A little over 11 years ago, something incredible happened: I played Pokemon Blue for the first time. I had only vaguely been aware of the game as the one with a bizarre commercial where a fat, crazed bus driver crushed a bunch of weird animals.

I was hooked. I played the game so much that my clock maxed out. I beat the Elite 4 107 times. Before too long all my friends had the game. And then watched the show. And then collected the cards. The whole world had pokemania. My battery back up failed and my file got erased but, unperturbed, I started over and preceded to retrain another full lineup of level 100's. Waiting for yellow version was the first time I got really, really hyped for a game way before it came out.

I have never had a more mindblowing experience than when I first played Silver Version. The graphics looked...good. There was a fancy experience bar in the bottom. NEW pokemon. New gyms. And you could go back to the old gyms. You could even FIGHT ASH (pokemon trainer from Red/Blue).

I got pretty hyped for Ruby/Sapphire too. They finally released and...I actually a a little was disappointed. Not that thsi stopped me from aggresively and addictively blasting my way through it. But...there was nothing incredibly new. Nothing gamechanging. A lotta new critters to catch, a LOT of nice little extras. Contests, those were kinda fun. And of course the obligatory graphical upgrade. Blinded by my love for the series, I ignored a sneaking sense of disappointment in Gamefreak and continued to pours countless hours into the game, but....but...

I couldn't completely deny it. Pokemon was starting to get old.

Diamond and Pearl had me feeling pokemania all over again. This time, I was SURE, there would be monumental changes. Some sort of beefed up quest/story. An upgrade to the battle system. Little things like the return of day and night and the implementation of the touchscreen gave me hope.

I got Pearl on day 1, and quickly came to a heartbreaking conclusion:

They still hadn't changed it.

It's the same damn game. You can get a cake, put all the icing on it you want. Draw cool swirly shapes on it, make the cake bigger and more tiered and dye the icing different colors and cut the peices in different shapes and a million other little things.

But it's still the same cake, and after a while, it stops tasting as good.

I'm still playing the same game I played 10 years ago, with a bunch of minor bells and whistles and cosmetic varnish. That and a hell of a lot more Pokemon, which doesn't really spice up the aging gameplay too much. Ironically, while there's definitely more than ever before in the game, it feels like less of it is worth doing. Things that were once unique and awesome feel stale and tired. The graphic style suddenly feels very dated. Pokemon once felt cutting edge; incredibly unique and completely in a league of its own. Now it feels borderline obsolete. I played thousands of hours of Pokemon when I was kid; going on a bland journey for 8 badges for the 30th time has just lost its edge.

You can go on about Battle Frontiers and refighting trainers and 450+ Pokemon and all that, but none of that makes the basic game any more fun. An apple with a rotten core will never taste good (sorry for all the food analogies).

So, I'm giving up on Pokemon. I traded in Pearl a while back and have zero interest in Platinum. Until Gamefreak actually capitilizes on the ENORMOUS dormant potential that the Pokemon formula has, I'm done with the series. I say it regretfully, sadly; kind of like leaving a close childhood friend who's become a druggie alchoholic that you can simply no longer waste your time with.

I just want to know if anybody feels (at least somewhat) the same: that Pokemon, in its current form, has waaaay overstayed it's welcome, and needs to change.

sorry to hear that =/

i still enjoy the pokemon games.

theres a few reasons why i dont like platinum as much as the other series-

the magic is gone, mostly because of the new graphics. all the scenery and the whole map looks plain.

the battles go slower....etc

I actually agree with you. I didn't play as obsessively as you and lost interest around fire red and leaf green. IMO Silver and Gold were the best ones.

They always suck me in, even though I know the formula hasn't really changed. I just love it so much! *cries* And I'm waiting for a Power stone-esque Pokemon fighting game.......and the MMO to end all MMO's............

A change in formula isn't always necessary to make a series great. Look at Megaman, 2D Mario, 2D Sonic, etc. Sometimes it's just little changes to a proven method that make a series great.

To each his own I suppose XP

I myself got Pearl the the purpose of playing Pokemon competitively moreso than actual interest in the game itself (which was a driving factor, regardless) but don't plan on getting Platinum

I was sort of like you with Ruby and Sapphire, but Diamond/Pearl and now Platinum have re-energized me.

Can i quote you on that when an excellent game like killzone "doesn't bring innovation to the table"

What changes to the formula do you think would benefit it?

I'm not being facetious.

There are several things that the series has actually done WRONG (as opposed to merely keeping it the same) as it moved to later titles. One of the biggest mistakes was returning to 8 badges per game. The reason that worked in the original was because it was THE original game, so absolutely everything was fresh. After that freshness wore out, they should have made the standard 16 badges so that a long and engaging single player would make up for the loss of its freshness.

Another mistake was moving away from sandbox gameplay. Along with the 8 badges, the games have increased the sense of guidance in the single player, so that the player crosses more areas during the normal story but doesn't feel like he/she has as much opportunity to explore. One of the most genius innovations in the original was the Surf HM, because it added enormous value to backtracking in the form of new potential areas, new potential Pokemon, and simply an excellent addition to the sense of exploring and searching that the series was built on. Unfortunately, they never made a similar innovation again. Their later HM moves are in fact even more disappointing - Rock Smash is basically a copy of Cut from a gameplay perspective, and moves like Waterfall and Defog are entirely situational and tend not to be used much anyways. Dive was a great idea, but they never really used it in the one game it appeared in.

In short, the problem the series suffers from is that the team has focused far too much on the battle system and has allowed the rest of the game to either become stagnant or even regress in ways. The multiplayer metagame is better than ever, but the single player experience, which is a far greater appeal to the majority of the Pokemon fanbase, has suffered some.

I'm not saying there aren't people who don't enjoy the improved elements. What I am saying is that the improvements are alienating part of the fanbase to appeal to other parts, which is the opposite direction the rest of Nintendo is going. I guess that's just what happens when you have a franchise as unquestionably successful as Pokemon.

I sometimes wonder why the hell I write so much whenever the topic is about Pokemon. Probably because it receives way too little attention and recognition considering its importance to the industry....

No major changes? The combat changes alone in Diamond/Pearl are fucking huge. No longer is physical and special split alog type lines. You can have a physical Fire attack, or a special Normal attack. That changes the game in absolutely massive ways. I'm sorry if you don't like the game, but it has evolved in many many ways.