10 Reasons Pokemon Is The Greatest Franchise In Video Game History

4. Scratches That Itch To Collect Things

Collecting things is fun. It's why in the year of our lord 2016 Panini World Cup stickers are still a multi-million pound market and eBay have Stamps nestled between Sports and Toys in their key categories. The collection element is not something gaming has ever been able to replicate though, because fundamentally, you don't actually possess any of the things you pick up during the game. They're bits of code, and they're usually the same bits of code that all your friends have.

Sadly GameFreak haven't developed a way to make Pokemon an actual real thing yet (any day now though, right guys?), but the handheld nature of the game, and the uniqueness of each monster means that it's as close as you're ever going to get, digitally. Keeping the game largely on portable devices means that you can actually show people your prized Pokemon in the real world, and the emphasis on trading with real human beings means that you'll meet people who not only have things you don't have, but things you covet.

It gives the franchise a grounding in the real world and, bizarrely given that it's a level of involvement separate from the game itself, makes the experience that much more immersive.

That's not even to mention the inordinate variety in personalities, abilities and attributes that each of the 720 Pokemon currently available for players to possess. All of your friends might have a Charizard, but if you've bred one to have Belly Drum and Rock Slide - or, strike me down, a shiny black one - you've got a bonafide collectors item for them all to fawn over.