13 Things Nobody Wants To Admit About Pokémon

In most cases, reinvention is the key to prolonged commercial success. The reason musicians like David Bowie and The Beatles enjoyed such sustained relevancy throughout their careers was because they reinvented themselves so often, adapting with the times and evolving themselves to meet the demands of the market. As in most cases, every rule has an exception, and in this case the exception is Pokémon, which has stubbornly avoided any semblance of meaningful development for well over two decades.

Pokémon today is exactly the same game that it was back in 1996. It’s prettier, and comes with a few extra bells and whistles, but it’s essentially the same thing, repackaged and re-released over and over again. The combat hasn’t changed, the basic story hasn’t changed, and though there have been a handful of bizarre gimmicks over the years to distract our attention, the series has never demonstrated a conscious desire to re-imagine itself. It’s perfectly happy the way it is, and given its continued success, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

For many, this reality isn’t such a bad thing, given that they love the series and wouldn’t want it to develop into something unrecognisable. However, seeing as how Pokémon is now entering its seventh generation, is something completely new and different really too much to ask for?