2011-03-11, 12:47 AM
I'm going to be the srs post person.
Pokemon is a series that's familiar with both young and old gamers now. The game is pretty much built on interacting with others with it. Add on the recent online features and you end up wanting the game JUST to play it with friends near and far. All the different pokemon makes every person you play against feel unique too.
I'm pretty sure the hype isn't really coming from the game, but the people everyone wants to play it with. Unlike a fighting game where everyone who plays a certain character pretty much HAS to fight a certain way to be good, pokemon allows for so much more individualism just through sheer number of pokemon and their decent movepools that everyone you play against feels unique. Not to mention the luck factor is there yet not so much that it overpowers strategy... unless you get double team spammers.
As for the core game itself, I dunno, even though I gotta get 8 badges eventually, I actually feel more freedom than most RPGs. That process of learning pokemon and knowing their types by heart and eventually their movesets gets addictive too.
Each new version just expands the opportunity to be unique and see more builds. Its basically captured whats addictive about card games without being a card game...
Pokemon is a series that's familiar with both young and old gamers now. The game is pretty much built on interacting with others with it. Add on the recent online features and you end up wanting the game JUST to play it with friends near and far. All the different pokemon makes every person you play against feel unique too.
I'm pretty sure the hype isn't really coming from the game, but the people everyone wants to play it with. Unlike a fighting game where everyone who plays a certain character pretty much HAS to fight a certain way to be good, pokemon allows for so much more individualism just through sheer number of pokemon and their decent movepools that everyone you play against feels unique. Not to mention the luck factor is there yet not so much that it overpowers strategy... unless you get double team spammers.
As for the core game itself, I dunno, even though I gotta get 8 badges eventually, I actually feel more freedom than most RPGs. That process of learning pokemon and knowing their types by heart and eventually their movesets gets addictive too.
Each new version just expands the opportunity to be unique and see more builds. Its basically captured whats addictive about card games without being a card game...