I remember the TV show being introduced. "the animation is crap, but the story is great" is actually how the presenter introduced it in the UK. Think it was CITV. That theme tune!!!

Then I remember going to EB (before they bought GAME and adopted that name to avoid paying the US EB royalties arf) the weekend Pokemon came out.

I think it was all just basically a perfect accident how well everything came together. The TV show fitted in with the universe. The characters sold themselves perfectly as merchandise. Collectable cards that let you battle meant it could be brought into the school ground and you know what? It was a pretty unique and damn fun little game to boot.

Much love for the original Pokemon games. All went wrong from the GBA onwards for me :/

Didn't Dragonball Z start as a Manga though? Whilst Pokemon started as a Game. I think that's the thing that has made pokemon such a unique "craze". It was certainly the first video game to become a global phenomenon reaching far beyond just video games.

The video games, the trading cards, the anime, the movies, the toys, the clothes, Nintendo did a great job making Pokemon a cross-media sensation. I'm not sure why they didn't do the same with their other IPs though.

Because of anime.

It's a first party Nintendo game. So Nintendo fans. :P.

I only remember watching one episode without knowing the name off until I got Pokemon cards from my parents as well. Then it became a thing. I had the cards with the PC game, watched the show and then started with Pokemon Silver.

I am pretty sure that it was a combination of the anime series and Pikachu. The television series drove sales of the games in the West. The popularity of Pikachu is what spawned Pokemon Yellow. Pokemon was out in Japan for two years in 1996 and it did not really get much traction until the animated series debuted here in the US that the brand really took off. Couple that with how awesome Pikachu is, there was no way for it to fail. If Mr. Mime had been the original Pokemon, I hardly think it would have taken off...I think a lot of the credit goes to Pikachu.

Pachirisu made it famous, atleast to me! :L

Most kids had a gameboy so when it came out there was that strong base and massive word of mouth. Every boy I knew was talking about this Pokemon game and pressured into buying own copy. I imagine Mine craft is similar phenomenon among kids today.

Is that a joke.

I played the first pokemon when it came out, it appealed to the collection spirit lots of kids, or just people had back in the 90s where they're weren't smartphone or apps and we just collected/traded cards, pogs or marbles, or Magic card, antiquities and vinyls for older people.

Back then, on Gameboy pocket, it was a revolutionary concept, and while the Anime which started as soon as Pokemon reached Europe and US, as well as the Traiding Card helped in the success it certainly wouldn't be anything without the actual game...