearance or affinity. Each had moves and strengths and weaknesses. Some were cute, other looked pretty cool. This was Pokemon.

I was about to be hooked forever....

I did collect them all not soon after. I bought Pokemon Red because Charizard is the shit!

I've been collecting them all since.

(Also, if anyone is reading this you MUST listen to Power Gloves rendition of the Pokemon song. It is awesome.)