20 Years and we are still trying to catch'em all! - Why is Pokemon so successful?

So what made Pokémon Red and Green 

(and its descendants) so successful? 

"Let’s be honest here, Pokemon is a bit of a nerdy kid’s power-mad fantasy. It is the story of the awkward underdog using his wits, strength of character, and a collection of tiny monsters to make his way through egomaniacal jocks and bro’s. What underdeveloped geek wouldn’t want an army of miniature, and not so miniature, creatures to do his bidding?" - Chris Urie (from 10 Things We Love About Pokemon (Arcade Sushi, January 2014))

It can summed up by the slogan "Gotta Catch'em All" .... The games taps into the prehistoric human need to hunt, which itself develops into a desire (and compulsion) to collect things. From shoes and jewellery to comic books and cars, we all have this instinct that'll manifest itself into a need to collect things. Just observe or hear some avid collectors do or talk about finding a particular item, like a limited edition plush toy or a stylish dress that just came into that person's price range for a limited time. It's no different than a hunter staking his/her prey. Its a survival instinct that has been turned into a leisure pursuit by "civilisation." In the games you are (literally) hunting virtual "prey" in the form of imaginary creatures with special abilities. 

And here's another thing. Hunters are naturally competitive. Competition (in nature) drives natural selection, creating better hunters. The idea of using your captured "prey" to battle the "prey" captured by other hunters also taps into a human instinct that has been tamed by "civilisation." You'll see it in each place of competition, from sports to school exams, and in many social situations stemming from people's hierarchy in a group, from (as a kid) seeing a friend have the latest toy to (as an adult working in an office) seeing your manager enjoy his/her status "perks", like use of an "executive" anything.

And then there is another more crucial element. The element that (in fact) is (pretty much) the main driving force behind Pokémon's success as a franchise. The Japanese have a word for it....kawaii. 

For a species whose infants are highly dependable on adult help, it helps that the infant in question has characteristics that make them attractive to adults, therefore grabbing their attention in case they need assistance. As a result, natural selection has wired humans to be attracted to small living things that have big eyes proportional to to the rest of the face. In other words, we like cute things. We all do, in some way. Even the most hardened of street gangsters will hesitate for a split second.... before putting a lit cigarette into a poor kitten's eye.

(For those wondering, its a reference to a scene from the manga YuYu Hakusho. And in case you are wondering, the gangster in question was in fact processed by a demon and was beaten to the ground before any tobacco embers touched the kitty's cornea.)

When it came to designing the creatures in question, its no surprise that cuteness was in the design brief (especially for the pre-evolved forms, particularly the starters). But this was even more true when you consider the primitive graphics capabilities of the Game Boy. The cute designs made them easy to recognise on the device's 160 × 144 pixel screen. As a result of all this, if you ask any old fan of Pokémon (especially ones who were around when the first generation came out) "what is your favourite Pokémon?" there is a high chance that their answer will be a first generation species.