Also... anyone who doesn't consider Pokemon a hardcore game is SERIOUSLY kidding themselves. I mean have you ever seen someone who's into that game really hard?
There are different types of pokemon that are more preferential depending on which pokemon you choose, you might want a bashful pikachu for like... increased special for more damage, or a adamant one for faster speed or something. (Probably not what they really do.)
Then you've just got the fact that there is the original goal. Which is collect like 400+ Monsters. Oh yeah, and make as many as you can battle ready.
Oh and if that's not enough there are special versions of the pokemon you can get if you play long enough. The only trick is that you're likely to run into these pokemon only 1 out of every 8,500 random encounters or so. Finding those "Shiny" pokemon is definitly a hardcore act for anyone let alone 8 year olds.
