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Look, I suspect there are a bunch of people who were younger teens (or tweens) in 1998 who played Pokemon Red/Blue for the GameBoy when it came out…and now, in 2013, are in their mid-twenties and feel silly still liking a franchise they enjoyed before they could drive. And there are early-twenties folks who were Pokemaniacs in third grade and feel even sillier about the game now, perhaps.
But here’s the genius of Pokemon: it has something for everyone. To borrow liberally from a YouTube commentator of no small insight, as a little kid you raised a Charizard with Ember, Flamthrower, Tackle,and Dragon Rage, because those moves sounded cool.
Now, as an adult, you can IV-breed a Charizard with 31 Special Attack and Speed, EV train it with 252’s in each category, and Fire Blast, Air Slash, Hidden Power (ensuring Grass typing), and Flamethrower, because you know that gives you decent type coverage and is part of your well-rounded team.
I’m over 50. That means that I was well past being a kid when Pokemon Red came on the scene, and I was moreover not an electronic gamer at all – so it completely slipped beneath my radar. My son heard about Pokemon from his friends in second grade, 2005, and so I got him Coliseum on the Gamecube. The first time I played was with him, helping him catch Suicune from a pesky trainer. He got Diamond when it came out, and I watched him gain sophistication about physical vs. special attacks, catch rates for wild Pokemon, and by osmosis I gained more interest in the game. He convinced us to go to New York for the launch party of Black and White, mainly because he wanted the game a day early!
Now he has played through Y – and I own a 3DS and have played through X! He’s a bit sensitive to the “too old” issue now, and doesn’t reveal his continuing love for the game to friends who have grown out of it, because after all, Pokemon is for second graders! But he knows a few kids in his current grade – seventh – who still play. And he and I trade and battle. Using my adult insight and sophistication, my superior grasp of game mechanics and the underlying math, I can usually beat him in single battles now.
Yet he still regularly beats me in double battles! Ungrateful kid.
Anyway, the above confessional is intended to say to you, 26-year-old, that I’m a fifty-plus year old professional thrilled out of proportion at the prospect of breeding a 31/31/x/31/31/31 Adamant Shroomish with chained egg moves. How’s that for perspective?