|Pokemon Terms| |Pokemon Red and Blue| |Pokemon Yellow| |Pokemon Gold and Silver| |Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire| |Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen| |Pokemon Diamond and Pearl| |Pokemon Platinum| |Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver| |Pokemon Black and White| |Pokemon Black 2 and White 2| |Pokemon X and Y|

Pokemon Video Games

The Pokemon video games got their start in 1996 in Japan. The two orignal Pokemon games, Red and Blue, were never released outside Japan.

However in 1999, Yellow, was released in North America.Yellow is an enhanced version of Red and Blue and in terms of style more resembled the Pokemon Anime series. Yellow introducted the orignal 151 Pokemon as well as most of the well known game features like catching, capturing, trading, battling and training the Pokemon. In fact nearly every game to come out after this one introduces new features to the series; some of which show up in subsequent games and some of which are never seen again except for in that game.

Pokemon Gold and Silver were next to come out in the main game series; in Japan in 1999 and North America in 2000. They introduced a time system that used the internal clock of the Gameboy Color in which certain events within the games were even influenced by this feature. They added two new types of Pokemon; Steel and Dark. Gold and Silver also added some new moves the Pokemon could learn. The move deleter was also introuced at the same time, to make it possible for some moves to be removed. Pokemon breeding was also introduced which meant that Pokemon were assigned to an egg group and could only breed with another Pokemon of the same egg group.

Before the X and Y games came out there were only 17 types of Pokemon. But then the Fairy type was created and introduced in X and Y which brought the total number of types up to 18. Each Pokemon type has their own weaknesses, strengths and immunities. Many Pokemon are of multiple types as they evolve in their game.

Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are the next to come out; 2002 for Japan and 2003 for North America. These games saw the introduction of double battles, where you and your opponent use two Pokemon in a battle instead of just one. They were also the first games to keep track of real time. The growth of berry bushes and tides are tied to this feature. Abilities and Natures were also added. Natures affected the way the stats of your Pokemon increased. Innate Abilites are common across certain species.

HeartGold and SoulSilver were next to come out. They were released in Japan in September of 2009 and in America in March of 2010. These games were reamkes of Pokemon Gold and Silver. These games like Diamond, Pearl and Platinum allow the first Pokemon in your party to follow you. A new feature released with the Pokewalker. A Pokewalker is a pedometer that looks like a Pokeball and connects to the Nintendo DS game card. It can hold only one Pokemon at a time. When you use the Pokewalker, the Pokemon increase in level and friendliness and atthe same time gain a new currency that can be used to catch wild Pokemon or dowse(divine) for items.

Pokemon Black and White were the next games to come out. They were released in Japan in September of 2010 and in North America in March of 2011. They had more new cut scenes and had speech ballons over the character's head instead of speech boxes. They introduced a new feature called seasons in which certain Pokemon could only be found in certain seasons. With the seasons feature you could only access certain areas during certain seasons. In addition some Pokemon changed their appearance as the seasons changed. Two new forms of battles were introduced; triple battles and rotation battles. Black had more rotation battles while White had more triple battles. Phenomena, a new Pokemon capture mechanic, was also introduced. With this new capture mechanic you can encounter Pokemon that while common in the version you are currently playing are rare in other versions. You can also use this feature to capture the highest evolved form of another Pokemon commonly found in that area.

Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 were released in Japan in June of 2012 and in North America in October of 2012. It's set two years after Black and White and has new Pokemon that were unavilable in the previous games. The only new features in these games are the Pokewood and the Pokemon World Tournament.

Pokemon X and Y are the most recent games to have come out being released in October 2013. These are the first games ever to be released worldwide simultaneously. The games had many new features. The game graphics were fully 3D, you can customize your trainers appearance and acquire outfits throughout the game to change their look. There are new species and 2 new legendaries. You also get to choose one of the original Pokemon starters later on in the game. These are the version in which the Fairy type mentioned earlier was introduced. The developers said it was done to balance the Dragon type. Certain moves can even interact with the background of the battle screen allowing you to find difficult or impossible to get items after the battle is finished. A new form of evolution was introduced. It is called Mega Evolution. This is a temporary evolution that only certain fully evolved Pokemon can do it. However you need a certain item for each Pokemon to evolve. Two new forms of battle were introduced; Sky Battles and Horde Encounters. Sky Battles can only be done with Flying Types. Horde Encounters are where there are battle against multiple Pokemon of the same type. The Pokemon-Amie lets you interact with your Pokemon using the 3DS touchscreen and camera. You can play games with them, give them treats(called PokePuffs). Doing both of these helps to strengthen your bonds with your Pokemon. The last feature introduced in Pokemon X and Y is Supertraining. Supertraining is a series of minigames you can play that will help build the base stat of you Pokemon. Also in this feature you can unlock training bags that can be used to help your Pokemon grow stronger on their own. Nintendo is releasing updates fairly frequently for the Pokemon X and Y games.

There is already talk and rumor of the next game in the series but I will not be mentioning anything I've heard or seen unless it has been confirmed by Nintendo.

Page modified by Sarah Tremblay, March 20, 2014.