Sine the creation of Pokémon in 1996, we have seen many changes take place, and many other fads such as Digimon, Beyblade, and Yu-Gi-Oh have come and gone. However, it's hard to believe that what is now a franchise nearing twenty hugely successful years was once something which very nearly failed. One reason for the franchise's success has been its ability to keep modern and always bring in something new every year, and with this, more opportunities arose in the form of TV and the big screen. With changes, there comes cynics who believe that everything should be kept the way it is, and that is why the audience of Pokémon is forever changing. With this change, Pokémon has to take on board the audience and make amendments that will not only keep the old fans interested, but the new target audience also. The franchise has sat on the shelf for a few years, to be honest, but the new era of Pokémon is truly around the corner. The release of Pokemon X & Y is now only days away, and I have been keeping an ever closer eye on the developments as they come out. We have seen many new announcements recently, with there being new Pokemon, a new "Mega-Evolution", new regions, and also new features on show alongside the new era of Pokémon. There was also a 16th Pokémon movie released this year, and we finally got one that wasn't too awful. Finally, a big announcement was made in the form of some old characters returning - will they get the fans of old back? Within this article, I will look at some of the biggest changes we will see in the "next step" of the Pokémon franchise, and if these are ones fans should be disappointed with, or be in awe that they have finally broken the mold. Click "Next" to begin...