The mid-to-late 90s were a time of gaming expansiveness. The N64 and PlayStation pushed video games, successfully, to full 3D and opened up these digital worlds. Games like Super Mario 64 and Body Harvest allowed the player to explore the environment, and, combined with the many wild cheats included in games and the prevalence of the GameShark, the games felt ever-expanding. With Star Wars: Rogue Squadron revealing a hidden Naboo Starfighter months after release in a game that preceded the film the ship first appeared in, what else could be found in a video game that we never dreamed of?
Pokémon was all about exploring a world and finding the secrets. Computer role-playing games had done this kind of thing since the time of Wizardry and Ultima, but this was different. The players of Pokémon Red & Blue were often young children who had never set foot in a college computer lab to spend hours in Akalabeth or Moria. I was one of these kids, and so Pokémon was eye-opening to me. We all tried to collect them all (my friend James and I were the only one of my friends that did), and we wondered what would happen when we did. I was disappointed when it was just a certificate and not a secret Pokémon or special area, but the journey was the real fun, of course. It was wild to find out that some Pokémon needed special stones or trading to evolve. Some of the Pokémon could also only be obtained once per game without trading with a friend. The games seemed so full of potential for secrets.
My classmates and I at Kerr Elementary School were also discovering Japanese anime such as Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Gundam Wing. These series all had elements that I didn't understand when I first watched them, and, in the case of Gundam Wing and Dragon Ball Z, it was that these specific iterations were part of larger franchises or continuing stories. My friends and I still talk about how we thought Yamcha and Goku were brothers based on some goofy dialogue and similar spiky hair. There were also whispers at recess that all of these shows were censored. My friend Augustin had family in Argentina and visited them during the summer. He said that there was mild nudity and blood when he saw Dragon Ball Z at his grandmother's house. He also mentioned seeing Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing fighting games that were never released here in the United States. Japanese culture was new and different, and the shows that we saw were not as clear cut to us as they may seem now.
This was compounded by the Pokémon anime itself. Everyone had heard of the incident involving the Porygon episode of the series where a large number of Japanese children were given seizures by flashing lights. The cause of the seizures and the numbers changed with each telling, but we all knew that we hadn't seen that episode. The anime and toyline also pumped up the exploration and collective nature already in the games. Will Ash collect them all? Can I get all of the Pokémon cards or collect all of the figures? It was a brilliant marketing scheme, and it really got our minds moving.
Enter, Ho-oh. The legendary bird appeared in the very first episode of the anime series, but Ho-oh was a total unknown until the release of the second generation of Pokémon games having not appeared in merchandise or video games like Pokémon Snap. The original games debuted in 1998 to North American households, and we were in awe of Gold & Silver's upcoming releases in 2000. In that time frame, there had also been a few other mysterious Pokémon: Mew, Pikablu, Bruno, Togepi, and the Crystal Onix.
Pokémon was all about exploring a world and finding the secrets. Computer role-playing games had done this kind of thing since the time of Wizardry and Ultima, but this was different. The players of Pokémon Red & Blue were often young children who had never set foot in a college computer lab to spend hours in Akalabeth or Moria. I was one of these kids, and so Pokémon was eye-opening to me. We all tried to collect them all (my friend James and I were the only one of my friends that did), and we wondered what would happen when we did. I was disappointed when it was just a certificate and not a secret Pokémon or special area, but the journey was the real fun, of course. It was wild to find out that some Pokémon needed special stones or trading to evolve. Some of the Pokémon could also only be obtained once per game without trading with a friend. The games seemed so full of potential for secrets.
My classmates and I at Kerr Elementary School were also discovering Japanese anime such as Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Gundam Wing. These series all had elements that I didn't understand when I first watched them, and, in the case of Gundam Wing and Dragon Ball Z, it was that these specific iterations were part of larger franchises or continuing stories. My friends and I still talk about how we thought Yamcha and Goku were brothers based on some goofy dialogue and similar spiky hair. There were also whispers at recess that all of these shows were censored. My friend Augustin had family in Argentina and visited them during the summer. He said that there was mild nudity and blood when he saw Dragon Ball Z at his grandmother's house. He also mentioned seeing Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing fighting games that were never released here in the United States. Japanese culture was new and different, and the shows that we saw were not as clear cut to us as they may seem now.
This was compounded by the Pokémon anime itself. Everyone had heard of the incident involving the Porygon episode of the series where a large number of Japanese children were given seizures by flashing lights. The cause of the seizures and the numbers changed with each telling, but we all knew that we hadn't seen that episode. The anime and toyline also pumped up the exploration and collective nature already in the games. Will Ash collect them all? Can I get all of the Pokémon cards or collect all of the figures? It was a brilliant marketing scheme, and it really got our minds moving.
Enter, Ho-oh. The legendary bird appeared in the very first episode of the anime series, but Ho-oh was a total unknown until the release of the second generation of Pokémon games having not appeared in merchandise or video games like Pokémon Snap. The original games debuted in 1998 to North American households, and we were in awe of Gold & Silver's upcoming releases in 2000. In that time frame, there had also been a few other mysterious Pokémon: Mew, Pikablu, Bruno, Togepi, and the Crystal Onix.
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