It's been 20 years. Most franchises would have already had their funeral. Yet, Pokemon seemed to live. Even after it was meant to end(2nd gen), even after the rise of smartphones, even after the generation that would "end Pokemon"(gen 5). 

It's quite amazing how pokemon games managed to stay fresh, no matter how long we've been playing the games. I really hope the seventh gen improves the same way Pokemon X/Y did.

I started playing Pokemon when I was 4. Picked up Pokemon Ruby, and managed to beat it. Ever since, I've always loved Pokemon. The competitive side of it also makes it a great option to play with friends.

Go pokemon! It's my second favorite franchise of all time.

The first 150 Pokemon are the best. Believe it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kJQg8WfxZo

Indeed, is a fun series to play

Hoorah indeed, keep it going pokemon,

I kind of fell away from video games back in the early-2000's and at the time it looked the Pokémon fad was starting to die off (at least that was what people were saying). I started gaming again a few years ago and while I knew that there were new generations of Pokémon still coming out I assumed that it was just some niche franchise by now. I was shocked to see that the games are still selling 10-15 million and is possibly Nintendo's biggest franchise. Go Pokémon! That said, my heart will always be back in gen 1 and 2!

I agree, the original 100 Pokemon or so have better art, uniqueness, differences.

obviously naturally when you have more and more you run out of good ideas and ways to differentiate them, but jeez there are some ugly and strange looking new Pokemon...

the original are just so pure and diverse and each has its own memory. Unfortunately it seems few newer Pokemon really stick in people's minds

well the CARD game began to decline in popularity in the early 2000s (which was obviously going to happen given the massive popularity it managed to get by like 99'). 

  the Pokemon games have been insanely consistent though. every iteration has sold well as far as handheld versions go. 

even the card game is still easily in the top 3 most popular trading card games today and has plenty of tournaments (that said obviously with technology trading card games have decreased in popularity dramatically).

My favorite franchise of all time. Even if that is waning as the quality continues to free fall.

Remember, nature has many creatures that look alike and/or look horrendous :^)