Pokémon is 25 years old: a look back from Red to Shining Pearl

They were on the shelves for the first time exactly 25 years ago: Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green . A modest Japanese release, it would go on to become the second most successful game series of all time, just behind Mario .

Pokémon seems forever linked to Nintendo, but the series owes its life to game makers Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori. Their company Game Freak worked for years on various games for SEGA and Nintendo, among others.

Several times, Tajiri and Sugimori pitched their own game idea to Nintendo, based on Tajiri's childhood. He liked to catch insects at that time. The project was first called Capsule Monsters , next Pocket Monsters , but it was the abbreviation that stuck: Pokémon .

In 1990, Nintendo was thanks Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto finally turned around and Game Freak got to work.

Pokémon Red and Green

In the Netherlands we have the first Pokémon games on the Game Boy as Ed and Blue , but on February 27, 1996 in Japan the second half was still called Green . At first, Game Freak had no idea how successful the game was because it barely received any information.

In the meantime, the company decided to improve the game and give it an extra lick of blue paint. Pokémon Red and Blue crossed the ocean and reached the United States in 1998, and Europe the following year.

The games were a huge hit: 31 million copies were sold worldwide.

The magic formula was simple. As a trainer of little monsters you travel around the land of Kanto. The assignment: catch all 151 creatures in the iconic red and white 'Pokéball' and defeat all Pokémon grandmasters in the region.

The trick: In each of the two games you could only catch a portion of all the Pokémon. So you had to connect your Game Boy to someone else's via the link cable in order to exchange Pokémon.

Cards and cartoon series

With the gigantic success of the games, a cartoon series was inevitable. In Japan it was broadcast in 1997, in the Netherlands we had to wait until 1999 for the first episode of the anime series.

The series about Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum and his friends was just as popular worldwide as the games. Pikachu, Ash's sidekick, became iconic worldwide Pokémon . In Japan, Ash is called 'Satoshi' - as in Satoshi Tajiri.

The theme song It stuck so well that it found its way into the Top 2000 in 2015, and the accompanying playing cards became the biggest children's hype of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

To keep the expanding empire somewhat manageable, Nintendo founded a separate publishing company: The Pokémon Company. He oversees the brand worldwide for the companies involved - Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures.

A new Nintendo, a new one Pokémon

The color palette of the new Game Boy Color made the games colorful in 1999 Pokémon Gold and Silver possible. They sold 23 million copies. A side step, the photo game Pokémon Snap , was less successful, but still beloved.

After Ed and Blue should every new Nintendo handheld be one get a Pokémon game. In each new edition the gameplay changed subtly, but the series never denied its roots.

By Ruby and Sapphire Sixteen million copies were sold for the Gameboy Advance. The Nintendo DS games Diamond and Pearl did slightly better in 2006.

Remakes and the Internet

Of Black and White (2010) and its successors, the series made leaps forward both visually and internet-wise. The games had seasonal changes, with the outside world looking different each time. Successors Pokemon and Y (2013) made the leap to fully three-dimensional graphics on the 3DS.

Among growing fans, a hunger for the old games persisted. Nintendo and Game Freak decided to move on to remakes for new platforms, starting with FireRed and LeafGreen for the Game Boy Advance, in 2004.

Remakes of Diamond and Pearl are planned for this year.

Take to the streets with Pokémon GO

The most successful modern Pokémon did not come from Game Freak's stable. That honor goes to mobile game maker Niantic, with the walking game Pokémon GO (2016).

This augmented reality game puts the player in the role of a Pokémon trainer who has to catch creatures in his own environment. Using the GPS function and the smartphone's camera, the game places Pokémon in the world around you.

Within a week the game was downloaded ten million times. The entire summer of 2016 was full of stories from Pokémon GO players took to the streets en masse to catch new Pokémon.

In the first year, Niantic earned about 950 million dollars (about 770 million euros) from the game. Nintendo later capitalized on the recognizability of GO with the simplified one Pokémon Let's Go games, in which you can use a 'real' Pokeball.

The future of Pokémon

Since the mobile gaming hype of 2016, there are still two sets of traditional ones Pokémon games released: Sun and Moon , and Sword and Shield . The latter, a game for the Switch, was the first game since Gold and Silver the limit of twenty million copies sold.

Nintendo announced three new ones on Friday Pokémon titles: the remakes Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl , and the open world game Pokémon Legends Arceus . With the latter, the series seems to take another step forward, with a world that is completely free to explore.

Nintendo and Game Freak celebrate all year round. They have planned a special party for the birthday itself: Rapper Post Malone will give a special digital Pokémon concert at 2 a.m. (Dutch time).