19 July 2008

Adult Guide to Pokémon

    Poliwag, my favorite Pokémon so far
     Piplup, a household favorite


For a variety of reasons, I have been spending a lot of time in the Pokémon universe, including time on the Pokémon community wiki, Bulbapedia. I have found that applying my knowledge from other games/universes is quite unhelpful. Since others might find this also to be so, I share here what I have learned so far:

  • There are over 400 "species" of Pokémon
  • Most Pokémon have several forms as they "evolve" (for example, Piplup becomes the more powerful and significantly less-cute Prinplup at level 16 and then Empoleon at level 36.)
  • At first I though Pokémon would fall into several archetypal categories (fire, water, nature) but then I encountered "balloon-type," "parent-type," "pig monkey," etc. There are almost as many "types" as there are species.
  • A "Trainer" can capture numerous Pokémon using Pokéballs. The trainer feeds them, carries them around in a backpack, and then fights with them. How this is different from forced labor is quite unclear, except I have been told there is a "bonding" process between trainer and his/he Pokémon. Seems suspicous.
  • The bad guys are Team Rocket. 
The mechanics of the card game still elude me, but on first glance, it seems like there is the usual HP per character and some special abilities for each Pokémon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will tell you what is less cute - when your normally calm, wonderful child bugs you incessantly to go to Target to buy new Pokemon. It was cute the first time - it starts to grate about the 3rd time, and now, I think I might loose it the next time he asks. Ahh!!

Gudrun said...

the favorites at our house are:


Smoochum - HP50, attacks Baby Evolution and Psykiss, and little boys


Combee, Squirtle, Turtwig, and Beautifly


and from my son, Darkrai Level X, Persian, Feraligatr, and Dugtrio (because it is cute)

buttonwillowsix said...

I like Dugtrio too, but am puzzled about whether or not it is technically really only one pokémon, or three?