10 Reasons Pokemon Is The Greatest Franchise In Video Game History

6. Perfect Balance Of Story And Freedom

If you were of the correct age and inclination to buy the second generation of Pokemon games - Gold, Silver, and Crystal - then chances are the little clock that greeted you on loading your save eventually crept over the 100 hours mark. In fact, it probably went over the 200 hour mark as well, or 300 if you were an only child whose parents preferred to drive on holiday instead of flying (shoutout to my mother).

That's nearly two weeks of solid gameplay without the trouble or inconvenience of sleeping and feeding yourself. Ask yourself how many other games even have the potential for people to invest that much time into them, whilst maintaining a constant level of engagement. It's not many.

The story is about as big as you can get for an RPG on a handheld, but the longevity of the title is nothing to do with playing the core plot to its conclusion - you can do that in a few days. What makes it unrivalled in its field is just how much of the game opens up to you at the completion of the story. Whole new areas of the map, specific events to catch even rarer Pokemon, the ability to breed virtually anything you want; the world that you're now the champion of becomes one of gaming's all time greatest sandboxes.

Recently, more games have tried to experiment with, simply, letting you play after you'd finished. After the main quest in Skyrim you can still needlessly horde pots and the guards have a few new lines of dialogue. Big woop. When you finished Gold and Silver you got to board a train and go back to play Red and Blue again just for the hell of it.

That's right, Nintendo gave Pokemon players an entire other game for free as a reward for finishing the one they paid for. Destiny are charging players for emotions and ammo.