Why Pokemon is still awesome and what Nintendo is doing wrong
So, the other day I picked up a new 3DS XL in black. Purely on a whim. I had a couple of trips planned so I was looking for something to entertain me on the plane and at the fantastically depressing Stansted Airport. Of course, the game I picked up with it was Pokemon X. I haven't played Pokemon since I was a child, Pokemon Blue. So thats 20 years since I last challenged the Elite Four, the last time I rode on my bike through Saffron City, and the last time I gave my Pokemon ridiculous swear-word based names.
Nintendo has always has a foot in the past, playing off nostalgia, and Jesus did this work on me. Gamefreaks have created a wonderful game which is both familiar enough to be welcoming and different enough to be challenging. Gone is the familiar grandfather figure and the irritating rival dynamic, gone is the usual Pokemon starter trope and in comes a much more interesting and dynamic world. More of an RPG in my opinion thant the original ever was. Hordes of wild Pokemon can attack you at once, turning what usually is a one sided conquest to a genuine battle. Dual Pokemon trainer battles are interesting and add depth, pinpointing any weaknesses in your party and moves selection.
My favourite thing by far is how I have no idea what any of these Pokemon are. It's so fun trying to guess these Pokemon types and trying to learn how to bring their HP to as close to 0 without annihilating them, it turns the usual trainer battles into a little bit of trial and error. No different to how I first played Pokemon Blue. They say you can't lose your virginity twice, and yet I totally feel like I'm playing Pokemon for the very first time.
Gamefreaks has recently announced Sun and Moon launching this November, I hope I can complete Pokemon X before then. But I am super excited to lose every commute, lunch break and evening to this game in preparation. Also announced this week was a recent brief to Nintendo investors about the future of the company.
Nintendo are putting it up for a vote on how they will deal with future challenges, whether they can pursue new avenues, such as PC software and hospital equipment. Nintendo has been infamous as an inward looking company. Issuing DCMA takedowns on fan footage, suing fans hosting Pokemon parties, shutting down fan art and merchandise. Which is as alien as one can get from the increasingly open western game companies. Even giants like Ubisoft are taking communication from their fans with The Division and Rainbow Six: Siege subreddits providing direct influence over tweaks, bug fixes and even content from the people who play their game. They're as afraid of the internet as your right-wing grandfather, with even less tact.
Which is strange. Nintendo continue to play off the nostalgia of those born in the 80s and 90s, but there is so little effort to capture the imagination of a new generation. A generation which lives on Tumblr and YouTube. Who would sooner watch Vines for their news than pick up a newspaper. My cousin who is 5, knows how to use an iPad better than most adults, and his childhood will never know the joys of running around as Link, or racing silly race tracks as Bowser. What is Nintendo doing to capture their imagination? I know plenty of people who would absolute love the game had no idea that Pokemon X was even a thing. And because it's impossible to get gameplay footage directly from the 3DS, everything on YouTube is filming the screen. Which isn't how people who play the game and enjoy it are actually experiencing it. It's not selling itself as an experience. That's if their video stays up or if they're able to maintain a YouTube presence with half their normal revenue.
Is Nintendo going to PC the right way to go? Some would see it as an admission of defeat, that they can't create and maintain a business ecosystem they themselves pioneered. I disagree wholeheartedly. It needs to evolve to thrive. I am an avid PC gamer, and have been enjoying Pokemon Trading Card game as much as anyone really can. But they need to think bigger. In my opinion, Pokemon Go will be an absolute flop in the West. The style of gameplay requires people make rather unusual changes to their lifestyle and actually go outside to play video games. Mobile devices are almost always a second screen, I know I'm not willing to play Pokemon Go for an extended session if it required me burning through my battery that I'd use to watch GIFs, especially if I can't sit on my couch and do it.
Miitomo has illustrated that only those hardcore Nintendo fans or fans of Japanese culture will really latch onto this style of mobile apps. But will that be enough to sustain it? I know plenty of people who enjoy this style of mobile interaction, I'm just not one of them. I want to be able to play a fully fledged and exciting game like Pokemon X on an iPad, on the tube to work. Not run around a park in the rain, chasing imaginary Bidoofs and shouting. I hope Nintendo brings it's eco system into the 21st Century, that they embrace the internet and they inspire a new generation of gamers. But the window of opportunity for that is slowly shrinking.
And don't get me started on inspector Pikachu and his weird Boston accent.
Artwork by Reddit user /u/ ill_be_Frank_wit_you. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/4vva8h/what_if_the_starters_had_different_types/
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